Rob, you stated on your own that you began this thread in the spirit of angst and frusturation. I believe that putting passion and heart into something is essential, but it's very likely you've let your passions walk, nay, RUN all over your intentions.
I agree with you that there are holes in the curriculum. GAPING holes, for that matter. Many times I find myself taking notes on the same thing 5 and 6 times in a row. 3 times in a row I would consider positive reinforcement of an idea, but 5 and 6 times is a bit ridiculous. However, there's no point in
uncontrolled ranting.
If I understand your points and goals correctly, you wanted other members of this website to give you questions you could use to stump our instructors. Really, is that fair to the instructors? You said that many of the education staff members are truly sincere and wish to impart their knowledge and experience to us. Why do you wish to abuse them? These people sit in a classroom four to eight hours a day talking to us. Do you want to spend four to eight hours a day talking to a group of fifty to a hundred fairly young people, of which only two-thirds (at most) are actually paying attention and giving you the respect you deserve as their teacher, elder, and most likely better? It's a known fact that teaching is mostly a thankless job which an individual takes because they wish to give knowledge to others.
That last part being made clear, I know it's probably not entirely the case with FS teachers. I have a hard time believing that someone who was dedicated enough to become an engineer would suddenly devote so much of their time to teaching simply because they enjoy it. Keep in mind that just because I, or you, have a hard time believing something doesn't make it untrue. I can vouch for several instructors as being true teachers at heart, and the others I didn't get to know well enough on a personal basis, I'm not ruling them out.
To summarize everything up until this point, what you were intending to do is selfish and abusive. Your intentions held merit, but your methods are wrong on many levels.
Now this thread has become just another game of forum Pong.
"I think that Full Sail has a sub standard curriculum, seeing as its a "recording" program, and all we've recorded is boomboxes next to a power supply"
"I think you're not putting enough effort into it."
"I think you're wrong"
"I think I'm right"
a random "Full Sail sucks!"
ping.
pong.
ping.
pong.
splat.
I put a fair amount of research into Full Sail before I signed on. Had I done a little more, I would have thought longer and harder on it only to come to the same conclusion.
Yes, Rob, we have a fair amount of idiots in our class. We know that. Done deal. Discussion over. Don't forget all the times my patience has run out and I have literally kicked you to get you to shut up. I know you're a smart guy. This has become more and more apparent as time goes on (especially through your posts on other threads, including ones I have started), but you do your fair share of attention grabbing and idiocy. Get off your high horse. Out of respect for you and your reputation on this forum, I have held this sort of thing on the backburner, and I will continue to do so. All I'm going to say is that you should watch what you say and consider your audience carefully. There is at least one person on this forum that knows you personally and beyond your online persona.
Moving on.
The program here could do with more concentration on the process of capturing a sound. We get one month of recording, and even if it is a really good month (which I hear it is), I believe the program should be extended or revised to include more. We've been given the information required to understand how a microphone and gear in general actually works, on a slightly more than basic level. This is good, knowing how something works is important. Showing the mathematics of how a hammer is used and the force required to insert a nail into a piece of wood, and how that force is dispersed through the material, is not enough to send someone out to build a house. Not even a birdhouse. It takes practice to learn how to hammer properly without injuring yourself or bending the nail and ruining your piece of wood. If that piece of wood is high quality, carved cypress or a rare wood, then the consequences are even higher when you screw up. We (who have paid attention) know how a microphone works, and given time could use them semi-properly. We could definitely use a little more hands-on time with things like that.
HOWEVER, this presents a huge logistical problem. Where will Full Sail find decently professional musicians to come in and be recorded for these classes? For free?
You can't. To hire session musicians, even high school students, would be expensive and difficult. It would require a staff of musicians with the time to put aside from their professional work to do these sessions. Good luck finding enough people who are willing to put that time into it for a small price. If Full Sail hired these people, tuition would go through the roof. Right now, we don't pay that much more for an AS degree from FS than we would for the same degree from another school. The difference is that we do it in half the time, and that gives the illusion of being expensive (taken from the perspective of price for product). Imagine if we were also paying for session musicians.
Okay, so what if we had students take turns playing the instruments? Well, that means we assume that the students have a margin of musical skill. Not everyone here can play guitar well, and even fewer can actually get something rhythmic out of a full drum kit. There are some great musicians in the student body, but they need their turn to record and not play.
I think that Full Sail has done the best they can with the assets they have available (as far as recording time goes).
Many of us are frusturated with the same issues. There are problems, and we don't have the benefit of an in-house orchestra or even quartets. I fail to see what good all the bitching does. I wanted to know about Full Sail's reputation outside of Full Sail, and I got that information. Yes, the "Full Sail Graduates" thread also turned into a game of pong, that doesn't make it right. Rob, you are directly trying to abuse our teachers, and this will yield no results. Your teacher could be your best friend and most important asset in changing things at this school if you present him/her with well organized and thought out ideas; attempting to one up, confuse, and baffle them, will only make them your enemy. Pay more attention to the way people interact. There's that old metaphor "you catch more bees with honey than whatever that not-sweet-substance they always use in this metaphor is" (I forgot, anyone remember that one?

).
And Nano, if the signal to noise ratio is high, wouldn't that mean the noise floor is low? I'm glad you think that we're engaged in a worthwhile discussion here, and that those involved are intelligent, well-to-do people.