YOU CAN BE AN ENTREPRENEUR Entrepreneurs and In 2016 audio engineer Wake Anderson Start-ups Entrepreneurs are people who come up with unique and innovative ideas They think outside the box to come up with life-changing technologies and procedures Entrepreneurs are willing to take risks by investing in new goods and services They will do everything they can to be successful Start-ups are new businesses that entrepreneurs start so they can promote and sell their ideas unveiled SoundBridge a new type of digital audio workstation DAW It gave musicians the tools they need to produce high-quality recordings on their own In the past the only way to get a decent recording was to go to a studio which cost a lot of money Using SoundBridge was also a great way for beginner sound engineers to start practicing their trade Before SoundBridge DAWs were often expensive or hard to use Amateurs found it challenging to produce great recordings without help or financial backing Anderson’s software helped solve the problem It was affordable and easy to use and it didn’t require any special equipment Anderson is an example of an entrepreneur He used his science and technology skills to develop a product that had the potential to change an entire industry such as the music industry What Is an Engineer Engineers are people who design and build machines structures systems and more They use math and science to solve everyday problems The main types of engineering are mechanical chemical civil electrical marine and aerospace There are hundreds of branches A DAW is used to record edit mix compose and produce audio recordings 4
of engineering within these main types Engineers do everything from developing new types of plastic to designing space shuttles Engineers can also be entrepreneurs when they create businesses based on their ideas Entrepreneurs Changing the World People around the world face many different challenges such as natural disasters Engineers find ways to solve these problems using their knowledge of science technology and math Engineering entrepreneurs work in all types of industries from construction to robotics They look for new and innovative ideas to help make the world a better place They may design buildings that can survive earthquakes or find ways to get clean water to places where water is scarce Engineers can make a difference in people's lives Some design pumps that provide clean water INSPIRING STORIES Early Thinkers Before the mid-1800s the only way for people to communicate across long distances was by sending letters by mail The invention of the telegraph changed all that but it required long cables A businessman named Cyrus Field created a start-up business to connect North America and Europe by cable He asked British telegraph engineer Charles Tilston Bright to design a cable that would transmit telegraph signals across the ocean The work Field and Bright did paved the way for fast modern telecommunications Cyrus Field’s company laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean 5
AUDIO INNOVATIONS Audio engineers are people who record mix and reproduce sounds Thomas Edison was one of the first entrepreneurs in this field In the late 1800s he made the world’s first recording of a musical performance It lasted just 78 seconds and was made on a device called a phonograph The sound quality was terrible but it was a giant step forward for recording and playing sounds and music In 1878 Edison founded a start-up company and began selling the phonograph It was the first device for recording and playing back sounds and it changed the world Over the next few decades other audio entrepreneurs improved on Edison’s design They invented more advanced devices to record sounds such as vinyl records Thomas Edison was just 30 years old when he invented the phonograph in 1877 Improving on the Past For nearly a century audio recordings were captured on a physical medium that often sounded scratchy and wore out with use In the 1960s entrepreneurs started to look for ways to make digital recordings These never wear out and they always sound exactly the same as the original recording Compact discs CDs were some of the first forms of digital recordings Audio engineers kept looking for new and better ways to record sounds Many such as Wake Anderson turned to the Internet and mobile devices to store share and create recordings Edison’s phonograph recorded sounds on wax cylinders Emile Berliner introduced flat discs which worked better 6
Inspiring Others Audio engineers are forming start-ups to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Edison A company called Pibox Music is making it easier for artists and engineers to collaborate Pibox was cofounded by brothers Ivan and Pavel Talaychuk They provide cloud-based file storage and the ability to use audio calls to share recordings They also offer chat groups for individual projects and feedback tools for commenting on recordings Another start-up Even launched a product called EarPrint in 2016 Much like people take an eye test to get the right glasses Even offers an online ear test to make sure they get the right headphones EarPrint helps correct for differences in the way people hear to ensure they get the best sound every time The correct earphones can really improve the quality of sound when you listen to your favorite music INSPIRING STORIES Recording Music at Home In the 1980s UC Berkeley graduates Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher created the world’s first computer based audio editing software called Sound Tools It allows users to change or improve sounds Over time Sound Tools became the popular DAW known as Pro Tools People around the world use Pro Tools for sound recording and production projects Evan Brooks below and his cofounder Peter Gotcher were high school friends 7
