[[email protected]]

I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree. Their website and the mailing
material makes it sound pretty good with job placement assistance and
training. Does anyone out there have any experiance with them? Are
there any graduates out there? If so what are your opinions and did
they help you to find a job in this field? Is this a better route than
attending a 4 year university for a Music Industry Management degree?

Thank you.

[Roy W. Rising[_2_]]

wrote:
I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree. Their website and the mailing
material makes it sound pretty good with job placement assistance and
training. Does anyone out there have any experiance with them? Are
there any graduates out there? If so what are your opinions and did
they help you to find a job in this field? Is this a better route than
attending a 4 year university for a Music Industry Management degree?

Thank you.

I don't have any knowledge of LA Recording School. However, another L.A.
option is Sound Master Recording Engineer School.
http://www.soundmaster.edu/

One of my colleagues at ABC-TV went there. He came away saying "I just
spent $5000 of the company's money to learn how it's NOT done in the real
world!" Of course, he was looking at from the TV sound perspective, which
is somewhat different from music recording.

--
~
~ Roy
"If you notice the sound, it's wrong!"

[Scott Dorsey]

Roy W. Rising wrote:
wrote:
I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree. Their website and the mailing
material makes it sound pretty good with job placement assistance and
training. Does anyone out there have any experiance with them? Are
there any graduates out there? If so what are your opinions and did
they help you to find a job in this field? Is this a better route than
attending a 4 year university for a Music Industry Management degree?

I don't have any knowledge of LA Recording School. However, another L.A.
option is Sound Master Recording Engineer School.
http://www.soundmaster.edu/

One of my colleagues at ABC-TV went there. He came away saying "I just
spent $5000 of the company's money to learn how it's NOT done in the real
world!" Of course, he was looking at from the TV sound perspective, which
is somewhat different from music recording.

I can't say anything about either. But I can say that there are actual
four-year degree programs in recording and production, including one
at MTSU. I would recommend going that way.

Not that a music industry management degree is a bad thing, and one that
can be applied to a lot of other jobs in the real world, but if you want
to learn the basic theory of how music works, and how electronics work,
and how to apply that to production, that is not the route to go.

I get calls all the time from kids wanting internships. They can't solder,
they can't read a score. I don't need interns like that. Learn to solder
and learn to read a score and you'll have a chance of getting in on the
bottom floor... and a degree makes it possible to live in the outside world
while you're doing that.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Jenn]

In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Roy W. Rising wrote:
wrote:
I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree. Their website and the mailing
material makes it sound pretty good with job placement assistance and
training. Does anyone out there have any experiance with them? Are
there any graduates out there? If so what are your opinions and did
they help you to find a job in this field? Is this a better route than
attending a 4 year university for a Music Industry Management degree?

I don't have any knowledge of LA Recording School. However, another L.A.
option is Sound Master Recording Engineer School.
http://www.soundmaster.edu/

One of my colleagues at ABC-TV went there. He came away saying "I just
spent $5000 of the company's money to learn how it's NOT done in the real
world!" Of course, he was looking at from the TV sound perspective, which
is somewhat different from music recording.

I can't say anything about either. But I can say that there are actual
four-year degree programs in recording and production, including one
at MTSU. I would recommend going that way.

Not that a music industry management degree is a bad thing, and one that
can be applied to a lot of other jobs in the real world, but if you want
to learn the basic theory of how music works, and how electronics work,
and how to apply that to production, that is not the route to go.

I get calls all the time from kids wanting internships. They can't solder,
they can't read a score. I don't need interns like that. Learn to solder
and learn to read a score and you'll have a chance of getting in on the
bottom floor... and a degree makes it possible to live in the outside world
while you're doing that.
--scott

One idea (and cheap) is to go to a community college like ours. Take
the 2 years of audio classes, take music theory (maybe even study an
instrument or voice, even "lightly"), and have an accredited degree. At
our school, it's lots of hands on, lots of recording opportunities with
ensembles of all types and recitals, great mics, Digi board and
Protools, etc. Just a thought.

Jenn

[Mike Rivers]

On Jan 26, 10:45 am, wrote:
I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree.

There are no shortcuts to working in this business, but the good thing
about these schools (and you need to find out just what they teach and
how) is that they give you some exposure to the tools that you'll find
in commercial studios. The bad news is that there are fewer commercial
studios in business these days, so there are fewer actual places where
you can work, even at an intern level, for someone else.

But while commercial studios 15 years ago pretty much sluffed off the
barrage of letters they'd get every year from graduates of recording
schools seeking jobs, today they're paying a little more attention to
those graduates because even though they know you don't have a lot of
mixing and setup experience, they know that you'll come in with a
working knowledge of ProTools and can be the modern day equivalent of
a tape op, make copies and backups, and maybe do some computer
housekeeping. If they like you, they'll start teaching you how a real
studio works.

If you want to get better value for your money, you should look into a
school that has a full four year music degree program like Middle
Tennessee State University or Belmont University in Nashville. At
least you'll be taking some real college level courses in music,
business, and liberal arts as well as recording - things that will
make you more useful around a studio, and other places in case you
decide you don't want a career in recording.

[Scott Dorsey]

Jenn wrote:

One idea (and cheap) is to go to a community college like ours. Take
the 2 years of audio classes, take music theory (maybe even study an
instrument or voice, even "lightly"), and have an accredited degree. At
our school, it's lots of hands on, lots of recording opportunities with
ensembles of all types and recitals, great mics, Digi board and
Protools, etc. Just a thought.

This is good because:

1. If you do this, you have credit hours that you can usually transfer
easily into a four-year program. And, you'll wind up paying less per
credit hour than if you'd taken them at a four-year college.

2. If you decide not go to into a four-year program, at least the associate's
degree is something that will stand on its own. Much more useful than
spending two years at a school and coming out with a "certificate" that
is not a real degree.

3. About the only place left today where you can learn electronics repair
is at a community college. There are no more TV repair shops taking
apprentices, or elementary school ham radio clubs. There is a serious
need for people with electronics repair skills in the audio industry.
There is zero training in repair and troubleshooting in a typical four-year
EE program.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[David Grant]

There is zero training in repair and troubleshooting in a typical
four-year
EE program.

As a graduate EE, the impression I was given during schooling, and this has
been reinforced in my early career, is that Engineers do not touch things.
We design on paper/CAD, we communicate through emails, but we do not solder,
hammer, weld, etc. As you become more senior you don't even touch CAD, you
just dictate your thoughts to underlings who in turn document your ideas.
The most hands on I've experienced is doing sound measurements.

[Scott Dorsey]

David Grant wrote:
There is zero training in repair and troubleshooting in a typical
four-year
EE program.

As a graduate EE, the impression I was given during schooling, and this has
been reinforced in my early career, is that Engineers do not touch things.
We design on paper/CAD, we communicate through emails, but we do not solder,
hammer, weld, etc. As you become more senior you don't even touch CAD, you
just dictate your thoughts to underlings who in turn document your ideas.
The most hands on I've experienced is doing sound measurements.

Yes. This is very, very bad.

I did some work for a defense contractor and had a supervisor who would
come by and make sure I didn't have any test equipment or tools visible in
my office, because it would be in violation of the engineering contract
for me to be using a scope.

I nearly went crazy. It's just easier to make the damn measurements than
to write up fifty pages of methodology and have a tech do it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Fletch]

On Jan 26, 7:45 am, wrote:
I really want to pursue a career in the recording business and am
considering moving to LA to attend the LA Recording School. It seems a
little expensive for 36 weeks of training and only obtaining a
certificate, no accredited degree. Their website and the mailing
material makes it sound pretty good with job placement assistance and
training. Does anyone out there have any experiance with them? Are
there any graduates out there? If so what are your opinions and did
they help you to find a job in this field? Is this a better route than
attending a 4 year university for a Music Industry Management degree?

Thank you.

Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington used to have a degree
program in Sound engineering. I don't know if they still do, but they
used to have a really nice recording facility to go with the course.

--Fletch

[rboy]

On Feb 1, 11:44*am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

I did some work for a defense contractor and had a supervisor who would
come by and make sure I didn't have any test equipment or tools visible in
my office, because it would be in violation of the engineering contract
for me to be using a scope.


Wow, that's interesting. I had no idea any other field was as inane
as performance unions in that respect. That sounds exactly like
backstage at Radio City Music Hall.

[Ron Capik]

Scott Dorsey wrote:

David Grant wrote:
There is zero training in repair and troubleshooting in a typical
four-year
EE program.

As a graduate EE, the impression I was given during schooling, and this has
been reinforced in my early career, is that Engineers do not touch things.
We design on paper/CAD, we communicate through emails, but we do not solder,
hammer, weld, etc. As you become more senior you don't even touch CAD, you
just dictate your thoughts to underlings who in turn document your ideas.
The most hands on I've experienced is doing sound measurements.

Yes. This is very, very bad.

I did some work for a defense contractor and had a supervisor who would
come by and make sure I didn't have any test equipment or tools visible in
my office, because it would be in violation of the engineering contract
for me to be using a scope.

I nearly went crazy. It's just easier to make the damn measurements than
to write up fifty pages of methodology and have a tech do it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I worked with computer programers that had similar
requirements for documentation before they would
even think about writing code.

Luckily, my organization didn't have any test equipment
taboos. Anyone from techs to PhDs could do their own
tests and measurements. Hell, at times we'd even design
and build our own test equipment.

Then too, in another division of the company just down
the hall from me they had one person apply the photo
resist, another person exposed the resist, another
for evaporation, diffusion, ion milling, etc......

It all depends on the [corporate] culture you're in.
[YMMV]


Later...

Ron Capik
--