Audio Recording Schools, and Why You Shouldn’t Attend One

Every aspiring producer, at one point or another, asks themselves whether or not they should go to audio recording school. Will they be a better producer because of it, or will they end up spending a fortune, to end up accepting a job as a waiter to pay off debt, wishing they’d just spent the money elsewhere?
Here are eight solid reasons explaining why you should NOT go:

1.) Your favorite producer didn’t go to audio recording school.
Some of the most popular, successful producers today don’t have any formal education in the art of production and recording. Timbaland, James Wisner, N.E.R.D., Stargate, Diplo, Jay-Z, Rob Cavallo, (the list goes on, and on) didn’t attend any sort of university, or recording school.
2.) Digital Recording Exists.
One of the primary reasons to go to a recording school back in the day was to gain access to the equipment and tools. Much of the analog equipment used was too expensive to own, and was much more difficult to record on and edit. Now days many albums are recorded with the very same computers that hundreds of us have sitting at home on our desks. The obstacles today are more related to distribution and raw talent, not equipment. Gaining access to ProTools and a soundboard is no longer a good enough reason to go to recording school.
3.) Recording school is expensive.
It’s easy to justify spending five to six figures on an education, because you’re investing in the future. Plus you’re able to get loans and the like, so you’re not paying all at once, and there’s a vague promise of a job once you have a degree in hand…but tuition is incredibly expensive, and you’ll be paying it off for years to come. You could be spending all of that time, and money, more to your advantage.
4.) The Internet.
The biggest difference between today and 20 years ago isn’t the advent of digital equipment, but the advent of mass, free distribution like last.fm, Pandora, and hundreds of other online sites. You could have taken all of the courses available in the world of production, and a master’s degree, but without the ability to put it out there for some recognition you’d be out of luck. In today’s era of producers being snatched up off of the web, you can rest easy that there is a way to have your music heard.
5.) Availability is at an all-time high.
Classic, avant-garde, and generally obscure albums used to be difficult to get your hands on. Recording school, once upon a time, was a great way to hear albums that you couldn’t hear anywhere else. Now, 90% of the albums you hear in recording school are available to purchase, one way or another. You can chalk this up to Myspace, indie record stores, or what have you—but the fact remains; music is more accessible than ever.
6.) You can’t teach talent, can you?
Can an art form be taught? No. Yes. A little? There is something fundamentally insincere about teaching how to create. An instructor can teach you how a piece of art was created, and you can further a students’ understanding of the art form as a whole (along with refining their technical know-how), but there is no right or wrong way to create. Many instructors teach formula as a technique, and you want to make sure it’s your idea coming out of the speakers, not your instructor’s.
So what are these schools really selling you? They may be teaching you how to work a console and they may teach you a few engineering tips too, but where are the jobs? Many of the big studios are hurting. This means there are less and less big time recording jobs available. So where are the thousands of 20 year old kids who owe $15,000 in student loans going to find jobs in the audio industry? Most of them will not be working in recording studios. The sad part is most of them are going to have trouble finding a decent paying job at all. Graduating from “tech school” doesn’t look the best on a resume. You may be able to run a Neve console, but the only job that needs that is an audio engineer and those jobs are getting harder and harder to find.
7.) You either have it, or you don’t.
If you’re talented, you will eventually make it, regardless of whatever obstacles you encounter along the way. Of course there are great people and products that will help you in your journey; but it comes down to pure raw talent. If you don’t have the creativity, ability, and motivation from the start—you’re doomed even if you have a degree or certificate in hand.
8.) Learn by doing.
This is the most important reason on the list, by far. Rather than paying to learn, you can get paid to learn. You are supporting yourself (without going into major debt), you’re building your resume, and you’re gaining an understanding of how the real world works. Take it from me, someone who went to school for music production; I learned ONE THOUSAND times more by sitting in my room, on my Mac, fiddling around with various programs than I learned spending however many credit hours at the university.
These are only eight (of many!) reasons that recording studios are not as advantageous as they may seem. Remember, if you’ve got it in you, you don’t need some pretentious instructor telling you something you could’ve figured out within fifteen minutes yourself. Good luck!