I have been looking into the Recording Workshop for a while now. Has any one here attended it? Could you give me some opinions on what your experience was like?
bent Moderator
Joined: Oct 26, 2007
Posts: 1651
Location: Cocoa Beach, Fl
I went there (ahh the lovely smell of the paper mill) but that was almost 20 years ago.
I took the main program, the studio maintenance/troubleshooting and the advanced program. The first two were great and very helpful. The advanced was really just more recording time which was fun but I think you would get what you need out of the first two.
I learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of a studio. Learned things like the difference between condenser and dynamic mics, signal flow and tape machine calibration/alignment. I guess they don't teach that last one anymore.
Anyway, I can recommend the place. It got me a gig at a major studio for a while and I had the time of my life working there. If you don't know much, but want to, it's a great starting place.
_________________ "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible"
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)
patrick_like_static Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Sep 26, 2004
Posts: 417
Location: Springfield, Missouri, USA
Yes, pr0gr4m! That was literally one of the worst, most potent things I've ever smelled. It permeated for miles.
JOL: I only took the main course, and that was in 2003. As per pr0gr4m's experience, I know my attending was instrumental in landing me my internship. The staff is generally very helpful to graduates and will take time to put in a good word for you if you request it.
You'll learn a bunch at RW -- with classes and projects 14 hours a day, it's hard not to. However, my main concerns are as follows:
* The program as a whole felt rushed. Being there was like a whirlwind.
* Not enough time or roaming freedom to hang out in the studios and around the equipment.
* The technology felt a little dated: older microphones, older techniques, recording and editing with nonvisual media, et al.
* Logistically, for $3,000, the money might have been better put to use buying quality gear and devoting time to experimenting and researching forums such as this one.
A main benefit is that you'll have a fairly reputable program backing for you after graduation; also, as someone who was fairly ignorant about recording arts when I went up there, I felt a sense at the end that a life in that field was closer within my reach. Definitely a great starting place.
RemyRAD Moderator
Joined: Sep 26, 2005
Posts: 3124
Location: Washington DC Virginia suburbs
Oh, I did a gospel remote in Charleston South Carolina. When I drove into town I thought I was going to puke! But I had to deal with that smell for three days. And all they kept on singing was how they got saved while I was choking to death in my remote truck! No wonder we're using our computers so much these days. Yuck!
Gag me with a spoon
Remy Ann David
Thomas W. Bethel Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Dec 12, 2001
Posts: 1841
Location: Oberlin, OH
I have had three graduates of the Recording Workshop apply for jobs here at Acoustik Musik. I have to say that I was underwhelmed at their general lack of knowledge. In one case the graduate told me he knew all about tape deck maintenance so I gave him the manual for our Otari MTR-10 an alignment tape, some fresh tape stock and an oscillator and told him to align the machine. He looked really scared and started sweating. Turns out that his "experience" was all from books and watching someone else do the maintenance and he had never touched a tape deck. So much for knowing "all about tape deck maintenance". One of the other graduates told me that he was never allowed to mix down what he had recorded and only mixed down some "standard" tracks that everyone else was required to do. If you can't take a recording project from beginning to end I wonder what the school is really trying to teach their graduates.
I know with most of these programs you get out of them what you put in and maybe the three people I had applying for jobs were not the norm for the graduates of the Recording Workshop but all three of them seemed to have the same problem.
I guess you get what you pay for and how involved you are in what is being presented.
_________________ -TOM-
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thomas W. Bethel
Managing Director
Acoustik Musik, Ltd.
Room with a View Productions
Oberlin, OH 44074
http://www.acoustikmusik.com
thedino Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Jan 04, 2008
Posts: 15
Location: boca raton fl
i am a graduate of this school and i did all the programs there and like people have been saying its all what you put into the program you do get plenty of time to mix and be in the studio and you can do entire projects from start to finish you the student have the choice to decide if you only want to work on certain mixes and yes it is a blur and goes by so fast but you get a taste of everything from signal flow to game audio the staff is very knowledgable they are very outgoing with helping you out in the studio if you need and will make one on one time with you if needed the equipment there is of good quality but of course some things are better than others all the studios are different there not everything has the same exact gear in it but they try to give a general learning curve with trying out a whole lot of equipment but a really good thing about this place is there is nothing to do there in chillicothe, ohio so really all you do is focus on learning and thats about it. i wish the advanced programs were alot longer especially the studio maintenance troubleshooting course which was only a week long and basically it was a crash course in that area i mean you did get hands on but not enough to have it stick in your head
but all in all its a good school you will learn alot but there will always be new things to learn in the recording business i hope this helped you make some sort of decision
BobRogers Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Apr 04, 2006
Posts: 1075
Location: Blacksburg, VA
i am a graduate of this school and i did all the programs there and like people have been saying its all what you put into the program you do get plenty of time to mix and be in the studio and you can do entire projects from start to finish you the student have the choice to decide if you only want to work on certain mixes and yes it is a blur and goes by so fast but you get a taste of everything from signal flow to game audio the staff is very knowledgable they are very outgoing with helping you out in the studio if you need and will make one on one time with you if needed the equipment there is of good quality but of course some things are better than others all the studios are different there not everything has the same exact gear in it but they try to give a general learning curve with trying out a whole lot of equipment but a really good thing about this place is there is nothing to do there in chillicothe, ohio so really all you do is focus on learning and thats about it. i wish the advanced programs were alot longer especially the studio maintenance troubleshooting course which was only a week long and basically it was a crash course in that area i mean you did get hands on but not enough to have it stick in your head
but all in all its a good school you will learn alot but there will always be new things to learn in the recording business i hope this helped you make some sort of decision
So you missed the day when they discussed putting periods at the end of sentences and capital letters at the beginning. Were you with my son that day?
TVPostSound Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Feb 15, 2006
Posts: 624
Location: Burbank, CA
One of my interns does that all the time. He never capitalized the beginning of sentences and NO punctuation at all. I guess he is from the "text messaging" generation. He also writes a lot of his notes in text messaging shorthand and I need to have him translate them for me.
Typical message.
Bill cld wnts 2 hv din w u nxt wk - which translates into Bill called and wants to have dinner with you next week. I can see it as a way of saving time and key strokes on a cell phone but ?????? on a phone message pad?
I can see my High School English teacher rolling over in her grave.
Someone call the Guinness World Records I think this maybe the longest sentence in the English language - no wait here is some additional information off the WWW
Jonathan Coe's new novel - The Rotters' Club - contains a sentence of 13,955 words.
We believe that this is the longest single sentence in the English language, easily outstripping Molly's soliloquy at the end of Ulysses.
According to Dr Lucia Boldrini, Lecturer in English Literature at Goldsmiths College, London, the longest of the eight sentences in Molly's monologue is 4,391 words.
Coe had no knowledge of this - he thought Joyce still held the record - and was, er, delighted to find out.
_________________ -TOM-
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thomas W. Bethel
Managing Director
Acoustik Musik, Ltd.
Room with a View Productions
Oberlin, OH 44074
http://www.acoustikmusik.com
Last edited by Thomas W. Bethel on Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
BobRogers Recording Org Pro Audio Group
Joined: Apr 04, 2006
Posts: 1075
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Sorry you could not appreciate my input on a subject that somebody was trying to get serious information about. I guess just continue to pollute this post with immature discussions about my grammar.
JoeH Moderator
Joined: Jun 22, 2004
Posts: 1779
Location: Philadelphia, PA
No dino, the problem wasn't that we couldn't APPRECIATE your input, it was UNREADABLE OK???? The fact that someone even let you INTO their school - ANY SCHOOL - with such poor writing skills is frightening in and of itself. (I guess the prerequisite for this school in question is just CASH, eh?)
If you can't properly punctuate a couple of declarative, descriptive & narrative sentences, then yep: I don't WANT your opinion. This is a forum where communication is key. And unless I missed a memo somewhere, the language of choice here is STANDARD ENGLISH, with standard punctuation rules in place. (Not bashing anyone from non-English speaking countries, just pointing out that one common language is the easiest mode of communication.)
Ignoring the rules of communication in written language in this business is just as moronic and potentially dangerous as ignoring the rules of good grounding, good mic placement, good tuning, and good mixing skills.
Your poor writing skill SCREAMS to the world you have never cracked a book, never read a manual, never had to properly document a session, and never had to communicate with an important client in writing. I shudder to think what you'd do with something as basic as a client's CD label or packaging materials. (Frankly, I'd never let you NEAR a client in my world.)
You ARE correct about two things, though: I do NOT want your opinions (when written the pitiful way you did), and you ARE polluting the forum.
_________________ Joe Hannigan, Producer
WestonSound.com - Philadelphia, PA
Acoustic Music Forum co-moderator.
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