I was scheduled to fly home Saturday. My flight was cancelled, and the next available one was on Monday out of Rochester. So I slept on my friend's floor for two days, drove home with him, then went to the Rochester airport. Flight delayed, fucked up my connection. Next available flight was Tuesday morning. Slept for 4 hours, got up and flew out. Finally made it home 72 hrs after my scheduled arrival. Sigh. But I'm home now. Hung out with friends yesterday, and more people are getting home today (+ my sister). Cool. Coolcoolcool. I applied to this lighting/sound internship at a theatre in Maine for this summer. They cover room & board and there's a small stipend. I wasn't sure whether to apply and my friend asked "Do you lose anything by applying?" They said they'll contact me after break if they want to schedule an interview. I also realized that Berklee has an online certificate in Live Sound Engineering that lasts basically the exact dates that I have between fall semester and Freiburg next year, and costs basically the exact amount that I have left in grant money. So that might be lit, or I might try and find like an internship in Germany for that time.
What do you want to do? There's this idea that "you must go to school" and if you're doing something goofy like mixing sound, nobody gives a fuck about school. Let's be honest - if you're trying to make a living mixing sound, the sooner you start doing it the better. Berklee or Art Institute or any of those fucks know zilch. I mean, San Jose State posted something to my union the other day - they're looking for a tenure track professor to teach sound design to undergrads. Know what they require? An MFA in sound design. Know what they don't require? Work experience.
I just want to learn to mix and EQ well. I can set up equipment, get mics working, make sound. And I've been doing that for at least an event a week for about a year. But pretty much no one that I work with knows what sounds good, so no one can show me how to mix well. And I feel like it's gonna take forever if I just keep fiddling with shit until I find what sounds good. After that, more advanced technical shit. Right now the extent of my knowledge is vocal mics, instrument mics, a board, speakers and subs. I'm vaguely aware of EQing, phantom power, and DI boxes. So. Sidenote, and I've probably asked this before. I kinda wanna be where you are. How'd you get there?
Dude you don't need a degree you need like a Peachpit book or a Lynda class. Audio mixing is empirical and throwing a degree's worth of theory at it will accomplish nothing other than making you poor. If you wanna be where I'm at go bum around the local clubs and studios and offer to help. Then don't suck at what you do and before you know it you'll be doing it for money.
So if you wanted to practice law you'd go to law school and learn a million different case studies and precedents and legal codes and you'd debate and you'd write briefs and it'd take you three years after you got your bachelor's. But if you wanted to learn how to dig a hole, you'd buy a shovel. I'm not saying mixing is as simple as digging a hole. But I am saying it's not as hard as practicing law. It's not about difficulty or ease - I mean, I'd much rather practice law than dig holes. It takes a lot more knowledge and expertise. But there's an art to digging holes that you won't learn by sitting in a classroom learning about shovels. Here's a great set of tools for working on medium to heavy engines and equipment. Here's a great set of tools for working on bicycles. Places like Berklee try real hard to convince you that if you have the former, you'll be good at fixing bicycles... when in fact you need the latter but you need to know how to use them. And the only way to know what you're doing is to fix bicycles. Berklee will not give you hands-on experience fixing bicycles - they'll charge you a shit ton to work on like three bicycles in the most overstuffed bike shop on the planet and then you'll venture forth and discover that the guys who are actually making money at this can fix the shit out of a bicycle with a Leatherman and a ball peen hammer while there you are, with your 800lbs of Snap-Ons, unsure of what to do with a leaky inner tube. That was a really tortured analogy. I'm rambling and hungry. But the bottom line is there are avocations heavy on theory and there are avocations heavy on practice and mixing sound is a practice-heavy avocation. Does that make sense?
Similiar sounding to when I studied Architectural Technician in college instead of Architecture at University. Many graduates of the University program ended up coming to my program after realizing they spent years not sleeping so they could draw pretty pictures but never used AutoCAD. My profs threw so much shade at University grads, one even described us as future dream ruiners for architects who didn't understand physics or the building code.
I went to a school with a really well-regarded architecture program. I was friends with more of a few architecture students, since they were the only other people using the SGI boxes late at night. Absolutely none of them are working as architects now, and not for lack of trying. I'm left with the impression that it's a really brutal degree for how hard it is to actually work as an architect.
The University in my city also has a highly regarded program but they don't teach the students enough to be respected by others in the field. Which sucks because they do spend years missing out on sleep more than most degrees. In college we learnt everything, we spent a week just learning about wood. If something is in or around a house we were taught about it which makes it much easier to communicate with tradespeople and contractors. We were taught multiple different softwares as well and we went over the entire building code. That thing comes in a box and you have to assemble it yourself. I remember when I went in to buy it there was a big note on the side of every box saying the entire box was in fact one unit. The thing is as well if you spend an extra year in college you can become an Architectural Technologist who can design stuff, so why should somebody hire an architect ? I steer anybody who asks me towards college for most things but especially this.