Going To Audio Production School

[MusicallyInspired]

So I've decided to go back to school. I've applied for the Audio in Media 6-month course at Mid-Ocean School of Media Arts. It's their longest and most in-depth course in audio engineering and covers basically everything that has to do with sound production (except mastering). It's a pretty jam-packed course but I'm excited about it nonetheless. It's the only audio production school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, or the whole prairies area of Canada. I think the closest other one is in Ontario.

It required a lot to apply, though. I needed a transcript of my last school, my resume, a cover letter, a 300-word essay on why I want to take this course and my goals of what to do with it, and an interview with the head administrator. The whole course is $8400.00. I checked it out and I'm covered under federal/provincial student loan. But should I be accepted I have 3 weeks to first come up with a $1000 advance instalment to hold my seat (there are only 15 seats!) which is deducted from the total $8400 afterwards. I guess it's a way to filter people out as they get a lot of applications.

A friend and I went in today for a tour of the facility (which caused much drooling on my part) and handed in our applications. I should hear back in a week or two about the interview and I should be receiving a word on whether or not I've been accepted in another 4-6 weeks after that. Once I'm accepted I have 3 weeks to come up with $1000 to hold my seat. So I have about 2 months to come up with the $1000 instalment. That's the only thing that has me worried right now. Of course if I don't make it in this year (September) I'll be continually applying for the next courses (next one is in March) until I make it in!

Wish me luck, folks. I'm really excited about this opportunity...

[Alistair]

All I can say is.. massive luck!!!

[MusicallyInspired]

Thank you, man.

[andrew603]

Cool stuff, and good luck!  Coincidentally, I'll be taking a tour of SAE, New York tomorrow for basically the same reasons. 

Cheers!

[Ari]

I truly envy you, MI, I wish you the best of luck! 

[MusicallyInspired]

I had my interview last week and finally just got my letter today. I'm in!! I just need to come up with another $250 for the seat-holding/registration fee. And then set up the student loan after that.

[Tom]

Excellent!  

[andrew603]

Congratulations!

[Ari]

Congratulations MI!

[MusicallyInspired]

My first day of school was today. Just a two hour orientation and I got my material and everything. But it feels a lot more real now than it did before. Regular classes start tomorrow!

[andrew603]

Cool stuff! 

I'm curious, did they give you any hardware/software to get you started? (not that you need it!)  For example, if I ended up going to SAE NY, they give you a laptop, decent (by my standards) headphones, an ASIO capable interface, and load the laptop with ProTools, Logic, Reason, etc...

Either way, take it all in and enjoy!  Keep us posted.

[MusicallyInspired]

No. We get a binder with some handbook information, manuals on all the equipment used in the school, and a text book which we keep afterwards (Audio in Media 9th Edition). Everything is at the school and cannot leave. They don't give us any software or anything. The software they use there, though, is Reason, Logic Pro, and Pro Tools (all on Macs, I believe).

[Dianne Lewandowski]

I am so very proud of you.  Keep us up to date on what's going on.  Keep your nose to the grindstone - enjoy - and lots of good luck.

[MusicallyInspired]

Thank you!

Today we learned about mic impedance, signal routing, gain construction, signal flow and why and how it transfers the audio signal to different forms of energy (acoustic->electric->magnetic->electric->acoustic), and the different forms of audio cables and how they work. Incredibly interesting stuff. At least to me. The other day we also learned how a sound is basically a group of frequencies playing at the same time. Almost like musical notes all playing at the same time to create one sound like the pluck of a guitar string, stab of a piano key, etc. And the different arrangements of odd/even harmonics and overtones along with the fundamental frequency contribute to giving a particular instrument (or set of vocal chords!) their unique signature and individual tonal quality.

Also discovered that tomorrow we get our schedules for lab times. Which means that on each of our scheduled days, we get to go into the studio after class time and just do whatever we want for two hours! It's gonna be great.

I'm just geeking out over all this stuff. It's like being in a candy factory, as opposed to being in a candy store lol.

[andrew603]

It's like being in a candy factory, as opposed to being in a candy store lol.

<obligatory corny joke>You should make some new sweet licks!</obligatory corny joke>

[MusicallyInspired]

So everyone in my class ALL have Macs or Macbooks (mostly Macbooks). I'm feeling a little left out. There was one guy who was using a PC but then just this week he bought himself a Macbook and Logic as well. One guy even has an iPad.

The peer pressure to cave and invest in one is strong...but I've already invested a lot in a PC and Sonar (which is a PC only program). Those Macbooks are darn attractive, though. Maybe I just wish I had a laptop. All I bring to school is my stupid Nintendo DS with a flash cart and some homebrew applications.

[andrew603]

IMO get FL Studio and show them up!  To my knowledge it's still towing the line as the only Windows-Only DAW.  Check it out, then laugh at the vastly poorer user interface of the Mac software in comparison to it.

I've not come across any DAW that comes near it in the ease of use dept.  You can just start making music as soon as you install it.  I don't think you can say that with a lot of the other stuff that's out there.

Additionally, FL comes with some of the better and/or more unique softsynths and effects plugins on the market, as Image-Line makes both them and FL.

In all seriousness though, you should try out FL Studio.  I've been using it since way back when it was FruityLoops 2.7, for about 10 years now.  They've just released version 9.6 beta as I write this that I've gotta check out.

If you are interested in a DAW to MAKE music, and not as much RECORD music (if that makes sense), I think you would really like it.

[jharris01]

Yes the conspicuous use of apple products among university students in telecommunications and related studies is pretty much common.

So everyone in my class ALL have Macs or Macbooks (mostly Macbooks). I'm feeling a little left out. There was one guy who was using a PC but then just this week he bought himself a Macbook and Logic as well. One guy even has an iPad.

[MusicallyInspired]

I've used FL Studio before. It's not the only Windows-only program, though. Sonar, which I mentioned above, is also Windows only and it's actually a fully-fledged track recording program. FL Studio is only a MIDI sequencer (with a lot of bells and whistles) with very basic audio recording capabilities. I actually liked it, but my partner that I'm working with already had bought Propellerhead Reason 4.0 and it didn't really make sense to buy a new one. Reason is capable of quite a bit, too. Thought, admittedly, not as much as FL Studio for sure.

[MusicallyInspired]

Just had my final exam today. It feels good to finally be finished! Can't wait to get my marks back. Just another day where the administration and teachers take us all our for dinner and then that's it........except for the student loan I have to pay back lol. Can't wait to put my new knowledge to practical use!