Reflecting on 25 years of audio and software engineering.

Hi there! This is a post for my future self. A look back at what got me to where I am today.

Read on for some thoughts about the intersect between #audio and #software #engineering, as I went through it.

Context: someone reached out on Reddit, asking for an opinion about taking a break in his/her music career to work in software engineering. Which is precisely what happened to me waay back in 1996.

The trigger to this life-changing moment was the realization of how hard it was to make ends meet in the Malaysian music industry - purely as an audio engineer, without going into the business side of music.

In my case, it was borne out of necessity.

At the time, the music industry where I lived was small. The better-paying (and, consistently-paying!) jobs for audio engineering graduates were in radio and TV/movie post-production: working on ads, jingles etc.

Which to me looked like the kind of thing that absolutely sucked the joy out of working with music. In short, the options I had at the time weren't particularly enticing - I'd have to get into music management, equipment rental etc. to stand a chance.

OR, run side hustles.
(4th wall break: LOL!)

So continuing as an audio engineer wasn’t a viable option at that point in my life.

Now looking back in hindsight, 25 years older and wiser, I'd probably have found a way to make it work, one way or another. I guess there’s something to say about persisting in your craft, and being able to pivot and adapt.

But to answer the Redditor's question, which included the supplementary question of "Did you regret it?":

No, I don’t regret pursuing my software engineering career.

I’m a BIG believer of things happening for a reason. If all those minute events & decisions didn’t happen the way they did, in the sequence they did, I wouldn’t be here today. #meta

In fact, the skills and principles I picked up doing both audio and software engineering ended up being good complements to one another: a good left-brain right-brain combo, if you will.

The creative side lets me approach engineering problems in a different way than traditional engineers would. And the rigorously structured side of programming made my music production work a bit more effective than what a pure creative might do.

So I guess this is a long-winded story that leads up to my point:

It’s never about making correct decisions. It’s about deciding, then learning and improving as you go along. Which will lead you right where you’re supposed to be.

Best of luck in your future endeavors!