What is a sound engineer?

A sound engineer is an audio professional who manages all the technical sound aspects of a studio recording or a live performance, from the levels of the sound of each instrument to the overall sound mix with instruments and vocals. Many live performance venues have their own sound engineer to help manage the sound in their space. The sound engineer will usually be responsible for keeping the monitors, speakers, and other physical sound equipment in good working condition. In a recording studio, the sound engineer will have a solid understanding of all the various digital software and analog recording equipment, in order to make the performer sound as technically good as possible.

Why is it valuable to learn how to be a sound engineer?

Sound engineering is a valuable skill to learn because it teaches you how to record sounds using audio production and digital music software. When a sound engineer works with musicians on a recording, the sound engineer captures the proper electronic signals through the equipment and translates that into recorded sounds. This is important to the musicians, who rely on the sound engineer’s knowledge and expertise.

What are typical careers for a sound engineer?

Typical careers for a sound engineer include acting as a technical sound manager on a TV show, working at a performance venue as the in-house sound engineer, becoming a film and video sound editor, or working with local bands to engineer their recordings. Sound engineers work in running the sound in recording studios, large churches, theaters, sports stadiums, and theme parks. Some sound engineers work on a freelance basis and are called in when needed by a venue or a production. A sound engineer may also perform audio tests with electronic sound equipment to ensure excellent acoustics.

How can online courses help me learn sound engineering?

When you take online courses to learn sound engineering, you have the opportunity to gain a basic understanding of audio recording. This includes live and recorded sound design, multimedia recording, and audio production, as well as sound editing, mixing, and mastering. Taking online courses gives you the opportunity to learn how to manage an organized recording session, which involves setting up microphones in the proper way to optimize your recordings. You may also learn how to use digital recording plug-ins to enhance the overall tones and sounds of a performance or recording. When you take online courses in sound engineering, you might amplify your technical skills for a possible career in the music and performing industry.

What are the benefits of taking an online Sound Engineer course?

Online Sound Engineer courses offer a convenient and flexible way to enhance your knowledge or learn new Sound Engineer skills. Choose from a wide range of Sound Engineer courses offered by top universities and industry leaders tailored to various skill levels.

What Sound Engineer courses are best for training and upskilling employees or the workforce?

When looking to enhance your workforce's skills in Sound Engineer, it's crucial to select a course that aligns with their current abilities and learning objectives. Our Skills Dashboard is an invaluable tool for identifying skill gaps and choosing the most appropriate course for effective upskilling. For a comprehensive understanding of how our courses can benefit your employees, explore the enterprise solutions we offer. Discover more about our tailored programs at Coursera for Business here .

Best Sound Engineer Courses & Certificates [2025]

Find the best Sound Engineer course for your goals

Status: Preview
University of Rochester
Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics
Skills you'll gain: Basic Electrical Systems, Music, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Electronic Components, Electronics Engineering, Electrical Systems, Instrumental Music, Vibrations, Equipment Design, Construction, Mechanical Design
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
587 reviews
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
Berklee
Music Production
Skills you'll gain: Music, Musical Composition, Post-Production, Peer Review, Media Production, Music Performance, Creativity, Instrumental Music, Music Theory, Storytelling, Timelines, File Management, Editing, System Configuration
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
3K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
IBM
Introduction to Software Engineering
Skills you'll gain: Software Development Life Cycle, Software Architecture, Software Design, Software Development Methodologies, Software Design Patterns, Development Environment, Unified Modeling Language, Software Engineering, Web Applications, Software Development Tools, Software Development, Application Deployment, Programming Principles, Front-End Web Development, Back-End Web Development, Python Programming
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
4K reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free
Amazon Web Services
Data Engineering on AWS - Foundations
Skills you'll gain: Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Engineering, Serverless Computing, CI/CD, Data Infrastructure, Amazon Web Services, Data Architecture, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS CloudFormation, Infrastructure Architecture, Security Controls, Cloud Applications, Amazon CloudWatch, Terraform
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
197 reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: New
Status: Free Trial
Whizlabs
Exam Prep MLA-C01: AWS Machine Learning Engineer Assocaite
Skills you'll gain: AWS SageMaker, MLOps (Machine Learning Operations), Feature Engineering, AI Personalization, Amazon Web Services, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Data Cleansing, Data Processing, Data Wrangling, Data Integrity, Machine Learning, Machine Learning Algorithms, Data Modeling, Supervised Learning, Data Mining, Random Forest Algorithm, Data Management, Unsupervised Learning
Intermediate · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
Microsoft
Microsoft Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)
Skills you'll gain: Azure Active Directory, Data Security, Multi-Factor Authentication, Microsoft Azure, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Cloud Security, Active Directory, Threat Modeling, Security Strategy, Data Storage, Application Security, Database Architecture and Administration, Virtual Machines, Infrastructure Security, Kubernetes, Continuous Monitoring, Web Applications, Cyber Governance, System Monitoring, Network Security
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
132 reviews
Intermediate · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months

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Status: Free Trial
Meta
Meta Database Engineer
Skills you'll gain: MySQL, Database Design, Version Control, Database Management Systems, Database Management, MySQL Workbench, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Modeling, Data Structures, SQL, Unix Commands, Relational Databases, Databases, Git (Version Control System), Database Systems, GitHub, Stored Procedure, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Database Administration, Database Development
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
7.4K reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Akamai Network Engineering
Skills you'll gain: SQL, Linux, Endpoint Security, Database Management, Incident Response, Relational Databases, Network Security, Database Systems, Vulnerability Scanning, Computer Security Incident Management, Security Management, Ubuntu, Linux Administration, File Systems, Routing Protocols, OSI Models, Application Development, Remote Access Systems, Scripting, MySQL
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
279 reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
Microsoft
Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals DP-900 Exam Prep
Skills you'll gain: Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure, Power BI, Databricks, Data Processing, Data Warehousing, Database Systems, Databases, Cloud Services, Data Architecture, NoSQL, Database Administration, Relational Databases, MySQL, Data Store, SQL, Cloud Storage, Database Management, Data Storage, Data Lakes
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
864 reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: New
Status: Free Trial
Pearson
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) EX294
Skills you'll gain: Ansible, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Package and Software Management, User Accounts, IT Automation, OS Process Management, Linux Administration, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), File Systems, Linux Commands, Network Administration, Data Storage, Automation, Linux, Devops Tools, Scripting, YAML, Configuration Management, Linux Servers, Simulations
Intermediate · Specialization · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: Free Trial
Status: AI skills
IBM
IBM Data Engineering
Skills you'll gain: NoSQL, Data Warehousing, Apache Hadoop, Extract, Transform, Load, Apache Airflow, Web Scraping, Linux Commands, Database Design, SQL, IBM Cognos Analytics, MySQL, Apache Spark, Database Administration, Data Store, Generative AI, Professional Networking, Data Import/Export, Python Programming, Data Analysis, Data Science
Build toward a degree
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
60K reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: New
Status: Free Trial
Snowflake
Snowflake Data Engineering
Skills you'll gain: Data Engineering, Data Pipelines, Database Management, Data Manipulation, Databases, Data Transformation, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Lakes, Data Warehousing, Data Presentation, DevOps, Data Integration, Data Infrastructure, Cloud Development, SQL, Data Processing, CI/CD, Application Development, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), Data Analysis
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
265 reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 1 - 3 Months