EDU

Since 1992, the Commercial Music program at Sacramento City College has grown to offer students in-depth training on analog and digital gear. While the program advanced over the years, the studio had not. When Kirt Shearer came on-board as the program's Director in 2016, he saw that there was a need for an immediate renovation.

"I'm not going to lie, necessity," Shearer says of the reason for a studio upgrade. "We had an Otari 54 from 1992 that was just at the end of its life. Plus, the overall facility just had not quite kept pace with trends and technology, so it was very much time for an upgrade." Continue reading →

A few years ago, Vintage King became involved with an ongoing project called adidas Originals: Sound Lab. Working together with the sneaker company, Vintage King built out a studio inside Cass Tech Detroit high school featuring a Slate Raven MTI, Barefoot MM45s, Yamaha HS7, Antelope Audio Zen Studio, and AEA microphones.

In the time since, Vintage King has continued to partner with adidas, including working on their latest project, an adidas Originals: Sound Lab based in Los Angeles. Opened on-site at Alexander Hamilton High School in Culver City, this Sound Lab has been built into a recycled shipping container and is already being used by a group of talented students. Continue reading →

Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida, recently took a huge step into the world of Audio Over IP (AoIP) by installing the world's largest educational Focusrite RedNet set-up. The gear, which was sourced from Vintage King's Chris Bolitho, links together six recording, mixing, mastering and film-sound studios using RedNet Dante interfaces and converters.

The school's set-up in the brand new Film Production and Sound Technology building features 68 RedNet interfaces. RedNet A16R 16-channel analog I/O interfaces and RedNet D16R 16-Channel interfaces allow digital and analog signals to be seamlessly sent throughout the school, and RedNet HD32R 32-channel Pro Tools HD to Dante bridges allow the Dante system to connect to Pro Tools HD workstations. Continue reading →

Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, Butler University is home to a recording studies program that has seen impressive growth since 2003. With an average of 80 majors and minors working in the program at any given time, the school offers an incredibly wide range of industry-related courses for students to attend.   

"Audio Production is only a portion of our curriculum," says BU Technical Services Coordinator Mark Harris. "The majority of our graduates work throughout the music industry in Publishing, Copyright Law, Artist Management, Ticketing, Promotions and Broadcasting."
Continue reading →

As one of the first major universities in the country to have an audio program, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music has a time-tested dedication to offering the best education in engineering and production.

“It started with an internship/mentoring model, and the idea was for it to be as hands-on as possible,” says Jacobs' Assistant Professor of Music Michael Stucker. “From the start of your very first semester, you’re doing a high-quality recording session every week."

When the school was recently gifted a generous donation, the staff reached out to Vintage King for help in outfitting a new state-of-the-art recording facility. We caught up with Michael Stucker and talked to him about working with Vintage King's Chris Bolitho to bring an Avid S6 control surface and ATC monitors to the studio space. Continue reading →

With a program centered on furthering forms of old-time music, including bluegrass, Celtic and country, East Tennessee State University has developed an enviable curriculum. Adding to the excitement of the program is the recent addition of an API 1608 console as the centerpiece of the school's recording studio.  

"A few students may start our series of audio engineering classes with some knowledge of Pro Tools, Logic, or some other DAWs, but for the most part, they are blank slates," says ETSU Recording Lab Manager Benjamin Bateson. "The API 1608 gives them a good, manageable console on which to start learning signal flow through a console." Continue reading →

Based in Cockeysville, Maryland, Stages Music Arts is a unique educational facility that specializes in many different audio and video related programs. The school was founded by Rob Smith, who envisioned a music school that went well beyond instrument lessons and taught students about taking the next steps towards being a professional musician.

"Rob had this vision to create a facility in which musicians would have access to just about everything they would need to be a musician, no matter what 'Stage' they were at," says Stages' General Manager Ryan Glaeser. "Beginners could come for lessons on a wide range of instruments, then when they were ready, they could perform in one of our performance spaces. Once they had fine-tuned their craft, they could go record in one of our studios." Continue reading →

The news broke earlier today that Apple is finally looking at making significant changes to their Mac Pro computer. While the company said that they would not be releasing a new product this year, they did announce that they would be offering new configurations of the current edition of the Mac Pro in 2017. Continue reading →

Now in his fifth year of teaching in the School of Media Arts & Studies at Ohio University, Lecturer and Outreach Coordinator Kyle P. Snyder has been hard at work with his colleagues Josh Antonuccio, Eddie Ashworth, and Jeff Redefer transforming the Music Production curriculum within Scripps College of Communication to prepare students for real world studio jobs. "What I find most rewarding about working with students in our field is seeing their evolution from day one through graduation," Snyder says. "It’s tremendously rewarding to see that evolution over our brief four years together, which really gives you a phenomenal glimpse into how big an impact we have upon their careers."

Snyder's approach to the school's studio facilities is making the biggest impact on outbound students, as he opts for durable gear that allows as many hands on as possible at one time. With this in mind, the OU professor recently worked with Vintage King's Chris Bolitho and Greg Fraser to bring in a Yamaha Nuage workstation and Nuendo software for a state-of-the-art mixing room. We recently caught up with Kyle Snyder to talk about why he choose this particular desk, how he uses it in tandem with an analog console and what his students think about the work surface. Continue reading →

Located along the Colorado River, Lake Havasu High School in Arizona has built an incredible education platform on the idea of equipping students with the skills needed to utilize the world’s latest technology. To enrich the students’ knowledge of audio production, the school’s administration reached out to their own Director of the Community Performing Arts Center, Sam Brindis. Continue reading →