If you would like to hire an audio engineer for the first time, it can be useful to have a good understanding of the typical freelance audio engineer rates you might expect to pay and the scope of the job or project you’d like your selected professional to undertake.
Audio engineers can cover a wide array of duties, so the responsibilities you include within your job post can influence the number of proposals you receive, the hourly or per-project quotations submitted, and the necessary skill set you require. In this post, we’ll explore some of the most requested skills and assignments to help hirers create a detailed, informative job description.
What Should You Know Before Hiring an Audio Engineer?
With a growing network of nearly 900 sound engineers and 1,700 audio engineers, the world of technical audio editing and mixing is expansive.
Are audio engineers and sound engineers the same? These roles have similarities but are slightly different since an audio engineer usually covers a larger number of tasks rather than having specific expertise relevant to one niche, such as audio post-production or gaming audio.
An audio engineer is the right freelancer for you if you need to:
- Create new, highly-quality audio for a backing track, audio recording, radio ad, podcast, or audiobook
- Edit existing sound, using technical treatments such as mixing, mastering, editing, and pitch correction to achieve a polished result
- Enhance audio files or recordings to improve clarity, definition, tone, and pitch to ensure the content is clear and understandable
Successful audio engineers are detail-oriented and immerse themselves in the specificity of audio files, so hiring an engineer with great client ratings, and proven expertise will assure you of a quality service.
What Are the Main Responsibilities of an Audio Engineer?
Because audio engineers can cover several potential projects, duties, or tasks, your job post should always be modified to your requirements and expectations, particularly if you have a finite budget or a specific deadline to cater to. However, some of the duties we often see within audio engineer posts include the following:
- Communicating with the client and other professionals to ensure they thoroughly understand the project brief and deliverables
- Providing the appropriate mixing, recording, and audio editing equipment
- Manipulating, editing, and adjusting audio files, or creating new audio recordings, whether at a live event, in post-production, or working with an existing audio asset
The core criteria in many audio engineer freelance job posts include a certificate or diploma in audio technology or a relevant subject, access to technical, calibrated facilities and audio recording equipment, and the ability to work quickly and accurately under time pressures.
How Much Does a Freelance Audio Engineer Charge?
Like all freelance professions, audio engineers may charge different rates depending on their experience in your business sector or the specific type of project, their skills, turnaround time, availability, and professional qualifications. Junior or newly qualified audio engineers can offer exceptional value, with hourly rates from $8 to $10 per hour.
More experienced engineers will charge significantly more, but they may be beneficial if you need a speedy return or a freelancer with a specialty in a specific area of audio editing.
Hirers can browse the Guru freelancer database at their leisure, reviewing hourly and project rates, where many audio engineers publish a project minimum. This gives engineer seekers a great idea of the budget required before posting a job listing. Alternatively, hirers can post a job and invite appropriate freelance audio engineers to apply with a proposal and quotation.
Important Information to Include in Your Audio Engineer Job Post
Alongside the task overview and responsibilities, your job post is an opportunity to set out the scope of the work and your expectations–the more detail you provide, the better-matched your freelance applicants will be. Freelance job posts can indicate the following:
- The duration of the project, whether you’d like one-off assistance editing one audio file or ongoing support with audio editing or production
- Your preferences in terms of payments, where you may wish to pay a freelancer per hour, a variable time-based rate, or a fixed price
- Background requirements, such as pre-existing knowledge of your industry, a specific type of equipment, or producing certain audio effects
Creating a simple, clear title is perfect, and will ensure that your ideal freelance audio engineer candidates will flag your job and provide you with a fair proposal to compare to your other quotations!
