If you're really interested in analog, then check out MusicTech (www. musictech.edu). I know that it's a lame name (theyre changing it soon), but they are a well equipped school with very smart, level-headed instructors.

In studios 1 & 2, the consoles (SSL 6000 & Trident 80B respectively) run to Otart MTR-90 2" 24-tk machines, and studio 1 also has an otari 1/2" 2-tk for mastering. The performance rooms were well engineered by this guy there named Tom Day. Physics, Acoustics, Studio Maintainence (EE degree in 2 semesters, pretty much) and he is like the god of all things electronic. He has been a electronics repair man for analog equipment for like 35 years, and he could fix and rebuild anything you lay in front of him.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that MusicTech is about 50/50 or maybe even 60/40 analog/digital. There are some really good protools and MIDI instructors as well. So you will get a well rounded education. Definitely check it out.

Oh yeah, it's in St. Paul, MN, so it's WAY colder than Chicago, pussies.

you rekcon its easier for foriegners to get jobs? ive heard a few stories of the US lapping up UK designers and so forth... would be cool to move over for a year or 2 after i finally finish all the uni i got planned!

http://endino.com/faq.html#edu

it seems to me people that are actually employed by studios are few and far between compared to the diy-ers. i'd expect that to be your case, and if you get lucky and get a job in a "real studio" count your blessings. otherwise, i'd follow endino's advice and start making relationships with bands. maybe they'll grow with you and eventually they'll have you freelance out of a fancy studio.

i had some audio education at uw-madison that was mostly worthless (in terms of "putting me in an audio job that i wanted"), i learned more at homel on my 4track dicking around than school taught me. (except stuff like sound for video/multimedia/smpte/etc. which i had no interest in anyway - to their credit there was 2 track tape splicing/editing which was very good)

just to backpedal, i'd think that a degree in audio from anywhere is about as useful as any other bachelor of arts degrees. how many creative writing majors actually write books for hyperion out of school vs go on to something else to pay the bills and hopefully if they love it enough they'll keep writing on the side. it's not like a law or engineering or CS degree where there's a track into the marketplace.

or that's my observation at least. find that mtsu lecture steve gave, there's some pertinant advice in there.

good luck!
-nick

alumni networks at those schools might help, as well.

it's the carrot at the end of the very long MP&E stick here at berklee. actually, the joy of being able to take classes at berklee on recording and producing is its own reward, but a network of couches on which to crash is a real plus.

a degree in recording and 50 cents will get you a box of junior mints. Only jobs available at studios are deliviring donuts to it. Why do you think the majority of people here deliver donuts for a living and dont work at studios?

KillPopRecordsLLC wrote:a degree in recording and 50 cents will get you a box of junior mints. Only jobs available at studios are deliviring donuts to it. Why do you think the majority of people here deliver donuts for a living and dont work at studios?

It's nice that you have this donut joke to hang your all analogue studio hat on. I'm starting to think it's funny, but not as funny as your piss poor grasp of the written word. Salut my increasingly entertaining friend.

BURN.

Anyway, I wanted to get into recording professionally, but I have not, for a few reasons.

#1- the school I was interested in was nine million dollars annually
#2- the woman who led the tour and was there to answer all my questions had no answers, except ones that translated to "We are totally in digidesign's pocket"

#3- everytime I had a recording job lined up, all of a sudden the band would stop calling, and when I finally bumped into them they would say

"Oh, our hand drummer got some recording software, we're just going to do it ourselves"


SO kudos to you friend, and good luck! I hear it's a tough line of work. That said, I had another hobby turn into a fairly enjoyable buisiness, so you just have to work you balls off, i guess.

I'm attending Columbia at this very moment. I also work in the studio there.

The program is OK but I'm starting to trip on how much money it is costing me. I will be in debt for the rest of my life. Is it worth it?

I use the shit out of the rooms (I get to use a lot of time because I work there. As a student you get either one 3 hour, one 4 hour or one 6 hour session per team per week depending on the class) but I really think the most valuable thing about the program is connections, as was mentioned above.

Columbia uses analog consoles in conjunction with protools in all of the recording classes from prod 1 to master class. What I like about Columbia's program is they don't teach protools. They treat protools like a very flexible multi-track recorder, not the answer to all life's problems. You never use plug-ins at Columbia. If you want to learn that get an M-box and a bundle and teach yourself

Columbia still has 2 inch 24 track tape machines but the only class where you get to use them is a senor level class called "Master Class in Classic Studio Techniques" In this class you can ONLY use analog gear. Like you can't even use the lexicon 960. You have to use plate or chamber reverb.

I just keep telling myself that at least I'll have a degree, and I enjoy what I'm studying. If I get a job in the industry it won't be because I went to Columbia. It will be because I applied what I learned there to the real world.