 Fran Ashcroft: The No Future Jobs Scheme – Part 2
I had a long chat with a Recording and Production student this week, following my recent blog on the subject. Whilst his college had some things of value to offer, they were not being at all effective in some crucial areas – notably providing adequate studio time.
“How many projects have you recorded?” asks I.
“Three songs in an entire year”.
Don’t you find that disgraceful? You do 3 songs in a weekend, and that’s being generous with time. Spread out over a year, what can anyone really gain from that? Considering the cost of tuition fees, it seems like a raw deal to me.
In two years, they’d never worked on anything “out of the box”. This I think is common practise – and reminds me of the 3rd year work experience student unfortunate enough to be on one of my sessions who kept hearing a worrying noise, and asked what it might be.
Tape rewinding.
Once we’d cleared that up, he could get on with the important job of erasing vocal tracks by mistake.
Of course colleges have a large number of students to accomodate, and there are only so many studio hours available – but I didn’t get the impression students were especially encouraged to use their initiative and get their own little recording set ups together. Perhaps they took it for granted that the most dedicated ones would be doing that already. Or maybe they just wouldn’t want anyone teaching themselves.
It might be better if some of these recording degree courses got away from their “module this” and “module that” structure, and took a leaf of of traditional Art School methods; give ‘em a space, a recorder, a mic, and let them get on with it.
Oh, wait a minute – you can do that at home!
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Interesting read however as a student studying sound tech myself I’d say try not to tar all colleges/universities with the same brush. I agree that it is disgraceful that the student you talked to had only recorded three tracks in the entire year however I feel that universities and colleges can only do so much, while they should actively encourage students to go out and get their own projects together, it shouldn’t be something that’s forced as I feel it sorts out the men from the boys so to speak.
If students can’t be bothered to have the drive to book bands to record in the studio then they are never going to have the drive when it comes to working from the ground up as a teaboy in a studio when they go to get a job.
Personally I think collages with are going to offer sound tech should either do it properly, invest heavily and have high standards with few students or not do it at all as I get the feeling that the reputation of courses like Sound Tech are extremely low due to the majority of courses being poor and graduating low quality students which brings reputable courses down as well.
Jonathan:
Another ‘clearing up’ point, just to say that we are given opportunity, albeit limited by studio availability, and indeed I have taken advantage of that and recorded as much as possible. The issue becomes whether I’m in a minority (yes), and whether my work is up to scratch. The latter has been my issue (and this still will reflect my course) hence why I’ve more recently been hovering around places like recordproduction.com and gotten to know professionals as much as possible, which I’ve come to realise is of great benefit.
Also regarding your point about going out to get a job as a teaboy after you graduate: there’s a debate to be had there, for me the fact that we’re paying for university education and then going in at the same level as if we had not studied. For me it does raise a question of the value of a sound tech or production course.
While I agree that starting out as a “teaboy” after spending much time and money in school, the fact is that those with some form of education will generally rise faster than those who have not studied and are coming in with only a sense of enthusiasm and interest. Those of use with enthusiasm, interest AND education will have a better chance of moving up the ladder.
Just a few things I ought to mention as the said ‘recording and production student’. In the 2nd year, 1 studio is available to us to work out of the box, with a relatively good set of hardware; decent compressors, an parametric EQ, lexicon reverbs. However, this is restricted in availability and what availability there is, is not for long enough to truly have time to work at a mix and learn how to use the outboard.
To an extent, we have been encouraged to get out and record by ourselves, at home and in the little studio time available, and I have learnt in that sense, simply by practising, but as we discussed, the fact that this is not with the tutelage of an experienced producer/engineer (no number of lectures can make up for this), little can really be achieved.
There are some excellent UK universities and colleges out there running some excellent courses, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Jewel and Esk, Leeds, Future Works, Coventry, Glamorgan, Stafford, Guildford etc etc etc. Just thought I should make sure that we dont intend knocking some of these excellent places but there are one or two places that are lacking. This is why the MPG and APRS formed JAMES to vet many courses but so far they have only managed to vet a few dozen.
If there had been courses in recording and production when i started out, I’d have been first in the queue – regardless of the standard…just to be in a studio of any kind!
I would not feel as strongly on this subject if students didn’t have tuition fees to pay. Otherwise we’re like America, where it all boils down to profit and loss, not education.
This is a much hotter topic than I’d have expected. I think that education (for music and production) is an area that we need to put more effort in on the site over coming months. Any people who would like to put their points of view for discussion are very welcome to contribute, students, lecturers and employers.
Hi Fran,
I just graduated from a 4-Year school that taught audio amongst other things, and I think the main problem with these schools is the students are not doing enough outside of classes. I’ve interned in LA and Boston, I’ve assisted in live classical recordings, I’ve rigged 1200-seat theaters for awards shows, and I helped build cables for a studio’s revival. I’ve worked at a radio station with live performances, and have recorded 60+ local and national acts, from a singer-songwriter to a 9-piece musical ensemble (all in the same room!). I’ve been able to record jazz, classical, musical theater, a capella, punk, reggae, folk, indie, and rock. I was a member of the school’s AES chapter and we held several events this past year.
It’s not about investing heavily in equipment. While I was finishing up a friend’s work at NYU, the tech there was surprised I wanted to use the Distressors; nobody there really used outboard gear. It’s not about the classes you have, because everybody takes those. It’s about setting yourself apart from the other students and taking advantage of everything the tuition money lets you do. I wouldn’t have had most of these opportunities if I was not enrolled in my school, and I’m thankful for every one of them.
Well done Nicole, you have just the right attitude! I’m sure that you will be successful
I believe I know the student that you were talking to, as I am on the same course, and you are right in saying that they don’t encourage initiative, or in fact using the facilities for any outside work. In fact, two weeks into the second year we got an email from our tutor telling us that we shouldn’t be using the facilities for anything outside coursework, to allow availability to students who want to get working on the coursework. An understandable request, certainly later on in the year when work is into full swing, but I do feel that the college could be pushing us a little more than they currently are. The tutor that I mentioned later told us that the order had come from higher up, and he would prefer students taking more initiative, but its is an unfortunate side-effect of our education system that a pass is seen by the government as a better thing than coming out with a real education.
I’m in more or less the same boat as the afore-mentioned student, and could have done a lot more in the two years I’ve had so far, but I’ve certainly had my eyes opened from going on a few RP courses and meeting Mike, George and the guys at Modern World (frankly, Nicky P puts me to shame). Great to read as ever Fran
Hi Jack,
I’m glad you’ve been to some of the RP events, which certainly provide a perspective from working professionals that college can’t really offer.
Mike – maybe we’ll have to do an event especially for these poor suffering students!
Fran, that sounds like a great idea, maybe up in Liverpool or Manchester?
excellent – it would be good to have an RP event up here. Let’s say it would be somewhat of a contrast to Recording School!
We should have a chat about that.
Hi Jack!
An event up north would be fantastic and i’m pretty sure me and Jack would love to be involved in the organising if indeed it does end up being themed around exposing students like ourselves to professional recording practice.
Like you said Fran, the opportunity to be on a course like this is brilliant, on our year we were rounded down from 900 or so applicants to 40 on the course, and I greatly appreciate the college taking me on despite my inexperience in recording, theres just a few things in the teaching content and general ‘ethos’ that need refining.
Its great that this has become such a hot discussion, the future of music production (and inherently, the quality of music) needs to be talked about.
thanks everyone for your response – in light of that we are indeed planning an RP event. See my next blog, The No Future Job Scheme Part 3; we’d like your input.