When I was a kid, fresh out of high school, I pretty much knew what I wanted for my life and my career. Not exactly, but, pretty much. Throughout high school, my favorite thing to do was to make beats with FL Studio and I wanted to take it beyond that. In my senior year and the few years following high school graduation (2003-2008), I worked part-time jobs and also searched for a college that focused on audio technology and sound engineering.
I wanted to learn how all that fancy equipment that you find in big professional studios works together and how to use that equipment to make great-sounding music. I wanted to learn about acoustics, I wanted to learn about mixing consoles, compressors, equalizers, how AD/DA Converters worked, how decibels are used to measure sound, how to use different DAWs, how to mix and master albums, signal flow, music business, and most of all I wanted to get my hands on the best, highest quality equipment possible while simultaneously working towards a college diploma. I decided on SAE Institute of Technology.
In 2009 I enrolled in the “Audio Technology Program” at SAE Institute San Francisco. I learned what I wanted to learn, the class size was 4 students, great equipment to use, guest speakers and workshops, and the option to study part-time, Honestly, it was an all-around great experience. I was 24 years old when I enrolled in school and graduated 2 years later in 2011 with a diploma.
However, in 2009, before I even began the program at SAE, the school administrators promised job placement assistance after graduation. They did not deliver on that promise at all. From 2011 – 2013 I worked as an intern at Hyde Street Studios in SF because a very good friend of mine had a small recording studio there and was running his business at that location. It was an unpaid internship at Hyde Street and in order to pay my bills I needed to have a shitty web publishing job on the side that had absolutely nothing to do with audio. I learned a lot at Hyde Street Studios, and eventually, it led to better things, but after that internship ended, between 2013-2016 I worked a full-time job as a chauffeur driving wealthy Silicon Valley high-tech assholes to and from the airport. If I were a young aspiring audio professional today in the year 2023 looking at options like SAE Institute, I would definitely think more than twice about it.
If a young kid who is passionate about audio approaches me today in 2023 and asks me if he or she should enroll in a similar program at a school like SAE Institute, I would say… “Think it over very carefully. You can save yourself the very high cost of tuition and learn audio through other, less traditional ways than through an audio school“.
So much has changed in the last 20-30 years. It’s a completely different ballgame now. A college degree doesn’t mean jack shit today and probably never again will, at least not in this industry. Audio schools (like SAE Institute) are big business, a semi-scam looking to make big profits from young people who want to get ahead in life. These schools make false promises and make you think that you need them in order to succeed. You don’t. Audio schools have become expensive, obsolete dinosaurs in an ultra-modern, fast-paced, and highly competitive world.
You can succeed in the audio industry without school and save yourself a lot of time and money by having the following 6 things…..
- A High School (or equivalent) Diploma
- An awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
- A strong desire to learn about audio + an internet connection
- Discipline, focus, organizational skills, networking skills.
- The ability to set goals for yourself and reach those goals.
- A few good tools (computer/audio software/audio plugins/audio hardware)
The information is out there and most of it is freely available to anyone looking for it. It’s literally just a few clicks/Google searches away.
My advice to most kids looking to enter this field of study in 2023 / 2024 is to skip school.
Use the web or read books to get a basic, general understanding of audio and then explore the many careers in the audio industry. There are a bunch of books on this exact topic “Careers in audio” or something similar. Read a book like that or gather info with the help of Google about the different options you have to choose from. Narrow it down to a handful of professions that seem interesting to you. Soak up as much information as you can relating to the audio careers that you’ve picked as favorites.
Perhaps creating music for film/TV is something you would like to explore. Perhaps you find mixing or mastering to be of interest to you. Maybe you like recording or you like the science of acoustics or maybe live sound is your thing. Whatever your preference, narrow it down and eliminate options that you definitely do not like. Get a really solid understanding of those fields that interest you and pick one.
If you are like me and really enjoy the studio environment, for example, skip the audio school process and spend as much time as possible around pro audio engineers in professional studios. Another idea is, instead of paying 20,000 – 30,000 USD (or more) for audio school tuition, get yourself some decent audio equipment (please ask for advice from a pro before you spend your cash). Next, learn that equipment (read user manuals, watch YouTube, etc.) to the point where you know your gear so well that you even impress yourself. Then, further develop the specific skills you need in order to be successful in your career of choice. Gather the necessary real-world experience whether that be an internship, employment, or independently because that will be very important to succeed and will prove to be more valuable than any college diploma or college degree.
Most importantly, never stop learning. Absorb as much information and knowledge as possible, both at the beginning of your journey and throughout. In the audio industry, you have to stay on top of technological development just to stay in the game. Also, understand that it’s okay to take risks, especially when you’re young, and it’s okay to make mistakes, as long as it’s a learning experience.
Not all kids learn the same way, some kids do better in the classroom. To them, I say, school is probably worth it. But for many, school is just a big waste of money, especially in this day and age where you can learn anything at the push of a button.
Personally, I believe that passion, motivation, discipline, access to useful information, networking skills, hard work, and the ability to allow yourself to take risks and learn from your mistakes is the real key to a successful career in the audio industry.
Bigup, good luck, and enjoy the ride.
darkspideraudio.com 