How many of you went to audio engineering school?

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:42 am

had a couple friends who went to sae tell me not to waste my cash
but yeah self taught through loads of reading and trial and error over the years

s & m · Post by **s & m** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:18 am

It would be really sweet to learn some stuff...i just dont think it's a very smart career choice for me...

So i'm finishin up my B.A. in Underwater basket weaving

sterling · Post by **sterling** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:49 am

wow, so no one really has gone to school for engineering it seems? i went here, though it was in 96:
http://www.recordingworkshop.com/
I enjoyed it and learned a lot. although i'm not a stellar engineer, it gave me a great background and i'm glad i went. i was a bit young at the time and perhaps didn't retain as much info as i would have liked to. i was raving every weekend at the time in an effort to get away from the boring cabin style accommodations.

i did the full program including an extended pro-tools and digital mixing session. i think the most fun i had there was doing some foley work for a lil video they had for us to work with. the guy i did the project with had similar musical interests as me and we had the last time slot of the night. there was time after wards and we did another version with music that we preferred instead of the stock ish they gave us. i still have the vhs tape we made of both videos.

i highly recommend the experience to anyone considering it. we spent most of our time recording bands and very little was electronic related, but this was 13 years ago. i'm sure these places have electronic setups now. we also did some radio type work by splicing tape and making jingles in digidesign and such.

boomstix · Post by **boomstix** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:18 am

i'm at school now, studying music technology.

one thing i will say about it is that if you don't have a lot of money to spend on gear, you can try everything out at school. i've used microphones worth thousands and i would never be able to buy them myself.

i taught myself for about 8 years before i started this course and you can definitely learn well teaching yourself from books, net and friends.

school to me is just a really concentrated source of musical knowledge. i can ask questions and i get to meet heaps of people who are into similar things to me so its a great way to spend a lot of time doing music stuff.

also, there are hot girls and its really fun

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:46 am

Nope

bedroom beats · Post by **bedroom beats** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:53 am

I left school at 16 only really listening to rock, metal and the like. I left to do Music Technology at college for two years BTEC.

Opened my eyes to electronic music, for that it was worth it's weight in gold. Plus I learnt how music is made on a computer, amongst more tradtional application.

I started a Creative Music Technology course at UNI last year but dropped out - I think once you have learnt the basics and become better at sound design no amount of training will help really IMO

sifres · Post by **sifres** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:56 am

Deadly Habit wrote:had a couple friends who went to sae tell me not to waste my cash

I went to SAE and am actually glad I did it

They should make it clearer that it does not make you an audio engineer... FAR from it. Loadsa people there with false expectations.

It DID however teach me a lot of the fundamentals of mixing, compression, effects etc. After that it was nice to open CM and actually get what they are talking about!

Mind you, mine was called "Studio sound certificate", half a year 2 nights a week, and was in 2001

If anybody is thinking about doing it; get your expectations in order before you do it! This does not make you an instant Rusko or Caspa, nor will it get you a job at abbey road, or even sound engineer at the Fabric.

It will... however... let you accumulate a lot of knowledge in a short time, IF, and only if, your knowledge is pretty basic. For a pretty steep price.

r · Post by r » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:09 am

doing a producing school. Bit of audio engineering but mostly making lots of music. For your own act, for others to sell, learn how to write songs etc. Learned alot and still learning

connection · Post by **connection** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:15 am

Deadly Habit wrote:had a couple friends who went to sae tell me not to waste my cash

Agreed.

I spent the best part of £6000 studying at SAE in London years back. I believe the amount these places charge to learn a very specialized set of skills is extortionate in ratio to the level at which they teach, although I did learn a hell of a lot about all aspects of the music industry and engineering.

I firmly believe that they trying to produce peoples skills, but now they have become a global teaching school, the message has become lost, and to me they are now all about money and not about the art.

On the flip side, I got to record live bands in proper studios using some amazing equipment (like SSL and Neve desks), plus the electronic side of it got me a good working knowledge of Reason, Logic, Protools and outboard hardware too. I learned more about music theory, the mathematical side of sound, post production, live music and so much more over 2 years.

So my opinion is this: If you have the money and want to learn a wide range of skills to a lower-intermediate level, then get to a place such as SAE and sign up. BUT do so only after talking to people that have studied at the place you're looking at. Find out if they have a placement programme to go with your course and to what level their achievements are recognised at. Above all, don't expect to flow along with these kinds of courses. They take a lot of personal sacrifice and effort (towards the end of my course I was working in the studios Mon-Fri 7pm to Midnight and a full day at the weekend too all the while I was holding down a full time job and had a demanding Girlfriend! It was nearly the end of me!!).

Also, GET OUT THERE! If you want to pursue a career in music, then go and get contacts. Whore yourself out and make a nuisance of yourself. If, on the other hand, you're wanting to just improve you're DAW skills, then avoid the big courses and find something more specialized to what you're after.

For the most though, I'm self-taught with Reason and plunder forums like this valuable info and techniques. These days with the abundance of info available, I'm surprised the teaching schools exist still!

Good luck!

C

collective · Post by **collective** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:49 am

dont go to SAE, go to a real university and study audio engineering and sound design...

futures_untold · Post by **futures_untold** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:07 am

If I had to choose a course to take, I'd probably go for an electronics or physics course and specialise in sound engineering. At a push, I'd also do a recording engineering course, but imo that is less useful than understanding the fundemental concepts of signals and signal flow.

As mentioned previously, recording and craftsmanship can be self taught in ones spare time. Having access to professional tutors who know their shit is priceless!

connection · Post by **connection** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:34 am

futures_untold wrote:I'd also do a recording engineering course, but imo that is less useful than understanding the fundemental concepts of signals and signal flow.

As a recording engineer, one of the first things (and possibly THE most important things in studio engineering) you would have to learn is signal flow.

Without this knowledge you could never run a studio of a decent size without fumbling your way around.

Cabling, Routing, Bussing, Patch bays, DI boxes, outboard gear, etc. Without knowing what goes where and when would be a nightmare, hence why Recording Engineering courses ram this down your throat from the start!!

gravity · Post by **gravity** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:06 am

went to college and uni. uni was a waste of time tbh, you may as well get a job and surf the net in your spare time. the only good thing imo was the facilities. college was great, but not for electronic music, for actual recording and stuff.

the best thing about going to college or uni is you get to use the facilities that you wont normally get a chance to - like a proper mixing desk, a proper synthesizer, decent processors, quality microphones, a patchbay, etc. and you wont have to pay for them. you dont realise how valuable this is until you start getting to use gear for yourself, then you realise you can use it with little effort.

magnetron_sputtering · Post by **magnetron_sputtering** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:17 am

100% internet educated.

Mad_EP · Post by **Mad_EP** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:23 am

I got a music degree in cello performance, then followed it up with a year in audio engineering and digital media.

Both were expensive but completely worth it for me- not only from what I learned, but also having the time to learn it. Being able to spend 70-90 hours a week in a ridiculously kitted-out studio without having to juggle a job, etc is priceless in my opinion. Not to mention, the contacts you can make in those schools can come in handy as well.

Littlefoot · Post by **Littlefoot** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:33 am

i went,

learnt the bascis and played with gear I can't afford

everything else is learned from doing it in my spare time

akilles · Post by **akilles** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:04 pm

I studied ND Music Technology at college (no way was I going 6th form)
Have finished second year of BSc Music and Audio Technology, but the course is shit so now I'm going to study BA Music Production at ACM in september

akilles · Post by **akilles** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:05 pm

mad ep wrote:Both were expensive but completely worth it for me- not only from what I learned, but also having the time to learn it. Being able to spend 70-90 hours a week in a ridiculously kitted-out studio without having to juggle a job, etc is priceless in my opinion. Not to mention, the contacts you can make in those schools can come in handy as well.

The merit of university

karmacazee · Post by **karmacazee** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:08 pm

I'd love to learn how to fix my equipment/make new stuff/circuit bend. Anyone recommend some resources for musical electronic engineering?

How many of you went to audio engineering school?

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