Which college to go to for recording engineering?

[endorphin]

Originally Posted by Wolfsschanze

What would you guys recommend in terms of universities that would be great for getting a degree in Electrical Engineering with hopes of doing sound design, acoustics etc. more on the technical side. My dream job would be to design speakers or pro audio equipment for top names such as Neve, Adams, and UAD.

Now you're talking!! I'm an EE and ME with a PE. This is not to brag, but to show that engineering is a great field to be in. I currently own my own high end home studio as a result. Only recently have I begun to design my own pre-amps, as well as high end tube guitar amps. It began with building the SCA stuff (alot of fun and they sound very nice!). Then I branched out to my own designs. None of which have been built yet, but that is slated for 2012. What EE will bring to you is the "basic" knowledge and theory behind circuit design. The rest is up to you! There are sooooo many ways to tone shape through networks and circuit design. The cool thing is, when you are making a good living at your engineering job, you can comfortably start you own business or hobby of building your equipment of choice.

I hope this information has been helpful to you. Good luck! BTW, I went to ODU in Norfolk, Virginia, they have some kick butt engineering programs there. I would suggest to you thier EET program. It's about design and build vs. pure theory with the EE/ECE program.

The last thing I want to stress is to start now with your education, even if it is only one class per semester, stick with it and it will go pretty quick!

John

[Bill Way]

Originally Posted by TheArk

New York is a dead zone for music, that would be suicide for me in reality...

...I like the fact that they have concert halls and what not so i can also practice my piano playing and also focus on overall music not just button pushing.

New York has one of the most active music scenes you will see anywhere. Hundreds of clubs are presenting new bands every night. Been to Drom? Living Room? Highline Ballroom? Mercury Lounge? Webster Hall? Or uncountable clubs in Brooklyn? If you can't get out to clubs, go online at breakthruradio.com to sample new talent that is out there (New York and other cities).

You want concert halls: Andy Carnegie built a decent one here a while back. Been there? Ever heard how the Met supports unamplified voice for over 3,800 listeners? (BTW, they are video-taping every performance now, that's eight shows a week from December through May, so there's lots of sound engineering work going on there.) Been to BAM? Avery Fisher? Tully? Koch? Town Hall? Beacon? Merkin? Weill? Zankel? Radio City? They are all filled every night.

For intimate performances, we have dozens of cabarets with everything from the ridiculously expensive Cafe Carlisle to the essentially free Don't Tell Mama's.

I know of over one-hundred active recording studios in NYC. Vinyl LPs are cut and pressed here (thank you Scott Hull!) Film and TV are recorded on our streets, and processed at many studios, from the big outfits like Sound One down to small boutique shops. New York is still the world's advertising capital, including the music that goes in TV, radio, and web ads, which spans everything from composers/songwriters, performers, tracking and mixing, rights management, etc.

There are 42 musicals playing on Broadway tonight, and the sound quality in those houses, which used to be awful, is now stunningly good.

NYC has more music-related schools than anywhere: Julliard, High School for the Performing Arts, Mannes, Manhattan School of Music, New School, NY Film Academy, NYU/Steinhardt, and many others.

There are very active chapters here of AES, Recording Academy (Grammys), NARIP, and the IEEE. By the way, did you go to the AES convention here last month? Just shy of 16,000 of us were there. We missed you.

If New York is musical suicide, get me the razors and warm water -- I wouldn't go any other way.

WW

[Jim Williams]

Maybe someone can explain this for me?

Why does someone need to attend a 4 year university to obtain what is basically a trade gig that will only pay around $15~20 per hour?

Am I missing something here?

[Inharmonicity]

Originally Posted by Wolfsschanze

What would you guys recommend in terms of universities that would be great for getting a degree in Electrical Engineering with hopes of doing sound design, acoustics etc. more on the technical side. My dream job would be to design speakers or pro audio equipment for top names such as Neve, Adams, and UAD.

Stanford, University of Miami, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, McGill, Penn State

Any good EE school will do if you have the drive, but it helps to go somewhere where there are professors who know specifically about pro audio, and are connected to the industry.

[djimbe]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Maybe someone can explain this for me?
Why does someone need to attend a 4 year university to obtain what is basically a trade gig that will only pay around $15~20 per hour?

Am I missing something here?

I think what you're missing is gullibility, Jim.


I can catagorically state from personal experience that you can learn how to record by doing it, no school required. It helps to have a mentor, but you don't even need that if you're interested enough and apply yourself.

What? You don't have a place to record or equipment to record with? Then get an education that will permit you to be hired for a real job that pays and buy some. I started "engineering" when I was 35 and bought my studio when I was 37. I had a "real" job as a mechanical engineer for the 18 years prior which made it possible. The idea that some trade school/diploma mill is going to get you a job you can live off of in a dying industry is foolhardy.

You can still have your recording dream and live it every day. I did. Just had to do it as an adjunct to my "normal" life as a respected professional in a different industry. That's not bad. It's not "backup". It's reality. I get to go home at night to a nice house with a beautiful wife and a good meal, and I get to make music with great gear in a cool space whenever I can.

[Bill Way]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Maybe someone can explain this for me?

Why does someone need to attend a 4 year university to obtain what is basically a trade gig that will only pay around $15~20 per hour?

Am I missing something here?

Do what you love.

WW

[Jim Williams]

Originally Posted by Bill Way

Do what you love.
WW

Does that require a 4 year degree?

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Does that require a 4 year degree?

How about this: a four year degree from somewhere like C-MU enables you to grow beyond the limits you set for yourself today. Perhaps, just perhaps, if you are schooled in a different environment than the typical quick in-and-out trade school, you may be exposed to a broader world and find that there is more to life than you originally thought... and maybe that would pay better than what you originally imagined. (Darned well better, for what C-MU costs!)

I'm one of the guys that feels that if you want to be a recording 'engineer', you should just get out there and do it. The best repair guys I know kinda taught themselves, too. But for electronic design work? Some have the talent to more or less do it themselves but most will benefit from exposure to others with a deeper understanding and experience.

[DAUBERSONIC]

This thread is helpful...but NOT helping

[newdigitaluser]

Originally Posted by DAUBERSONIC

This thread is helpful...but NOT helping

then start your own thread
and ask for the help that you need

but note
there are no jobs in the music biz
there are ten million noobs trying for those jobs
if you do get one you dont get paid
if you did get paid it is minimum wage being a gofer

your only chance is to
win idol or talent
go viral on utube and have luck
or
know somebody in the biz hopefully daddy who works at sony
like that mexican band that signed a contract last week

[newdigitaluser]

in response to
"do what you love"

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Does that require a 4 year degree?

ONLY IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A LIVING

[newdigitaluser]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Maybe someone can explain this for me?

Why does someone need to attend a 4 year university to obtain what is basically a trade gig that will only pay around $15~20 per hour?

Am I missing something here?

you missed the marketing hype from the UNACCREDITED trade schools that push audio as a career

[Nishmaster]

As a part studio owner in a major city (Chicago), let me say this:

We get calls for interns and positions everyday, people from SAE, people from Full Sail, people from Berklee. You know what happens to them? They don't get a job. Not because they went to school, but because the jobs don't exist.

In this market, around 5% of the best guys make above 50-60k per year. Less than 1% make 100k plus. In fact, every single engineer (and even owners) that I know personally in this town, which is quite a few, probably barely hit 40k, and most of the non-owners eek by on 30k or so. Most of the big gear houses in town got their gear 10-15 years back when label contracts were still coming in or have had famous folks leave a few pieces behind to use in trade for services. Most are downsizing, not upsizing.

Going to a school for audio engineering is foolishness at best. I made a go at being solely an engineer and musician, but in the end I did IT, make a comfy 60k, and do audio design, engineering, and gigging afterwards. It's much lower stress, and it keeps my lights and the studio's lights on much easier. Obviously not everyone will want to do that.

If you want to go straight for audio engineering, one of the most negative job growth sectors in the whole country, your best bet is to just skip the school part and go straight to an internship. Having the degree doesn't get you any preference over anyone else, at least not in anyone's eyes that I know. Be warned, even free internships in the industry are exceedingly hard to come by these days, and things will not be any better in 4 years after school. That's 4 years you could have been working as an intern, and guaranteed that after 4 years if you aren't working as an assistant or running the session, it's because you won't ever be.

Sorry to be perceived as negative, but there are realities out there that are easily ignored when one has stars in ones eyes.

-Matt

[softwareguy]

Originally Posted by Mulmany

If you want to be truly useful get an electrical engineering degree and a minor in music.

This. Do the hard things and make yourself uniquely insightful and valuable. Every idiot thinks they're a fader jockey.

[DAUBERSONIC]

Originally Posted by newdigitaluser

then start your own thread
and ask for the help that you need

but note
there are no jobs in the music biz
there are ten million noobs trying for those jobs
if you do get one you dont get paid
if you did get paid it is minimum wage being a gofer

your only chance is to
win idol or talent
go viral on utube and have luck
or
know somebody in the biz hopefully daddy who works at sony
like that mexican band that signed a contract last week

Yea but that's like any biz though, good to know "someone"..
What I meant was that there are great arguments on both sides in this thread

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Maybe someone can explain this for me?

Why does someone need to attend a 4 year university to obtain what is basically a trade gig that will only pay around $15~20 per hour?

Am I missing something here?

Indeed.

Or do a "degree" in something at which none of the subjects taught are to degree level. As far as the music industry is concerned I'm a major employer in the UK and I wouldn't touch one of these cowboy courses.

Ask yourself why, in this over subscribed industry, that the likes of the three letter places etc are not prevalent as education sources for the world engineers .... a waste of money, borderline criminally neglectful and taught by people who haven't a clue.

Don't waste your money OP. They can't teach you ANYTHING. Terrible places..... if you REALLY want to go that route - go to Surrey Tonmeister in the UK or similar around the world. If you can't get into that sort of place then the realities of this job aren't for you (the clue is in saying "i wanna be an engineer or producer or songwriter" - might as well say I wanna be a sailor, a grocer or a home help..... just hugely different areas).

Unless you have cash in the bank you will just incur a debt that, via your chosen vocation, you will likely never pay off and incur a bad credit rating. These decisions you are looking at now WILL affect you for the rest of your life.

Oh - and you say you don't want to sit behind a desk from 9-5.... I've got news for you !!!

I can't really be arsed to post the hundredth time on this matter - but suffice to say.... think very very carefully before getting involved in a career that does not need or want you. I did the same - but I got a Maths BSc and PhD whilst teaching myself.... be wise - do the same.

[rogernumber2]

a lot of schooling is a rip off nowadays. I'm still doing self-teaching audio production and it has gone quite slow, however.

It depends on the money. If they are charging the same to get an engineering degree at a University, I wouldn't waste your money on it. That might be a nice course to take but you can teach yourself a lot of it.

If you're going to spend serious money on college spend it on a STEM degree science, engineering math, technology.

EE was a good suggestion