Being able to demonstrate and instruct music and sound production, you need the full gamut of experience and the teachers at Bendigo TAFE have it. These teachers inject the local music scene with knowledge and experience; having run their own production companies and performed as professional musicians. In total they have over 100 years’ of involvement in the industry; with an enthusiasm that reflects in the successes of their students.
You can certainly learn from someone who was a professional for 30 years, studied the cool sounds of Jazz, and toured with a range of Indie and Aboriginal bands throughout Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the east coast of Australia.
Bruce Armstrong, coordinator of the Sound Production course at Bendigo TAFE still gigs weekly; he has been in recording for 16 years and the live sound industry for 14. Bruce edits dialogue and music for short films with his own production and professional projects over the last few years.
Hans Meinig is also part of the Sound Production team and comes with 30 years’ experience as a musical performer. He has run his own production company for 20 years and produced many commercial recordings and sound tracks.
Bruce is an endorsed trainer of Pro Tools, which is the most popular sound creation and production system in the world. AVID Training offers the Pro Tools curriculum and sponsors the studio at Bendigo TAFE, giving students access to the AVID qualification and the Pro Tools system.
The Certificate IV in Sound Production provides students a taste of the different industry areas so they can select a career direction with confidence. They are introduced to live sound, studio recording, dialogue editing, film sound and foley.
Students will learn skills in various areas of the industry with thorough ground work in practical and theory. It’s a one year full time course, and can lead to Melbourne Polytechnic and RMIT courses.
Previous sound production students have gone on to setting up their own studios and multimedia businesses. Others are currently working in audio for advertising firms, film and work professionally in the live music scene as sound mixers and engineers.
The state of art studio has equipment that far exceeds any sound studio in regional Victoria. The City Campus studio is a Hard Disk Recording Studio with 3 isolation spaces and several mix suites. There are 2x Pro Tools 10 HDX Systems, 19 individual pro tools 10 work stations. A 32 channel, 3000 Watt PA with 4 sends of monitors. There are also a number of small PA configurations.
If you can relate to any of this you should definitely consider studying sound production. And if you feel the need to see more why not check out the studio on Open Day and apply to study next year?
Current sound production students will be recording on Open Day, Sunday 16 August in a live band in the studio for YouTube and Sound Cloud Release.
For more information on any courses at Bendigo TAFE, call 1300 321 322 or visit bendigotafe.edu.au.
