The SAE Institute, School of Audio Engineering is a multimedia school present in many capitals around the world and known primarily for its sound engineer training. Having completed my Audio Engineer Diploma at SAE Paris, I'd like to share with you a few thoughts on my experience, which may be of particular interest to those who wish to choose this school.
Disclaimer
Warning, what follows is only my opinion, my personal experience and the SAE may evolve between now and then, keep in mind that I got my diploma in 2013 for a training in 2012-2013.
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Why SAE?
Well, it's simple, I looked around and found Louis Lumière, BTS, EMC, SAE, and others that didn't really grab my attention. Mainly because I wanted to stay close to Orléans.
The sound technician BTS courses tended to focus on broadcasting and sound recording for video, and the equipment available was pretty mediocre. What's more, my experience of the traditional French school system was never a delight, which is all the more reason not to go back.
Louis Lumière seemed to be the best option, but I couldn't get in, precisely for the above-mentioned reason (very average record).
And the EMC, I hesitated for a long time, the school and atmosphere seemed very nice, but the equipment available was not as rich as the SAE, at least in terms of recording/mixing equipment. On the whole, the SAE seemed more professional than the EMC.
You'll understand why later on, but I'd recommend SAE to anyone interested in recording and post-production (music/video mixing), because that's mainly what you'll learn. But let's be clear: with this school, you have the keys in hand to studio, live and sound recording, and even other related fields. Broadcasting isn't really part of the equation, at least not when I took the course. Even if there is a sort of initiation, it remains purely theoretical.
A school accessible to whom?
For those who can afford it, or who, like me, have a student loan... Because the school isn't cheap. I'm not sure I can give you the price, as it's hard to find at first glance, but you can get it by requesting the school's information documents (sent free of charge by post).
You still need to have a baccalaureate (preferably ES/S or STI) and be 18 years old. It seems to me that in some cases, the bac pro can be taken into account, and that your case will still be studied if you don't have the bac but can attest to the required skills.
Let's talk about the skills required. They're summed up pretty well by the entrance test. It's fairly quick, and consists of a brief test of your level of French, English, mathematics, physics and logic. So it's been a long time since I've taken it, maybe there was a little bit of general knowledge, but it's nothing too rocket science, to be sure, given my rather scattered general culture, focused more on a broad technical culture. If you're an average 18-35 year old with a bachelor's degree, you probably won't have any trouble answering the questions. And in the end, that's pretty much the level required, because the training starts from scratch, so it doesn't matter what your original level is, you just need to be able to understand, adapt and memorize, and if the subject really interests you, technically speaking, you should be fine. Of course, having some knowledge in advance will help you feel at ease. As for me, I've been an audio and computer enthusiast for years, so there's a good third of my training where I've just been brushing up on what I already knew.
You have to remember, though, that this is a technical training course, so you need to be at least a little geeky, curious, rigorous and not allergic to a little useful mathematics.
About the free MacBook pro...
The school "offers" a Macbook pro on entry. I'm using quotation marks here, because of course the cost is passed on to you in the price of the course. Having initially had an aversion to Apple, its uninteresting products and its nauseating policies, I think this is still a good thing, as you'll probably be confronted with Macs during your professional life. At least you learn how it works. But this Mac is only really useful if you buy ProTools (student price: 250€) to work on it. So you'll need to plan for additional costs. Also, by adding 500€, you get a machine that's 2x more powerful (15 inches instead of 13 and quadcore instead of dual core), which is interesting if you plan to do some heavy mixing on it. For my part, that's what I did, I also put 16GB of RAM and an SSD in it, it can be done without any special knowledge, but you need to take a set of star screwdrivers to do it. Hopefully you'll have some Macs that can be disassembled. ProTools is also PC-compatible, so you can install it on your MacBook and your PC at home, and use your iLok key (license) on both. The plugins are even quite compatible overall, provided you use the same ones. Still, I'd have to spend €1,000.
1 or 2 years?
SAE offers accelerated training in 1 year instead of two. As I'm not from Paris, and given the high cost of rent, I opted for the accelerated course to save a year's rent in Paris, and more than make up for the slight extra cost. Time is money, they say. The Audio Engineer Diploma is recognized by the French state as a BTS (bac +2) "Technicien preneur de son". It won't get you a job, but it can help you work in public institutions.
Who are the teachers?
We call them "speakers" here, because they are first and foremost professionals in the field. They're often on first-name terms, as there's no reason to talk to each other with a broom in your hindquarters. They each have their own speciality, and are always available to answer your questions, and sometimes even to experiment with new ideas. Whether it's during a break, before, after or even during the course to share with the class, they're always available whenever possible.
Obviously, you'll feel more at home with some than others, but there'll never be any unpleasant surprises, above all because they're always competent, at least in the field in which they teach.
And what do we learn in this school?
That's always the problem when choosing a school... knowing what's in the course. Well, today I'm taking the stress out of it!
First of all, most of your training will consist of applying what you've learned in class. Secondly, everything is very progressive. You'll see the concepts little by little, and learn gradually, but on the accelerated course, you'll get the hang of it fast, especially if you don't have any prior knowledge, and on the more complex consoles, you'll really have to hang on...
In bulk: You'll learn audio editing, sound design, ProTools, MIDI, microphonics, audio theory (processing and effects, signal, acoustics, stereophony...) and a bit of electronics, you'll learn to use analog and digital consoles and effects, you'll make sound to image, you'll record in the school's studios with musicians you'll have to find, and you'll do a bit of networking applied to audio and computing, you'll be introduced to broadcasting and live performance, you'll make jingles, and you'll even learn to mix, but be careful, we'll give you indications, and then it's up to your ear to do the rest. Above all, you'll learn how to use reason to desecrate all the idiophilic nonsense lying around - my favorite part.
There will also be a number of guest speakers, and I was particularly fortunate to meet with Bob Katz. I also had a few outings, an in-depth visit to a live room to get a better idea of how things work, and a mixing session in the studio to get inspired by the techniques of the most experienced, with a little tour of the mastering studio as a bonus.
You'll have a large block of lessons for each console present at the SAE. These are quite rich and representative of what you'll find in the pro world, from full analog to full digital, with hybrids in between.
You'll also have a Workshop, i.e. a lesson with the teacher who shows you in practice what you can do, especially for each console.
It's worth noting that most of the mixing will be done in ProTools, a powerful tool little known to the general public but used in a large number of studios, which I have clearly adopted. You'll learn all its specific features, and be able to extrapolate to other DAWs. No Abelton on the other hand, too bad, but a little Logic, especially for MIDI exercises.
In the end, the big positive point for me is that the link between theory and practice is very well made, and that you're not bombarded with useless theory, everything you learn is useful, and you don't need to be a math nut to do it.
How does a year go?
Already, there are 3 intakes per year, which is quite practical, and it allows specialized teachers to rotate between promos. There are two types of classes: full time (one-year course) and part time (2-year course). Even in full time, the number of class hours is moderate, but as I said, you spend more time applying the lessons than sitting in a chair attending them. In this way, you integrate things quite well. Full-time classes seem to be a little smaller - between 15 and 20 students at the beginning of the year.
The year is punctuated by practical exercises to be handed in, as well as exams that are fairly evenly distributed to ensure that everything is perfectly assimilated.
A good reference point for me during the year is the workstations and consoles we work on. This remains the focal point of the course. All the work can be done in the school, which is open every day until midnight or 1 a.m. (not sure). In any case, I've closed more than once, without looking at the time. There are ProTools stations where you work with headphones, which are freely accessible, small consoles on which you start, also with headphones, and mixing/recording studios, where you have to reserve the room, and you'd better show up, otherwise you'll be heavily penalized.
We're starting the year with some editing, for my part on Spark, a very manual and unpleasant piece of software, which I consider to be the hazing of SAE. If you can hold that, you can hold anything else. I heard that maybe they were going to use another program for this task... Basically, it consisted of 5 models to reproduce. You're given a cut-out piece, and you have to re-cut it identically... And sometimes, it's just a snare drum hit to cut, and you have to find the right one. The slightest mistake and it's 0 out of 5.
Then we start to pick up some theoretical baggage and learn Protools, so we do a bit of editing in ProTools, we have jingles to make with a few technical jokes in them, stories (recorded by the speakers) to edit and dress up...
And then we started mixing. First on a small 8-track mackie, with only volume/pan/EQ, recording on minidisc to get used to having an external recorder. Then we add dynamic effects (compression), then temporal effects (reverbs and other phasers).
Then you move on to the 8 BUS, a much larger console (32 tracks, I think), do a mix, then your first recordings... As I said, you have to find the musicians yourself. There's a book of contacts available, but if not, just go to a rehearsal space, and you'll easily find musicians who want to be recorded for free. Sometimes they'll even pay you if the result is worth it. Well, the 8 BUS isn't a top-quality studio, but it's a good start.
From then on, things started to get really serious, and we started training for the other consoles, in particular the SSL, which I loved because it combined a DAW controller part (audio software) with a cool analog part, ditto, mixing, then recording/mixing. Always in that order. And then we go digital, Tascam/Yamaha, where it's purely mixing and picture sound (sound design, dubbing, mixing).
And then we come to the Icon, the big digital console, the ultimate remote control for ProTools, and on the other side the Neve, the big analog console, super grain. Not to mention the more advanced listening rooms and live rooms. In fact, it was on this Neve that I registered Siks Haedo.
Finally, we end the year with an exam, a dissertation, a final project and a practical exam. As for the dissertation, it's a good idea to start early if you want to do well. The idea is to delve into the subject of your choice. For my part, I chose the complex subject of impedance matching, and I literally had to outdo myself to achieve it.
Successful training
Sadly, some drop out, some fail, and some switch from full time to part time to keep up. In my class, we started at 18, finished at 14 (including one spent part-time), and only 4 of us graduated. There's a catch-up, but you can't count on it, apparently. I imagine that in part time, the drop-out rate is higher, and the success rate better, and my class can't reflect the totality by its simple sample, but one thing's for sure: you've got to hang in there!
Because while all the keys to success are provided, it's still hard to get a diploma.
To get there, you need to achieve a final score of 80/100, or 16/20. Let's face it: the only way to do that is to aim for 100%. Try to know everything about everything, to have no gaps, to give it your all, and for that, there's nothing like being passionate about the subject. Without passion, I find it very difficult to keep up. Especially since at SAE, you're an adult, and there's no one to yell at you if you don't do your homework. If that's what you want, you'll have to move on.
Of course, you make mistakes in the projects you complete, and you're there to learn, but you have to learn quickly and well, do your best throughout the training, be rigorous in the exercises, which can sometimes be a bit tricky, and take all the time you need to get the job done. That's not to say that you have to stop having a life; on the contrary, to get through it, I really needed to party, play games and make my own music (plus I was applying my lessons). For me in any case, getting away from it all to get back to work was the appropriate method, and even in full time, I managed to have a bit of free time, and a completely random rhythm. Sometimes I'd stay at school until midnight to work, I'd have class the next morning, but I needed to take my mind off things, I'd go to bed at 4-5am, go to class, sleep in the afternoon, come back in the evening to work... In short, there's obviously no rule for success, other than not missing a single crumb of class, not allowing yourself the right to make mistakes and always doing your best.
Conclusion
All in all, I'd highly recommend this school for the quality of its training, and I think it's hard to do better in such a short space of time. After that, you'd have to be able to skip stages depending on your level, but it never hurts to brush up on the basics. Keep in mind, though, that it's up to you to find a job afterwards. The various speakers are quick to remind you over and over again: it's not an easy field. So, if you're really motivated and passionate, and have the means, don't hesitate.
I hope this post has been useful to some, I'm open to questions, in comments or via the contact form for more info ;)
