The thing I've found with schools, after attending one, working in studios and then hireing my own assistants from them, is that each school has a different idea of what their output will be, namely, the student.
I studied at Columbia Academy in Vancouver BC and got a great education. The course was aimed at producing assistants. There was a lot of session prep, technical under-work(editing, comp'ing) analog and digital mediums, etc...
The school sessions were run in such a way that if you were eager and volunteered lots and always had your hand up, you got lots of info and up close experience. Natural selection style.
If you worked hard and were polite/cool to hang out with, you got picked first and you got recommended for work when studios called.
Some schools run on a classroom format and want to have a knowledgable, well educated student who knows every formulae and figure. Some run you through all the jobs, you assist, you engineer, you produce, then you graduate. Lots of great info, not very practicle. I believe schools that let you focus yourself somewhere are the most benificial.
Try to find out what the students are turning into when they finish at the schools you have access to.
If the school is good and the student is good and the city is good, there is no reason why you can't get into a good working situation right out of school.
The people I saw in school who 'made it' out of school are the ones who would have done it anyway and saw a school as a place to get hard, fast technique under their belts. The ones who were producing music before school got what they needed from school and got jobs working with artists they looked upto. Kind of like if you are headed in that direction anyway, school is a good way to get there.
Education Education Education?
We did a metal festival last year and got 3 guys out from SAE Byron Bay to
mix..... I don't think they had done live work before, but had no trouble at
all, knew how to stay organised without getting into a mess after 8 bands
using the stage with different lineups and different equipment. No mistakes
resulting in screaming feedback or anything bad like that.
So if they were able to respond to that kind of semi-high-stress situation,
then they must do something right at SAE. oh and they did it for free, just
the experience, so the standup and do all u can thing worked for them for
sure.
-Ben
mix..... I don't think they had done live work before, but had no trouble at
all, knew how to stay organised without getting into a mess after 8 bands
using the stage with different lineups and different equipment. No mistakes
resulting in screaming feedback or anything bad like that.
So if they were able to respond to that kind of semi-high-stress situation,
then they must do something right at SAE. oh and they did it for free, just
the experience, so the standup and do all u can thing worked for them for
sure.
-Ben