Today, we are going to comment on a very common inquiry we get from many young producers who come through our studio in Chicago and book time. It is the question of whether it is useful or not to go to an audio school to pursue a career in music. With so much of the younger generation discovering a passion for music production (largely due to the affordability of powerful audio & production software), the natural move for a small percentage of them is to want to make a living engineering and producing music full time.

So just like many careers out there, the natural logic is to presume a degree is needed not only for the skill and insight but for the resume, proof of effort, etc. In addition, the idea of going to school to learn how to play around with mixing consoles, top end audio gear and microphones is pretty enticing. So if you’ve toyed around with these questions, let us give you a few thoughts to take into consideration. Remember, the ultimate decision though is up to you and no one else, don’t ever forget that.

No Degree Is Needed To Make A Living In Audio Engineering

We’ll just get right to the point here. No degree is needed to make a successful living recording, mixing, mastering, or producing music. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be all that shocking to discover that most of the top level audio engineers currently in the field didn’t go to school for a career in audio. It would even be fair to say that a decent amount didn’t even go to school at all.

Audio engineering and music production is not just a field of study. It is an artform, a craft. The typical method of training for a career in audio is an internship where an aspiring engineer learns and works under a seasoned audio engineer, studies and actively employs his or her techniques and philosophies in order to one day develop into a skilled successful engineer. Its been like this since the earliest days of recording. The two things that matter most in this business in order to induce ultra success are connections and experience. These days, one can go to any studio around the world, beg like a dog for an unpaid internship, and start the long and somewhat brutal process of planting one foot in the door. Of course you’ll make a lot of coffee, clean a lot of toilets and answer a lot of phones, but its all for that one day when you might be able to assist a session for the first time or be relied upon to edit some audio in Pro Tools before an important mix. Then before you know it, you’ll be sitting in more sessions, learning more techniques, asked to do more important things in order to make the engineer or engineers lives that you are interning under exponentially easier in the studio.

Go To School If You Can Pay

With all that was just previously said talking down the idea of going to school for audio engineering, a college education can be invaluable for an aspiring young engineer, giving you hands on experience with recording equipment and real world situations commonly found in most professional studios around the world. You see, its more than just recording and mixing. It’s learning the process to meet deadlines, proper session flow, understanding your clients or client psychology, the art of effective promotion, business management and so much more. Some of these things can be hard for an intern to learn in the studio. Having a firm grasp on all these concepts before beginning what is the usual mandatory internship makes it easier to get both feet in the door at a studio and thrown into everyday studio life.

The one unfortunate thing about going to school these days is the amount of money that one must shell out in order to get that piece of paper at the end that confirms you did it. So if you have the money to go or your family or relatives are willing to pay for it so you don’t have student loans, go to school, it would be silly not to. The amount of people you’ll meet, relationships you’ll develop, and life experiences you’ll have are ultimately important for personal growth and development. And you can apply these life lessons and relationships to the world of professional audio. Good people skills and relationships can lead to more networking, more networking can lead to more connections, and more connections can ultimately lead to more clients and business.

However, if you have to take out loans to go to school, it’s tough to advocate putting yourself in serious financial debt for a degree in audio. Why? At the end of the day, the sad fact is that even with an esteemed degree from a top college, you still have to be accepted into the school of ‘hard knocks’ as an intern in a recording studio. As we said before, the education should help give you a one up with your experience and knowledge over the rest of the interns. Engineers may turn to you more often to assist or sit in on their sessions, but that’s not always a guarantee. At the end, you’ll have to ask yourself if its really worth spending all that time and money on a degree only to do what you could have done for free without that certified piece of paper.

So in summary, going away to school for an education in audio is a great thing. As we said before, the relationships you’ll build and life experiences you’ll have are not only important for self-development and growth, but they will also help out in the real world environment of professional audio. However, not going to school shouldn’t be the excuse one uses for not pursuing a career audio engineering. Going back, most top-level engineers didn’t go to school for audio. They got in the door and advanced their careers because of their motivation, dedication, hard work ethic, reliability, and personality. They also advanced their careers because of their extraordinary hearing abilities. All these qualities are vitally important in the profession of audio engineering and can’t necessarily be learned in school. Plus, a seasoned engineer might be more willing to take a chance on a person with these qualities versus someone with a degree. You’ll never know though until you give it a try.

 

Kris Anderson

Studio 11

345 N.Loomis St. Suite 500 5th Flr

312 372 4460

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