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Author Topic: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?  (Read 15619 times)

Barry Hufker

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Re: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?
« Reply #60 on: October 04, 2010, 12:21:05 AM »

I'm not sure that's true.  A person can certainly demonstrate passion for a subject to another person.  That person can convey excitement and skill.  It is up to the observer to be open to the passion and to allow it to be instilled.  It is then up to the observer to nurture that new passion within themselves.

Not everyone will fall in love with audio just as not everyone finds the same person attractive.  But education can do much.

Mostly what formal education does is teach critical thinking to a student, provide necessary tools to a student (who can't afford them on his/her own), demonstrate mastery of those tools to the student, provide learning experiences (when a client would not go to a novice), guide a developing aesthetic, streamline learning experiences (minimizing the fumbling one goes through when learning) and help the student interpret what is being learned.

One can do that on one's own but it would take a lot longer and possibly not with the same high quality result.  Further, if all a person wants to do is to "learn audio" then they can do that but at a liberal arts university one also learns how to think, how to live in the world and how to approach life - all in a manner that doesn't usually happen in any other process.

Again, I believe the graduates from Webster University are educated people who choose to work in audio production, although they could work in many fields.  This is in opposition to those people who only know audio production (or any one field) and could not do anything else to save their lives.  This second group of people is "doomed" to do the one thing they've learned because they don't have the tools (within themselves) to do much else, if anything.

Barry
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Thomas W. Bethel

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Re: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?
« Reply #61 on: October 04, 2010, 08:00:13 AM »

Barry Hufker wrote on Mon, 04 October 2010 00:21



Not everyone will fall in love with audio just as not everyone finds the same person attractive.  But education can do much.

Mostly what formal education does is teach critical thinking to a student, provide necessary tools to a student (who can't afford them on his/her own), demonstrate mastery of those tools to the student, provide learning experiences (when a client would not go to a novice), guide a developing aesthetic, streamline learning experiences (minimizing the fumbling one goes through when learning) and help the student interpret what is being learned.

One can do that on one's own but it would take a lot longer and possibly not with the same high quality result.  Further, if all a person wants to do is to "learn audio" then they can do that but at a liberal arts university one also learns how to think, how to live in the world and how to approach life - all in a manner that doesn't usually happen in any other process.

Again, I believe the graduates from Webster University are educated people who choose to work in audio production, although they could work in many fields.  This is in opposition to those people who only know audio production (or any one field) and could not do anything else to save their lives.  This second group of people is "doomed" to do the one thing they've learned because they don't have the tools (within themselves) to do much else, if anything.

Barry



Well said as usual...I was talking to a 30 year old friend who just got her Masters degree in art. Her father is a emeritus professor of audio and music technology and her mother is a retired high school music teacher.

We started talking about the current crop of students in college.

She said that it was amazing to her that the current under graduate college students did not seem to want to take time to learn the fundamentals of what they were in college supposedly learning to do but instead wanted to jump right into the creative phase. Her specialty is metal jewelry art and there is a lot to learn about metallurgy and materials technology before a person can start making jewelry but the students she was helping learn had virtually no interest in learning any of that and wanted to immediately start creating the look of the jewelry before they had learned any of the fundamentals of the craft that makes it work.

I have noticed the same thing about a lot of college students who are studying to become audio engineers. They want to start "creating" before they know any of the technology or the whys and wherefores of the ways things work. They are, in many cases, putting the cart before the horse. They seem to be driven to "create" and not to worry about the technology behind their creations.

Two of my students are enrolled in a college audio technology course. They seem to be more concerned with producing something "meaningful" than in learning the technology behind the equipment that they are using. That premise is not bad in an of itself but it has been my experience that until you know the equipment you are using it is hard to be creative with it. I started taking photographs with an old Argus C-3. I messed up more pictures that I was proud of, then I took a course in photography and I started to understand f stops and shutter speeds and their relationship to each other. Today my 17 year old niece takes great pictures with her digital camera and never worries about anything in the camera...she just points and shoots and if the first one does not come out correctly she just takes another and tosses the first one into the trash on the computer. I guess that maybe the way people are currently looking at audio production.

When you take the time to show the students the technology and explain why things work the way they do they feign interest but you can sense that they really don't care.

It seems with the current crop of students to be all about the creative process and not about technology.



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Thomas W. Bethel
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Acoustik Musik, Ltd.
Room With a View Productions
http://www.acoustikmusik.com/

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24-96 Mastering

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Re: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?
« Reply #62 on: October 04, 2010, 10:34:17 AM »

If it means anything, I studied Sound Technology in university / arts college. Not sure if that qualifies for an "audio engineering school", and I'll admit that I chose to do this after already having worked full time in a studio for a while, but I will say that it was a fantastic experience and immensly useful.

I believe quality of education in any facility or institution is depending mostly on the teachers and I've been very lucky with what I got; the head of department especially was a great mentor, influencial on many levels. And the quality of the facilities and frequent collaboration with students from other arts courses was great too. Still, there were a few students in my year on which it all seemed a bit wasted, who didn't really seem to want to "get into it"... but I assume this to be the case, whatever the specific education/career path.

I guess in the classic 'tea boy -> studio intern -> assistant engineer -> engineer' career pathway, those who are all talk and don't want to actually walk may get weeded out quicker, but that doesn't make the academic path any less useful to the rest. Those willing to learn will learn will usually do so Smile

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Christopher Wilson

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Re: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?
« Reply #63 on: October 04, 2010, 03:38:30 PM »

Thomas W. Bethel wrote on Mon, 04 October 2010 07:00


Well said as usual...I was talking to a 30 year old friend who just got her Masters degree in art. Her father is a emeritus professor of audio and music technology and her mother is a retired high school music teacher.

We started talking about the current students in college.

She said that it was amazing to her that the current college students did not seem to want to take time to learn the fundamentals of what they were in college supposedly learning to do but instead wanted to jump right into the creative phase. Her specialty is metal jewelry art and there is a lot to learn about metallurgy and materials technology before a person can start making jewelry but the students she was helping learn had virtually no interest in learning any of that and wanted to immediately start creating the jewelry before they had learned any of the fundamentals of the craft that make it work.

I have noticed the same thing about a lot of college students who are studying to become audio engineers. They want to start "creating" before they know any of the technology or the whys and wherefores of the ways things work. They are, in many cases, putting the cart before the horse. They seem to be driven to "create" and not to worry about the technology behind their creations.

Two of my students are enrolled in the college in audio technology courses. They seem to be more concerned with producing something meaningful than in learning the technology behind the equipment that they are using.

When you take the time to show them the technology and why things work the way they do they feign interest but you can sense that they really don't care.

It seems to be all about the creative process and not about technology.


For your thirty-year-old friend to have said such a thing is quite refreshing!

Having graduated from a fine arts college, and a recording college, I must reluctantly confirm the general lack of interest for history and repertoire present in academia.  Unfortunately for the unengaged student, this lack of knowledge is often what defines his/her work.  Not in every case, but often enough.

Does anyone know if it's always been this way, or did the digital revolution changed things, or something else?

Agreed that the market is changing shape more than it's disappearing.  But, things have always been changing.  The recording industry changed music from a service based business to (largely) a product based business during the 20th century.  So, things are just shifting somewhere else now. . .

Those who blazed their own trail are far more valuable to history anyway.  And, historically thinking, expecting to make a living right out of the gate isn't realistic.

Choreographer Paul Taylor spent almost twenty years squatting in his studio, living off a hot-plate (he graduated from Juilliard).  B
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Christopher Wilson

Barry Hufker

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Re: Where are all the Audio Engineering School Graduates going to work?
« Reply #64 on: October 04, 2010, 06:42:31 PM »

I don't know if it has "always been this way" but in a given class (in my estimation), 10% are really into the subject and are strongly motivated.  The next 10% are interested and motivated but need guidance.  The remaining 80 percent are up for grabs.  Most of them will drift away from the subject even if it is their major.  Some will continue to dabble in it.  Some will never touch it again once they leave school.

Pioneers: it's the old saying "a pioneer is just someone with a lot of arrows in his ass".  Statistically, if a freelance engineer (for instance) were to start today seeking clients, it will be the better part of a decade before he/she has enough clients to generate a steady income.

Barry
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