Hi dimefreak.
I think that Bill's advice, although thoughtfull, is a little misleading. Shure, only 2 out of 10 people get a job, but he forgot to specify. 2 out of 10 get a job in the music industry, 5 out of 10 get a job in the radio/broadcast industry and 9 out of 10 get a job in the post production/location audio industry.
I got into this buisness about two years ago. I did exactly what Bill said to do. I went to a post production studio to get a foot in the door. Within three weeks I was a mix engineer and chief foley engineer and getting paid well. I learnt to use their console well, and learnt pro tools as well. After about a year of that, I got restless beacuse I really wanted to be in the music engineering business.
I went to a recording studio nearby. I used my connection at the post production studio to get a foot in the door at the studio. Shure enough, within 3 weeks I was engineering demos for bands and working in most of the studios. I learnt to use their equiptment very well. In the back of my mind was the idea of going to school, but I felt that I had learnt soo much in a year of being in the industry that I didn't need to go to school, but then something happened. The studio refurbished the studio that I used on a regular basis. They gave it all new equiptment, and a completely different console, and everyone had to re-learn to use the console, and the rest of the new equiptment. It took me, and everyone else a few weeks to get used to the controls and learn to troubleshooting it. One of the employees at the studio was there when the console arrived, as was I. Once it was setup, he and I sat down to figure it out. Within an hour, he was able to work every aspect of it, and, within two hours, he had a band in there recording a demo on it. I couldn't figure out how he was able to use it right away. He told me that he went to OIART (oiart.org) or the Ontario Institue for Audio Recording Technology.
The point of the story was to point out that, yes you can learn a whole lot by going into a studio and being an intern, but you only learn what is available in that studio. You learn the console they have but could have no idea how to work any other console. The reason that my fellow employee was able to learn the new console really quickly was because at OIART, they taught him how to read a schematic diagram for a console. Every diagram for every console is drawn using the same priniples, which means that if you can read the diagram, you can learn the console, and troubleshoot the console, because all you have to do is look at the diagram, and follow the signal flow for what you need to do.
On top of that, they also teach you about MIDI, Auditory Imagery, Audio for Pictures, Studio Maintenance, How Microphones Work, Microphone use and placement, Recording Technology, Digital Technology, Music Theory, and a lot more.
In short, the teach you everything you need to know to be an audio engineer, and absolutely nothing you don't.
Also, every teacher is an Audio Engineer who work in the studio. The school is actually a studio, and the classroom is the control room. In labs, you do your own recordings with bands, or what ever you choose to do.
I am a student there now, and I am amazed at the amount of information I didn't learn after two years of being in the industry, that I have learnt in the first 2 weeks of classes. Ihe accept students from all over the world. The program is 11 months long and is extremely time consuming, as is the audio industry. Their hire rate is 100% if you graduate with honors, and 95% if you don't. The also have three people whose job it is to contact employers and get them interested in hiring a student after he/she graduates. Four of last year's graduates are working at Metalworks, which is Canada's most well known recording studio.
I would highly recomend this school, but in general, would highly recomend going to school.
You will learn things that a studio can't teach you.
Feel free to email me with any questions you have.
brodie@divinechaos.f2s.com
BSeaman
