The Higher Education Review

Evident from the triumphant tales of renowned audio engineers like Tony Bongiovi, Dave Pensado, Todd Harry Rundgren, Dave Davies and a lot more, audio engineering is one of the many musical careers with prospects of creative work, endless audio experiments and research, and fame. However, in this field, most of the audio engineers work as production assistant, broadcast technician, audio equipment technician acoustic consultant, mastering engineer and live sound engineer, only a few take the risk of sharing sound engineering knowledge and skills. Mervin T Thomas, Founder, The Audiophile's School of Sound Engineering (TASE), is one of those few audio engineers, who ventured out to educate the audio engineering enthusiasts in India. Mervin, after under graduation traveled overseas in Hollywood, Los Angeles to pursue post-graduation in audio engineering at Musicians Institute - College Of Contemporary Music, Los Angeles.

Mervin's Story of Becoming a Sound Engineering Educator
Belonging to an Indian middle-class family, Mervin faced problems like securing an education loan for an unfamiliar course like audio engineering. Still, being a highly ambitious and determined person, Mervin conquered every obstacle and fulfilled his long-cherished dream. Following the completion of the course, Mervin decided coming back to India as it was a chaotic task to secure - Artist Visa from the American government. After returning to India, Mervin took the decision to work with sound engineering schools. He associated with a lot of schools, where he designed the audio engineering curriculum and headed the academics. Mervin gained insights on Indian audio engineering when he worked with a famous sound engineering school ­ Audio Life Institute of Sound Engineering. His foothold on taking prompt

academic decisions strengthened when he worked with Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music.

"TASE is a music learning paradise where the students are subjected to courses like sound mixing, ear training, and recording engineering at a full-fledged acoustic studio"

Meanwhile, working with the schools, Mervin witnessed some courses were very highly-priced and many students couldn't afford them. As a result, he started planning to create a space to provide affordable and premium sound engineering courses. Mervin took the ultimate step when he incepted TASE this year at Kilpauk, Chennai. TASE is a music learning paradise where the students are subjected to courses like sound mixing, ear training, and recording engineering at a full-fledged acoustic studio. Describing the curriculum, Mervin says, "Here we provide advanced training on every topic. We encourage the students to practice and become better. Other schools focus on placements with which their students end up in a job at radio stations or similar, which they don't find interesting with time. At TASE, we don't do that. We focus on practical learning. We dedicate half of the time in nurturing the practical skills of the students. TASE functions as a regular platform for production of independent music, non-film and film music, and a lot of other music."

TASE always insists its students to be a part of recording sessions and awards them with course credits for participation. Also, the students gain insights from the participating artists on how to survive in the industry. Apart from this, the teaching faculties that have enormous industry experience make the regular classes very interactive and cohesive. They don't take more than five students in a batch to ensure learning happens at the optimum level. In addition to fostering students' performance, TASE looks after the welfare of the teaching faculties and makes the sound engineering school a delightful place to work. "Be it the faculty members or the students, TASE is home to everyone. The faculty members are in charge of every decision and work autonomously," explicates

Mervin.

Mervin, alongside with his Co-Founder, Neeraj Kashyap, is setting an example for sound engineering education. They are preaching the latest techniques of using sound in modern-day applications and games like Candy Crush Saga and iPhone Siri. Besides, they are stimulating creative side of this branch by encouraging students to become recording engineers, mix engineer and independent music producers. Integrating these learning facilities, TASE has formed a base for the students to stay financially secure. "The students can always go for regular jobs, but it takes time to achieve big in the Indian creative industry as any art form in the country age slowly. So, I encourage them to become creative independents," shares Mervin.

Filtering out the best music practices from both Indian and Western parts of the world, TASE is endorsing the Indian sound engineering industry with enormously talented artists. They are among the small number of schools in India to bring international standards of learning at every footstep. "Though adopting the best Western practices, yet the courses are designed keeping the Indian music industry at the locus," explains Mervin. Furthermore, TASE plans to tie-up with foreign universities and start student exchange programme. They also aspire to equip the students with the most recent innovations.

Mervin T Thomas, Founder
A gifted sound engineer and a talented teacher, Mervin spearheads the academics with his glittering skills on curriculum design. He always stays updated with the recent happening in the sound engineering industry to share the same with the students.

Neeraj Kashyap, Co-Founder
With enriched experience of more than 10-15 years in international education industries like Singapore, Neeraj supports TASE with some astonishing academic business conclusion. He is the architect of corporate growth for the sound engineering school.