YouTube tutorials not enough for quality sound engineering — Appietus

Multiple award-winning Ghanaian sound engineer and producer Appietus has criticized the proliferation of 'self-taught' sound engineers in the country who rely solely on YouTube tutorials.

In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Appietus said while YouTube can serve as a supplementary learning tool, it is simply not enough to master the technical nuances of professional sound engineering.

"You have to understand sound engineering, the frequency range listeners can hear, the decibel range you can go, the dynamics and all the technicalities. You need to understand all these things. It’s only in our industry that you find people saying, ‘Oh, I learnt sound engineering on YouTube,” he said.

Appietus drew an analogy with medical training to emphasize his point.

“For you to become a medical doctor or a surgeon, you cannot go and learn it on YouTube. Nobody is going to lie down and say, okay, this is my stomach, operate on me because you learnt it on a social platform.

“But in Ghana, we have people saying Oh I learnt it on YouTube, so I know. Come on, please. These internet communities cannot teach you the real thing,” he stated.

The award-winning producer believes lack of proper training is affecting the quality and marketability of Ghanaian music globally.

“Works from these amateurs are a contributory factor to why most of our songs are not breaking the global market. The international marketplace knows good quality so if it’s low, they will not accept it. There’s something called industry standard in sound, if you do not have it, come on, they will just throw your music away,” Appietus added.

His comments come amid concerns about the poor production quality of many songs coming out of Ghana, limiting their appeal to worldwide audiences.