Why Sound Engineering? #StudentTalk
Living in the peak of the digital era, where everything can be found out on the internet, why should you go to a sound engineering school? Especially in India, the largest Film industry in the world, there’s only so much you can apply what you learn from the internet. You can always study from medical textbooks, but unless you’re in the theatre, getting blood on your hands will you never learn to become a good doctor, able to adapt to the situation.
You pay quite a bit of money for the course because this field isn’t easy. Not everyone can do, it’s a skill and talent-based work. There’s only so much you can learn from a textbook and since music is something that thrives on experimentation and innovation, no textbook can give you the exposure that you need, to be able to adapt, strategize, improvise and execute on the fly. There’s a lot of basics you’ve got to learn before you can dive in. On the internet, the Information available is usually for people who know what they’re doing and/or just seeking advice.
As a student, I finally understood why they did what they did and why they couldn’t do certain things. Although the information may seem unnecessary and insignificant at first, they open up whole new realms of understanding, which I never had when I read the same topics online when I wasn’t serious about entering the music industry. For example, the concepts of gain-staging and signal flow made so much more sense to me than just reading online “that this, this and this should be around-20dB”. And the ear training! You cannot have ear training in the comforts of your home and the internet without the acoustic environment of a studio. And gear, you most probably would never be able to use or learn how the hardware works without being able to touch them with your hand. Essential hands-On experience is something that you won’t get if you’re not part of a studio or a school.
I go to “The Audiophile’s School of Sound Engineering“, also called TASE based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, which teaches Sound and Audio Engineering, Music Production, Music Theory courses. The diploma course is one of the best in the country. The course demands you to have studio hours with hands-on training and a compulsory one-month internship in a field of your choice in the Music Industry. This allows the student to meet important people in the industry and be able to work with some of the leading engineers in the country. The faculty only consists of working professionals, who take time out of their busy schedules to teach at the school. So every class feels like a masterclass and everything we learn is first hand. If you’re looking to join a school for sound engineering and music production, please consider looking at TASE. It’s facilities and gear are top of the line because it is a music studio first, and then a school. It is associated with brands like Universal Audio, Oktava, Vanguard Audio Labs, Focusrite, Focal, Rupert Neve Designs, iZotope, Audio-Technica and many more. Students have access to amazing deals by just showing their ID card.
Just to Re-iterate, consider joining a course for Sound Engineering as it gives you new perspectives on how you work on audio and music in general. It gives you hands-on experience and opportunities that you can’t get elsewhere. Get introduced to people in the industry and build rapport with important people. Learn how to communicate with fellow peers in the industry overall making you a better sound engineer than you could be from just learn from the internet and on your own. The school gives an organic work environment that you cannot get at home. Also, the acoustic environment of a studio is hard to achieve outside of a studio. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you reconsider joining a school.
Learn more here for Sound Engineering Courses in Chennai.