10 Questions with The Audio Recording Academy (TARA)

• Shannon Murray, President

NOW Magazine - June 2nd to 6th, page 111, career companion feature.

1. What programs do you offer?

We teach one diploma program, called Applied Audio Recording and it is literally a hands on sound recording program. Students participate in unique studio recording scenarios which a classroom curriculum could not accommodate and are exposed to actual band studio recording sessions.

2. How flexible is the program schedule?

The program is 20 hours a week. Students have 12 hours of structured class time - three four-hour classes a week - and that schedule doesn't change; it's the same from week to week through the 32-week program. Plus, students have an additional minimum of eight hours a week of flex time to come in and use the studios at their leisure.

3. What is the philosophy behind The Audio Recording Academy that makes your school unique?

Essentially, we are very selective in choosing our students. We want to make sure we have the right mix, because our classes are very small. In addition to trying to attract the right students, we make sure they're happy, and the way to ensure that is through their lab time. In their labs, we emphasize creativity; students carry out a lot of personal projects at the pace and comfort level that works for them.

4. What career options are available to your graduates?

We have students working in television as editors, and in radio as operators. One of our grads right now is doing music licensing, pairing music with commercials or films. Other are working in concert production, setting up stages and doing behind-the-scenes production. Many start their own project studios. Starting their own studios and working in production are our students' main employers. Many of them work in live sound clubs and go on the road with bands as well.

5. What is unique about a graduate of the Audio Recording Academy?

I like to think they are very satisfied with the program, and our program has grown because our students have been happy. Through word of mouth we have gone from four students in our first year to graduating 34 last year. But more importantly, they have a lot of confidence because they get to spend a lot of time on the gear on their own. I would say the confidence of our students sets them apart.

6. What kind of student is interested in your school?

Most of our students are between 22 and 28. They've been out into the world - maybe they've studied kinesiology, administration or economics. They've experienced another walk of life and realized this is what they've always wanted to do. Sometimes we sit around and talk about microphones for four or five hours a day, and that's not for everybody. But the people taking our program love discussions like that.

7. What skills will lead to success in this industry?

Allowing our students as much time as possible on the gear give them the necessary confidence level. When they leave, they know a variety of consoles, a variety of gear, a variety of applications, and they've worked with a variety of professional and none-professional musicians. They've covered the gamut in terms of the audio industry. We also touch on contracts and business side, so we feel our students are very well-rounded when they leave.

8. Do you have any placement programs or career service programs for your students?

If a recording session is happening at the school during the weekend, we will put a student in as an intern. Essentially, we have an in-house intern system, but some students do go out into the workplace while they are in our program and find internships. I lead them to studios and to radio stations and make phone calls for them. There is nothing official set up, but many students do pursue something that's relevant while they are in the program.

9. What changes have you seen in the industry?

When we launched the school 16 years ago in Ottawa, we had huge consoles and huge recorders and the gear was much bigger and wasn't efficient the way things are now. Big studios were the way to go for many bands. Things have changed so much in the last 16 years that many of our students can record and mix an album on a laptop; the need for big studios is changing and evolving. Students are finding that they can make a session work in a much smaller environment, based on their knowledge of acoustics and microphone techniques from our program. The sheer size of the gear and the room has shrunk and allowed our students to become much more entrepreneurial. They can go out into the community with a few microphones and a laptop and some great software and create their own studio environment.

10. What changes do you predict for the future?

In the future, software is going to get better and more accessible to everyone. When a new product is introduced, it's expensive, but we're always the one in the line at midnight buying it, because it's our mandate as educators. The price of software will continue to drop, which means that in the future students will be able to run several different type of software on their computers and get that much more out of their recordings.