Recording College!

check our ARTI in Orlando Florida

I was also looking into FullSail, but heard a ton of bad things about their recording program. ARTI has like an 86% job finding or something.

ARTI is just for recording nothing else, its like 1/4 the price of FullSail (i think its like 16000?) and you can get the program done in 11 months. the classes are no more that 6 people, so its basically 1 on 1...unlimited lab time...and at the end u get a certification in protools and logic.

im 17, and went last year just to see if it was worth considering going to after college, and i thought the place was great...and more affordable haha
 
i graduated from the Irish Rock School in Balleyfermot (yup its actually called rock school) and i loved the thing so dam much - its a HND 2 years in popular music and production... not really the recording end... more the getting famous end, record contracts, production of large gigs and festivals, song writing, music, harmony and arrangement stuff - best course ever!

i'd recommend any serious irish musician (or foreigner) to do it and you better be good - there are only 42 places in the whole country and auditions take weeks to get through

The access to the studio's and equipment we had was insane - if you guys only seen our pro tools room your balls would literally melt onto the floor and the recording room is about 50 ft high and about 100 ft squared and it sounds like your literally standing in a wardrobe - its such a dead room - amazing sound for recording

again best course i ever done - so look into other courses, not just recording - the music industry is a very large industry
 
I'm just gonna nutshell my prior rants for you.

Those who gain something from recording schools are commonly those who don't have the required incentive to learn in the real world, and consequently are unable to pull off full time audio as a sole profession. Signing up to one of those courses is almost like signing your own career death warrant.

I went to one of these schools over here to satisfy that neurotic need my parents, like many others, had for their child to get a 'degree'. I have not once in my 5 years of audio work been asked, nor required to show that degree, nor has it helped me in my career or life in any way, shape or form whatsoever. It DID however cost me enough money to buy a HD3 rig that I could be using today and spending less of my energy bitching about how much Steinberg and every other DAW maker out there blows chunks out their peeholes.

Happy huntin.
 
Ermz said:
I'm just gonna nutshell my prior rants for you.

Those who gain something from recording schools are commonly those who don't have the required incentive to learn in the real world, and consequently are unable to pull off full time audio as a sole profession. Signing up to one of those courses is almost like signing your own career death warrant.

I went to one of these schools over here to satisfy that neurotic need my parents, like many others, had for their child to get a 'degree'. I have not once in my 5 years of audio work been asked, nor required to show that degree, nor has it helped me in my career or life in any way, shape or form whatsoever. It DID however cost me enough money to buy a HD3 rig that I could be using today and spending less of my energy bitching about how much Steinberg and every other DAW maker out there blows chunks out their peeholes.

Happy huntin.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I completely disagree with you, especially the '' Signing up to one of those courses is almost like signing your own career death warrant.'', that comment was really haughty. I think the problem with your statement is that you're basing this only on your experience. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you heard 142 other people saying their experience was shitty too, but everyone I heard who took the class didn't regret and learned a ton.

Looks like you went to the wrong school.

Anyway, it's just another stupid debate like Mac Vs PC.
 
i'd have to jump in and agree with those who said it's generally just NOT worth it to pay for a school like full sail

i went to school for recording arts for a little while, but it was at a community college in CA...classes were 3 units each at $27/unit, so you're looking at about $70 per semester for 6 hours class time and as much studio time you could squeeze in each week. the studio is equipped with some great gear...neumann, telefunken, neve, focusrite, blah blah blah, and is taught by a great teacher, who told us a very telling story...

when they 1st started the program there, one of their students went off to school at the recording workshop in LA, which is a lot like CRAS in AZ and a lot of these other schools where you pay tens of thousands of dollars to be submersed in tons of gear and classes for about 9 months, and then you get a piece of paper at the end stating that you rule.

anyways, dude finishes up the program and gets an internship at a pro studio in LA. after his internship, he was given a job as the assistant engineer. as of the time i met the guy a couple years ago, he had been credited on several platinum albums and had also received 2 grammys, and was making $10/hr.

yup, that's right...the guy sitting behind the glass for people like rod stewart makes about as much as a gas station attendant. while i'm sure it's a fun and rewarding job, it also isn't enough to pay his rent by himself, or to pay off his sizable student loans. at the same time, there's a number of people on this forum alone who make considerably more than that doing this work, and with no degree to speak of. people don't care about degrees with this job, they care about results.

that said, i would recommend getting a degree in something related that's going to give you a strong background in the larger job market as a whole, and then take out student loans to buy gear with while you're at it :Smokin:
 
opeth57 said:
Sorry, but I completely disagree with you, especially the '' Signing up to one of those courses is almost like signing your own career death warrant.'', that comment was really haughty. I think the problem with your statement is that you're basing this only on your experience. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you heard 142 other people saying their experience was shitty too, but everyone I heard who took the class didn't regret and learned a ton.

Looks like you went to the wrong school.

Anyway, it's just another stupid debate like Mac Vs PC.
Click to expand...

To be honest I've never seen it reach the point of a debate. It's always been a one-sided slamming match where everyone that has some sort of credibility and/or professional career in audio engineering discounts the value of these courses almost entirely. Certainly I've yet to have a studio owner, producer or band ask to see my Audio Engineering Degree :lol:

The general consensus is that these can teach you what you can learn yourself in the real world, taking a lot more of your time, and costing a lot more of your money.

To be frank this is the same general statement I've heard from nearly every single graduate of one of these courses here in Melbourne. I've no doubt that there are better audio schools abroad, however I also have no doubt that the insular and 'guarded' environment within them in no way approximates the sort of boots you'll be taking in the ass working out in the world. Which is the irony in all this. To get what you need from these courses you need to supplement your experience by interning or assisting in the real world. If you need to do that then... why in the hell would you want to go to the course in the first place?

The reason is that as studios are shutting down, nobody is taking interns. So these scum-sucking assholes capitalize on selling a dream. They would be lucky if 10% of the graduates in their classes go on to having full time careers in the audio industry. The rest either turn into hobbyists, or move on to 'real jobs'.

Sometimes you're lucky to find a great lecturer at one of these places that is very grounded in how things work. They are usually the first to tell you to GTFO.
 
Ermz said:
The reason is that as studios are shutting down, nobody is taking interns. So these scum-sucking assholes capitalize on selling a dream. They would be lucky if 10% of the graduates in their classes go on to having full time careers in the audio industry. The rest either turn into hobbyists, or move on to 'real jobs'.
Click to expand...

As far as people becoming hobbyists or moving onto real jobs, I think that may be true for the people who just went to college to get a degree and thought it might be cool to learn about audio but could give two shits about it.
 
Ermz said:
To be honest I've never seen it reach the point of a debate. It's always been a one-sided slamming match where everyone that has some sort of credibility and/or professional career in audio engineering discounts the value of these courses almost entirely. Certainly I've yet to have a studio owner, producer or band ask to see my Audio Engineering Degree :lol:

The general consensus is that these can teach you what you can learn yourself in the real world, taking a lot more of your time, and costing a lot more of your money.

To be frank this is the same general statement I've heard from nearly every single graduate of one of these courses here in Melbourne. I've no doubt that there are better audio schools abroad, however I also have no doubt that the insular and 'guarded' environment within them in no way approximates the sort of boots you'll be taking in the ass working out in the world. Which is the irony in all this. To get what you need from these courses you need to supplement your experience by interning or assisting in the real world. If you need to do that then... why in the hell would you want to go to the course in the first place?

The reason is that as studios are shutting down, nobody is taking interns. So these scum-sucking assholes capitalize on selling a dream. They would be lucky if 10% of the graduates in their classes go on to having full time careers in the audio industry. The rest either turn into hobbyists, or move on to 'real jobs'.

Sometimes you're lucky to find a great lecturer at one of these places that is very grounded in how things work. They are usually the first to tell you to GTFO.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think we just misunderstood each other. The main reason why I think it is greatly valuable isn't the classes, it's because we can rent one of the 4 studios in the school anytime we want, for free. Plus, the audio engineering department is located in the music department, so there is a ton of band looking for someone to record them. There is also a ton of quality mics to test/use. Another thing I like is the shootouts we do each week. I heard a shootout between the different types of dithering, differents converters, preamps, etc. We also have a business class where we learn how to write a contract, which contract we shouldn't sign, etc. Next semester we will also be given all the tracks for one song each week ( which I'll probably post here if my teacher agrees).

And it costs only 250$ for a year. I don't know how much it costs in other places, although it seems a lot higher than here. It costs 15, 000 at some other places in quebec, and at this price I wouldn't do it and buy gear and record people instead. So finally maybe its just the price difference that makes the difference between our opinions.
 
mick thompson said:
i graduated from the Irish Rock School in Balleyfermot (yup its actually called rock school) and i loved the thing so dam much - its a HND 2 years in popular music and production... not really the recording end... more the getting famous end, record contracts, production of large gigs and festivals, song writing, music, harmony and arrangement stuff - best course ever!

i'd recommend any serious irish musician (or foreigner) to do it and you better be good - there are only 42 places in the whole country and auditions take weeks to get through

The access to the studio's and equipment we had was insane - if you guys only seen our pro tools room your balls would literally melt onto the floor and the recording room is about 50 ft high and about 100 ft squared and it sounds like your literally standing in a wardrobe - its such a dead room - amazing sound for recording

again best course i ever done - so look into other courses, not just recording - the music industry is a very large industry
Click to expand...

lol HND lol.

I'm doing a HND in "sound production", so far in second year and no one knows how to mic up an amp yet. LOL.

Thank fuck for the Sneap forum.
 
Graduating from Berklee this semester with a degree in Music Production and Engineering. I would recommend it if you can afford it, but not if you have to go into debt. Great for making contacts in the industry, filling out holes in your knowledge and diversifying your experience.
 
Personally, I think it is a total waste of money if you go to school to be an audio engineer. Here's why.

I started out interning at a local venue. Dude taught me to run lights first, then MONS, then FOH. I hung around for a few years, didn't get paid diddle shit for a long, long time. He decided he wanted to leave and go on tour, and left me the FOH gig.

After doing that for 3 years I decided I wanted to get into studio stuff. Now I use my gig and promote my studio to every band that walks in my venue.

On the other hand, I know 2 people that went to Full Sail, and they best they could do with that was to become stagehands at a local venue. What a waste. I know another guy that did a 4 year audio engineering degree. He works at a grocery store, records local bands in his basement with an Mbox, and his production sounds like dogshit.

I love running into touring engineers that went to Full Sail and they expect every venue out there to have a Midas console... "Oh, you guys don't have an XL4? This console is a piece of shit, I don't even want to work on it" Guess what, not every venue in the country has a goddamn Midas.

I also run into people that went to this place in Ohio called The Recording Workshop that want to intern for me. I throw a cable on the ground and ask them to wrap it. They can't do it, and I think that says a lot.

If you want to be successful as an engineer, train your ear, learn the tools of the trade, and make it happen. You are what you make yourself in this industry. No one is going to hand you a goddamn thing.
 
arv_foh said:
Personally, I think it is a total waste of money if you go to school to be an audio engineer.
Click to expand...

I disagree with most of what you say. If you want to go for more in-depth stuff than just recording and mixing in stereo, say like acoustic measurements, movie post-production, foley, location recording, tv broadcasting, surround sound, psychoacoustics, professional level mastering etc, I think school is a very viable option to get you started. Not necessary, but viable.

Let me take an example that I know very well: me. I started as an intern in a venue in 2000 and I've been a live engineer since in several different venues including a few larger ones (400 and 700 capacity) and in one of the largest passenger cruisers in the world and been on several tours and now I'm having atleast 2 tours coming up in the next 12 months and I have mixed about 1200 gigs in my life.

But still, I'm currently in the Pirkanmaa University to further educate myself because I just thought I did hit a brickwall in the "learning by myself" thing. Same happened with my guitarplaying. After two years of random doodling by myself I just had to go to guitar lessons to learn more, because I'm one of those guys who need the pointing finger to tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I could do differently to get better endresult. I think that is the most valuable part of schools along with the contacts that you make there with the professionals of the future. It is the personal motivation and level of education that will affect have you learned anything in the end.

And as for the cable wrapping, I know several different methods for it but I got taught them in the livebusiness, they don't teach it at the schools. The schools usually concentrate mainly on the recording aspect of audio engineering, not live, unless it is the main curriculum. They do/might scratch the surface, but mostly they are about working in the studio.


edit: oh yeah, and being in the university in Finland doesn't cost me anything. No tuition fees or anything. Suck on that.
 
monolithsound said:
If you were paying $20-30,000 a year, you might agree.
Click to expand...

It's true. If I was living in the US, I'd try to get hired to a studio as a general slave/cable wrapper/coffee maker/whatever, and then try to learn the stuff by watching them do it, and experiment there if they'd allow me.

However, now I don't have to pay anything at all for going to school and learning all kinds of useful stuff from music theory, playing guitar, recording, mixing to music physics and so on. BTW, it seems crazy how many in this thread have mentioned that people who've studied for years don't know how to do anything yet. We've done tons of mic shootouts, drum recording etc. in just this one month I've been there. And yes, we've even been through different methods of wrapping cables :lol:
 
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