Theta_Frost
Offline
Milwaukee, WI

I'm entering into my junior year of high school this year and consequently I need to start thinking about colleges and start filling out applications.  So what I'm wondering is what are some of the best colleges to study electronics, music theory, the applications of both, etc.  Ones that I have been looking at are, Oberlin, Berklee, Georgia Tech, and Mills, to give you an idea of what I'm after.  I'm open to foreign country suggestions.  I know a few of you have done/are doing things like that (little-scale comes to mind) so if I could get any responses from people who are in the middle of it, that would be great!

Things I DON'T want:
-Comments like "You shouldn't go into a field this hard".

Things I DO want:
-Constructive comments designed to help me and others with similar sentiments.

Keep in mind, that I've made up my mind to do this.  Also, I'm an accomplished trumpet player and vocalist, and will have a pretty good resume both academically and extracurricularily.  I've exhausted almost all possibilities to work with this kind of stuff where I'm at. tongue

Thank you!

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

Don't know your gender, but Mills is a women's only undergraduate school. Great place to study electronic music. Not so sure about their audio engineering.

I've heard good things about Oberlin, but don't have much for specifics. Don't know anything about GT.

Berklee won't offer you much in terms of traditional music. Which might be fine, but to me it's like making LSDJ music without ever having played a game boy game.

Shamless plug; I work at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, CA. Our programs for electronic music, production and other interesting things are on the rise right now. We're rebuilding our recording facilities as we speak (just got home from soldering patchbays today). I've actually been teaching after hours LSDJ lessons to one of our composition students. smile

It's a great opportunity to be in a place with great faculty and not be a small fish in a big pond. Also, we're pretty well connected (and local) to Mills, so your likelihood of getting into the graduate program there might be helped!

Theta_Frost
Offline
Milwaukee, WI
kineticturtle wrote:

Don't know your gender, but Mills is a women's only undergraduate school. Great place to study electronic music. Not so sure about their audio engineering.

LOL! Thanks for that, I  wasn't sure about the cross between the grad and undergrad programs there.  I'm a dude. wink

kineticturtle wrote:

I've heard good things about Oberlin, but don't have much for specifics.

It really looks nice, but I'd rather chill somewhere other than Ohio. smile

kineticturtle wrote:

Don't know anything about GT.

Their electronic program is a graduate one, so if I did opt to go there I'd spend my undergrad years studying electronics which I'm not too keen on. hmm

kineticturtle wrote:

Berklee won't offer you much in terms of traditional music. Which might be fine, but to me it's like making LSDJ music without ever having played a game boy game.

I get what you are saying.  I wouldn't be as worried about this however (I've taken and passed AP Theory) but that is certainly something to keep in mind.  I would always love more theory education!

kineticturtle wrote:

Shamless plug

Thanks for that info!  I'll be sure to give it a look.  I'd love to be in California! big_smile  I guess I should also mention that location is important.

SurfaceDragon
Offline
USA

This is where I want to go.

http://www.expression.edu/

I've personally been there and I have to say its beyond awesome but kinda expensive.

I have a few friends that are getting their degrees there right now and they tell me that its very challenging, has strange schedules, and has highest quality everything, including well educated but strict instructors.

They all tell me that you have to live within a few miles(walking distance) of the school because there are crazy split schedules and hectic bay area traffic.

This school is very very professional.

A degree from this school would be an incredible thing to have on your resume.

Its not for the feint of heart, its tough, serious, and expensive.

Its what I would consider an amazing school for people who want to devote their lives to the music/entertainment industry.

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

Ex'pression (wtf, apostrophe?) offers free recording sessions of various types to a variety of acts, and I've had a few opportunities to be involved in these events. I also know a number of students who go there. I've also encountered a number of graduates "in the field".

My general sense of the education people get there is that it is indeed professional and useful, but heavily stifling. They are at the forefront of institutionalizing electronic music, production and sound engineering, the same way that classical music and jazz have been institutionalized.

I suppose it's inevitable, but it is still troubling.

And yes, it's awfully expensive. They do have fantastic facilities though. And the strange hours, I have surmised, are to allow them to draw faculty with active work schedules - to stay out of the way of said faculty's career.


edit:
As for the question of location, no matter where you go here, the SF Bay Area is a fantastic place to be to do what you want to do. We also have a burgeoning chip music scene - http://www.pulswavesf.com smile

Last edited by kineticturtle (Jul 29, 2011 7:04 am)

Apricorn
Offline
Wellington, New Zealand

http://www.sae.edu/en-us/news_overview/1652/News
we have an audio and visual branch in NZ.
Pretty much a cool college for media stuff.
I'm planning on going there and there are heaps all over the world (it shows the locations on the right of the site)

celsius
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Paging Dr. little-scale

bryface
Offline
vancouver, canada

I came to this thread fully expecting full-blown Chipmusic University(TM).  I am disappoint.


CHPM 103: Elements of Chipmusic
CHPM 217: Intermediate Circuit Bending
CHPM 314: Stage Dancing Fundamentals
CHPM 317: Promotional Techniques
CHPM 412: Ethics of Chipmusic

thesimplicity
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

Oberlin has an amazing conservatory filled with very talented people.  Most of the musicians I play with right now went to Oberlin and they all speak very highly of it.  The best part is that you can go for a legit degree in something useful (i.e., not music) but be able to play with the people studying at the conservatory.

But Oberlin is super expensive.  You'll be happier in the long run if you don't go (unless you have rich parents who are going to pay your way).  Just move to a college town and start hanging out at parties and networking... you'll get all the benefits of college without the debt.

Subway Sonicbeat
Offline
Brazil

I woud pass CHPM 314.
But, c'mon, don't forget about CHPM 303: Introduction to Modules Techniques

spacetownsavior
Offline
San Diego, CA

If you're around the SoCal area or want to be, UCSD is a pretty awesome school for experimental music! It's pretty expensive (and it's only going to get more expensive) but we have an awesome music program as well as a major called Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts (or Music), which basically takes you through the history of computing until now and gives you a great background for understanding where we are in electronic music and where we can go!

It's all theory, but because our school is a research school, if you work at it you'll probably be able to get some sort of research assistant position in Calit2, where they work with crazy things such as location-based sound (different areas of the room have different music playing) and stuff like that. There's also a very strong experimental art program here and they work VERY closely with the music department, so you'll be able to work with those people as well! All the applied stuff is extracurricular, but it's not that hard to find someone willing to help you do something like that. And we also have a couple applied classes! I know there's an ICAM class that's basically a class on how to assemble/program an Arduino! I find myself wishing I was an ICAM major and I'd change but I'm in my fourth year and if I switched then I'd be out of here in 2016 or whatever. Alas, a minor will have to do ._.

I realize I sound like a recruiter but I really like UCSD smile

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Berklee is much more open to ideas such as VGM and DIY music than they were when I attended in the early 90s; when I applied, the admissions board demanded an explanation of what "video game music" means. Perhaps I was the first to write that on their application..

I'm not saying that you can't go from Berklee to chipmusic (or else I wouldn't be talking to you now) but it isn't an obvious or appropriate path, to me. If you principled in Trumpet you'd spend most of your time woodshedding and playing jazz covers. I went as a pianist, and though I learned a ton of harmony theory and treasure the overall experience, the domination of bebop era jazz and extremely technical live performing started to piss me off after three semesters.

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne
chunter wrote:

Berklee is much more open to ideas such as VGM and DIY music than they were when I attended in the early 90s;

This is good news.


spacetownsavior wrote:

If you're around the SoCal area or want to be, UCSD is a pretty awesome school for experimental music!

I have heard this! Probably from you. wink

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Indeed, Berklee's recent newsletter had a part-time VGM artist in it, but I should also add that, at least at the time, when I'd turn in projects done on my personal gear (which was mostly FM) students and faculty thought of the sound as quirky and cheesy, though I think there is a lot to be said about "if I knew then what I know now." I also feel compelled to add that I was not a Synths major, because the lab fees were way expensive and I didn't think they could teach me anything that I couldn't learn on my own, and when it comes to synthesis, I maintain this opinion.

infradead
Offline
Tacoma WA
chunter wrote:

Indeed, Berklee's recent newsletter had a part-time VGM artist in it, but I should also add that, at least at the time, when I'd turn in projects done on my personal gear (which was mostly FM) students and faculty thought of the sound as quirky and cheesy, though I think there is a lot to be said about "if I knew then what I know now." I also feel compelled to add that I was not a Synths major, because the lab fees were way expensive and I didn't think they could teach me anything that I couldn't learn on my own, and when it comes to synthesis, I maintain this opinion.

thats kind of a foolish statement.  a lot of music programs have some old modular synths laying around that will tech you so much in a hands on way compared to a computer.  especially the schools that have held onto their buchla and EMS stuff

kineticturtle
Offline
Matthew Joseph Payne

For example, one of the things I'm in charge of maintaining here at CSUEB is our buchla 100 system. Trying to get one of our Studer tape machines back in order to use with it. smile

The point is that programs like Berklee and Ex'pressions haven't been around long enough to have that kind of legacy equipment. When we got a new director of jazz studies recently, I was explaining to him how difficult it is for us to buy vintage equipment. He asked how we got our Rhodes. I told him that we bought it new.