audio engineering diplomas/degrees worth it?

[forge]

thanks for the responses guys!

.. I think their ambition was more of a factor than the school experience. I got a really good studio job immediately because of some connections I had, not the school.

yeah this is I guess what I suspected to be the case really - and the reason I have probably never done it so far. It takes a certain kind of enthusiasm to start off getting paid nothing to make tea!

I have just never had that kind of determination for audio engineering as a career in the past because I was a musician first and foremost and it was always more or less just a way of paying the bills.

Teaching there is another story and one that I'd prefer not to get into

that's a shame - that's one of the things I wanted to hear about - although LM has done a pretty good job there!

I agree that taking the money and putting it elsewhere (like in a biz plan) would be a wise move. It seems like you already have more experience than the school could realistically offer you.

yeah I'm not really sure that's what I want from it though - especially these days I could imagine running your own studio to be a recipe for disaster financially. For me I think it was more about trying to get into something like sound design for feature films or games - I just don't have enough of a background in that area to be considered for those kind of jobs.

cheers

C.

[Nick the Zombie]

A while ago, I posted a blog about this very topic in response to someone bringing it up over at Future Producers:

http://sounddesigntutorials.com/blog/20 ... -worth-it/

The original FP post is linked in the post. I'm trying to compile a series of opinions on this topic, so I'll be monitoring this topic closely.

[forge]

A while ago, I posted a blog about this very topic in response to someone bringing it up over at Future Producers:

http://sounddesigntutorials.com/blog/20 ... -worth-it/

The original FP post is linked in the post. I'm trying to compile a series of opinions on this topic, so I'll be monitoring this topic closely.

- this is funny - I clicked on your link and went to Gearslutz and got a pop up reply to a PM there someone sent me about my Ableton videos, and the guy was asking me whether I thought SAE was worthwhile!!

[pepezabala]

you probably better open your own institute, give some classes and offer a diploma/master of digital audio production. You might even get funding from the government if you know where to ask.

[Nick the Zombie]

A while ago, I posted a blog about this very topic in response to someone bringing it up over at Future Producers:

http://sounddesigntutorials.com/blog/20 ... -worth-it/

The original FP post is linked in the post. I'm trying to compile a series of opinions on this topic, so I'll be monitoring this topic closely.

- this is funny - I clicked on your link and went to Gearslutz and got a pop up reply to a PM there someone sent me about my Ableton videos, and the guy was asking me whether I thought SAE was worthwhile!!

Seems to be a hot topic these days

[sweetjesus]

just make tech house/techno and sign to a couple of trendy labels then start gigging about.. u were close before, u can be again.. QLD is starting to get a buzz for electronic stuff bigtime

[forge]

just make tech house/techno and sign to a couple of trendy labels then start gigging about.. u were close before, u can be again.. QLD is starting to get a buzz for electronic stuff bigtime

Thing is I really lost the buzz for it - don't have the stamina for the clubbing thing any more either

could see myself fitting more into blues/roots type gigs with a kind of Tom Waits meets Portishead's most recent album type vibe these days - been picking up the guitar again too

mellowing with age like good whiskey

[Nod]

Iis the SAE a good pathway to doing this? It's fucking expensive and in my experience all I've ever heard is a lot of jaded and disillusioned people saying it was a waste of time and money, but they have all been in the same boring types of audio jobs I've been in, maybe I'd hear differently from SAE graduates who ended up in these more interesting kind of jobs....

+1 to everything lm. said regarding SAE - known a few guys who went down that route and it was nothing other than a costly regret. In a wider sense much of alleged 'professional' music education could be said to be scamming because many of it's proponents suggest the easy possibilities of gainful employment immediately afterward - whereas the truth of the matter is that it is the most oversubscribed occupation imaginable. Better to find a niche that hasn't been so widely exploited imo...

[navitus]

Dude, dont get into a loan for an education unless ur SURE the diploma/degree will help u pay back ur loan. In this field, interning, working, gaining experience counts a lot more.

I went to Berklee, got into a huge loan and got depressed and couldnt even finish my degree.

Now i run a studio, i DJ, and make the same money guys with degrees are making. I'm still in debt though.
Fuck.

cheers
F

[roach808]

I went to one of those lovely, technical college deals and yeah I would have much rather taken the money and invested it in my own post-production studio. Ironically, I when i got out of school, I really wanted to go to Berklee or somthing to get a degree in synthesis and/or sound design. It was rather funny, cause everybody i talked to about it kinda laughed at me and said that they would never offer classes in that stuff. Now, they have tons of courses on that very subject matter. Whatever, no matter I managed to at least get off ass, and start mixing live theater/audio. Its a fine day job I must say so, sux it does get in the way of me writing/mixing/producing electronic music some of the times.

Learning about audio is fine and dandy, but you have to really be into it. My fondest full sail memory is any jackass in one of my classes that just wanted to "make beats".

[coupdetat]

A degree is a degree just do it in something you find interesting.