OT: Choosing a Recording School

there was a recent thread about choosing a recording school, and someone had a great idea there. Instead of spending $12k on a school, find an engineer or mixer you admire (read the CD sleeves of bands you like) and offer them $1000/month to let you shadow them and ask questions. take 6 months to get your feet wet. Spend the other $6k on your studio setup (you can build a decent LE studio for less than that) and learn your gear. Get your chops in ProTools up and learn signal flow/routing, develop your ear, attempt to record and/or mix your own projects--or someone else's, if they'll let you. You'll maek the connections you need to survive in the industry, and get a quick introduction to the gear all at once. The connections are really what make it worth it; if you don't know anyone, you might as well just go home.

I agree w/ Mr. Bitchly (I couldn't resist... ). Drop the money on gear (don't forget that your choice of residence- unless you've got a lot of money, or own your own home- is important now- acoustics, shape and LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION !!). Buy some good books, read & understand them. When you make mistakes, analyze and digest. These will be your best teachers, in addition to (and probably most important) other people. Listen & learn. If you don't play a musical instrument, make a resolution to take some lessons or classes (theory, composition, etc.). Record anything and everythimg (at first...). If you feel that you must go to school, which I can understand, try to find a four-year school w/ a good audio/communications program and get your Bachelors. If you can hack it, do a double-major. Oh yeah, get that internship, too. If you can't scrub a toilet, you probably can't clean/align the tape machine (if there is one)... ...oh yeah, and go for it...be prepared to take your vitamins and lose some sleep...

What do you want out of it all? What's your big picture? Run your own studio? Research. Lots of research. Don't be naive to the fact that many pro AE are low on work & some big studios have closed their doors. It's not exactly a smooth road to victory. Unless it's just for personal growth. Interning for as many AE's as you can stand (you'll know more about maintaing a Studer than you'd ever care to) and a formal education would ceratinly benefit to that end. RIT (form the Musicians Institute) offers smaller programs and classes. Either way, good luck to ya. As a side note to the guy that said a degree from a no name college (I believe Jerkwater U was used) won't mean a damn thing. That doesn't always apply, especially if you wish to run a business. A 'brand name college' doesn't mean you learned a damn thing. It just means you have a heavy student loan to pay back.

The schools are the biggest scam out there. Thousands of dollars Thousands of students graduating Thousands of engineers without jobs Thousands of people stealing music The business is changing and with the exception of some big studios that won't take a free intern unless they have a degree you would be wise to take the above suggestions. I started as a home recordist and worked for free a a few studios until I could show them I knew how to bring in people and make money. Now I work in my home studio and a couple in town. I started doing anything I could. Projects for local schools, A local compilation CD, On Hold music. I even made some radio commercials for some companies that did not request them just to get in the door. School may work for some but most of the interns I see from FullSail and others know far less than guys that have been home recording for a couple years.

I have to disagree that recording schools are a complete scam. It really depends on what you are trying to get out of them. For someone coming out of high school who wants to get going fast, I think they are a great idea. What further education give you is enhanced credibility in the eyes of potential employers. If used properly, a recording school can help you make contacts and network in the industry -- the real way to get jobs. A recording school can set you on a path to success (if you'll pay your dues) that you aren't going to have access to in your bedroom studio. That's not to say that there isn't value in doing that kind of thing -- I agree that you can learn more from your own mistakes than anything else. But a lot of these schools can help you learn how to overcome them quickly and maybe not make them at all. One thought: perhaps you are not as mature, responsible or able to structure and manage your time as another. If you are willing to work at it, these schools can provide some guideance and boundaries that will help you grow into the type of professional you want to become. Of course, in the end, if you don't have the skills to back up your school learning, then the degree is, in essense, worthless. But if you are able to afford it, schools like Full Sail and The Recording Workshop in LA provide great exposure to the music industry -- they give you practice time on high-end equipment, hook you up with primo internships and give you a foundation that could otherwise take years to build.

Hello, all. I just have to chime in here. First off, I agree totally with all the posts here. I recently interviewed 10 applicants for ADR positions here in Dallas /Ft Worth, several of which were grads from Full Sail or Dallas Sound Lab and here's what I found 1. It seemed they had fun working on the giant SSL boards, but when it was all said and done, they had a very limited understanding of signal chain and especially gain structure. (I told a couple of them to try running some sort of live sound for a year or so to get a handle on this) 2. Thier final projects were usually group efforts with 3 to 5 students so none, I repeat none of them had a demo demonstrating WORK HE or SHE DID ALONE!!! (not to mention the recurring stories of projects being wiped off of hard drives, the unwillingness of professors to help students gain access to thier projects etc...) 3. After spending $3k to $8k on a school, they graduated with no money, no job and no gear to be creating on. The guys I hired say they wish they had spent the money on gear and learned by experience. Do not get me wrong, I have never attended an audio school of any sort, and I don't want to bad-mouth these places, but after a coulpe years of running live sound and recording with a Mackie16 channel, an ADAT and a NanoVerb, if you pay attention, ask lots of questions of pros (clinics, seminars) and lots of manual reading (my guys had never seen the full Pro Tools manual) you could learn quite a bit. Just my $.02 Peace Esteban