Audio Engineering Colleges Question

[Mea_Culpa89]

Hello guys!

The information in this site is truly invaluable. I have learned so much, cheers! I have also bought several books on mixing, and practiced all those things by mixing my bands' material.

BUT..

I am starting this thread to ask you about the Audio Engineering Colleges. I mean, i know that many great and famous audio engineers are self-taught, or that they perfected their skills by working on studios as assistants.
But what about college? Will it help me if i actually study abroad one of the few things that i truly LOVE?

Here in Greece, there are 2-3 music technology colleges, but they all fail to provide sufficient skills to the students, thus they fail to provide a proper JOB. I remember talking with a 2nd year student, who actually didn't know what a compressor is.

So, because i don't want to waste my time on local AE colleges in Greece, the main 2 questions that would really help me decide, are the following:

1) Are there any notable Universities/Colleges in YOUR country that are really worth the money and time spent to study? (no specific country prefered)

2) Would you say that they deserve my attention? I mean, i understand that personal effort is the most important thing, but can they give me a "plus", to work on music for a living? Or should i stick to "reading, mixing, and trying to work at my local studio to gain experience", something that i always read/hear again and again.

Thanx in advance,
Cheers

ps: sorry for my bad English

 

[ahjteam]

Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, but it's really hard to get in there.

 

[Let it burn...]

I did SAE and it's pretty cool. You learn all of the basics in the first year but the second year is a walk in the park and is more about the financial aspects of the audio industry.

 

[ze kink]

Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, but it's really hard to get in there.

Yeah, but one needs to remember that they focus on pretty different stuff; there's a lot of stuff like studying max/MSP, music physics, reading partiture, music theory etc. over the basic FOH, recording & mixing bands kind of stuff.

 

[egan.]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/368042-best-recording-school-us.html
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/526313-recording-college.html
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/off-topic-tavern/604511-recording-schools.html
Search.

 

[Mea_Culpa89]

Thanx for your replies! Sibelius Academy is REALLY hard to enter indeed, from what i saw at their site!

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/368042-best-recording-school-us.html
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/526313-recording-college.html
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/off-topic-tavern/604511-recording-schools.html
Search.

Cheers man, i will read them for sure!

Edit: there are indeed countless topics on this that really cover my initial question, if i want to ask something, i will post here again soon, cheers

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

Money down the drain

 

[crillemannen]

Money down the drain

+1

I really suggest you contact a studio nearby your home town and ask if you can assist them in anyway. You learn way more to just sit and watch an experience engineer then going to school.

Take me for an example. I simply called studio fredman and asked if they where willing to accept me to be an intern and they did (eventually hehe). I learned so much, although i didnt do much but jus to sit and watch them in action did help me allot.

good luck to ya' / Christian

 

[jval]

huge waste of time and money. you'll learn more recording local bands for food money for a year than you will at a school. plus any technical knowledge you need is on the internet anyways. take that $20-60k and put it towards gear... IMO and observation, 'recording schools' just put you 10 steps behind everyone else.

 

[Let it burn...]

I have to disagree on the wasted money. I was recording bands for over 2 years before I went to SAE and I was on here for a while and it was a real eye-opener. You learn all the stuff you need to know + more (like acoustics, synthesis, sampling, post production, video) and you have a chance to work in studio's and with consoles that you may never see again.

+ studio's are way more open to interns who have done a recording education of some kind. True story.

 

[greyskull]

dont bother.

 

[coreysMonster]

Now I don't have much experience in this, but I imagine it's alot like the design industry.
If you want to work in that field, you don't have to study, and nobody really cares if you did, they care about what you're capable of.
Schools can give you knowledge that you can also teach yourself, but it may teach you quicker than if you were to learn on your own.
On the other hand, work experience is invaluable, and is something no school will ever be able to replace. Also, having a degree of some kind is never wrong, and simple HAVING a degree can make your life easier at times (for instance, here in germany, you're entitled to a much better government financial aid if you have a degree).

Again, I know this isn't about audio engineering, but you might want to have a read through this post from a graphic design forum, as I believe alot of the same things apply to audio engineering:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=372592