<p>Hello,
I am looking for a college that can give me a great start in the music industry. I'm thinking record producer. I'm a good guitar and piano player, but am not amazing. I work with software and take music theory classes and may attend some sort of production camp in the future. I pull a high GPA and am in the top 10% of my class. I love the NYU Clive Davis recording program but I would prefer not to be suffocated by student loans. I would like to go to a college that prepares me well for the industry. Any suggestions would be great.</p>
<p>Audio/Recording engineering is a tough field that doesn’t always follow the typical college track. I know I will get assailed for saying this, but the on campus program of Full Sail University is actually an amazing program that gets you a great deal of real experience. </p>
<p>Use the search function with (music recording/engineering/producing ) will get you some short threads on the music forum, some advice about every college putting this in different departments. We did this search a year ago, so much depends on whether you want music major in a school that requires audition, how technical you want to go, etc. Look at the schools that show up, keeping in mind that many have debt loads comparable to NYU. S had similar interest description as you, looked at USC, NYU,(probably wouldn’t have got in), LMU, Syracuse. No interest in Nashville. Ended up at LMU, which has been good so far, though emphasis and opportunity is more on Film recording than music, it’s in the School of Film and Television.
Honestly, if the main interest is in studio recording there are much less expensive programs at Junior College.</p>
<p>I would stay away from Full Sail. Far away.</p>
<p>If you’re still looking, check out Capital University, Syracuse, Middle Tennessee State University, Belmont University, and Duqense. Those are just a few but a couple that I have looked at! </p>
<p>Loyola-NOLA; Drexel; UArts (Philly); Columbia College Chicago.</p>
<p>Music producer and recording engineer are two fairly different roles, generally speaking. Of course, practice in the music business is all over the place, as are job titles, and there are producers whose background was in engineering. Traditionally, at least, the producer was the guy who said, “make it sound more peppy” or “more like the Beatles” or whatever, and the engineers were the people who actually recorded stuff.</p>
<p>The other enormous caveat is that the recording industry doesn’t look anything like it did a decade ago, and may barely exist before too long. What path is going to lead where is hard to say, and a lot of them aren’t going to lead anywhere, much.</p>
<p>Three possible paths:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you really just want to record music, there’s the Steve Albini/Larry Crane/Jack Endino route: hang around with musicians, fool around with recording equipment and talk to people who know how to use it. Scrape up money yourself, or from relative or friends, and create your own little studio.</p></li>
<li><p>Get a real EE degree. Then you can actually design equipment, create software plugins and get hired by companies in that business or one of the few old-style professional recording studios.</p></li>
<li><p>Come at it from the business end. Get an MBA or a law degree, acquire a flexible moral compass and start hustling.</p></li>
</ul>