I chose PAVI because I researched AI in Kelowna and Columbia in Vancouver and I thought it was the best fit because it was a year and it was a real commercial studio. They had more gear than other places but were a well established commercial studio.

 I met with Gordon Tipper, he met me on a Saturday (his days off) because I was working and couldn’t make it during the week. I spoke to two previous students that went there. Every question I asked they answered and they were both working so I took that as a good sign. They warned me that I would get out of it what I put into it.

I had no prior experience. I was computer illiterate before I started there.

I started at in May with other students that had been there since September and I was thrown into mixing right away. Audio Engineering mixing and Electronic Music were my favorites.

My second semester, my career management course with Keith Parry was a real surprise, we thought it would be a boring class but we learned so much about raising money and the class was more helpful than anyone expected.

A lot of the students didn’t care for Gerry Mayer’s Entertainment Business Skills class, with Photoshop and basic websites, but about 30% of the students had no idea how to use it and didn’t know how to do it. I really liked this class too, even now I can play around with Photoshop and make CD covers and update websites. In the future for anyone marketing themselves this would be a good course.

My expectations of the school were I wanted to come out ruthless and know as much as I could about audio engineering and I spent 300 hours of interning and spent a lot of time in the studio. I am not a musician and don’t know about engineering or the music business, I found it really interesting and wanted to learn. I was given these chances at PAVI.

"The school does prepare you for your career choice."

For money I spent ($17000) it was a good deal. I could have spent way less money and bought a lot of books and read them all but I never would have learned what I did at PAVI.

What I liked most about going to PAVI was the in studio classes. Everyone was looking forward to those.

The worst part of the program was the studios shut down at 10:00 on Fridays, from what I know now it is open all the time. If I could have been there till 4am on Friday and Saturday I would have been there for sure. The computers in studio A and B should have PDF instruction manuals on all the equipment, I played around with a lot of gear for hours and hours to figure them out. There is some gear that no one ever uses because you have to be a rocket scientist to figure them out. It would help if there was a manual.

The school does prepare you for your career choice. I would suggest that if new students are going to visit the school on a tour, make sure to go on a day where there is a studio class. I wanted to recreate sounds that I heard on records. They would learn about recording and mixing and would be very interested. Go and watch a class and you will see what I mean. I never had a studio class where someone didn’t learn something or have fun.

 I have recommended the program to other people. I am recording a lot of bands as a freelance engineer, which is exactly what I wanted to do. Sometimes I work too much but it is really what I want to do. I am using the skills I learned at school. It was not difficult for me and I don’t think it is difficult for anyone that applies themselves.

I wish I would have been able to play an instrument when I went in there otherwise I think I got 100% out of it. There is a big difference between thinking and knowing. Go PAVI!