Recording Schools , Any Good Ideas ?

Q: i have been dead set on going to full sail for the last 8 months , till i ran into this . and now im kinda " on the fence " . so i'm looking for any ideas here . i have been looking from FL to CA and cant really decide. and the thing is that i love music and i know FOR SURE that this is all i want to do !! so anything would be helpfull

A: -I continue to believe that if you REALLY want to work in the industry - go WORK in it. Do what you'd do if you had just graduated from Full Sail - go intern in a studio. You'll be cleaning toilets, making coffee, running errands, etc., but you'll quickly see if the studio is where you want to be. THEN, make a decision on whether or not you want to go to "school" for audio. This is not a slam against Full Sail - but I do question the relevance of facilities like Full Sail given our music industry economy today. Also, I'm a graduate of Full Sail from MANY years ago - and I'm here to tell you that the $30K that they want could go a LONG way towards purchasing a killer studio of your own. The trick is you've got to start somewhere, and if you REALLY want to do it, you will (given enough hard work and paying attention...). Bottom line - make sure that there REALLY is NOTHING else you want to do with your life before you walk down this particular path. As Robert Frost said, its "the road less traveled", but there's a reason it's less traveled - it requires hard work, and dedication to your dream. I personally was miserable trying to do ANYTHING but music, so I'm happy with my decision, but it took over 8 years (post Full Sail) of low paying, near bankruptcy situations before my "dream" started coming true. Do you have that kind of perseverance? -Unless you're independently wealthy, I would carefully consider what you're buying with borrowed money. You could probably attend a state university, buy a rockin' computer-music rig through the school at the "educator's" discount, and still spend less than you would watching someone else tweak the knobs at Full Sail. After you graduate with a degree of some type, you can either earn your shekels with the degree, or, being an enterprising young person, you will have already made a mark on the local college scene, and have started recording and producing the next big things from your part of the world. As those NBTs get known, reviewed, and purchased, your good name gets around, and your network grows, and you work on more and better-paying gigs. What you're buying is debt, if you're getting a school loan. You're buying a lot of debt. An intern I know of locally spent about $50,000 to attend Full Sail, including living expenses, and all of it was done with student loans. That's what this person is looking forward to repaying, which he has to do even when he's working as an unpaid intern at whatever studio. If the intern's lucky, he might get thrown a bone every so often, or actually get minimum wage. Other than that, the intern is off to work at Wal-Mart or Walgreens to eat, pay rent, and pay off his debt. I know it's enticing. Full Sail has some big ol' sexy ads. Before I'd drop enough money to buy a nice BMW into an 11-month studio Disneyworld, I'd consider spending 4 years in a college town recording up and coming bands while getting a little life under my belt. Check out Athens, GA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, NYC, Boston, MA, Nashville-Murfreesboro, TN, Austin, TX, Lawrence, KS, and I'm sure a host of other great places to live cheap and record to your heart's desire.

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