Colleges for Music Production

McNally Smith College of Music

• McNally Smith College of Music is located in St.Paul, Minnesota. Jack McNally and Dough Smith founded the college, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, in 1985. The college enrolls approximately 600 students a year from countries such as the United States, Japan, South Africa and Venezuela, and employs 100 full-time faculty members. The college offers a Bachelor's of Science in music (music producer), an associate degree in applied science in music, and an associate degree in applied science in recording technology. Classes offered include recording theory, songwriting and compositional techniques, conducting and arranging. Students work with digital and analog professional studio equipment in small groups to encourage attention to learning. To demonstrate their proficiency, students "record, produce, mix, master, and manage their own studio recording to commercial release readiness," according to the school's website.

  McNally Smith College of Music
  19 Exchange St. E.
  St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
  800-594-9500
  mcnallysmith.edu
  [email protected]

Berklee College of Music

• The Berklee College of Music's Music Production and Engineering Department was first established as the Department of Audio Recording in 1977. The college believes that success in the music industry "begins with a solid musical foundation comprised of strong musicianship, musical sensitivity, versatility, and the ability to listen critically," according to its website. The college offers students a total of 13 professional production facilities complete with industry standard equipment from Digidesign, Solid State Logic, Neve, Sony and Yamaha. Students have access to four multi-track control rooms, a 48-track control room, and a multi-format dubbing and editing studio. Faculty members have professional credits working with artists like James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, and companies like Geffen Records and Sony Pictures. Courses offered include music production for records, analog recording techniques and applications, and the business of music production.

  Berklee College of Music
  1140 Boylston St.
  Boston, MA 02215
  617-266-1400
  berklee.edu/departments/mpe.html

New York University's Tisch School of Arts

• The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University's Tisch School of Arts is named for music-industry mogul Clive Davis and was established in 2003. The school is selective and accepts only 32 students a year. The Dennis Riese Family Recording Studio 510 boasts state-of-the-art hardware like an API vision console and software such as Reason. The Pro Tools Production Lab is equipped with 14 stations for students. Students take 128 credits worth of courses, emphasizing the music business, production, history and criticism. The school offers music production courses like producing the record, advanced engineering and fundamentals of audio workstations.

  Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music
  194 Mercer St., Fifth Floor
  212-992-8400
  clivedavisdept.tisch.nyu.edu/page/home.html
  [email protected]