How to Pick a School that Will Prepare You for a Career as a Sound Engineer

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If you want to build a good career, regardless of the profession you are interested in, you need to go to school. For those who want to be a sound or audio engineer, that means going to a proper music school. However, we live in a digital age and era, which means that a lot of things are now offered online, both in terms of studying sound engineering and in terms of working in this field. Hence, you can now find audio engineering schools online, and you may even be able to complete some of their courses online as well. That said, you won’t be able to complete all courses online, as audio engineering is a practical field and you will need to spend a lot of time inside studios as well.

How Studio Learning Works

When you work inside a studio, you will be mentored by a teacher who is a professional in the field. They will show you how to set up, how the equipment works, what types of sound effects you can make, and more. They may even show you how to handle the people inside the studio, as it is not uncommon for the stars you will be recording to have a bit of an attitude. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are divas, but rather that they are under their own stress, which will be reflected in how they work.

A good school will also require you to complete an internship as part of your education, particularly if you study towards a bachelor’s degree. This means that you will gain even more practical experience, required to be the best in your field. Naturally, none of these practical sessions can be completed online, although the technology you will use is likely to be hooked to the internet.

Why it Matters to Be Able to Find Your School Online

You may be wondering why it is important at all that your school can be found online, when audio engineering is such a practical field of work. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, while a lot of your degree will be practical, you should also be exposed to classroom lessons, learning about sound theory, finances, budgeting, managing a studio, and so on. Those classes can be offered online rather than in campus. Whether your school actually offers them online, however, is less reflective of their quality. This is more about convenience.

However, if the school itself cannot be found online, or if the website they have is not user-friendly or intuitive, then you do have something to worry about. This would suggest that your school is not keeping up with modern developments, developments that also affect the audio engineering industry. Hence, when searching for the school you like, a good starting point is to see what their website is like. You should also be able to find any information you need to decide whether or not to enroll there.