School Of Sound Recording (SSR)

I visited the School of sound Recording (SSR) for their open day on Saturday 28 January between 12-4pm at Downing Street. I went to an open day of theirs a couple of years ago, signed up for Dance Music Production and then decided to go to MANCAT to do their HNC in Music Production. I thought it a useful comparision a week after visiting Manchester MIDI school .

In a tour group I was shown around the Ina centre and the various studios and labs. Current students showed their work and the production quality is excellent compared to stuff I've heard online and from many club demos. They run many courses on two premises. Their flagship course is an 18-month sound engineering course that covers everything from ProTools to mixing and mastering on desks. This is demanding and costs around £6K but can be done in evenings (studios also open at weekends). There is a 2 year sound design foundation course started last year for film/TV/games music that sounds great if you start next month (before the grants stop) and have 2 years to kill.

There are a load of shorter courses including ProTools 101/201/210 and beyond (good if you want to be ProTools operator as there is a shortage in industry), DJing and a free course for women. They are a commercical trainer but most courses run in evenings and some weekends and the facilities are second to none. They do 6 month Music technology and Dance Music Production courses. Unless you are an expert with Reason, Cubase, ProTools, engineering techniques and MIDI hardware then it would be of great benefit to invest in such training if your goal is to enter the industry or get music published.

It would be nice to have access to the facilities and get very good at audio production. There are many staff there who have worked with professional bands or been professional artists. One guy admitted to having been in N-Trance. I hope he left before they got crap. There is one problem with me and it is finding the money to live on. I could do the 18-month course only if I get a CDL and am working earning a salary of £200 before tax each week (around £7 an hour at 28 hours work each week). Now how many jobs let you work 4 days a week at a decent hourly rate that are not call centre or telesales based?