Hi all!!

Lately I've been scouting for an university to occupy myself in the next few years, and I've found this SAE Institute to be quite appealing for audio-related studies, but after going to its open day and reading about it on the web, I'm more confused than before, since there aren't many feedbacks crawling around, and those few range from ''it's the best music university in the world'' to ''teachers there don't even have a degree themselves''.

To the question: has anybody heard of it before? Got any feedback to share? I'd be really glad if you could help either by sharing your personal experience (if you're an alumni or a current student) or a friend/your opinion.

Thanks for your help!

 

a lot of these "art schools" are really only good for a select few of people

for most people its just a bunch of debt and nothing else. They often advice folks to get the same education through community colleges or youtube videos lol.

if you have rich parents or some way to pay for your college educaiton, then it makes sense to "waste" money there..but dont think that just because you attend these institutions, doesnt mean you'll get opportunities thrown your way.

the cost for them are close to getting to medical school...then you come out and make average salary working as some studio assistant..IF you're lucky

 

its important what you want to do! I would not advise you to sae. You will learn much but its not a serious school.
I made it. I learned much but all doing by myself. Where are you from? If you want to make your way in music business sae would not help much. you have to be good with your own way but the sae degree gives you a shit, you can lean the basics there to have a solid ground. There are exceptions.

greets

 

I know a couple people that went to SAE both said it was "ok" but in the end most studios want real world experience not a piece of paper saying you know what your doing . The industry is kinda weird right now at least here in Germany. but regardless finding a working studio is hard as there not so many as there use to be. if you want to do it just to get some knowledge its a lot of money to get a degree or just to learn something you can teach yourself on youtube

 

"working as some studio assistant..IF you're lucky"
this is not the fault of sae!
What do you have to studie to be a great mixing enginneer in a big studio? :D
if you study audio engineering on a real university then it would be the same thing.

 

I heard of this online "school" back in 2010. As you pointed out, SAE has plenty of mixed reviews. Some of these reviews have even come from former instructors themselves. To get an idea of what I'm referring, check out this thread: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/SAE-Institute-Reviews-E286180.htm. The word, "confusing" does not even begin to tell the story. When it comes to plonking done my hard-earned cash, I'd rather be safe than sorry -- especially with any educational online venture (audio or any other pursuit). Years ago (prior to the Internet) these "schools" or "institutes" used to offer "best training" advertisements through... get this... matchbook covers! My father signed up for one of these, and to no one's surprise, got stiffed -- big time! SAE promises a lot, but these shaky reviews seem to lead elsewhere. "Buyer beware".

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2015

Find a studio first. Start working by doing whatever they want you to do for little or no pay. When they like you, start a school but stay working there. You'll have industry contacts you'll need to break in to the industry. Without them you will have a pretty expensive piece of paper. The school does not supply contacts for a job, and maybe not even a descent education unless it is at a reputable university (4 year).
There may be exceptions to that rule but it goes for all professions in general.

 

sae could be helpfull to get a solid ground in audio engineering. I worked in 20 studios during my sae studies in a short time.
later i worked in a big studio. I think without a solid ground studios will not spend you the time to give you much education.
good luck

 

Wow!! Didn't expect so many replies in such a short amount of time!!

Is being a studio intern the only thing they're preparing you to? Cause then it's definitely a no-no for me! They talked a lot about how you can become pretty much everything in audio (sound engineer, sound designer, sound recorder, mastering engineer, BOH staff, etc...) but reading from your messages it seems like it's the opposite

Also, forgot to say it in the pilot post, I'm more seeing it as a ''temporary stop'' before undergoing a Master of Arts degree rather than a ''job-finder'', would that be a reasonable choice to make?

 

I can speak with first hand experience. I graduated from a SAE school in the US. I'll say that you get out of it, what you put into it. I have a lot of both good & bad things I could say about my experience there. First, it all depends on which exact campus you're planning on going to. The experience you get is different at each school. I absolutely loved my teachers. They were all extremely well versed in every aspect of audio & went out of their way to give me as much knowledge as they could, in the short time we were there. Finding audio engineers willing to give you their knowledge without feeling like you'll be a "threat" to them afterwards is not easy to do.

My main complaints were with the front office administration & their bullshit politics. The front office is full of people that don't know shit about audio or what's best for the students. They only care about spending the least amount of money possible to satisfy their bosses. Even if the students education suffers because of it. All they care about is gettin the highest graduation rate as possible, even if the students that make it through didn't really deserve to make it through. It's a numbers game to them.

I'll try to give some more insight later tonight as I'm a little busy today but hope that helps somewhat.

All in all, it was worth the money I spent because the amount of time I spent in the studios alone paid for my tuition. If I would've paid for studio time for as many hours as I logged during my time there, it would've cost about $3,000 more than what I paid in tuition. I also looked at it as I was buying into a network of like minded individuals that I didn't have access to before. I had just moved to the city & didn't know anybody, so that was worth alot to me as well.

 

30 years ago - or so - i wanted to go to study @ SAE Nuremberg, i simply couldn't afford it because it
was expensive, without the extra costs of renting an apartment! Where i lived at that time there was
no such specialized school around. So i had to forget it.

After a while i found a temporary job in a big recording studio, just as freelancer.
There i had the opportunity to learn many things but without getting any diploma nor
real good cash. In some countries maybe nobody will ask you for a diploma while in
others there's no way to find *solid* jobs without it. Furthermore the situation about
recognitions of specific jobs like Sound Engineers can be very chaotic!
I'd say a school is okay but then you have to know where to go, where to find niches...
...nowadays it's quite harder because the traditional music business has been almost "demolished"
thanks to the Internet & advanced computer science. Everyone can get a DAW, some equipment,
call himself Sound Engineer and even work. Well, if you're then accepted by the PRO-Elite is
a different story.

 

i've bought a keyboard from someone who had studied and finished sae. I asked him whether its ok or not and he said that its too much money and that you could learn a lot on the internet. He said that it was not worth because, as said here before, the music industry does not look on a paper. But everyone has to make his own experiences. That is my 5 cent about your question.

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2015

Stay away from them... AudioSex is better

reading the reviews from people that worked there, I`d rather spend the money to "buy a seat" in a recording studio of Your choice

 

don't go. I was one of those naive out of highschool kids who went to one of those art "schools", in the end it cost me way too much...and I do regret it. I'm going to go back to a traditional university to restart because none of those credits transfer (thats what you get if you go to one of those) but trust me when i say, don't go. Youre gonna just blow money away

 

I went to The Conservatory Of Recording Art's and Sciences in Arizona... I currently work at a recording studio full time, 40 plus hours a week. wouldn't be here without them. Unless you know someone in the industry good luck getting in as an intern. Every major studio I can think of has interns from that school. Look it up. My situation may differ from most, though.. I don't carry any debt, I was in the military, did my 4. So I had the G.I Bill. I went in with decent knowledge, and came out feeling way more confident about working in the industry than I expected. This school impressed me and they take it serious. Two campuses, access 24 hours a day, amazing studios with the best of gear, top notch Instructors, plus a mandatory internship just about anywhere you want to go... and yes they have connections. If you really want a push in the right direction. My two

Good luck!

 

Main references in the MS degree of of audio engineering (Audiosex exclusive) in most universities

Find them and look at their TOC.

So advanced topics!

As you know, the music is a small subset of the sound. If you want to use your acquired science just for music I don't think you need this level of knowledge. Audioz.download is more than enough for the bachelor degree.

The science and application of acoustics

Fundamentals of acoustics

Acoustics: An introduction to its physical principles and application

Introduction to electro acoustics and audio power amplifier

Modern recording techniques

Sound & recording an introduction

Handbook for sound engineers

Signals & systems

Linear Systems and Signals

Signals & Systems Demystified

Mathematical methods for physicists

Mathematics of physics and engineering

An introduction to numerical analysis for electrical and computer engineers

Master handbook of acoustics

Acoustic and diffusers and absorbers: theory and application

Principles and Applications of Room Acoustics

Concert Halls and Opera Houses— Music, Acoustics and Architecture

Room Acoustics

Acoustic absorbers and diffusers; theory, design and application

Acoustical measurements

course in phonetics

Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics

Noise and vibration control engineering: principles and applications

Engineering noise control: theory and practice

An introduction to the psychology of hearing

Acoustics & psychoacoustics

Psycho-Acoustics: Facts & Models

science of sound

The physics of musical instruments

Fundamentals of musical instruments

Theoretical acoustics & numerical techniques

Finite element analysis of acoustic scattering

Computational acoustics in architecture

Boundary elements in acoustics, advances and applications, (Advances in boundary element series)

Theoretical acoustics

Discrete-time signal processing

Introduction to digital filters with audio applications

Digital Audio Signal Processing

Introduction to digital audio coding and standards

Digital speech-coding for low bit rate communication systems

Speech coding algorithms, foundation & evolution of standardized coders

High-fidelity multichannel audio coding

Real sound synthesis for interactive applications

The computer music

Physical audio signal processing for virtual musical instruments and audio

The theory and techniques of electronic music

The canonical csound reference manual

Statistical methods for speech recognition (language) speech and communications

Fundamentals of speech recognition

Speech and language processing: an introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics and speech recognition

Pattern recognition in speech & language processing

Neural Network Design

Algorithms, Applications and Programming Techniques

Fundamentals of Neural Networks, A Comprehensive Foundation

Pattern classification

Pattern recognition

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

Theory of nonlinear acoustics in fluids

Nonlinear acoustics: theory and applications

Nonlinear wave processes in acoustics

Fourier acoustics: sound radiation and nearfield acoustical holography

An introduction to acoustical holography

Acoustic holography (unknown binding)

Analysis and modeling of digital systems

Verilog hardware description language: design and Modelling of digital systems

VHDL Language Reference Manual

a step by step guide for engineering scientist & technicians

Linear Control Systems: Analysis & Design

Finite Element Analysis: Fundamentals

Numerical Method in Finite Element Analysis

The finite Element Method

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 7, 2015

I went there and I have a degree in audio engineering from SAE.
What has to be pointed out from the get go is that SAE is not an university. The university is a place of science, of research. None of this is done at SAE.
After the SAE (if you graduate, that is), you'll be a versatile audio technician, proficient in most environments out there. But frankly, if I would have spent the time I spent at SAE as intern in a big recording studio or the national broadcasting company and bought me some books, I would have learnt the same stuff as well as have the contatcs to start my professional life on the right foot. Nobody, repeat nobody, asks you for a degree in our line of work. Your repetition and your contacts are what get you a say.
Yes, I find my way around a Neve or SSL console, and it might look impressive to the outsider if you steer what looks like an UFO to the "ignoramus", but in reality studios sporting consoles with a seven-digit pricetag are not that common as one might get the impression.
I went to university after I went to SAE and I can assure you, SAE cannot hold up the education you recieve at a real university. There is no scientific education whatsoever.
So:
If you want to go to university, go to a real one (a step I can only encourage, university and sciences are great places to be). But the entry requirements may be steep - if you want to learn audio engineering at a national institute in my country, you have to play an instrument at concert level. A Beethoven Sonata or something in that ballpark would be the required piece if you're a pianist.
If you want to work in the studio, learn the ropes, get to know people, go for the internship. Spend the money you'd given to SAE to finance your living so you can do that internship.
If you're loaded and it doesn't matter, why not, go to SAE but the experience that you're lost without contacts if you want to make a career in audio will be waiting for you on graduation day.

Hope I could help you. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 7, 2015

i read their advertisements in music magazines for years,i don t know if things changed, but a few years ago they were so expensive that when u subscribed they would give u an apple notebook.This sais,i talked to a guy who had the chence to go ther e and opted for another school with a more reasonable price...well...it seems that although they have some competent names working for them (i said competent,not important), they also have this hideous habit to use last year students or freshly graduates from their schools to give classes.It s expensive,it will probably teach u a lot of things,but as the guy above me wrote, u d learn the same things working for six months for free in a recording studio

 

"As you know, the music is a small subset of the sound. If you want to use your acquired science just for music I don't think you need this level of knowledge. Audioz.download is more than enough for the bachelor degree."

So fucking agreed. I lived near the infamous Full Sail music and engineering school in Orlando Florida in the mid 90's. At the time, the tuition was some $15k per year. I had EQUAL knowledge as many graduates ( we had many head to head discussions about engineering then) learned online for FREE. That was some 15 years ago, and the free education online wave has not diminished since. You can get ahead EASILY by just studying online chit chat, and applying knowledge. You really can.