Here are free online sound engineering courses that will equip you with the professional skills of audio engineering and management. If you find any of the courses listed here interesting, you can enroll and start learning instantly.
Just like other online skills, you can equip yourself with sound or audio engineering skills if it’s something you’ve always liked or you can enroll in any of the courses as a way of exploring other areas of study.
The sound engineering courses listed in this post are 100% online and free to enroll and they also offer a certificate after your studies, the same thing applies to other free online courses. However depending on the platform, university, or college offering the sound engineering course, the certificate may be free or paid for.
Getting a certificate in a specific area of study you have completed is highly worth it whether it’s a computer course or even an art course certificate. You can attach the certificate to your already existing one and automatically get ahead of the workforce competition. You’ve automatically become valuable to your company, organization, or business and also to yourself.
Due to these reasons, you should endeavor to get a certificate in any of the free online courses including this sound engineering course.
Before we get started let’s know who a sound engineer is first
Who is a Sound Engineer?
A sound engineer is someone who mixes, reproduces, and adjusts the equalization and electronic effects of sound.
A sound engineer doesn’t necessarily have to work only in the music field, they also design and control the sound at theaters, conferences, churches, and every other event that requires the use of sound for a large number of people.
Is Sound Engineering a Good Career?
The straightforward answer to this is – YES. Sound engineering is an in-demand skill, in fact, according to their Job Outlook from myFUTURE, there will be a 10% of employment growth from 2021 to 2031 for Broadcast, Sound, and Video Technicians which is faster than the average for all occupations.
You can see it’s an industry that will keep growing and it is never too late to get skilled as a sound engineer and enter the industry.
With the proper guidelines and teachings, you will become an expert sound engineer in no time. Fortunately, we at SAN have eliminated, for you, the stress of browsing all over the internet searching for how to study to become an expert sound engineer.
Without further ado, let’s get started on the free online sound engineering programs for you to begin immediate enrollment.
Free Online Sound Engineering Courses with Certificates
The following are the best free sound engineering courses with certificates on the internet provided by different online learning platforms
1. Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics
This course teaches students the basic concepts of using acoustics and electronics to understand musical sounds and make music with electronic instruments.
It is one of the online sound engineering courses offered by the University of Rochester and delivered online via Coursera. It takes approximately 14 hours or up to 3 weeks to complete and topics to be covered include sound waves, musical sound, basic electronics, and the application of these basic principles in amplifiers and speaker design.
However, you’ll need to pay a small fee of $45 to receive the scholarship.
2. Creating Sounds for Electronic Music
This is among the free online sound engineering courses which is part of the electronic music production specialization and it is offered by Berklee College of Music and delivered via Coursera.
With your already existing skills in digital audio workstations, this course will go on to teach you how to create sounds and make use of them in your own musical composition. You will gain skills in music production and also be able to use software synthesizers.
3. Introduction to Acoustics
In your journey to becoming an expert sound engineer, you also need some theoretical knowledge that will guide you. The course, Introduction to Acoustics, provides such theoretical knowledge that every sound engineer would need.
The course is among the free online sound engineering programs that introduce learners to acoustics by using the concept of impedance. The course requires just 14 hours or up to 3 weeks to complete after which you’ll earn a certificate which you’ll need to pay a fee of $49.
The payment also gives you access to graded items like quizzes, and exams.
4. Audio Engineering: EQ and Compression for Beginners
For every audio engineering, EQ and compressors play a vital role as it is used in controlling and shaping music, movies, and TV shows. EQ is widely used in and even outside the audio world, compressors are not as widely used as EQ but it is still a very important knowledge to possess.
The audio engineering EQ and compression course is one of the free online sound engineering courses offered by Udemy and it is taught by a professional sound engineer. The paid certificate is also available, which also gives you direct access to the instructor where you can ask any question and receive answers.
5. Critical Listening for Studio Production
The critical listening for studio production is provided by Queen’s University and offered online by FutureLearn – an online learning platform with millions of students.
This course is designed to improve your listening skills by teaching you technical ear training programs to make you have critical listening skills required in a music studio context. One of the qualities required of all sound engineers is the ability to listen, and this course provides those skills for you.
You will be equipped with the theoretical knowledge of sound and audio, and technical mastery of studio hardware and software. There’s a certificate awaiting you, but you need to pay a little fee to acquire it.
6. Vocal Recording Technology
The course, Vocal Recording Technology, is another of the free online engineering courses provided by Berklee College of Music and offered online for learning by edX. It explores new technologies in vocal production, audio engineering, recording, and mixing.
You’ll learn an understanding of vocal technologies and music production, be able to use new and emerging techniques and technologies to improve your skill as a sound engineer. Get the certification at the end of the course to increase the client’s trust level in your skills.
7. Pro Tools Basics
In the production of musical sound or music, there are certain tools that you need to know how to use as they are very important in bringing your musical ideas to life. For you to get access to the free version of this course you need to use the 7-day free trial which before then you should have completed the 12-hour long course.
We listed it here because of the importance we believe it will be for your career as an audio engineer.
The course introduces students to the world of Avid Pro Tools and Pro Tools First which are necessary tools to transmit the musical idea in your head into the DAW in a creative and uninhibited way.
8. The Technology of Music Production
Before music is produced, it goes through many processes such as recording, mixing, and editing. In your journey to becoming an expert sound engineer, you need to know this process.
This course provides just that. The Technology of Music Production is another of the 7-day free trial online sound engineering courses taught by Berklee College of Music. Students will learn about the music production process and the right tools to use to create music on your computer. A $39 certificate awaits you once you complete your study.
9. The Business of Music Production
This is for you if you already have sound engineering skills and if you have completed one or more of the free online sound engineering courses here you can dive into this course.
This course will equip you with skills on how to monetize your sound engineering skills and also teach you how to launch your career as a music producer. You will go on to gain skills in copyright, music recording, contracts, pro tools, music business, revenue streams, music/audio production, and team building.
Also, it’s a 7-day free trial program that gives you access to all services but will charge you $39 once the 7 days elapse.
10. Synthesis and Sound Design
Take your sound engineering skills to the next level by enrolling in this course. It teaches the arts and secrets of audio synthesis, sampling, and sound design.
The course has eight topics which require approximately 12 hours to complete. Some of the topics include serum, massive, FM synthesis, modular synthesis basics, Reaktor blocks, and more. The certificate comes at a cheap rate, getting it would do you a lot of good in the workforce.
11. Mix and Mastering
Mixing and mastering are pretty much all you are learning from the basics to the pro level though. This course will equip you with techniques, tips, and tricks that expert mixing and mastering engineers use.
With these skills gained, you have automatically taken your sound engineering skills to a much higher level and have worth more to yourself or your organization. The course takes approximately 13 hours to complete and you get to study at your own pace.
Some of the topics to be discussed include; an intro to mixing, equalizers, dynamic processors, time-domain effects, basics of mastering, and more. After your course, get the certification.
12. Audio Engineering: Signal Flow
It’s quite interesting to understand the flow of audio signal from the mic through the DAW (Digital Audio Signal) finally out of the speakers. That’s exactly what you’ll be learning in this completely free course provided by Udemy.
It will first start from the basic flow, then progress to the advanced signal flow of audio signals, you’ll also understand why signal flow is important to an audio engineer. How audio signal get from the mic through your DAW and out of your speakers.
13. ChatGPT Quick Guide – Prompt Engineering
With the rise of AI, we should also learn how to take advantage of it even in our sound engineering, and you can learn that for free within 2 hours. Sound Engineering and computer skills go in handy, so this free online sound engineering course will teach you to use ChatGPT to generate code to completely automate tasks amongst other lessons.
And, you don’t even need to be a developer to understand this course.
14. The Complete Adobe Audition CC Course for Recording, Editing, and Mastering Audio!
Mastering Adobe Audition CC takes your recording to another level, sincerely speaking, other sound editing softwares doesn’t have the wide range of features provided by Adobe Audition. This course will be beneficial if you intend to start a podcast and want it to sound more professional, if you intend to narrate audiobooks for publication on Audible via ACX, or to even provide better audio for clients.
This is among the free online sound engineering courses that offer a 1-month free trial by SkillShare
15. Advanced Mixing Techniques in FL Studio
This course will teach you advanced techniques to both improve your mixes and create tracks that will stand out. Some of the techniques that will be discussed in this course include Parallel Compression, Frequency Splitting, and more.
Also, the course provides you a 30-day free trial since it’s coming from SkillShare
How to Enroll in the Free Online Sound Engineering Courses
Enrolling in any of these courses is pretty easy, you simply need to click on the “sign up or enroll” button to create an account. You can create an account using your email address or Google account, in some scenarios some platforms will give the option of automatically enrolling with your Facebook account.
However, if you have an already existing account on the website, then you don’t need to click on “sign up”. Click “log in”, input the correct login details and you can start learning immediately.
The courses listed here are 100% free or require a free trial but you need to pay for the certificate, which will be sent to your email or will be downloaded from the platform where you can then proceed to print it out – if you want.
The online copy of the certificate can be uploaded to your LinkedIn, Fiverr, or Upwork account to attract potential clients.
Conclusion
Gaining more than one skill is never a bad thing, in fact, it will help you a whole lot more. The current business model changes all the time and who knows which direction it will change too. Although it is currently in the digital/AI stage.
Enrolling in one or more of the free online sound engineering courses listed in this post will help you kick-start a career as a sound engineer.
In the making of every game, movie, TV show, and general videography a sound engineer is highly useful, and with your sound engineering skills, you already have an in-demand skill. As sound is still forever useful.
Deseo tomar el curso de ingeniería de sonido
quiero ampliar sobre mis conocimientos de audio y digitalizacion en sonido
Entre a la página y dice que los cursos son en inglés… Hay alguna opción en español o con subtítulos??
J’apprécie vraiment ,je suis intéressé par ce cours
I will highly appreciate if you can help me to be a qualified sound engineer in order to persue a better future in my music career.
Where can i download the certificate?
Please
Cum pot participa la cursuri?
i would much appreciate if u can assist me through this journey of being a qualified sound engineer,iam interested in this course.