By Enzo Richard François Fernandez

Publié le 17 juin 2026

Have you ever been to a concert to see your favorite artist? You look at the stage, the lights, and the artist but no one notices the person standing in the middle of the crowd, behind a large mixing desk. That person is the sound engineer, and without them, nothing you’ve just heard would have sounded good. 

Around the world, numerous concerts and festivals take place, including Tomorrowland in Belgium, Coachella in the United States, the Montreal International Jazz Festival (MIJF), and Osheaga. Many people work on these events. However, most people have no idea who they are or what they do. They are never mentioned, never get credited, and are essentially invisible. 

Many people think that sound engineers simply press a few buttons and adjust the volume but it’s much more complicated than that. Their role is to manage the entire sound system for a live event, and they must make quick decisions without making a single mistake. They control what the audience hears and what the musicians hear on stage, and they resolve any technical issues live whilst the show is underway. A single mistake and the whole concert falls apart. 

There is scientific evidence for these matters. A study in Scientific Reports (Stupacher et al., 2023) looked at 132 people at live concerts and found that the audience physically reacts to music, with their heart rates and breathing syncing up. That means the way a concert sounds do not just affect your ears, it affects your whole body. And the person responsible for that sound is the engineer. 

The problem is that when a concert is great, everyone thanks the artist. When the sound is bad, everyone complains about the sound. The engineer only gets noticed when something goes wrong. Gray Spark Academy wrote that the best sound engineers are the ones nobody notices during the show. That sounds like a good thing, but it also means that doing your job perfectly makes you invisible. 

On top of that, the job is not very stable. Berklee College of Music says most live sound engineers are freelancers who get hired through connections, not real job postings. The Quebec government even lists the job officially but admits there isn’t much wage data in the province. So not only do engineers not get credit, but they also often struggle to build a stable career. 

As a student in sound technology and with my personal experience, I think about this a lot. We spend years learning the technical side of this job, but nobody really prepares us for the fact that most people will not know what we do or why it matters. The articles I found for this editorial focus heavily on skills and equipment, but almost none address recognition or fair pay for engineers. 

To better understand this reality, I interviewed Steve, a professional live sound engineer with years of experience working at concerts in Quebec. When asked how he would describe his work, he said: 

“Mon travail, je le qualifie d’ultra important parce que c’est moi qui fais l’interface entre l’artiste et le public.” 

(Steve, live sound engineer, interview April 2026) 

He explained that his job is to listen for the imperfections of the room and use technical tools to compensate, adding or adjusting frequencies so the audience can clearly hear the artist. He also talked about being present in real time during the show, because unexpected things always happen like a singer who suddenly gets a sore throat and starts singing more quietly, forcing the engineer to react immediately. 

When asked about his biggest challenge, Steve gave the most honest answer possible: 

“J’ai toujours eu la prétention que quand je faisais bien mon travail, c’est que le public m’oubliait. C’est le plus grand défi, c’est de me faire oublier en fait.” 

(Steve, live sound engineer, interview April 2026) 

That quote says everything. Festivals like MUTEK in Montreal are known for innovative sound, yet even there the engineers are never named. If our college community students, teachers and future venue managers started asking for engineers to be credited like artists, that would already be a big step forward. 

A concert is not just the artist on stage. It is also the person behind the board making sure everything sounds right. As Steve said, the best engineers make themselves forgotten but that does not mean we should forget them. Venues should put their names in the program. Festivals should talk about their audio team.  

And schools like ours should teach students not just how to do the job, but also how to demand respect for it. The invisible artist deserves a name. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AVIXA “What Does a Live Sound Engineer Do?” (March 2025) 

Good breakdown of what the job involves. Helped me explain the technical side in paragraph 1. 

OIART “The Thrilling World of Live Sound Engineering” (January 2025) 

Like AVIXA but talks more about the different places engineers can work. 

Berklee College of Music “Live Sound Mix Engineer” (n.d.)

Talks about how most engineers are freelancers and get hired through connections. Used in body paragraph 2. 

Recording Connection “What Does a Concert Audio Technician Do?” (December 2024) 

Explains the difference between FOH and monitor engineering. Good for understanding the different roles.

Gray spark Academy “A Sound Engineer’s Guide to Live Concert Production” (March 2025)

Where I found the quote about the best engineers being invisible. That quote kind of sums up the whole problem. 

Recording Arts Canada “Top 8 Montréal Music Festivals 2024” (June 2024) 

Local source about the Montreal festival scene. Helped me connect the topic to where we live.

Government du Québec “Audio and Video Recording Technicians” (2026) 

Official Quebec page on the occupation. Shows the job exists officially but there is not much wage data. 

MUTEK Montréal Official Website (2024–2026) 

Local source. MUTEK is a festival that really cares about sound and technology but still does not credit engineers publicly. 

Stupacher, J., Maes, P-J., Witte, M., & Vuust, P. (2023). Audience synchronies in live concerts illustrate the embodiment of music experience. Scientific Reports, 13, 16619.

I picked this study because it proves that sound at a concert affects people physically, not just emotionally. That made my argument stronger because it shows the engineer is not just adjusting volume, they are literally shaping how people feel. I found it on Google Scholar by searching "live concert audience sound experience."