Aspiring Audio Engineer/Producer needs *sound* advice

[antiochband]

Hello all, and sorry about the bad pun!

 

My name's Chris, I'm 18 and I'm a guitarist/bassist/vocalist here in Norcal. I am currently in my last semester at Solano community college, getting my associate's in Liberal Arts. I want to break into Audio Engineering/SOund Production. I've had this discussion severaln times with my parents, but I thought I'd pose the question to the real studio guys: should I continue my formal education and find a good AE program, or go out into the real world and begin working for a studio? (even doing menial work)

 

I am thinking about moving to the Sacramento area, and I have researched about two dozen separate music studios in the area.

 

Any helpful advice would be appreciated!

 

Chris L

[UstadKhanAli]

should I continue my formal education and find a good AE program, or go out into the real world and begin working for a studio? (even doing menial work)

 

Ideally, BOTH!!!

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

There's nothing like real-life experience, obviously, but there are so many aspects to recording engineering that I do feel that an education is quite beneficial. Also, you can make a lot of networking contacts at a school, which is invaluable.

 

So I would say learn as much as you can both ways, be humble but confident (in other words, learn a lot but don't be an arrogant know-it-all prick just because someone is doing something different from what you think is right or what you learned in school), be a sponge and learn everything, learn how to get along really well with people (I probably don't need to tell you why this is so important! ), and stay committed and focused to what you want to do.

 

And one last plea from me: pop music can be so much than it usually is. Please don't become a cookie-cutter engineer. Whenever you can, create pop music that is catchy, emotionally potent, and intelligent. And being insanely groovy never hurt anyone...

[motord]

I'll tell you, as someone who attended a one-year audio course before trying to break into engineering in New York City, the classes certainly are helpful. But don't expect the degree or certificate you receive to land you any jobs. In fact, I think some frown upon going to school for engineering.

 

I'd recommend trying to get in with a studio before you spend any of the money on school. Nothing you'll learn in school will prepare you for how it really works - chasing down people to pay you for work you completed months ago, not having health insurance, working whatever hours are necessary, not knowing when you may be paid again, despite the rent being late. And if you want to eat, you need to be willing to chase the work. You have to be 100% committed...

 

Which is why I no longer work in the field. Not to say you won't succeed, just make damn sure it's really what you want.

[Lee Knight]

1. Buy some basic recording gear and start recording bands.

2. Take classes at a good school.

3. Take a gig as an intern working for free at a studio while you're young enough.

 

Do all three if you can. And give up sleep for a couple of years.

[antiochband]

 

1. Buy some basic recording gear and start recording bands. 2. Take classes at a good school. 3. Take a gig as an intern working for free at a studio while you're young enough. Do all three if you can. And give up sleep for a couple of years.

 

 

Well, I've already given up sleep.

 

 

One more monkey wrench for my particular situation: I'm in Cali and I get free tuition at any UC, community college, or CSU because of my parents' military veteran status.

 

The problem is, the only Bachelor's AE programs for a CSU here are in Chico and Los Angeles. Both are pretty far from my band, family, contacts, etc.

 

Thanks for the input, guys!

[Lee Flier]

If you want to continue your education, you don't necessarily have to get an AE degree. You might even be better off with a music degree. We need more engineers who actually know something about music. In all seriousness, too many engineers nowadays gear recording sessions more toward making their job easier and giving them more "control" over the result, as opposed to what will be the most musical and the best performance. Like Ken said, there are a zillion "cookie cutter" engineers out there nowadays, you want to have skills that stand out from the pack somehow or other. It is a VERY tough business anymore, few people are getting paid what they're worth or what they used to be able to make 15+ years ago.

 

For actually learning AE, internship is your best bet. Most studios could really care less whether you have a degree and some even laugh at kids who've come out of "recording schools." A lot of the schools teach the wrong things and/or their programs are out of date. Internship in a real world studio will get you real world experience and get you around people who are actually out there recording people for money. And it costs you an awful lot less than a "formal" education.

 

Another area you might look into, especially if your local schools offer programs, is video post production. A lot of AE's are making decent money working at post houses whereas they wouldn't get paid jack for doing music.

[russrags]

 

Nothing you'll learn in school will prepare you for how it really works - chasing down people to pay you for work you completed months ago, not having health insurance, working whatever hours are necessary, not knowing when you may be paid again, despite the rent being late. And if you want to eat, you need to be willing to chase the work. You have to be 100% committed...

 

 

This is a fact of life and something you will have to learn to over come ... then after you've been doing it several years, you will have to compeat with others younger than you who are willing to do it for FREE.

 

I've been doing this for 25 years and that's all I've done for the past 25 years and all of the above rarely affects me ... except the 100% commited part.

 

All in all ... pretty good advise guys.

 

Good luck,

 

Russ

Nashville

[Super 8]

Take whatever work you can get, do as much recording as you can, don't expect to get paid. Listen to a lot of other people's work

Do not sell your soul for this. The odds of you building a stable long-term career at this are quite remote. That said, do as much of it as you can and who knows, maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones.

[Karma1]

Good advice here so far from other forumites. When I lived in the Sacramento area I took some courses in studio recording at Sacramento City College. They had an excellent program and surprisingly good studio facilities at the music department there. I wasn't going for a degree so I don't know what's available, but it might be worth looking into if you move to that area.

[Hard Truth]

I agree, do both school and internships. You can get school credit for the internships. Getting some gear and recording yourself and friends is also very helpful.

 

San Francisco State's Broadcast department has a pretty good audio production component.

 

Audio postproduction for games, film and video is a growth area. Studio music production is not. So if you have an interest in audio post for film and video it is a better area to get into financially and for future stability.

 

I generally recommend a well rounded education. Knowing how to read music, enough electonics to do some troubleshooting and basic repairs, and enough English, art, history etc to have an intelligent conversation will make you a stronger candidate for virtually any production job.

[antiochband]

 

I agree, do both school and internships. You can get school credit for the internships. Getting some gear and recording yourself and friends is also very helpful. San Francisco State's Broadcast department has a pretty good audio production component. Audio postproduction for games, film and video is a growth area. Studio music production is not. So if you have an interest in audio post for film and video it is a better area to get into financially and for future stability. I generally recommend a well rounded education. Knowing how to read music, enough electonics to do some troubleshooting and basic repairs, and enough English, art, history etc to have an intelligent conversation will make you a stronger candidate for virtually any production job.

 

 

 

Audio postproduction, eh? Perhaps I'll double-major in AE and Media Production to have a good breadth of knowledge.

 

Also, I've heard good things about Sac City College, but I checked on the "Audio Engineering Society" webpage and they don't have Sac City listed as offering programs currently.

 

Thanks for all the great info, please keep it coming!