Deciding on the Best Recording Schools

01/04/2012

If you dream of a music industry career as a producer or audio engineer, you’ve probably been looking for the best recording schools to decide which one to attend. Between all the opinions you can find on the Internet, plus the fact that almost every recording school claims to be the best, this can be a more difficult task than it seems. How do you know which schools are the best—and more importantly, how can you tell which school is best for you?

Let’s put this into a bit of perspective. Would you be surprised to learn that many music industry professionals think recording schools in general are highly overrated? Many of them, in fact, never went to school themselves, and are highly successful despite that fact. Recording schools charge high tuition to teach you things you could learn just as well by getting into a recording studio yourself and learning one-on-one from an audio engineer or music producer. Because these schools don’t teach anything you can’t learn in the real world, many professionals feel they aren’t worth your time or money.

The point is not that you don’t need an education, because you do. The point is that if you attend recording school, it should serve the purpose of getting you launched into a music industry career, not become an end unto itself. Thus, the best recording schools will be the ones who effectively help you get to where you want to go—namely, into a career as an audio engineer or music producer.

That said, here are some things you should ask yourself about any prospective recording school:

1. Does it offer practical, hands-on training?
2. Does it offer a chance to get real-world experience? (There are things about real recording studios you’d never learn in a simulated environment.)
3. Does it enable me to make industry connections? (It is nearly impossible to get a job in the music industry without some sort of industry connections.)
4. Is it worth the money? (In other words, can it get you started on a music industry career without loading you down with debt?)

Many music industry professionals are now endorsing an innovative learning method now in use by some schools. Known as the mentor-apprentice approach, this method teaches audio students by placing them inside actual recording studios, where seasoned professionals guide them through the curriculum one-on-one. This method not only costs far less than most schools charge, but it also allows students to gain real-life experience on the job, where they can also make the connections they need for landing a job afterward. Industry professionals like this because they already feel it’s better to learn in a real studio than in a classroom—and the method has a track record of results.

Choosing a school is never easy, but base your choice on results, not hype. The best recording schools are those that can actually get you working in real recording studios.