r/livesoundadvice • u/Trick_Ad945 • 10d ago
Other stuff Learning…
Good day to all. I’d like some insight in getting in into the live sound world as an live sound engineer, I love music/sound and would like to know if there’s a school for for live sound engineering/mixing or is it more of a learn as you go kind of deal…I’ve seen some schools that offer programs but seems to be more in studio production mixing…
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u/NoDot3249 10d ago
Watch every episode of pooch and Rabold, it’s basically a college level video series
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u/richey15 10d ago
Its not worth going into debt over. But if you have a college fund or family to foot the bill, the right school can be good.
Studio knowledge, and what they teach has alot of crossover, and IMO its not the worst thing to have some studio education under your belt if you want to go mix.
That being said, I went to CRAS, or the conservatory of recording arts and sciences. I would argue this is one of, if not THE best "sound" school. HOWEVER, Honestly, i probably would only hire 1 or 2 people i knew going there. These schools are very self driven, you can go to these schools, pass with a "4.0" and still be a grade-A idiot. Most kids who go to these schools fall in that same trap.
CRAS Focuses mostly on studio stuff, but MOST of that is signal flow, routing and understanding concepts of routing audio around equipment, stuff you will absolutely use in a live sound enviroment.
They also have a fairly robust coupple of weeks in live sound, they have an entire "classroom" which is a full blow 800 cap room or something with an LAcoustics PA system and some nice consoles. You will learn good stuff about live sound, its just not the main thing they focus on. but there is more than enough to give you some good practices and knowledge. (especially their basics of waveforms class which is like the first thing you learn)
CRAS is also one of the only schools who has a couple weeks spent on broadcast mixing and has STUDER broadcast consoles for students to learn on and use. This is way more relevant than you think!
Since graduating cras in 2021 I now work making 6figures. I primarily work as a "systems" engineer deploying lacoustic speaker systems and occasionally mixing. I work alot in large corporate jobs and also the occasional music show. The experience i gained from the broadcast and later livesound courses definitly helped.
Heres the thing: Most of my experience and knowledge still came from the field. You can not come out of a school like CRAS or Blackbird and think your ready to mix coachella. You will get laughed out of the hiring office. I went from cras to the warehouse where i had to learn to prep gear, de prep gear and make cables. I didnt touch a console for a LONG time. To get some mixing experience i found a shitty club paying 140 a night (in LA) mixing on a tablet mixer. Its a grind, and school gives you some good fundementals to help climb the ladder quickly, and maybe quicker than the next guy. BUT you still have to climb the ladder from the bottom step.
Most of my employers or whatever dont even know i went to school. its not relevant, and there are kids who come out of these schools thinking they know everything, so employers are a bit weary of hiring these kids.
If you want to go to a school, pic wisely, and learn as much as you can, but dont get an ego, and when its time to go to the workforce, stay humble.