I appreciate that. Sometimes I feel like a dope being pulled into the American over-priced private university system, but I had honestly the time of my life there. Learned a shit ton about music and film too.
Big up MFA crewā¦mine is in writing (poetry and non-fiction)ā¦
1 BigUp
I am trying to finish a Bachelors of Science right now. I am so close, yet so far. 
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I graduated from CalArts in 2007, just before Owen Vallis graduated, and from Mills in 2011. Donāt know your friend Maggie, but I have probably ran into her at various shows at Mills and around town.
the fact that a degree course is Ā£9000 is a dick. 9grand and they still charged us for printing shit out at library.
If i was at uni in '98 when degrees in UK were Ā£1000 a year I would have got about 5 degrees and not gave a single fuck. If I was at uni before then when I think it was free, I wouldnt even ever bothered getting a job, just stacked bare of them certificates
but instead Ive got student debt that will take 400 years to pay off lol
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Ahhh Owen, he teaches there now, you graduated right before I got in, you probably know Chris Adams (AHEE) or John Knott?
Yup. Since you were in film for your MFA you might also know Dave Cohen? Heās also an amazing music producer known as the Dog of Tears, amongst his other projects
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FWIW school is awesome and everything, but the people who tend to run the farthest with the ball after getting that kind of degree already have two of the ingredients of ātalentā - namely taste and a good ear. Discipline is another ingredient, but one they canāt teach.
Over the last 20 years on my own Iāve managed to absorb about 80-90% of what a basic recording arts degree would confer in 18 months: I have no regrets about this path either. While itās unlikely at this point that Iāll make a career out of anything sound-related, thatās fine for me. I am not conflating the enjoyment of music and production with the need for a livelihood. If music was my job, burnout would almost inevitably follow.
But thatās just me.
Like man sez, āfollow yr passion.ā
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If itās the psytrance producer then definitely, my good friend Tay introduced me to him, he graduated before my time.
Youāre on point about this though, school does not create talent. It can only help or hurt it.
Do you really have a doctorate?
That will make you the second person I know of on here.
The other person doesnāt want it revealed and I will respect his wish.
Yup, the psytrancer
1 BigUp
Yup.
Yes, but itās not in love.
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I didnāt do a whole degree but I took the DJ Extensive and Mixing & Mastering courses at Dubspot here in NYC. I actually used my severance from being laid off during the financial crisis to pay for it.
Both courses were dope. The mixing & mastering course was especially helpful because some of the concepts like compression are hard to grasp and itās helpful to get instruction from a professional. At the end of the course we got to visit Stirling Sound, a professional mastering house, that was awesome.
I think some of the intangibles that you get from enrolling in a program are the focus, the community and the personal interactions. You meet a lot of people who are really dedicated to music and you end up hanging out with them and exposing yourself to a lot of music and experiences you might not otherwise get to. The professors are great too, because they have a wealth of knowledge and experience.
It didnāt lead to a job for me, but my Iāve grown a lot as a producer / DJ. I figured Iād be able to get some paying gigs though, but that is a lot harder than I thought.
I think Rusko has a degree in musical performance / production or something and Iām sure a lot of other producers do too, but itās clearly not mandatory to be successful.
OG???
these are words because the forum is spam-bot-noided
I dunno, ask him.
@OGLemon
I know he has one, was just wondering if he was the person you were talking about because heās the only one I know and heās never seemed particularly secretive about it.
So OGLemon has a Phd? I thought he was working on it. Iām talking about someone else. That would make three on here.
Yeah, at least I thought so, perhaps not.