Greetings fellow DSF members.
Choosing whether to study at college or university can be a difficult choice.
To help those with an interest in music decide if they wish to study audio, I've compiled a list of work roles related to the audio industry. I've also quoted other members of Dubstepforum who provide arguements both for and against the need to study audio.
Finally, further related information and opinions can be found in the threads listed at the very bottom of the post.
I hope you'll find this post useful and that you share your opinions on the subject with us today.
Patrick
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In summary
While some people advocate getting an education in music, others advocate independently learning in your spare time.
There are many considerations which must be accounted for when choosing a career path related to the audio industry. This includes the direct effect that technology is having on the audio industry, and also cultural shifts in consumer thinking, i.e, free downlolads vs paid albums etc.
People in none music related fields still regularly become sucessful musicians. At the same time, people who have a degree in audio recording often end up working regular jobs to make ends meet.
Perhaps the most significant choice to make relates to the lifestyle you wish to lead. For some lively people, being a performing artist or roadie is fine. For more modest people, other roles such as the office based support roles are preferable.
Whichever choices you make about working with audio, gaining an education is always useful (if potentially expensive).
Each profession needs a specific skillset. While everyone has access to musical instruments and recording equipment (internet, cheap pc's & soundcards), not everyone has the education necessary to work in the advanced audio fields.
Finally, remember that the education you may recieve is not the ending point in your career path. Changing careers is always possible at any time, regardless of the levels of education achieved to date or the new career path you decide to follow.
Good luck and have fun!
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Some work roles within the audio industry
Studio artist
Touring artist (not exclusive with the profession listed above)
Session Musician
Band musician
Singer (Choir/opera)
Director
Songwriter
Producer
Recording engineer
Mastering engineer
Duplication engineer (Mastering & duplication of CD's & vinyl)
Live sound engineer (Live gigs, festivals, theatre & events)
TV & radio broadcasting engineer
Radio DJ
Club DJ
Private hire DJ
Promoter
Club/sound system owner
Festival organiser/events manager
Roadie
Artist Management
Copyright management (Performing Rights Society [UK])
Label owner
Sound designer (Folley sounds, sample bank collections)
Sound artiste (avant garde 'out their' stuff)
Commercials & radio jingles producer
Producer for TV shows, film & multimedia (games)
Sound engineer for film (Boom operator, field sound tech person)
Music sales (cds, mp3s & vinyl)
Sheet music sales
Music tech sales [hardware & software both web & bricks & mortar])
Instrument hire
Music gear repair (piano tuning, fixing old Moogs etc)
Hardware developer
Software Developer
Acoustic engineer (preparing audio environments with acoustic treatments [clubs, studios])
Industrial audio engineer (helping heavy industry manage sound from heavy machinery etc)
University/scientific researcher within the acoustic field
Telecoms engineer (telephony, communications devices [TV, hifi units, Voice Over Internet Protocol, satallites etc] military comms {cryptography, field devices, ECM, audio weapons R&D)
Linguistics & Philology (Involving field work for research)
Audiologist (Working in hospitals testing hearing and fitting audio devices)
Speech therapist
Music teacher
Youth arts worker
Accountant
Lawyer
Media buyer
Schedule organiser
Graphic Designer
Photographer
Videographer
Dancer
Duplication plant worker
Coach driver
Caterer
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Some questions to ask yourself
Do you have the money to study full time?
Do you have the patience to study full time?
Do you have the skills to study at the higher standards expected at university?
With the decline of music sales due to technological and cultural shifts, how realistic do you think it is to become a successful artist with world tours, colossal album sales and continous airplay?
What are your personal lifestyle preferences? (Loud, lively & late vs reserved, steady and regular)
Do you like to stay up late, travel a lot, meet lots of new people and enjoy being in a very noisy environment?
Do you prefer to remain grounded within your locality, work from an office, studio or home, have regular pay checks, have to travel less and be in a quieter environment?
Is music just a passing passion & interest, or have you known for a long time intuitevely that you've always wanted to work in the audio industry?
Do you have any other commitments which could effect your ability to study full time?
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Reasons in favour of studying audio
Hurtdeer wrote:If you want to simply study music for the sake of learning about it, then do a music course!
What I have gotten out of it is exposure to understanding and forms of music I would have probably otherwise ignored, a chance to explore various composition methods and play different styles of music in different bands until I found what I liked, and some great contacts and friends.
I don't regret it at all.
HAACK wrote:Yhe I agree with Sharmaji, even if it isn't your career path you can still get a lot of knowledge that you wouldn't get form a book. I recently took an introductory course at my college in audio production, this helped me clarify so many questions and gave me a lot more tips that like I said you will not find in a book!
Plus you get to meet people that share similar interests and this makes for good connections in the future.
---------------------------------------------------setspeed wrote: You really need to think about what it is you want to be doing in the industry, and act accordingly.
i wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing to do a music tech degree - although I did one and basically wasted my time - but if I was going into it now here is what i would do.
1. don't just do your assignments and think that will do.
2. remember that you have free access to some really nice gear. get in the studios and cane it, every minute you can; figure out how things work, get the studio manager guy to come down and show you how to use this desk or that microphone. when you finish the course, all this will disappear so use it while you can.
3. don't spend 3 years drinking and taking recreational drugs. there will be plenty of time for that later. you might feel like a nerd going in the studio on a saturday while all your mates are still drinking from the night before, but it's very hard to get into the industry and only 1 or 2 people out of the 50-odd on your course will manage it. i can tell you now, they will be the ones who worked hardest, became the best engineers and know the equipment better than anyone else. me? i went straight into a call centre.
4. record and produce everything you can. if some band are playing a gig, ask if you can record them live or engineer them, or see if you can record people's demos, whatever. it doesn't matter if you hate the music - if you get a job working in a studio you'll spend half your time working on music you don't like so get used to it. you need the experience - no one will give you a job if you can write a great dubstep tune but can't mic up a drumkit.
5. get making moves on other stuff while you're there. start a club night with a couple of mates, start a little record label, get a music blog going, write tunes, you never know where things will end up.
if you do all that, it'll probably be worth it doing a music tech degree. if you just want to write tunes and get them released, i'm not sure if i would bother...
Reasons against studying audio
futures_untold wrote:1> Fuck all of the above.
2> Choose a sensible subject.
The following subjects will be useful for makeing a real living in music.
-Business & Marketing
-Law (specialising in Contract Law)
-Electronic Engineering (specialising in audio applications)
-Computing (specialising in DSP coding)
-Hospitality and Events Management (cuz your name isn't Micheal Eavis).
-Graphic Design (Someone has to build those lovely Flash widgets that play your opus creations on your Myspace page)
-Printing (Someone has to print all you flyers & merchandise don't ya know..!??)
While you're studying a subject that gives you real skills, you can still learn to produce in your spare time and become the next big thing.
Ask yourself these simple questions.
1>Who makes all those lovely VSTs you crack? (People that can code).
2>Who designs and builds all those lovely rack units you wish you had the money to buy? (Electrical engineers)
3>Who do you turn to when you're offered your first label release contract? (A solicitor)
4> Want to start or work for a label? (Labels sell a product. Sales and purchasing experience and an understanding of both economics and business law are going to be very fecking useful.)
5>Want serious money for events? (Hospitality and events management courses will help get you up to speed on the legal and practical aspects of putting on events larger than a local club night.)
6> Want to be a live sound engineer? (Serious knowledge of electronics will get you further than the ability to use a mixer in the long run.)
7>How much money do you think the owners of music technology stores make? (More than I do haha) (Solid business skills are needed to setup and run a successful store.)
Etc etc blah blah. No offence meant.
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I know as much as many of you guys out there who have studied music tech at college. I learnt everything I know from reading books and mags + spending more hours than I care to calculate fucking about with kit....
contakt321 wrote: I have worked in the music industry (labels, distros, magazines, etc) for 10+ years and I think this is great advice.
I think getting a general degree us the way to go.
Supplement that with actually doing stuff. What I mean is, while you are in school, intern at a label, mastering house, etc or release a record, or do publicity work.
Contacts are very important, but initiative is the other important factor. Music industry folks dont just hands out jobs or money, to get a job, promotion or raise you just have to take action - that will earn you respect.
Sharmaji wrote: In all truth, futures hit the nail completely on the head. completely.
to it i'd add hustle your balls off, be working on some aspect of creating or marketing your music (and yourself) every single moment you're awake.
And don't be a tnuc about it.
justin roche wrote:hey, if i were you, I would save your money and use it to buy all the books on the market and good quality equipment.
Then spend as much time as possible reading the books, taking notes as you go (use OCR if you can and make your own book of all the best bits from the books).
Also, spend as much time as you can applying the knowledge that you learn with the equipment that you buy.
This is the way to get good.
If you still feel insecure about your knowledge / skill, then, perhaps try and get in contact with pro engineers and talk to them about it.
They may be able to give you a better perspective.
I remember before I took my degree in sound technology, I was very excited about going into a high spec studio.
Now that I have had the experience of 3 years using the high spec studios, I realize that my home studio is the place that I love to be in the most. No rules, my own equipment, no ass holes to give me attitude.
Also, I realize that now technology is so much cheaper, and software is so much more powerful. It is possible to achieve really good results in a good home / project studio.
At least up to a point.
Certainly for most dance music, you should be ok.
If you are really keen to get your tracks as perfect as possible, then perhaps consider paying for a pro mix engineer to mix your track and a good pro mastering engineer to master your track.
Otherwise, its all down to you learning, applying and buying.
Only do a degree if you want to be a teacher, paper don't mean nothing in the real world. Some pros, it actually goes against you.
Also, all that writing is horrible and takes you well away from music.
That sucks!!!
jackquinox wrote:I did Music Technology at college for a 2 year diploma then did a creative music and sound technology degree at leeds met and this is all i will say:
1: 90% of people on the course a male.
2: 50% of these believe they are the fucking muts nuts at everything they do and you will have to listen to them going on about how great they are all the time.
3: You will have the chance maybe once or twice to make a piece of music that you really want to make, but will normally be in the form of a remix or something like that, in my opinion leave your own music making to a home hobby and in uni and college concentrate on letting other peoples egos control what music gets made try and focus on learning about microphone placement or using the desk which leads me on to->
4: Everything you do is group work so find a good group of people with similar music tastes that will actualey turn up and share the responsabilites, in 5 years of doing music technology i got shown how to use a desk maybe once very briefly, lecturers really on the fact that some people know how to use a desk and some dont and those in the groups that do will take the lead, if you stuck me infront of a desk now i would probably still struggle to record anything.
5: These kind of courses are run by people that still work in the industry and not to stereotype but the fact is that when a sound engineer has children or some shit thats when they decide they need a steady income so they start teaching they dont really care if you learn they just like to tell your stories about recording with the stones etc etc.
6: I dont know anyone that did my course that now has a job in the industry, personally its alright for me because i found i really liked doing acoustics which is what i am now trying to pursue a career in but again i will need to do another year of education for a diploma in this, the things i liked the least where any of the recording things because it was always a pain in the arse.
Good luck to who ever is going to Leeds Met for me it was one of the most disorganised courses in creation and i know alot of other people that have done music tech courses at other universitys and told me the same thing, in my opinion do a degree thats worth while and keep music making to the bedroom unless you really want to get into sound engineering, acosutics or things like foley and sound design for film, be prepared to really push yourself to the front of the pack to get a chance to use the desks and have your ideas realised because what normally happens is that everyone will have an idea and then you will either end up with a shit pot of loads of different ideas or one loud mouth will make everyone submit to doing there thing which you will despise but in the interests of getting good marks you may aswell do it.
Rant over but i feel its good to point out things like this because i sometimes feel as if i was robbed of actually being taught anything in music technology.
---------------------------------------------------thinking wrote:^^^ jacquinox summed it up beautifully there. I didn't go to Uni to study Music Tech, but I applied for and subsequently turned down 6 places on various courses, having decided each time that I actually didn't want to be stuck doing it for 3 years.
If you're serious about production, you'll spend the time learning yourself - this doesn't mean just sitting around writing beats, it means reading lots of books, and doing things properly. Set up a half-decent home studio with good monitors & acoustic treatment, give yourself a solid understanding and CONTROL of EQing and compression, etc etc.
There's very little you can't learn yourself, particularly if you're only interested in producing one particular kind of music, but you have to be serious about things if you're going to get there.
Related Links
http://www.dubstepforum.com/making-a-li ... 02488.html
http://www.dubstepforum.com/getting-int ... 03428.html
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=188454
http://www.dubstepforum.com/music-produ ... it=college
http://www.dubstepforum.com/education-t ... it=college
http://www.dubstepforum.com/education-t35904.html
http://www.dubstepforum.com/how-many-of ... 92509.html
http://www.dubstepforum.com/post1066664 ... s#p1066664
http://www.dubstepforum.com/what-are-yo ... 51224.html
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Thanks for reading!
Patrick
