Want to be a recording engineer? Looking for a top recording school?
Confused about which recording schools would give you the best start?
Need to get a handle on your options for a recording engineer education?
Considering recording engineering as a profession or serious hobby?
Don’t make the mistake I just made… I thought to myself: This articles series will help save you time to find the best options for you.
“I’ll do a quick internet search, and easily find good advice on options for getting into the audio recording profession.”
Wrong!
I tried this just a couple of days ago. Yes, it was easy to find course info. Too easy – I was swamped with details.
I tried searching on phrases like “recording engineer courses“, then changed to training, education, schools. Then tried “sound engineer“, and finally “audio engineer“, again with all the variations. I used the main search engines – Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
What I found was long listings of individual recording engineering courses and various other training offers. A similar group of music recording schools showed up at the top of Google, Yahoo and MSN:
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RecordingConnection.com
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Cras.org
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audioinstitute.com
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soundmasterrecording.com
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audiomasterclass.com
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sae.edu
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oiart.org
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aes.org/education/
In summary, audio engineering includes recording sound, and reproducing sound (using some combination of mechanics and electronics)
It also draws on many disciplines such as:
- acoustics
- psychoacoustics
- music
Audio engineers need to be familiar with the design, installation and operation of equipment for:
- sound recording
- sound reinforcement
- sound broadcasting
In a recording studio, the audio engineer is the person responsible for
- recording
- editing
- manipulating
- mixing
- mastering
…sound, by technical means in order to realize an artist’s or record producer’s creative vision.
Working mostly in music production, an audio engineer may deal with sound for a wide range of applications:
- post-production for video and film
- live sound reinforcement
- advertising
- multimedia
- broadcasting
Acoustical Engineering, on the other hand, …relies heavily on
- physics and mathematics of sound waves
- sound wave propagation
- deals with
- noise control
- acoustical design
These covered music producing schools and courses from the product-specific operation to advanced post-graduate research.
How could I tell if they are any good?
And more importantly, how do I know if they are any good – for me?
I spotted nothing that put things in perspective and helped me shortlist the options best suited to my needs. Or even helped me sort out what my “needs” were in the first place. (Turns out the info was there. It was just lost among all the noise.
Eventually, I decided to find out what the main industry associations were (obvious, with hindsight!
- Audio Engineering Society (AES)
- Recording Industry of America Association (RIAA)
- National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)
- Society of Professional Audio Recording Services (SPARS)
- etc.
That’s where I discovered good solid advice and a suggested process on how to match my needs and aims to the kind of music technology or music engineering schools available.
I did find useful pointers elsewhere, but main acknowledgments go to the Audio Engineering Society’s Education section. Here you’ll find a pretty full directory of all sorts of training and education organizations, and some useful articles to help clarify your thoughts. You can search the directory by region (worldwide) type of course, so it’s useable whether you’re looking locally or considering the type of course first.