CRAS-Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences

I was able to record here with a friend that was going through the school. Everyone here was Friendly and very knowledgable. The place was clean, professional, and the temperature was perfect. Can’t wait to come back and lay down some tasty jams.

PARENTS BEWARE: I speak from personal experience. My husband and I paid for my son’s apartment and school tuition as well as food and expenses while he attended CRAS. He never missed a day of school and graduated at the top of his class. It was not possible for him to work because of the demands of concentrating on school and recording practice sessions. After graduation, he interviewed and received an internship at a prestigious recording studio in Los Angeles. The position was as a «runner». Again, we paid for apartment in LA ($ 1000 minimum) and food and expenses totally for the first three months. I also supplied a vehicle for him to do his job. After the internship, he was hired as a «runner» for $ 9.00 per hour and told it would be three years at this type of position until «maybe» an associate audio engineering position would open. When he tried applying at other studios, he was told the exact same thing. It seems as if the studios have an «understanding» with the school in that they get free labor from the school graduates who are hopeful about starting their career in audio engineering. However, this was a painful life lesson that did not prove to be fruitful. Remember that my son worked hard through CRAS and graduated at the top of his class. Parents beware. It is very difficult for a young adult to survive in LA making $ 9.00 per hour. That is «IF» they work hard and are able to get hired after the internship is completed. I should have read more online reviews before agreeing to help my son go to CRAS. VERY DISAPPOINTED

(Double post from the other CRAS here on Unilocal)
Hi all, former student here (7−27−11pt if that means anything to you). Just popping in to do a quick review and tell a small snippet of my time here.
I spent 10 cycles here when it was 10 cycles I’d say only a couple months after they had Pro Tools tier 6 certification rolling out. The school is basically what you make out of it. I originally came here to learn how to use DAWs, learn about sound, how to make sounds on DAWs and make them sound great, and also produce music. While you will not get a musical education here, you will get a full load of technical information your brain and ears will thank you for later! So it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for initially, but I was optimistic.
If you thought you were going to get a crash course in engineering, music theory, production, and everything in between, you may need to look elsewhere. With that being said, if you want to be a recording engineer, move out to Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, anywhere you can find work, or freelancing, there’s no better place to learn than here. You go through 3 weeks of each cycle where they drop knowledge on you from day 1 for 4 hours. Be prepared to work your butt off! No matter how much time I spent here, I wish I had spent more, and in reality, you will too. When you leave the school and go on your internship you’ll be really sad, but you will also start a new life! I believe it’s even 12 cycles now, so you get a little more time spent there than I did! Again, I never thought about being an engineer, I only wished I could use DAWs like professionals and produce my own music. During my time at CRAS I actually got pretty decent at engineering, so I thought I’d just be hindering myself if I didn’t give it my absolute 100% all in.
The staff is pretty good. Project staff are basically guys who you will learn to love, fear or both. They will give you shit if you can’t wrap cables, and they will be hard on you about studio time limits, cleanliness, and overall studio etiquette… BUT ITS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. Make mistakes now, and fix yourself now, because when Muse is in the live room waiting to record, your ass doesn’t have time to be making $ 10,000 mistakes because you couldn’t plug microphones in the wall. They will help you out, if you want the help, and you are motivated. They will help you reach your goals! The teachers know what they are talking about as well… I’m not if they are still there, but Phil and Sean the Pro Tools guys, will blow your mind with their knowledge. You can literally ask Phil anything and he will know, seriously, ask him. You got Alan who is LA engineering wizard, GHERY is the god of SSLs in Arizona. There are literally too many to name (What’s up Paul)!!
Thanks to CRAS I did an internship at Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank, I worked 80 – 100 hours my first 3 weeks at the studio then landed a job within those three weeks. They taught me everything from basic signal flow to being able to run a large format console by myself. They also teach you tape… which honestly, is NOT DEAD. I used tape almost every day of my life at the studio. You NEED to be able to clean tape heads, sling tape on the machine, run the machine, link it to pro tools, get it to run from the desk, calibrate, EVERYTHING. Mentors at the studio will help you out and refresh your memory on the job, but you need a good base for this knowledge. Luckily, fresh out of school, you will have your notes as well.
After school I managed to get on a few really amazing records, meet a lot of cool and crazy artist, and got paid to do something fun and you can be proud of. You may also make tons of like-​minded individuals at school and on your way. I know you always hear people’s success stories and think, wow can I believe that, or man can I do that? You certainly can, but it’s all up to how you work.
Okay this is actually a lot longer than I anticipated, but I just noticed there weren’t that many reviews on this place and I wanted to give it a fair review to give future students a better idea on what they are getting out of it. Like ANYTHING IN LIFE, you certainly get what you put in. I put in quite a bit, and I got quite a bit.
Here’s proof if you want:

Going to this school was the best decision I have ever made. Before going to this school all I had was a love for music and the ability to play instruments but hadn’t even made a song on Garage Band before. Now I am halfway through the curriculum and I have learned so much it won’t even all fit on my resume. I am comfortable enough to find a full band at a show and ask them to record a couple songs in a night, running the whole session all by myself on a full size analog console directly to tape or even to Pro Tools. They go so in depth here that I understand every aspect down to the science of what sound is and how everything works. They really teach you how to think and troubleshoot and unleash your full creativity because there is an infinite amount of possibilities with the tools available in todays day and age.

i attended school here a few years ago and I’d say it was well worth it. The hours are a little unusual at times for certain things but if you can’t hang with sporadic hours you really have no place in the music industry. I learned a lot about engineering which really benefited me as a composer and helped me to get my music picked up by a few labels. In all honesty if you plan to go out of state for your internship you need to save your money and be prepared for a bit of exhaustion. I have read reviews from other people trashing The Conservatory but I feel like those people are just lazy asses. Fact of the matter, if you go to engineering school to be famous you have the wrong idea. If you have patience it may happen in time. Now that I graduated I get to work with major label artists in an amazing studio but it’s only because I had patience. It’s a great school and the staff know what they’re talking about. You will also have all the hands on time you could ever want if you spend time on campus outside of class. To me, that is the best way to get your moneys worth. The game audio class was one of my favorites and a ton of fun. I would recommend this school to anyone. Also, if you have the time, attend one of the open houses before committing yourself.