recording school, smeshording shul

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

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Girl Toes
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recording school, smeshording shul

Post by Girl Toes » Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:37 am

Aha. Recording school is expensive, and the classroom only gives you a handful of knowledge. Still, actually working in a studio and making actual records offers so much more: actual real world experience, contacts and hookups, credits and resume....

It seems far cheaper and more beneficial to just find bands I like, and pay for their recording sessions. Then just hang around, try to be a producer, and watch the engineer. Even be silent. Theoretically, the money could be recoupable, and then you learn to record for free.

I wish I had the money to just book a week in a studio. Back to the old fashioned way,of carrying around the toilet brush.

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Post by drumsound » Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:19 am

Being a client does not always give you the opportunity to jump and get your feet wet. Also a school is great for people with little experience to learn from the ground up.

Like mics or restaurants, there are good schools and bad schools.

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snuffinthepunk
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Post by snuffinthepunk » Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:30 pm

if you've got the money to do it and you're learnin, right on whatever works. I'm fresh out of recording school and I'm glad I went that route. My mind was bored and I needed a challenge and I knew what I want to do, so I went and busted ass and learned a lot of technical things that would have taken me a lot longer to learn probably had I been in a big city and interning at a recording studio. And hell yeah, school was expensive haha, but I got my money's worth and it'll pay itself back.
"no dream is worth being underachieved"
I love signal flow.

Imagine the possibilities!

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Brandon Schexnayder
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Post by Brandon Schexnayder » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:59 pm

The scary thing though is the amount of loans that can come out of going to recording school without much opportunity to find work later on and repay them. As someone that made it out of school without loans (public school, instate tution, and academic scholarships), I cannot imagine trying to "make it" with a burden like that. As it is, its hard enough to find enough work to eat when you have a degree that only fits one very saturated career path.

How are you making out with this now that you are out SnuffinThePunk?
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And miss it each night and day.
I know I'm not wrong...this feeling's gettin' stronger,
The longer I stay away."
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nacho459
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Post by nacho459 » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:15 pm

I went to "recording school" because my local CC had a recording program. Fortunately they had a really really good recording program and had just built a multi million dollar studio complex. I was glad I went, and for $250 a semester it couldn't be beat. We were also close enough to LA we were able to get scoring sessions in there and people like Al Schmitt come in and talk.

It was a good time but I would say I learned about 5% of what I know about recording from recording school. I have probably learned around 10% from reading Tape Op and hanging round here.

Knowledge is power, get as much as you can however you can.

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Post by penrithmatt » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:22 pm

i'm sorry man,but i think recording school is the biggest waste of money.
no disrespect to some of the "fine" institutions out there,i'm sure some of what they teach you is usefull,the real thing is so very different...
having worked in studios in the Uk and US for the last 12 years,starting straight out of high school as a "tea boy" and moving on up from there,i know for a fact that personality is gonna get you way further than knowing every Pro Tools keyboard shortcut ever will.this is really something that can't be taught.
i'm sure that many people will agree with me when i say that there really is no right or wrong way to go about doing anything.i never went to school,but my experience with interns at the place i work who have been to school,leads to me believe that they don't really teach you anything worth knowing,atleast nothing that has much practical application.....that and the fact that all these kids come out of schools thinking that they are now an "engineer" because they recorded their mates band at school and have a certificate that says so........well,meanwhile,back in the real world.......no studio on the planet is gonna hire you as an engineer.you might get an assistant position,if yer lucky,and more than likely an intern job.......why waste the money and time at a school when you are still gonna start at the same entry level position?? this was my thinking.
anyone with the passion,personality and apptitude can make the entry level route work.you will learn more practical knowledge,in a real enviroment than any school can teach you.you will also learn how to behave in a studio,when to keep yer mouth shut,be invisible and still get the job done.
it seems to me that the advertising for the schools mislead eager young hopefulls into thinking that if they plunk down a ridiculous sum of cash it will majically give them the key to the kingdom....utter bullshit.....use the money you would have spent on school to buy some equipment and to live on.get an internship at a studio that does the kind of music you like.learn everything you can.learning what NOT to do is as valid a lesson as anything else.make full use of the available down time and fountain of knowledge that is the studio tech.gain the trust of the assistants and engineers.learn everything you can from them.......good luck.
If it's not distorted,what's the point??

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snuffinthepunk
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Post by snuffinthepunk » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:31 pm

Brandon Schexnayder wrote:The scary thing though is the amount of loans that can come out of going to recording school without much opportunity to find work later on and repay them. As someone that made it out of school without loans (public school, instate tution, and academic scholarships), I cannot imagine trying to "make it" with a burden like that. As it is, its hard enough to find enough work to eat when you have a degree that only fits one very saturated career path.

How are you making out with this now that you are out SnuffinThePunk?
I just got out of school a week ago so there's nothin to report yet. There is ONE studio here in town, owned and operated by some guy who supposedly used to be a big producer. I'm not sure of his last name though. I know three people who have worked for him though. I'mhopin to work for him for a bit before I head to nashville.
"no dream is worth being underachieved"
I love signal flow.

Imagine the possibilities!

www.primalgear.com

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mfdu
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Post by mfdu » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:36 pm

Here in Australia we have two options for Recording Schools.

there's the pay-per-pass private institutions. i think they closely resemble the american model of education for the rich. $8000 for a one year course and it seems they dont even learn what an sm57 or m88 is!

the other option is the TAFE (technical colleges). some offer sound engineering/production - RMIT (royal melbourne institute) and NMIT (northern metropolitan).
at TAFE you're looking at $800 for a one year course, and your teachers are all so underpayed that they are actually also working in the industry (oh my god - really?) so you know they know. you know?

but when it all comes down to it, mature-age training will only give back what you are prepared to put in.

paying to visit a studio won't achieve anything unless you bind and gag the in-house guy - thats the only way you'll get your mits on the gear!

chris.
M.F.D.U.

Will record for whiskey.

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allbaldo
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Post by allbaldo » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:22 am

I started recording the "old" way. Just digging into it, and learning what I could from who I could. I've been able to do it "professionally" for years, but there are holes in my knowledge that I wish could be filled. I've considered school before, just to expose myself to ideas or info that I haven't had access to. Like a lot of people, I learn a lot better from people than from books, so a real teacher might help. Sure, school won't give you ears, or people skills, but if you've already got those, it seems like school could be a real benefit.

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Post by Rigsby » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:45 am

I started the old way too, recording and recording and then some more recording (bear in mind i only get a very small part of my living from this) for quite a few years and then a couple of years ago i went to recording school. Some of it was a waste of time, there were people there who didn't know one end of a mic from the other and the school had to cater for them too, but some of it gave me some decent background knowledge and information that i wouldn't have otherwise got, because i didn't know what i needed to learn. To be honest though, if i'd been given a list of topics and then spent the time with books and on the internet i could've learned more in the time and saved a bunch of cash. I tend to agree that on the job training is far far better for just about everything.
The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

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joelpatterson
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Post by joelpatterson » Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:00 am

I look at it this way...

Say you had a burning desire to become President of the United States.

And there was this school in Florida that offered classes and a degree in "Becoming President of the United States."

Would taking the program do you any harm? Probably not.
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Rigsby
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Post by Rigsby » Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:17 am

I don't know ..is bush running it?
The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

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joelpatterson
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Post by joelpatterson » Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:25 am

Nah, he's at the school next door, "Election Fraud Made Easy."
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Post by audiogeek1 » Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:11 am

I think school is what you make of it. For me it made the whole idea of signal flow easier. Now when something isn't happening I can trace it much more quickly than I could before. Plus I have a few friends that call me to help them trace their signal flow when something isn't right. One even went to school.

So like I said it is what you make of it. But then I went to a CC for cheap and the teacher taught signal flow like crazy. He also made us read the assistant engineers handbook. A valuable tool for anyone getting into this. Understanding the way you should act as an assistant makes moving up easier. Make the first engineer look better without the client knowing you did and that will go a long way.

I only learned about 5% of what I know in school and I still learn everyday even 15 years later.

Mike

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bannerj
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Post by bannerj » Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:30 am

speaking as an employed teacher and also as a current grad student...

each of you who dog recording schools are probably part of that small fraction of the human population who are extremely motivated and extremely good at learning things on your own. School is a waste for you because you are already pushing yourself outside of the classroom.

If I had a student like this who was restless with school, I would tell them either to finish school asap and stay home and read book and find people on your own to disucss things with....or stay in school be smarter than everyone...get as many degrees as possible, get all the funding you can find and teach college.

There is no correlation here for the recording industry. If you are good you don't go on to teach college you just get your own place or freelance or whatever...

The point is that most human beings are not going to be that highly motivated self learner type of a person. Most people need the structure of school.

That being said though. I think most people who excel in the recording industry are probably not the type of people who need to school. I am saying this realizing that I am not one of these exceptionally talented, high demand engineers.... I have just worked with these kinds of freakishly talented people.

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