Audio Recording Arts Schools in Vancouver, BC
Studying Audio Engineering and Recording in the Vancouver Area
Jun 26, 2009
Vancouver, BC has long been a popular location for post-production audio and high profile record production. In fact, the city is commonly referred to as “Hollywood North” because of the huge amount of big budget film and sound production that occurs in and around the greater Vancouver area.
It only follows that there are numerous recording arts schools and audio engineering colleges actively teaching the skills needed to fill these roles in the industry.
Audio Engineering, Recording and Music Production Schools in Vancouver
All of the recording arts schools tend to cover the basics of audio engineering and music production theory such as working with digital audio workstations, MIDI and virtual instruments. But for a prospective student, choosing the best school depends entirely on what area of the recording industry the student wishes to make a career out of. Live sound engineer, Pro Tools editor and DJ producer are just a few of the potential careers in the recording arts that are offered by schools in the Vancouver area.
The following is an overview of some of the more established recording arts schools in the Vancouver area.
The Art Institute of Vancouver
With over 40 locations in North America, the Art Institute is a popular choice for learning about the recording arts. The Vancouver campus offers 12 month Certificate programs in Independent Recording Arts and Electronic Music as well as a 21 month Professional Recording Arts Diploma under its Media Arts department.
Columbia Academy
Columbia Academy offers students training in broadcasting, film and the recording arts. The Recording & Sound Design training program takes 11 months to complete. The courses are broken up into “modules” which can be taken in any order. This allows for monthly program start dates instead of the typical two or three per year offered by other schools. Columbia Academy also boasts a hands-on learning approach from Day One of the program.
School of Remix
School of Remix is an interesting but logical off-shoot of School of Mix – an established Vancouver bartending school. Although School of Remix does offer some traditional audio engineering courses, most of the curriculum is geared toward live DJing and producing music suitable for the DJ world. The School of Remix currently offers 24 weeks of audio production courses that can be booked in 4 or 8 week blocks. They also offer one-on-one DJ instruction courses.
Vancouver Film School
For those interested in working with audio for film production, post-production and video games, the Vancouver Film School offers a one year Diploma in Sound Design for Visual Media. The course covers sound editing for film, foley, production sound, industry software skills and game audio. The courses are run year round usually with a new program starting each month.
Harbourside Institute of Technology
Situated in North Vancouver, the Harbouside Institute of Technology offers a nine-month Audio Engineering and Music Production Program that includes Digidesign-approved Pro Tools 101 and 110 Certification. Harbourside IT also boasts a part time program and class sizes of no more than twelve students. Start dates for the full time program are in October, January, and April of each year.
Simon Fraser University
Another option is looking at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Although there is no diploma or certificate offered for the recording arts per se, the courses offered in electroacoustic communication and film sound provide a very credible and rewarding method of learning about audio and sound in general.
This list is by no means exhaustive but instead is intended to help students decide which school is best for their recording arts career. Regardless of which school or college is chosen, Vancouver offers a wealth of choices for the prospective audio engineering student.
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