Recording Schools....

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PannyDeters

New member
I've been researching recording schools. There seems to be quite a few, but the one that seems the best to me is The Recording Workshop in Ohio.
Does anyone have any info or insight on this school? Better yet, has anyone on here ever attended?

Has anyone here ever attended any other type of recording school? I'd love to hear of some experiances, good and bad.

Thanks.
 
I took a year of recording engineering at Trebas here in Ottawa. Kind of a joke program, very expensive and not that worthwhile. The only good part was playing around in a decent studio. 10 years later I ended up taking a few years of electronics engineering . I found this gave me more insight then the 1 year wasted at Trebas.

I'm sure there are some good schools out there. Keep looking.
 
You know, long ago I looked into recording schools. Thought that would be a better way to go in learning my business. Looked around, found many that looked so cool. I think the cheapest one was a community college program. So tuition was whatever they were charging for credit hours, a bit of cash.

But the schools with the killer studios in them were very expensive, like 10k a year expensive, and the courses were 2 years. So I was looking at a 20k loan to pay back with my new Assistant to the Assitant audio editor that would pay part time at minimum wage..... :)

So after I narrowed down my search to a few schools, I called them and asked for a sheet showing what all of the grads of their program from the last five years were doing. They bragged so much about placing the students. After about a month, one school sent me something.

Out of 40 or so people, two of them actually had a job title that included "engineer" in it, and neither was a "first" engineer. Most of the others were working in music stores and record shops, or were reseptionists at a studio. Not what I would call very impressive placement!

For 20k my friend you could get off to a decent start with your own studio. You could spend two years reading books, this BBS, articles is trade publications and find out all the stuff you will learn in that school.

A mastering engineer in town here went to Full Sail. He is still paying that loan. His quote? "Geez Ed, I went to school for two years for this shit and I didn't learn one thing in school that helps me on the job. I had to "learn" to engineer when I got out".

Something to think about.

Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
 
Well...I see what you're saying. But here is the scoop as I know it...

For $3000 (that is tuition, fees, room, and $100 a week spending money) you get five weeks of training. Monday through Friday 8 hours a day. 3 hours of lecture, 5 hours of hands on in the studio in groups of 3 to 6.

They have 8 studios. One is a "real world" type of small studio, one is a audio for video production faciltiy, one is a mastering lab, a couple are larger more upscale studios, one is computer based, etc.

They have the mackie digital 8 bus, Pro Tools, Yamaha O2 or whatever, etc.

It sounds good. And if not, hey I got a five week vacation to play with some of the best gear in the world.

Or I could buy a Roland VS880 and burner and 1k worth of rack gear and mics.

Anyone else?
 
Tell you what man, for $2500 I will do all the same..... :)

5 hours of hands on is a rip. I spend that just tuning and micing drums on a somewhat serious session. But even on a quicky session, it takes at least 3-4 hours to get everything mic'ed, and a level check.

I spend at least that amount of time to do a somewhat decent mix of a tune.

What do you think you can learn in 5 hours? All the rest of the classes and lectures are shit you are going to forget, or is not applicable to actaully engineering. It sounds like a rip to me.

Ed
 
i went to the recording workshop in oh. and i liked it the instuctors are real cool and its a nice place, plus its the first school to ever offer just recording, no other courses, so theyve been around. now really all theyll show you is the basics, but in my case it was worth the money cause i didnt know anyone that knew anything about recording so i learned a hell of alot. so if thats your case id go for it.
good luck,
Jal
 
i went to the recording workshop in oh. and i liked it the instuctors are real cool and its a nice place, plus its the first school to ever offer just recording, no other courses, so theyve been around. now really all theyll show you is the basics, but in my case it was worth the money cause i didnt know anyone that knew anything about recording so i learned a hell of alot. so if thats your case id go for it.
good luck,
Jal
 
Here's what I'm thinking. I already a lot of basics. How much, I'm not sure. I know how a multitrack recorder works, how a mixer works, reverb, etc.

I get a little confused sometimes on effects loops but I think that's just do to the shitty tascam manual.

I've recorded a 3 piece band to four track that sounded decent for a punk rock, 3 hour recording with junk mics. But if you stuck me in front of a huge board with 3 ADATs and a rack full of gear, I'd just be guessing at what to do with a lot of it. This school would teach me the basics of that gear, I believe.

Plus, just having that rectangular piece of paper called a degree and the sentance "I went to the Recording Workshop in Ohio" would help get a job as a flunkee in a studio (in some cases) more than "I own a four track" would.

More thoughts anyone?

ps that's a total of 75 hours of lecture and 125 hours hands on.
 
I think Ed's right on this one. Don't waste your money on this place. Buy better gear and learn that way. Another way you can learn is to ask a local studio if you can intern for them. Best case scenario you get the gig and you help around the place. Worse case you don't, but nothing lost. You won't get any cash for it, but you can learn how to do things in the real world.
 
hey pan, you dont get a degree you get a certificate of completion, at least thats what they gave out when i was there. if u already have the basics then id buy like a 1604 mackie board and akai dr16. cause all those manuals will tell you how to use everything and its not to hard to under stand. good luck
 
Is it the paper qualification you're after, or the know-how? If the former is the case, then the school's obviously useful. If the latter applies, then the Sonusman's the person to listen to. You're going to learn in either case.

BTW, most of the people on this bbs are fond of the self-learning route because that's what gives them the joy. So, adjust for bias and take all comments with a grain of salt. :)
 
Okay;
Just my oppinion here....

I think that If you have the money to spend on a Recording school, you'd be better off taking several hundred dollars and booking a few hours in a large 24 track professional studio. Bring in a friend or two, and lay down some basic tracks (Guitar bass and drums)...dont try for perfection, just no big ugly mistakes. Then record a quick vocal and lead guitar part, keyboard etc... You could easily do a couple of songs quick and dirty.

Make a quick mix of this "demo" and then spend the rest of your life and money trying to duplicate the sound in your home 4 track studio!

Sincerely;

Dom Franco
 
Hey guys, thanks for the opinions.
No, the certificate isn't what I'm after.

It's like this, I can justify spending 3k that I DON'T have on school (2k student loan, and 1k loan from the recording school...), a hell of a lot easier than I can justify spending 2k on a VS-880 and cd burner.

The school has stuff that I will never have the opportunity to learn until I work my up from 4-track all the way to the (insert name of huge expensive studio).

It seems to me that the certification is a good step in that direction, just for the human factor. You can be a whiz at something and apply for a job to do it, but in many cases the guy who knows less but is certified will get the gig. Not always. But quite often. It's the human idiot factor.

I am not trying to justify going to school. You guys have brought up some really great points that is really swaying my thinking. I just wanna point out the benefits that I see.

In the end I think I'd rather have the VS880.

Time will tell.
 
I'm proud to say that I'm a 1990 graduate from TRW. It is expensive to spend that much money for tuition for such a short course. But, you do receive much personal attention from the instructors due to the small class sizes. They also pack a lot of information into each class and lab too. I knew the basics when I went too. I had been recording at home on a fostex 1/4" reel 8 track for a few years and had already recorded a couple of demo tapes in a local studio in the town where I lived.
I think I learned alot at TRW. Not just how to operate the equipment, but also how to set it up, customize it, and test and fix it ... plus acoustics, miking techniques, editing, audio for video/film, etc. They cover a lot of territory.
They also have a really good campus ... I think 8 studios. None were digital back then, but it looks like they've upgraded just about everything since.

If your goal is to learn on high-end gear to prepare for a career in the 'real' studios, then this might be a good move.
But, if your plan is to go to school to learn how to set up and operate a home studio, maybe you'd do just as well spending the cash on gear.

My personal goal was to get a job at a 'pro' place, but eventually wound up becoming having my own set up. I still think it was worth it for me to go there, though.

Ed's right on the other hand, if this was a full-year school with a $20k price tag, I'd avoid it. But this isn't $20k .. more like $4k.

I'd suggest at least going out there to tour the campus. I think that they let you join the orientation tour before every new class season. You might want to just check it out to see if you'd like it.

Good luck.


[This message has been edited by BigKahuna (edited 01-27-2000).]
 
If anyone is interested in REAL recording schools, as in degrees like BA and stuff, check out www.mtsu.edu and look under mass communication. It has a great department. And is a four year school that gets you a real education not just time to play with an O2R. This place has three studios, the boards in this place are over 250,000 a piece. One of them is by SSL. Yes, SSL. The best of the best. Anyway, they feed their grads right into the Nashville scene. The out of state tuition is less than most instate school here (indiana). Thats Middle Tenn State Univeristy. Check out their webpages. They are very good.

MIKE
 
This is all true. From a young kids point of view and through a lot of research i think it all depends on where you want to end up working. College is great and leaves you many outs, and dont forget the ever so useful internship or co-op employment. But a trade school will get you out on the job fast and it will save you time and money, the only drawback is that is a pretty specific area and i think it would be hard to find something to fall back on if stuff doesnt go well. To me i see college grads entering corperations. through job placement, maybe something like sony or an acoustic treatment company like auralex or overly doors. the other side the recording school grads would go right into the studios and that side of the field. I guess really the bottom line is where the person wants to be. Each has its positives and negatives, if only there was a medium :(
 
I think mike is totally right here. the more i think about it, a BA in music engineering is quite valuable to a job canidate who would want to work in this field. Doesnt it seem like a recording firm or production company would rather hire a college grad who has a degree in this field, is an excellent musician and has a backround in computers and electric engineering as well than a student from a recording school. Im not saying that recording schools dont produce awesome musicians and recording engineers because im sure they do, but we all know that the first key step in getting an excellent job is to market yourself the best way possible. never get a second chance to make a first impression as the saying goes, but it might be true. Obviously college is a long time lost, and a BIG investment. i will be honest with you all i am only a freshman in college and have little knowledge in recording but i decided that since i love this art enough i might as well get a well rounded backround not only in recording, but in music performance, and general engineering. Unfortunatly the loan for school will take over 10 years to pay but its all the price to pay for a great life experience and a good head start. I could be wrong here and i do understand that many of the top producers in the world didnt go to college and such but college is just another option. To me i feel that its essential to be a well trained musician in performance, and theory, and even music history to be an excellent engineer. The passion we all have for the art is mutual and there are so many ways to learn.


Some schools on the east coast i know of that offer BA's in music technology are Miami University, New Yory University, Lebanon Valley College in PA, Drexel University in Philly PA, and im sure there are many others. Ill add that all of these places will train the musician as well as the engineer so its a requirement to take an audition on your instrument.
I hope none of you knock me for being young and not deserving to have a say because in all actuality i really dont. I just want add another aspect to this critical and risky field and i hope i will be able to help as much as the experienced members here.

[This message has been edited by Skyline609 (edited 01-30-2000).]
 
I gotta say I disagree with you on the 4 year diploma route.
I'm sure the schools you mention are very good and have killer equipment.
This is only my opinion, but I think Audio Engineering is a very technical trade and doesn't require much more than a technical degree. Studios don't really require it's job applicants to have college educations. In fact, I don't think many would even talk to someone with no experience unless they wanted to work their way up from janitor to coffee-getter, to maybe second engineer, then after maybe a few years ... a chance to engineer real projects. I believe this is because of the competition in the job market. Most studios I've been in are not managed by the kind of people that would take a BA in engineering seriously. I don't think you could just walk in, show them your diploma and then get on with the gigs. They probably had to work their way up, so why shouldn't this new kid?
It actually comes down to the basic "4 years for a piece of paper" argument. I think 4 years is a long time to spend in school and it's better to get prepared in a working environment as soon as possible. Trade schools like TRW are perfect for this.
Plus, if you wanted to just shop around to bands and try to get started as an independent engineer, I don't think they would care if you had a diploma either.
But that's just my opinion.

[This message has been edited by BigKahuna (edited 01-30-2000).]
 
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