Hello, I would like to pursue a career in sound but I am not exactly sure of a direction to go in... So I was wondering if anyone had any advice.
I am currently a senior in high school, 18 years old, and will be going off to college this fall. I will try to be as specific as I can...
My dream would be to work for IMAX, unfortunately they are a Canadian based company and I would prefer to stay here in the United States. I have reached out to them though, I am suppose to be calling them tomorrow to talk to someone from the HR department... I know they have a few "branches" here in the United States so I will look more into them. If I could actually specialize to work with the Private IMAX program, I'd be ecstatic but I don't know how to go about it. Hopefully tomorrow they will give me more direction. Anyways I want to reach out to a few other companies, I have been thinking maybe Christie, VIA, and local companies. The only bad part is... I am not exactly sure what part of sound I want to be in.. I would love to do the installs and make everything come alive. I am not interested in designing the speakers/amps/equipment themselves. I am more interested in the design of the room, the system going in the room, and creating that aspect of it..
I am currently the sound tech for my high school auditorium, I know that is probably not the greatest start but I absolutely love what I do... I mix events, I mic people, I setup the stage monitors etc pretty much everything audio related we need, I do... The school I attend is a um.. well off school. I really hate to come off as arrogant or stuck up but we compete with the top 2-3 schools in the state (public schools speaking)... We have a good, well off auditorium. The only reason I say that is because some schools don't have an auditorium or not a very great program. I currently use a Allen and Heath GL2800 48 channel console, 22 Sennheiser G3 mics, Countrymen B3 lavs, QSC K monitors, various dynamic and condenser mics. The auditorium holds 1,250 people.. My first time mixing in front of that many people was exciting to say the least... Our house system.. is ...tragic but we are getting a remodel this summer. Overall it is roughly $450K but audio is just a small portion at $142K. Not that, that helps me at all.
I have read various books about sound and live sound, I have just started the "Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook". It is difficult at times because there is no one at my school that can teach me anymore about sound... Our manger isn't an audio person, our lighting student knows the basics of how to turn everything on. I mostly annoy/confuse them when I try to go in depth about audio... So I am stuck for the time being. I only have 9 weeks left though.
I am waiting to see when our board approves the renovation, when that happens, I am going to contact the company doing the sound portion of the install and ask if I can possibly come in from time to time and observe and ask questions...
I am completely open to going to colleges like Purdue, Ball State, IU etc. My first three years of college are paid for by the state so that rules out colleges that are out of state. I have read some people recommend electrical engineering with an emphasis in acoustics.
So right now, I come from live sound but I want to transition more into cinema... which probably means my foundation at the school won't really help me... but it is better than nothing.. I may stay in live but right now my focus is in a cinema direction...
I know going from being the only sound guy that does everything to going to the bottom doing the "grunt" work will suck but I should be able to learn more.
Any advice on what college to attend for what program and any other pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Austin
I am currently a senior in high school, 18 years old, and will be going off to college this fall. I will try to be as specific as I can...
My dream would be to work for IMAX, unfortunately they are a Canadian based company and I would prefer to stay here in the United States. I have reached out to them though, I am suppose to be calling them tomorrow to talk to someone from the HR department... I know they have a few "branches" here in the United States so I will look more into them. If I could actually specialize to work with the Private IMAX program, I'd be ecstatic but I don't know how to go about it. Hopefully tomorrow they will give me more direction. Anyways I want to reach out to a few other companies, I have been thinking maybe Christie, VIA, and local companies. The only bad part is... I am not exactly sure what part of sound I want to be in.. I would love to do the installs and make everything come alive. I am not interested in designing the speakers/amps/equipment themselves. I am more interested in the design of the room, the system going in the room, and creating that aspect of it..
I am currently the sound tech for my high school auditorium, I know that is probably not the greatest start but I absolutely love what I do... I mix events, I mic people, I setup the stage monitors etc pretty much everything audio related we need, I do... The school I attend is a um.. well off school. I really hate to come off as arrogant or stuck up but we compete with the top 2-3 schools in the state (public schools speaking)... We have a good, well off auditorium. The only reason I say that is because some schools don't have an auditorium or not a very great program. I currently use a Allen and Heath GL2800 48 channel console, 22 Sennheiser G3 mics, Countrymen B3 lavs, QSC K monitors, various dynamic and condenser mics. The auditorium holds 1,250 people.. My first time mixing in front of that many people was exciting to say the least... Our house system.. is ...tragic but we are getting a remodel this summer. Overall it is roughly $450K but audio is just a small portion at $142K. Not that, that helps me at all.
I have read various books about sound and live sound, I have just started the "Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook". It is difficult at times because there is no one at my school that can teach me anymore about sound... Our manger isn't an audio person, our lighting student knows the basics of how to turn everything on. I mostly annoy/confuse them when I try to go in depth about audio... So I am stuck for the time being. I only have 9 weeks left though.
I am waiting to see when our board approves the renovation, when that happens, I am going to contact the company doing the sound portion of the install and ask if I can possibly come in from time to time and observe and ask questions...
I am completely open to going to colleges like Purdue, Ball State, IU etc. My first three years of college are paid for by the state so that rules out colleges that are out of state. I have read some people recommend electrical engineering with an emphasis in acoustics.
So right now, I come from live sound but I want to transition more into cinema... which probably means my foundation at the school won't really help me... but it is better than nothing.. I may stay in live but right now my focus is in a cinema direction...
I know going from being the only sound guy that does everything to going to the bottom doing the "grunt" work will suck but I should be able to learn more.
Any advice on what college to attend for what program and any other pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Austin