Hello, I am new to this forum and a prospective studio engineer, I already have an 8 track digital recorded from boss (900 CD) and one condenser, and acess to a POD guitar processor.

I am here to ask the time old question, are recording schools worth it? I know the standard anwser, you get what you put into them. But I am trying to explore that question at a different angle.

So, where are you in your audio engineering career? Are you an asst. Engineer, prodcuer/studio owner? Do you work for an indie record label?

And how did you get to where you are? Did you go to a recording school? Or was it just an internship that got you into recording and you built your career on experience from there?

Thanks

You should go to one and check it out, and ask them there. Talk with one of the tutors, and they will advise you.

Recording schools are great if you're willing to put into it more than they teach you. what i mean by that is that they will go around and teach you the basics, theory and practice, but if you think that after a day in class, you're gonna go home and sit on your ass until tomorrows class, than you might as well give me the money you want to put into that schooling...

it takes a lot of sacrifice on your part, you have to be willing to go beyond the curriculum and do your own research, on your own time, and then some. find out how the theory your learned applies to such and such equipment, and distinguish all sorts of equipment from one another. you have to be able to sit at the library for example (or in the studio) and read about (or listen how) the 7 characteristics of a waveform intereact, until you get it down in your brain like you've never gotten something to stick in that brain of yours. u know what i mean!?...

now, the equipment you have is nothing until you know something about the process of recording, you could've had a freakin Neumann mic in your hands right now, if you dont know how to use it to perfection, its not worth shit... understand...

Me, if i could talk about where i'm at, well, i opened a small recording studio under the wing of a bigger one last fall, and it lasted until february when we got broken into. i lost my computer, 2 flat screens, 3 pairs of monitors (yorkville, event PS6, yamaha ns10) a yamaha 01v mixer, a mackie 1402 mixer, an mpc2000xl, but most importantly, time... one lesson i learned is that you're never too safe.

there's stuff they didnt teach me in school, like how to protect my investments, insurance, how not to associate with certain people. these are just life experiences, shit that will or wont happen depending on how well or how badly you treat yourself...

Anyways, what i say is walk your own path because no one can tell you how well you will succeed except for yourself. if you dont understand that, than there's no need for you to even consider a job in the music industry...

good luck

Hi, This depends on the person and the level of their existing knowledge.

I now teach audio engineering and all I can say is that I have spent one day teaching someone that knew nothing and had struggled for months almost giving up. But after one day they were competently recorording takes and doing some basic mixes. I have spent a day with someone who could record but could never get great sounding mixes, after a day they were undersatnding exactly why they were not getting great mixes and what they were able to do was already grossly improved. I cant give someone all of my experiance, they have to train their own ears and that really takes the most time. But I can give someone enough of my experiance to make a significant differance. I trained further with Audiocourses, got my C&G 1820, made a lot of differance to me, icing on the cake, I have definately improved no end as an engineer since then. Cheers Chris

I say training is worth a great deal. If someone has a lot of skill and knowledge and some of that can be passed on to you then go for it. Else stay mixing in your bedroom for years wondering how you can get your mixes to sound like the pro's. Anyone ever been down that road

Cheers,

Jules

yes, i agree, everyone is different, and that has been stated millions of times... and thats furthermore a better reason to get a personal view on this.

the question shouldnt be "do i need schooling?", but rather, "is the schooling going to help my situation?"

the truth is, schooling has never been bad, in whatever the domain, so why not try it. unless you know it all and feel there's not much more that schools can teach you, than spend your money on quality equipment (at the prices these schools ask, you could damn get a VERY WELL equiped little studio)

anyways, give it a go, attend a couple of information sessions, and see if it suits your needs. thats my last word on this...

peace

Quote:

unless you know it all and feel there's not much more that schools can teach you

My view is that the subject is too vast. You can never know it all, and there is always something more that you can learn. Working with others can teach you a great deal, it's amazing how different engineers have found different techniques sometimes even to do the same thing but each method has it's merits.

Quote:

spend your money on quality equipment (at the prices these schools ask, you could damn get a VERY WELL equiped little studio)

Spend the money on schooling or equipment, that's a good angle, and a tough call I spent lot's on equipment and learnt mainly on my own. I was getting on pretty well but my mixes never sounded really proffessional.
I took the course with Audio courses and Chris was able to fill in the missing pieces of the jig saw. Now everything was in place and I moved forward much faster with my skill and technique. The point here is that I already had a good studio and some good skills I had learnt by myself. By doing the course with Audiocourses by distance learning I was able to learn extra essential pro knowledge in an affordable way, and achieved a City & Guilds qualification with two distinctions in the process.
Here I feel I got equipment and schooling

Check out www.audiocourses.com

Jules.

If anything, think of the contacts you can make through the school. Maybe you have a good grasp on recording, but don't know how to get into the biz. Well, if you want to get together with other pros and aspiring pros while learnig some new tricks, recording school is probably a good start. Cause in the music industry, a good part of your career is based on who you know.

As stated already, definitely be ready to put time into this stuff on your own outside of the classrooms. Within the first few days I was in school, I was already applying the knowledge to my own work. And that made learning much easier.

I actually went through audio engineering schooling. I took the class at a work studio, through working professionals and it was extremely helpful for me. Blaak is very correct in saying that it really all comes back to how hard you work. Schooling is a great way to hit the basics and build a sound base upon which to expand, but as is true of anything surrounding and art, it comes with time, experimentation and practice. I would recommend schooling, simply because it accelerates your basic knowledge, but I would also recommend acquiring equipment and applying what you learn, and then expanding. Unlike a math course where 2+2=4 no matter how you look at it, there is so much room to expand and experiment when recording. Bottomline, school is great, but experience is always the key. When combined, they are a great thing.

wow diffirent points of view

now im convince to get a training in recording. but still undecided where to go. ive post in other thread to help me decide which school to go ur advice would be very helpful to me

i havent gone to a recording training, most of what i do is simply base on my own experience. the only book that i have is microphone technique which is i found very foundational for newby like me. i wish to have someone to mentor and learn the art of recordings

tnx to this forum, its very informative

uncle_jerr wrote:

If anything, think of the contacts you can make through the school. Maybe you have a good grasp on recording, but don't know how to get into the biz. Well, if you want to get together with other pros and aspiring pros while learnig some new tricks, recording school is probably a good start. Cause in the music industry, a good part of your career is based on who you know. As stated already, definitely be ready to put time into this stuff on your own outside of the classrooms. Within the first few days I was in school, I was already applying the knowledge to my own work. And that made learning much easier.

bingo, the contacts you make could prove invaluable. in my case, my school offers 200 hours of actual recording time and we can book studio time for free throughtout the 8 months of the program. the real bonus is that alumini get to record for half price for life-after graduating:)