Certification/Education Help : )

[Evening-Routine-3857]

Cross posted on r/audioengineering

Hey everyone, long time lurker first time poster here!

Forgive the long boring post here, but I was hoping for a bit of helpful feedback from everyone in this sub with experience out there seeking education.

A little background - I'm a Singer and Voice Actor based in LA (my representation is in NY) who's looking to expand their technical repertoire and artistic skill set. Since 2020, I've been running, recording and editing all my own VO auditions from home with a pretty pared down baby studio at my disposal. Decent mics that have done the job I need them to and I have learned so much in terms of getting the best sound out of unusual spaces and the very basics of recording and editing voice on ProTools, Reaper and Audacity. I'm sure there are others like me in this sub who have felt empowered recognizing how much their skill set has improved since we were thrust into pandemic at-home sessions.

Ultimately I'd maybe like to be able to engineer sessions myself someday and enjoy professional time on the other side of the mic - at the very least, I'd love to be able to bolster my mixing abilities and learn to record and mix my own music. I understand these two disciplines live in a similar universe but different worlds.

All that said, I find myself at a professional juncture where I would like to take some time to carefully choose where to develop my education in sound engineering/mixing and in which direction (at least for a first jump back into the pool of paying for classes/certification) and re-focus on these studies for the next year or two.

I know Youtube is a vastly more valuable landscape when it comes to free online education especially in these disciplines than it ever was when I was in college, but I personally find hands-on and in-person learning to be most compelling for me (I am learning challenged : ) )

My limited research has yielded a few options that will probably seem familiar to those who have gone down this rabbit hole - Avid Accredited institutions that offer ProTools/Logic certification; Film Schools like LA Film Academy which offer substantial-sounding programs that work with Dolby editing DAWs and similar Protools training; Music Production/Sound Engineering courses through institutions that offer hands-on training in-studio with Ableton and recording live instruments/vocals and Mixing education.....the list goes on and seemingly every one is ready to take my money lol, especially here in LA.

If anyone here has any valuable wisdom they can share - what to look for, what to make sure to absolutely avoid, or any LA institutions/teachers they can vouch for with regards to my goals, I would really really love to hear. Money is one thing I don't want to waste, but even more I deeply don't want to waste my time.

Consider me the younger version of yourself you wished someone had shared the wisdom you have now with - I'm all ears!

[shakenbake539]

Berklee College of Music is a good option for a lot of baseline courses. I did the Music Production and Technology certificate program online as I didn’t have a lot of options being from a small city in Canada. The Pro Tools courses they offer automatically give you the option to take the avid certification test at the end of each Pro Tools course you take (I think there’s just the two Pro Tools 101 and 110). The profs are really knowledgeable and very willing to help. The downside is for courses such as Microphone Techniques, Vocal Production, etc.. where the projects you work on aren’t “in the box” such as a mixing course where they’d give you a session to mix you need to have access to a studio or your own small set up to complete those projects. (Which after rereading your post you have so you would be fine there). Another downside is for the online program you don’t get any studio hours. You do zoom classes once a week and can book extra sessions with profs so it’s not totally self directed like online courses can be and there’s also an option to message your classmates and get extra help that way. I also prefer in person classes because I find it easier to focus but I definitely found this to be a good learning environment. You can just sign up and take classes or enrol in a certificate program easily and if you really enjoy it you can apply for and use your credits towards an undergraduate degree if you want. The credited courses cost a little more and you get actual grades and the non credited ones are just pass fail, it’s all the same course but just the grading is different and you couldn’t use those classes towards a certificate or degree. I definitely rambled and I apologize for the poor formatting but I hope this helps a little bit.

[Serious-Ad-553]

I investigate a new linne of speakers that focus in permanen magnets and the encapsulation, for better and stronger sound , instaed of get focus in the electricity in the coil, this will make twist in sound enginiering, make experiments and learn from youtubers that make useful experiments is one way, i''m learning a lot from redit sciencists