What Equipment Do Audio Engineering Students Use? Inside Musitechnic's Studios
One of the most important questions to ask when evaluating an audio engineering school is deceptively simple: what equipment will I actually train on? The answer matters more than most prospective students realize. The audio industry is built on specific tools — and employers expect graduates to walk in the door knowing how to use them. A student who has spent hundreds of hours on SSL consoles and Pro Tools HD is a fundamentally different hire than one who has only worked on entry-level gear or software simulations.
The Standard: What Professional Studios Actually Use
Professional recording studios, post-production houses, broadcast facilities, and game audio departments share a common toolkit. At the analog and hybrid console level, SSL — Solid State Logic — is the industry benchmark. SSL consoles define the sound of modern professional recording, and facility managers hiring audio engineers assume candidates know how to operate one.
On the digital audio workstation side, Avid Pro Tools HD is the professional standard for recording, editing, and mixing in commercial studios, film post-production, and broadcast. Knowledge of Pro Tools is not optional for most professional roles — it is a baseline requirement. Additional DAWs including Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and Reaper are widely used depending on the work context, and familiarity with multiple platforms is a competitive advantage.
Inside Musitechnic: 8 Professional Studios, 4 Labs
Musitechnic operates 8 professional recording studios and 4 specialized labs in its downtown Montreal facility. This is not a scaled-down educational approximation of professional gear — these are production-ready environments equipped with the same tools students will encounter in the industry.
The studio infrastructure includes SSL mixing consoles, Pro Tools HD systems, and an array of outboard gear including high-end compressors, equalizers, and signal processors that define the sound of professional recordings. Live rooms are acoustically designed for professional recording sessions. Control rooms are calibrated for accurate mixing. Students do not just observe these environments — they work in them, running sessions from the first weeks of the program.
Why Hands-On Studio Time Changes Everything
There is no substitute for logged hours behind a console. Reading about SSL signal flow is useful. Watching video tutorials helps. But the muscle memory, instincts, and problem-solving speed that employers look for in junior audio engineers come from repetition in real studio environments under professional supervision.
Musitechnic's curriculum is structured so that more than half of training time takes place in the studios and labs rather than in a classroom. Students record live sessions, mix on SSL consoles, edit dialogue and sound effects for picture, design interactive audio for game environments, and deliver finished product at professional standards. By graduation, the gear feels familiar — because it is.
What Employers Actually Expect
When recording studios, post-production houses, game audio departments, and broadcast facilities hire junior engineers and assistants, they look for a specific set of technical competencies. Based on consistent industry feedback, the most valued skills for entry-level audio positions include:
Proficiency in Pro Tools HD: session setup, editing, routing, and delivery formats
Ability to operate SSL consoles for tracking and mixing
Microphone technique and placement for recording various instruments and voices
Signal chain knowledge: gain staging, routing, patching, and troubleshooting
Mixing fundamentals: EQ, compression, dynamics, spatial placement, and bus management
For game audio roles: Wwise and FMOD middleware, interactive audio concepts, and audio implementation
Every one of these competencies is developed through hands-on practice, not theory alone. A graduate who can articulate these concepts but cannot execute them under pressure in a studio environment is not competitive for most entry-level positions.
The Gear Argument for Choosing Musitechnic
Free studio access across 8 professional environments and 4 labs is not common in audio education. Many programs give students limited booked time in a single control room. Musitechnic's model is built around the premise that time on professional gear is the core of the education, not a supplement to it.
Combined with faculty who are active professionals — engineers, producers, and sound designers working in the industry today — the studio environment at Musitechnic produces graduates who can walk into a professional session and contribute immediately. That is the standard the industry expects, and it is the standard Musitechnic has been meeting for nearly 40 years.