importance of a formal education?

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eeb

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Sorry if this is the wrong board for this.


How many of you have had a formal education in the art of recording?
I'm thinking about going to school but unsure where to look.. or what to look for in a program. I have to stay in ontario for sure because I'll be basically renting an apartment where ever I go and keeping my house here. (my city has 0 options in this field)


before I start figuring out finances (it's looking like it'll be VERY expensive. tuition + rent + morgage and other bills) but I feel like I've come pretty close to as far as I can by myself and strive to break out of the "amateur/home" status.. I can't picture doing anything else..

I've also heard of some home courses but that seems really sketchy.. i can't see that helping any more then what i'm doing now. maybe i'm wrong.


so who has any experience with schooling in recording? I'd love to hear your stories and what you think.
 
If your gonna go and spend big money to get a degree why wouldn't you get into something that will virtually guarantee you make some good money?

For example right now (and yes there are up times and down times, that's business) many companies (like the one I work for) are having a hard time finding electrical and mechanical engineering talent. Even with all the off-shoring going on there are still jobs, and good paying one's.
 
I'd say forget the home course on this one. It may be OK for self education, but for approaching a studio for a job it's probably pretty worthless. It would be great if AEs were in demand like EEs, and you could get out of school and be snatched up at $75K starting salary. I'm sure you know it's not that way, and all that money for recording school will get you a spot in line to be a gopher intern. But hey, dreams are made for chasing, so if you can afford to chase yours, go for it. Just go into it knowing that it's a tough row to hoe.
 
yeah it would be amazing to just land an amazing job.. although they do exist i'm just obsessed with music.. playing, giging, recording... I couldn't imagine doing anything else (i'm a graphic artist too which i love but it's not the same thing at all) I guess all i'm asking is if you're 100% dedicated to doing this is school a good choice or is there enough info out there that you can be relatively successful on your own..
 
eeb said:
I guess all i'm asking is if you're 100% dedicated to doing this is school a good choice or is there enough info out there that you can be relatively successful on your own..
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If by "on your own" you mean running your own project studio for money, the short answer is, yes, there's enough information "out there". There are a good dozen books available at your local book store written by experienced engineers that'll cover all the material covered in a school.

The longer answer is, that it's entirely up to your talents and your resources.

A good school can help in placing you in a job somewhere else, but it won't give you much advantage as a proprieter of your own business (though business school might not be a bad idea ;) ). It's not like have a piece of paper from SAE will be the kind of cache that'll roll in the clients.

However, some people learn best in a school environment, while others learn best in a more DIY manor. Only you can judge that. If you're better in a teacher/student environment than a teach yourself environment, then school is probably worth it. If you're ready to teach yourself and good at that kind of thing, then you can do it.

But on your own, you gotta be ready to spend some cash - not only on gear and books and such, but even more importantly, to be able to live on for a signifigant amount of time until you can build up your business. This is a tough business, and you won't be making much money (if any) right out of the gate. You'll have to build a reputation and build contacts, and that takes a while. While that's happening, you'll still have to eat.

That last point is most importaint, IMHO. You can't just go out an buy a bunch of gear, hang out your shingle in the yellow pages and on the net, and expect the phone to start ringing. Most of the money to be made in this business is made through reputation and networking. Again, schools are good at getting you in the door someplace, which is half the battle when working for someone else. But going it on your own, you'd be best to have some kind of good ol boy network already set up that you can tap for some initial business. That'll allow you to build your repuation (assuming you're actually any good at it, of course ;) ) as you get some at least initial cash flow going.

With school, expect to work hard at school in order to get placement with an employer for somewhat decent money. Without school, expect to work three times that hard to teach your self (including learning the difference between good info and Internet noise) and boostrap your own business slowly with the hopes of eventually making enough money to make an actual living off of.

G.
 
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