Anyone Graduate SAE in NYC?

[Jason151]

I'm 30 years old, live in new york city and thinking about going back to school for audio engineering. I've checked out the schools in the new york city area and I am leaning toward SAE. Anyone have any thoughts, advice, stories, etc?


jason kraut
jasonkraut@aol.com

[soundguy]

when I put my studio back together you can hang out here for a week, buy me lunch twice and I'll provide you with that SAE knowledge.

hows that for a deal?

there are really better things to spend money on than audio school. Go read that thread in off topic about assisting in NYC and see how much you want to invest into SAE.

The one nice thing about slavery was that the white man just showed up on your beach in africa, beat you over the head and stuck you on the boat, he was nice enough to do this service for free and not charge you for like "slave school" before taking you captive.

dave

[joel hamilton]

Nobody I know that is a working engineer, and is creative, and gets to do cool projects went to SAE.

[george walker's closet]

theres been a few recent posts on the terrors of SAE. i know a few SAE grads who truely believe the school is a scam.

[sarth]

I went to IAR, which is the AE school in NY with probably the best initial premise and the worst possible implementation.

And what I decided straight up after that was this.

The IAR course at the time was $9k and 9 months.

The much better way to learn how be an enginner would be to:

1) steal a textbook list for IAR, any school will do, but IAR has a strong technical bent and you want some of those physics books around, and the yamaha sound reinforcement handbook, etc. All that dry stuff, you need to make a list. Add Evert's Master Handbook of Acoustics to that list while you're at it, and try to find a copy of Craig Anderton's Electronic Projetcs for musicians. I've never seen that book, but it has a cool title.

2) Take some of your 9k and buy all those books, and a subscription to Electronic Musician, EQ, MIX, Guitar Player, Downbeat, hell, even Tapeop might have something of use from time to time. While you're at it, buy a soldering iron (not a gun), maybe a whole soldering kit for $30! Get some helping hands, too.

(at this point you'll have spent like $200 and a couple of afternoons)

3) Go. Get an internship at a studio, do all the things an intern needs to do, be proactive yet unobtrusive ... 'cause there's never any skipping this step, no matter what school you go to.

4) Spend your remaining $8.8k bit at a time on a home recording rig, maybe a used dual-boot g4 from macofalltrades.com and whatever else. Get started soldering by making your own cables, then get some kits from paia or something. Steal an sm57 from the studio where you intern and an acoustic guitar from your girlfriend's roomate and you're golden.

5) spend all of the time where you're not interning recording stuff in your house and reading every bit of printed material COVER TO COVER, even thought you don't understand alot of it.

At the end of 9 months, you'll actually know how to do some things, and you'll be closer to paying work than when you started. Which wouldn't be true if you had attended AE school.

[soundguy]

make sure you put some money aside for bail for when you get arrested for all the theft youve been involved in on your way to becoming a recording engineer.

dave

[thekid]

as everyone's already said, you're gonna get a lot more experience by reading, watching, maybe even an internship. and for what it's worth, as the former hiring manager/chief engineer at a nyc recording studio, NO ONE was impressed with a degree from SAE or full sail. everyone started out at the bottom no matter what school they did or didn't go to. if you proved you were worthy, you gained more responsibility and possible promotions.

[sarth]

make sure you put some money aside for bail for when you get arrested for all the theft youve been involved in on your way to becoming a recording engineer.

In live sound, especially theater, at least, theft is a noble tradition.

[brew]

Nobody I know that is a working engineer, and is creative, and gets to do cool projects went to SAE.

Nigel Godrich went to SAE.

[ctmsound]

I'm glad I went to AE school at San Francisco State. Shit, atleast i got a Bachelor's degree out of it and was taught hands on with a professor who has worked and still does work in the industry for the last 30+ years. I learned a lot. Granted, I have $12,000 in loans (housing in SF sucks...). We'll see if it was actually worth it. I think it was so far.

[joel hamilton]

"Nigel Godrich went to SAE."

I dont know nigel godrich,

and I dont give a crap whether someone goes to SAE or not. I didnt, and nobody I know who is doing cool projects went there, hecne my post.

I dont even know if SAE is great or sucks ass, I never went.

Also,

I dont care.

[soundguy]

Didnt Nigel Godrich do the last Beck record, "Sea Change"

Maybe SAE is the reason there is so much god damned high end and bad edits on that record.

Do you think the radiohead meeting went like this?

Hey, do you think we should use this guy?

Ive never heard of him.

Me neither.

Me neither.

His resume says he went to SAE.

No way, that place rules.

I know, all the good engineers learn how to make records there.

Yeah, you know, we should hire that guy.

Shouldnt we call some of his references?

No, he went to SAE, its cool.


I dont know, maybe the conversation went a little differently...

Joel, Im never hiring you because you didnt go to the cool school.

dave

[wing]

Didnt Nigel Godrich do the last Beck record, "Sea Change"

Maybe SAE is the reason there is so much god damned high end and bad edits on that record.

i never noticed any bad edits, but maybe the high end. regardless, i think it's a spectacular album. i hated it the first time i heard it, but then it grew on me. i think it has overall nice production. the only thing i didn't like so much are the drum sounds, they were really really really dry and dead kind of... didn't sing much on that record. but hey, it kinda fits the songs in a way, so it's not so bad.