An Unexpected Introduction

Angeline began her journey in audio from the outside and slowly made her way in. It started with a passion for music, wanting to be involved but not wanting to sing or be a musician. Her introduction to audio engineering and Avant Media Institute was serendipitous; her sister was at a music festival, saw an AMI promo tent, and gave Angeline our information,
not having any idea of what audio engineering was. After looking up AMI, Angeline peeled back the curtain and realized there was a whole industry and process behind creating music aside from being an artist. This completely changed her view on music, and she began to digest it in an entirely new way. By beginning with studying the drums of heavy metal songs, Angeline began her journey with the audio side of music by thinking like an audio engineer. This meant no longer passively enjoying music, but analyzing it, dissecting it, and asking questions about why certain choices were made. “I started going back and listening to older songs, going well, how did they do this? How did they do this? What did they do to this? Why did I really like this song? And going back and listening, was it complex? Was it simple? Is there a lot happening?” Her perspective had forever been changed, and Angeline went straight to work.
She graduated from AMI in January of 2017, and has been working ever since as a recording engineer, mixing engineer, and producer. She currently works at two studios in the Houston area: La Suite Records and iMIX Recording Studios. Even after being in the engineering chair for almost 8 years, Angeline revealed that what she learned about signal flow, recording, and audio equipment at AMI stayed with her and is knowledge she still uses everyday.
Gimme More…Women in Audio!
The audio world is a very male-dominated one, with the “Fix the Mix” 2023 report stating that based on the top fifty songs in Spotify’s billionaires club, only 1.9 percent of them were engineered by women and non-binary people. Zippia.com’s audio engineer demographics research found that of the over 9,796 audio engineers currently employed in the U.S, only 7.7 percent were women. Angeline says “it’s definitely an imbalance. But that’s okay. We’re working on it.” and is hopeful for the growing numbers of female engineers joining the audio world. At AMI, we are also starting to see this shift. When comparing the proportion of women to men in our program who were students in the fall semesters of 2023 and 2024, we saw an approximate increase of 9.8 percent of female students in our 2024 class. Even though more and more women are joining the field, there is still work to be done.

Angeline found that being a woman came with assumptions how the recording session would go; sometimes her clients would assume she’d want to “hop on the mic” or contribute musically with an adlib, but she enjoys her role as the engineer. Regardless of the assumptions and stereotypes, Angeline found strength in being able to provide a comfortable, safe space for female artists. “Them being able to find a female engineer is –they always explain to me– it’s such a blessing.”
More than just Audio
As an audio engineer, you have to be multifaceted –which is one of Angeline’s favorite parts of the job. “You have to wear so many hats…You become a vocal coach…You become a lyricist…you really are helping them kind of add the color to their painting.” She likes getting to apply both her technical knowledge and skills as well as adding her own creative touch when she’s working on a project. Beyond the technical and creative though, there is also the business side to audio engineering she thinks is important to consider and speak on.
Business obligations like marketing end up being the audio engineer’s responsibility. Angeline found that constantly posting and marketing herself on social media was hard at times, but necessary for growth and promotion. Despite the difficulty, she thinks self marketing can be a way of both advocating for yourself and showing off your skills. Angeline said it best: “You are your biggest voice…You have to be proud of what you do.” If being on camera is difficult, Angeline recommends having a purpose or goal when creating content, having intention behind the posts.
To Angeline, social media is also helpful as a networking tool, but does not replace going to events in person and networking with others in the industry that way. She talks about the impact of showing up and says “sometimes (the) old school way of being able to make that in-person connection can go a lot farther than them seeing a cool post that they’re going to forget in like, 10 scrolls…if you support the artists that are also supporting you, you’re gonna keep meeting more people.” In this industry, your presence means more than a repost. Creating real, local connections with others in audio and music is crucial.
Like many creative jobs, working as an audio engineer comes with its own risks and struggles. As an audio engineer, you invest in a list of things like “advertisements, promotions…equipment” which is a financial risk. The “odd hours, around the clock” work can be tough, but to Angeline, having community has made it much more sustainable. Despite the failures and mistakes that inevitably happen along the way, she believes learning from ones and others' mistakes – the community aspect– helped to get her through it.
Angeline was also able to find community through AMI, and noted that “if you don't even have a community or know where to start, start within your class, they're most likely going to be a musician or an artist who need help recording, and they also have the patience to let you figure it out, because they understand what's happening.” That easily accessible community became a safe space to keep growing and learning. Few people really understand what having a career in audio engineering is like, so having good mentors like Bruce Bang and Brandon de la Garza made the biggest, positive difference for her. Angeline wants to keep the tradition going by keeping her door open, and inviting others to reach out to her, “whether you're an artist, a producer, a musician or an active engineer, someone who wants to get into it, I'm open.”

Parting Words of Advice for Audio Engineers
No matter how uncomfortable talking about money is, it is important to discuss–especially in artistic environments. When asked what Angeline would tell her younger self, she replied with an honest: “Start sooner. Charge more.” She experienced guilt over her pricing when she first started, so she gave people good deals. She did get good experience, but looking back would've liked to have been paid for her worth even then. Being an audio engineer can be fun and cool, but Angeline wants future and current engineers to remember to value themselves and get properly compensated for their ideas and work.
“I’m doing the thing that I love, and I saw success in it. I proved to myself that this is possible… You have the worth; people see your worth, and they’re going to pay you for it.”
For the full podcast episode with Angeline and our 301 Instructor Mark Drew, full of more great advice and industry talk, visit our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@avantmediainstitute
Written by: Lucia Sanchez Solis
Written based on Avant Media Institute’s Wall of Fame Podcast episode inducting alumni Angeline Johnson. For the full episode, visit our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@avantmediainstitute
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