looking for some advice, studying sound engineering soon

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 10:52 pm

I've enrolled in a diploma of sound engineering and audio production at a place called the "JMC Academy" in Brisbane, Qld, Australia. I'm hoping to bridge from that further into an assiociate degree, but for starters, my experience is in doing the live mixing for local bands at bars and working as a digital audio editor for local television - in other words - 4 years of work experience like this. I've recorded and mixed demos of friends and myself for the past 4 years too. In fact, it was the combination of all these factors since leaving high school that got me interested in this field, which I've stated so you can gather where I come from before I elaborate on my question...

I've been told that there's a lot of theory in this course, people keep telling me a lot of mathematics, I've personally learned in teaching myself from various manuals and guides to mastering and mixing - that there is a mathematics at work there. Now I've only graduated high school with my cerificate for "just" passing english and mathematics, as I had some learning difficulties at that time. Since then I've overcome it all and feel confident and ready, it's just that I'm a little cautious about stepping into something that might be over my head.... so I ask... what is this "theory" they speak of exactly? This could be something I'm VERY familiar with... it's just that I've not yet had the chance to speak to a teacher at the Academy to clarify this and it's making me impatient... so I'm wondering if anyone here knows anything about what to expect "theory" wise?

Thanks for your help

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 9:27 am

I have a fair Idea of what they will teach you there.
I know quite a few people from "Audio Engineering" from JMC down here in Melbourne.
It's a bullmerde degree from a bullmerde school.
Pardon my French.
I'm not saying you shouldn't study at JMC, you may have a wonderful time as the Brisbane campus might be different from the one I know.
I honestly suggest going to the campus, seeing who is around talking to students and asking what they do there for fun etc. The course work is TAFE stuff, the theory is simplified digital signal processing.
The Melbourne campus had absolutely no tech with no competent teachers and reeks of a fake school set up to take advantage of international students seeking visa's to Australia and needing a school to study at.
My two cents and then some...

Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 12:03 am

I'm another one who has actually been in the business for well over 37 years. I don't think much of most any recording school. Most are pretty awful and many have former students teaching current students. Basically the blind leading the blind. I've actually had to train some of the teachers at the second-largest independent recording school in the country, Omega recordings of science and arts of Rockville Maryland. Sure, those kids know ProTools but they don't know how to make actual recordings with real microphones in a practical manner. So I wouldn't personally, necessarily, hire anybody that went to a quickie recording school. I think you would learn more by just doing it like many of us have. There was no kind of schooling for this when I was in school. You took mass communications or electrical engineering, broadcast journalism, etc. I never went to college. I only believe in it if there is a specific thing you want to learn. But teaching people how to make bad recordings, badly is not going to get you any kind of work. But if you are desperate? This could at least exposed to further to a studio like environment that you are paying for. Might I suggest you merely book yourself a couple of rock-and-roll sessions & pick the engineer's brains. After all you are paying him by the hour. The great inexpensive way to get hands-on training without dealing with fraudulent schools just trying to keep their doors open. Remember, there is a sucker born every minute.

I prefer Tootsie pops
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 12:42 am

I started at JMC academy last year and i can't understand why do so many people have a problem with it? I have heard nothing nice about it at all and its not merely as horrible as you all think.

To be perfectly honest, yes, theres maths involved, it's more physics though. Lots of equations in acoustics, so long as you remember them and understand them you'll be fine.

In sound design you need to no about MIDI and a bit of basic IT that you get taught. such as binary, hexadecimal conversions etc etc.

You get the same amount of hours as other colleges and even universities if you count the extra 4hours of practical time you should study outside or at school. NO, it's not like tafe at all.

You learn proTools. However, if your interested in the film business yes you should save and buy a good synth program because JMC pushes protools and reason, which i don't fancy for film. I can't even afford protools though let alone other programs =(

You learn about basic music theory.

I personally found it difficult to start off with but i suppose i never had any experience before i started, you should do well.

Sydney have some great teachers, a few of my lecturers own or work in studios, one of them is the founder of the Audio technology magazine, and every year he takes students overseas to record all sorts of things.

I don't know about Melbourne or Brisbane but, Sorry to disappoint you, JMC academy is just as good as any other music college. So it's not as big as SAE, you can't base your judgment on one opinion you say you've heard from a friend or a friend of a friend of a friend etc etc.

They think you are capable to do the course, than you'll get in

You get good teachers and bad teachers

Subjects you enjoy and some you don't

However, i find unlike giant universities small colleges can sometimes be a bit unorganized. It took me ages to find my student forum. I actually stumbled upon this one whilst looking for JMC's...I just wanted to state my opinion, being the only person to answer this blog thats actually attended Be sure to call your college and ask for the website

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:35 am

"NO, it's not like tafe at all."
Yes, unlike T.A.F.E the academy is not about Technical and Further Education, it's about cash flow.
It isn't funded federally so it costs you thousands ($12,000 or $13,000) a year not the $200 or so a TAFE does. Currently I'm getting a degree in Engineering from a University for less than $5000 a year. What does that say?
It's not a University.
It's a private school.

Instead of HECS (what you get at a university that gets all upitty and wants to charge thousands per year for a degree, as long as you go through HECS ie. from high school not as a full fee paying adult) it has a system called Fee-Pay, with it's nice low 20% fee on top of you already massive tuition costs, it's YOU who pays the fee.

I know two individuals quite well who went to JMC in Melbourne and studied Audio Engineering and another individual who studied Business Management. All three helped me to have the opinions I have.

I would definitely go and check the campus out. Find out the tech you'll be using, meet your lecturers and the students.
But if it were me, I'd take that $24,000 for a diploma (what you get from TAFE for $400) and buy 384 (approx) hours in different studios and some books.
You might learn a thing or two.

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:41 pm

How can anyone say that one school is as good as the other, when they haven't attended the other school?
I have to say that the people I've dealt with who were fresh outta Full Sail or some other money pit were smug, know-it-alls who could re-set an SSL, but didn't get any real exposure to the "real world" situation of dealing with the personalities of musicians and producers, all striving to make music. Like some of the others have already pointed out, exposure and experience will carry you a great deal further than crunching numbers. Knowing the difference between "no" and "know" doesn't hurt, either...

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:53 pm

Noticed how both Hal and Emma cut and run? One post?
Notice the boring prose written in a style of someone with an ABI or a marketing student/exec?
Prove me wrong...

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:26 am

Very astute observation, Greener. Perhaps they were scoping the site for suckers, no?

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:20 pm

I'm a sucker for trolls.

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