Depends what u want to do it for. I’m pretty cynical about those sorts of courses and I think a lot of them only exist to make money out of people who want to be DJs, promising some sort of useful qualification at the end. If u just want to improve ur DJing/engineering/production skills then it could be very useful. If you’re actually wanting to “make it” as a sound engineer tho most courses are fairly useless as whatever qualification u get from the course won’t matter two shits to anyone in the industry.

I was lucky enough to get on a good sound recording course (just finished my second year at Surrey uni doing music and sound recording), I’ve learned so much about loads of aspects of recording but I’m still finding it really hard to get a studio placement anywhere for next year. The problem is every man and his dog wants to be an engineer/producer and studios don’t need to advertise jobs and can be completely unhelpful cunts just because they can.

I dunno what u want to be – if ur interested in dance music production then a course like the one in your link might be a good starting point as it gives u the basic knowledge for you then to go home and start making tunes. If you want to be an engineer I suggest u try loitering around studios and offering to make tea/run errands etc (its a cliche but its how a lot of people get their foot in the door).

don’t pay for a DJ course, just watch / listen to people you admire and practice

there are some good sound engineering courses out there (BTEC or degree level) and I think you will need to do one of these to work as a professional unless you set up your own business / rig hire

TBH most of what you need to know about sound engineering on this scene you can learn from the net – there are lots of brainy people on this forum like Biotech and Noname (to name but a few) who will tell you everything you need to know about all the technical aspects of DJ’ing and music production.

sorry to sound despondent but there’s now a glut of “qualified” hopefuls in the creative industries whilst jobs are disappearing at a fast rate of knots.

It started with the TV industry, then hit the new media and music industries – studios existing engineers now don’t want to give a newbie a foot in the door because its more competition for the existing workers. By all means study this course for your own enjoyment/pleasure and education but don’t expect it to be an instant ticket to a paid job. The commercial music industry is actually shrinking due to download culture reducing the revenue streams…

One of my relatives just graduated from music technology with all distinctions and has loads of talent and experience including recording classical groups but regular paid work is hard to find – he gets the odd gig or two.

He has in fact ended up back at work/college and now studies to be a paramedic and spends his weekends helping fix broken people at the local hospital (including some of the ravers!)

Nothing is as good as experience at the sharp end [on the job] – I have no paper qualifications in sound but have years of exeperience on the front line so to speak.

I started out as a roadie and worked my way up when the sound guy I worked with realised I was serious about wanting to learn about sound engineering. You learn all kinds of stuff they dont teach at college [I recently met an apparently qualified sound engineer who couldnt diagnose [far less fix] a serious equipment failure which took me 5 secs to trace after asking him how it broke:you_crazy I am still blown away by that :crazy:]

I got out of sound engineering because the lifestyle is very hard if you do it every day with a hire rig [endless late nights/early mornings and an upside down life]