Where to study?

It's probably a smarter decission if you need ridiculous amounts of money.

one thing I thought maybe worth mentioning.

quite a few people seem to prefer the not going to uni option, and self schooling instead. This does have it's ups and downs. The main bonus being that it doesn't cost thousands and thousands, and you're not tied to a school timetable, means that you can do it around your job and other commitments.

the downside (one that I have experienced many times) is the lack of a formal qualification on your CV. as I said earlier, to a lot of people/employers, the word degree and name of a school can mean a whole lot.

I have quite a few friends who have attended one audio engineering school or another, and without wishing to sound boastful, I'm confident that I have a much better knowledge about a lot of aspects they leaned at school. However, that is very very difficult to demonstrate to a potential employer. The benefit of having that formal qualification is that it can act as a "mark of competence". it's sad but true that some people won't bother to check out any of your work (even if it's the most incredible stuff ever). Just imagine how many applicants there are for some jobs, employers need a filtering system, and that's called a CV.

If you are committed to finding some type of audio related work, but do not wish to attend school, the most important thing is to actively work on your portfolio, essentially make up for the lack of a degree. the one thing that IMO counts for more is real world experience.

There is an abundance of people looking for sound work of all types. short films directors needing an OST, small companies needing sound for a website, You'd be amazed at how many games app designers there are at the moment looking for sound effects etc.. there is a shit load of work out there, if you are willing to work for free of course.

It can be incredibly frustrating putting a couple weeks worth of hard work into something without any financial reward, but it's all another name on your portfolio. I think the trick is to be smart about what you sign up for. There may be hundreds of shorts being made everyday, most of them will be shit, but be savvy and sign up for the one you think has potential. Then that line on your portfolio could be really worthwhile! All it takes is researching things before you jump in.

also the advantage of working in this way is that once your job is finished, and you have your name on some credits, all the promotion will be done by someone else. if you do something for say a student animation, they will be the one submitting it to various festivals, showing their classmates, spamming it around YouTube, getting your name around for you.

I know a couple people who make all their income from sound design and similar tasks, funnily enough neither of them went to any kinda school. it's all thanks to being very fkn talented, and being very smart about building up a reputable portfolio. One of them has been doing sound for Audi, BMW, and stared working on a feature film now. good effort!

of course there are loads of other things to think about if you're gonna go down that road, but it's certainly more than possible to achieve goals this way. having an awesome portfolio will put you way ahead of someone with a generic degree.

If I could do it all over again, I would find one of the legendary library music guys or even a relatively obscure contemporary you admire and become their apprentice. Obviously, you can't pick the most famous guys, but you will find some fairly easy to work under. Especially if you can pay. Probably is 10x as valuable as school to learn workflows and the business. Plus, you'll already start making connections which is maybe more important than talent.

  On 7/20/2011 at 5:00 PM, Adam Beker said:

It's probably a smarter decission if you need ridiculous amounts of money.

school prepares you for a job. if it's not going to put you in debt, if your parents are encouraging it -- fuck it, why not go to school? lots of fun in between the classes. but i'm with promo (for once :D). study something other than music. perhaps electrical engineering, like teh afx? do a minor in music?

i suppose it boils down to this: Do you want to do music/sound/art for yourself, or do you want to do it for a living? School will teach you how to make MONEY off of this shit, as opposed to helping you mature as an artist. you'll come out with a lot of knowledge about aiming microphones.... people will hire you for this, money is cool, but a life setting up microphones (as opposed to using them) strikes me as missing the point.

  On 7/20/2011 at 8:23 PM, rockthomas said:

If I could do it all over again, I would find one of the legendary library music guys or even a relatively obscure contemporary you admire and become their apprentice. Obviously, you can't pick the most famous guys, but you will find some fairly easy to work under. Especially if you can pay. Probably is 10x as valuable as school to learn workflows and the business. Plus, you'll already start making connections which is maybe more important than talent.

i still agree with the apprentice idea.... study something else at school. mom will be happy, and so will you. :)

  Quote

maybe so that later I could work as a sound designer or/and a music composer

so, Baker dewd, wot stoked you 10 years ago, what stokes you now & what will stoke you in 10 yrs from now?

why do you listen to the things you do, why do you want to make what you want to make.

The netherlands also have quite a lot of interesting studies in the field of electronic music - for example the Royal Academy in Den Haag - if you still want that, after everything which has been said in this thread.

  On 7/20/2011 at 1:45 AM, jhonny said:

The tonmeister degree at surrey uni in the UK is very highly regarded apparently

I'm currently on this course and, whilst trying not to boast, it's by far the best sound engineering course in the country - most important people in the industry, particularly on the technical side, can be linked back to this course. There are institutions all over Europe doing a version of the course. Avoid the SAE Tonmeister alternative though, apparently it's stripped down to the bare minimum and teaches you barely anything when compared to Surrey.

lol sorry dn

  On 7/20/2011 at 5:30 PM, TechDiff said:

There is an abundance of people looking for sound work of all types. short films directors needing an OST, small companies needing sound for a website, You'd be amazed at how many games app designers there are at the moment looking for sound effects etc.. there is a shit load of work out there, if you are willing to work for free of course.

  On 7/20/2011 at 5:30 PM, TechDiff said:

There is an abundance of people looking for sound work of all types. short films directors needing an OST, small companies needing sound for a website, You'd be amazed at how many games app designers there are at the moment looking for sound effects etc.. there is a shit load of work out there, if you are willing to work for free of course

This. Working for free is a bitch but it will get you something.... eventually.

  On 7/27/2011 at 2:08 PM, tokn said:

The netherlands also have quite a lot of interesting studies in the field of electronic music - for example the Royal Academy in Den Haag - if you still want that, after everything which has been said in this thread.

Yep, that's actually where I'm going to study :)