Beyond Sound 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd i 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM This page intentionally left blank Beyond Sound The College and Career Guide in Music Technology SCOTT L. PHILLIPS 1 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd iii 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Phillips, Scott L. Beyond sound : the college and career guide in music technology / Scott L. Phillips. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–983768–7 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–983766–3 (alk. paper) 1. Music—Vocational guidance. 2. Music and technology. I. Title. ML3795.P426 2013 780.23—dc23 2012042406 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd iv 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM For Kristi, Daniel, Joseph, and Benjamin 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd v 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Foreword by Bobby Owsinski xi About the Companion Website xiii Introduction xv 1 . Th e Professional Music Technologist 1 2. Preparing to Be a Music Technologist 11 3. Studying to Be a Music Technologist 26 4. Starting Your Career as a Music Technologist 46 5. Music Technologists in the Recording Studio 63 6. Music Technologists in Live Sound 82 7. Music Technologists in Film and Television 97 8. Music Technologists in Digital Media 118 9. Music Technologists in Sales and Support 136 10. Music Technologists in Education 160 11. Conclusion 180 Appendix A College Programs by School 1 8 9 Appendix B College Programs by State 201 Appendix C Graduate Programs by School 2 1 1 N o t e s 215 I n d e x 219 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd vii 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments ALTHOUGH MINE IS the only name on the cover of this book, there were many people who helped to bring it about. Th ese people deserve recogni- tion for their contributions and I want to off er them my deepest gratitude. I would like to thank Norman Hirschy, my editor at Oxford, for believing in this project and guiding it from inception to completion. I would also like to thank the others at Oxford University Press who worked on the project as well as those professionals who reviewed the proposal and the manuscript. Th eir insights and enthusiasm were helpful and encouraging. For allowing me to interview them, I want to thank Fred Bogert, Robert Fernandez, Jim Frankel, Barbara Freedman, Will Giuliani, Peter Lee, Joe Pisano, and Doug Siebum. I am grateful to each of you for sharing your insights. I would like to thank the faculty members of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music. I am grateful for their kind support of my professional activities and my career. I am honored and humbled to work with a group of musical professionals who are so devoted to the success of their students. I would like to thank my academic mentors at the University of Central Florida and the University of Iowa. I am especially grateful for my association with Ken Phillips, whose clear examples of professional scholarship, academic excellence, and kindness are the models for my college teaching career. Th anks to all of the past and present students with whom I have the pleasure of work- ing. Your endless enthusiasm, passion, energy, and creativity inspire me. I would also like to thank my mother, who taught me the value of hard work, and my father, who made helpful suggestions to the manuscript and who always preached the importance of professional connections. I express my deepest gratitude to my three sons and my wife. To Daniel, Joseph, and Benjamin, who are avid readers, talented musicians, and who, 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd ix 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM x Acknowledgments individually and taken together, are much smarter than I am. I will be for- ever grateful for your sincere interest in my work, and for your patience and sacrifi ce as I fi nished the book. Finally, my thanks and love to Kristi, with- out whom none of this would have been possible. Your endless proofread- ing, unfailing support, tireless encouragement, and selfl ess sacrifi ce made this book possible. 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd x 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM Foreword YOU READ ABOUT it every day; the music business paradigm has shift ed and the industry has evolved. It’s all quite true that music creation, delivery, marketing, and distribution has changed considerably from what it was for many years. So much of it is now based around what you can individually do on your personal computer rather than what happens within the confi nes of a recording studio or record label. For instance, when I fi rst started in the recording end of the business, all you needed to do to get a job in a studio was to show up and display an inter- est. You’d start out sweeping the fl oor and cleaning the toilets, but the job was yours if you had a good attitude, and you could work your way up to being an engineer or producer from there if you stayed around long enough. Today you might still start out much the same way, but the technology has evolved to a point where it’s beyond what can be learned on the job without some prior training. Once upon a time it was possible to learn the process of recording just by assisting a pro for a period of time and carefully observing what he did. While some measure of that still occurs today, the minimum prerequisites to even get into that position require a level of expertise unprec- edented in the history of the industry, and that expertise can only come through education. Where once upon a time it would have been ridiculous for a studio manager to ask what school you attended (since there were no schools for that sort of thing at the time), today that very well may be the fi rst question. Th at’s why this book is so important if you’re looking to enter the music business on any level. Music technology is such an essential part of any musi- cian’s toolbox today, that if you don’t have at least some tech background, you’ll forever be at a disadvantage throughout any career in the industry that you choose to pursue. For composing, songwriting, and even good old fashioned instrument and band practice, having at least some rudimentary 00_ScottLPhillips_FM.indd xi 4/5/2013 6:47:04 PM xii Foreword tech knowledge can raise your level of creativity, effi ciency, and productivity, not to mention your value. If you’re aiming for the business side of music, a background in technology allows you to better understand the needs of your clients and coworkers, since they will be bound by that same technology sur- rounding their music. While it’s diffi cult to argue how invaluable a solid music technology edu- cation can be, the landscape for attaining that education can be confusing indeed. Th ere are so many educational choices available that it’s easy to get confused and even discouraged. Th at’s why you need a roadmap to fi nd the training that best suits your career goals, and that’s why you need Beyond Sound . Speaking of career goals, as you’ll see in this book, there’s a lot more to the music business than being an artist, songwriter, recording engineer, or producer, which are the most visible careers of the recorded music business. Scott does an excellent job of providing an outline of a number of diff erent potential career paths that you might not have been previously aware of or considered. It’s a much larger industry than initially meets the eye. Even if your career intention is to be a musician, artist, or engineer, that goal may change at some point along the way. It’s surprising the number of people who used to be active players or engineers and decided at some point that such a career wasn’t for them, causing them to transition into another area of the business. It might not be in the area where you thought you’d end up, but it’s in an area still involving music, which can be just as satisfying to the soul (and it might even pay more).