I went to school and studied Sound for Film & Video. And then I really learned by working with people who know what the heck they were doing. Both parts were essential to my education, IMO.

i am self-taught and not totally incompetent. in my experience, you can get very, very far teaching yourself. from your profile it looks like you are more into the electronic side of things, and the good news for you is that this is a far easier domain to master than drum mic-ing, hum-cancelling and the other hairy-nesses of the physical recording world.

if you plan to go this route, my advice is to focus on one aspect at a time - obtain a reasonably deep understanding of that aspect before moving on to the next. for example, spend a few days really looking into drum sequencing, a few days looking into utilizing the stereo field using panning, a few days making your arrangements 'tall' by filling the frequency spectrum with sound elements (from down in sub-bass up to the sizzle on your high hats, e.g.). later you can spend a few weeks learning synthesizer design (again, taking the same approach - a day learning about oscillator types, a day playing with amplitude envelopes etc), a week or two focusing on compression, and so on.

if you tackle one aspect at a time, you can make steady progress without getting overwhelmed by how much there is to learn, and ultimately everything you come to understand will typically compliment and deepen your understanding of other topics. don't get me wrong - you're not going to learn everything there is to learn about synth design in a few weeks. audio engineering is a lot like learning to play guitar in that you can attain competence in a few weeks, but there is no upper limit to how much there is to learn and how good you can get if you put the time in. also, like learning an instrument, if you are *making music* as you are learning - for example, making songs which are experiments in whatever you are trying to master - you will be having a lot of fun and gaining real experience, which will renew your motivation to learn new things.

some good resources:

Bobby Owsinski's "the mixing engineer's handbook" gives a good overview of essential topics: mixing, panning, EQ, arrangement. it's very accessible.

wikipedia : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate...ngineering covers a wide range of topics (in more detail than you'd want!)

and in my experience, engineers like to show off their knowledge by way of writing tutorials and giving them away - capitalize on their vanity!