Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio
This school offers several course packages, at least this was true in early 2000 when I attended...the initial 5 week course is a crash-course in many various facets of recording (including learning signal path in a mixing console, participating in real recording sessions, and working with pro-tools)...the cost then was a bit over $2000 which included living quarters for the 5 weeks. The downside:I lived in a small cabin designed to sleep 4 people (fortunately I only had to share the cabin with only one other roommate...you are sort of out in the boondocks (7 miles from a town) and how comfortable you are and what options for entertainment you have depends on your flexibility and/or on your access to transportation (from a roommate maybe?)...I was able to make the 250 mile drive to get to the school and my roommate (who was from New Mexico) benefited by my having a car...you are immersed in lectures and classes (the schedule is sort of unconventional) and it is a great way to get jump-started in recording...you are around other people who love recording as much as you' which is a neat experience...you just have to keep at it after you leave the school to really benefit, you really have to take responsibily for your learning and fill in the gaps (because you just can't become an expert in 5 weeks)...the school also offers other courses (which I didn't take) that (I believe) last from 1 to 3 weeks each that augment the intitial course and can be taken sequentially...you can probably find out more at Recordingworkshop.com and they will tell you how inviting the enviroment is (which is a stretch) and how much you will be taught (which is true, especially if you "go with it" or set your mind on learning and letting the distractions from the outside world slide for awhile)...I have questioned at times if it was worth it for me to go to the school (mostly because I wanted it to lead to a recording engineer job, which it has not)...I know that going to the school has improved in my own home recording...some the information sort of echoed in my mind and in time I used it to experiment and improve...I still (3 years later) have good memorys of that experience also...anyway you might want to check this school out.
