My life has revolved around music since I pretended I was Elvis at age 4. I became truly enamored with sound and music when I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a few fellow peers to start a Beach Boys-type group in Grade 6. It wasn't till high school when I enrolled in my schools Audio Technology program that I became interested in the production side of music. I decided this was what I wanted to do and a fellow student told me of the Pacific Audio Visual Institute (PAVI) he just had enrolled in. After a meeting with one of the advisors there and a tour of facilities I was hooked and enrolled.

The reason for most people going to PAVI is their audio program. The course is well laid out and extensive. It exceeded my expectations for how thorough and informative it was. With a superb teaching staff and top tier recording facilities, PAVI is certainly one of the best places to learn recording and mixing.

The Audio Engineering and Record Production course is 12 months broken into 3 terms. In those terms you learn Record Production, Engineering and Mixing, Business Skills (website building, management, labels...etc.), Music Theory, Studio Design (acoustics, maintenance, electronics...etc.), Live Sound and Audio for Film (ADR, Foley...etc). PAVI provided the necessary books and supplies as part of the tuition, that I still use for reference now. There is a lot of stuff to learn but it is critical so you can start your career with a solid base to work from.

All my teachers were experienced and had vast amounts of skills and tips to teach the students. All the teachers had 10 plus years of experience in the field of audio and were very helpful to all students. Small class sizes gave a much more intimate and hands on teaching style. For studio classes the classes were cut in half to give a more fair chance for each student to learn their trade.

"It exceeded my expectations for how thorough and informative it was. With a superb teaching staff and top tier recording facilities, PAVI is certainly one of the best places to learn recording and mixing.

PAVI consists of 2 full studios, a computer lab for after hours work and classrooms for each program that PAVI offers. The studios themselves have high quality consoles, lots of outboard processing, as well as a vast range of microphones for student use. Students could intern at the studio and book time to work on projects for school or their own work or outside projects. When I went there the studio was only opened from 9 am to 10 pm but it has since become 24/7 which is great for current students.

After I finished the program I volunteered at a local live sound company and later got a job there. I also worked on friends' demos for experience. I then moved to Vancouver and within a few months started work as an assistant engineer at FaderMaster Studios. I got the job through one of the many contacts that I had made in school. Many of the students that I went to school with became very good contacts for sources of work. I highly recommend anyone looking into the audio field to seriously consider this program.