I've read books and help files, browsed blogs and youtube, and participated in forums. I wonder if I'm missing out on something big by not registering for a class at Berkeley or some other music school. Have any of you tried it?

I went to a music production school 8 years ago.  It was an amazing experience.   People can dis school all they want.  Dis education all they want.  I've got zero regrets!

I was unceremoniously dumped out of a cartage truck and left with a pile of gear on a loading dock on many occasions.

I felt it was way better than any schooling I had in media production.


Often times it hurt... sometimes it worked out gloriously.


I feel that the best thing you can do is get time in the saddle. If you can find a class situation where that is possible... do it!

If you are considering paying money to watch someone else do it... Call Danny Danzi* for an actual personal video consultation on your personal music.

Watching other people do it is great... but you need to have a full understanding of the context.



If you are dumped on loading dock and left to mix a band that knows exactly what they want... the context becomes alarmingly clear. :-)


Time in the saddle... especially with good content to work with... that's the key. Working with bad content makes it so much slower and you never know what it could have been. 

Get as much mixing experience as you can the way you can make it happen for your self.


Oh and always, always, continue to advance your listening skills. At some stage in your personal journey you'll realize that your listening skills are more important than any mix recipe you will ever consider... that happens once all the tech starts to fade in to familiarity.


best regards,
mike


* that's a for real endorsement Danni... I think your hands on one on one approach is the snizzle. ;-)

Linear Phase


I went to a music production school 8 years ago.  It was an amazing experience.   People can dis school all they want.  Dis education all they want.  I've got zero regrets!

University of Miami?




:-)

mike_mccue

Linear Phase


I went to a music production school 8 years ago.  It was an amazing experience.   People can dis school all they want.  Dis education all they want.  I've got zero regrets!

University of Miami?




:-)

No, not at all :-)

A bit of an acid trip in the city of London.  Long story...

Just wondering... and a sincere question.

I have many friends who went thru UM when it was ground zero for digi music tech and learned the right stuff at the right time.

I have other friends that went to the new style specialty schools and they still don't know if they learned anything.

The school I went to was more traditional music performance and very lite on electro tech. I took the tech courses but was in fact a visual art major so I got what I could from the program and for me a lot of it had to do with simply working gigs with great musicians.


The people I met from UM seemed to be on the vanguard of Pro Tools and DAW... I always wondered just how cool it would have been to be there at that era.

I imagine London would have been exciting.


all the best,
mike
  

The songs forum has been my school of hard knocks.  Add to that all the years I played in bands and worked with the sound crews in those bands. 

But I have to say, the songs forum and the other more technical forums here have yielded a plethora of knowledge. The occasional book has helped to clarify and at times confuse me a bit to one degree or another. 

Jumping in and writing and mixing lots and lots of songs.... not only my own but working on other people's musical projects is without a doubt the best way to learn. Post those songs on the SONG FORUM and ask for mixing, mastering, production, and engineering advice. Then, after getting the advice, you have to apply it and actively be seeking more. 

There are more than a few people here who really know what they are doing and are willing to share that knowledge with you. It doesn't take long hanging and PARTICIPATING here to know exactly who knows their stuff and who is bluffing. Listen to their work...that's all it takes. 

Unless you are looking to get a job in some fancy name studio, why would you need the sheepskin from Berkley if you could learn how to do this well from other sources? 

I did once a while back. There is an outfit in Colorado named Wind Over the Earth that sells high-end studio gear and teaches production techniques for Cubase and ProTools. I paid to bring in my own work and have them load it up and go over how to mix it. We also did about an hour using some tracks from Queen's "Somebody to Love."

It was hands-on with guidance on SUPERIOR monitors. It made it easy to hear what we were doing. I ended up going home, buying a bunch of room treatment and new monitors. My mixes got better from all of the above. The useful part was to see how to build up a mix from scratch, layering, EQing and panning. 

It wasn't too expensive, but it was worth it.

Linear Phase


I went to a music production school 8 years ago.  It was an amazing experience.   People can dis school all they want.  Dis education all they want.  I've got zero regrets!

Same.
 
You can always tell someone's education by how they share ... !!! The best professionals I have ever met, were, by far, the most open and sharing people I have ever met! These include Peter Mark (Virginia Opera), Daevid Allen, Gilly Smith, and others that will remain nameless. Needless to say, I write a lot about them!
 
In my case, I'm a visual person, and I learn a lot more by doing and seeing, than I do by being told ... so when someone points a finger and shows ... is much easier for me, than otherwise. Thus the reason why now and then I ask for help ... it's just that the amount of things in front of me are hard to work with for someone that is half blind ... but musicians (including some pros!) don't know what "blind" means ... they just think the person is stupid!

Nearest I ever got was doing Brian Lee White's mixing masterclass on Lynda.com. 

It wasn't taking a class of course, but as far as video tutorials go these were the best I've seen. He's an excellent teacher.