CRAS Grad and FOH engineer is featured in the January NAMM issue of Mix Magazine. Since he graduated in 1997, Eddie has been mixing for an all-star list of talent including Evanescence, Zakk Wylde, Stone Temple Pilots, Papa Roach and more. You can read more about Eddie’s career and gear, here and here.

CRAS grad Brian Armstrong works at 424 Post in LA and just finished working on The Muppets. Brian’s work on the movie took place at Universal Studios where he was the sound supervisor working with re-recording mixer Beau Borders. Brian has also worked on the movies Country Strong, Stomp The Yard 2, 30 Minutes or Less and Geezers! among others.

Producer and engineer Darrell Thorp has lived what so many other budding engineers have only dreamed. After graduating from the CRAS in 1997, he worked his way up the ranks in renowned recording studios in Los Angeles, such as Conway and Ocean Way Studios, Thorp found himself working with chart-topping artists such as Radiohead, Switchfoot, Beck, Outkast, Gnarls Barkley, and Goo Goo Dolls. In an exclusive interview with Universal Audio’s,  Marsha Vdovin sat down with the three-time GRAMMY® winner to retrace his passion for music from childhood to his time in the trenches in LA’s recording scene, and how UA hardware and UAD Powered Plug-Ins are instrumental in his high profile engineering projects. READ MORE

photo l to r: Michael Paciorek, Rob Ficara, Bruce Millett, Jon Cline, Zakary Arechiga
(photo credit: Jeff Harris)

Los Angeles-based Bruce Millett, also known as The Desk Doctor makes his living refurbishing SSL consoles. Bruce’s team includes four CRAS grads who work day-to-day with Bruce making sure everything leaving the shop works in top condition. He was recently interviewed by the Conservatory’s lead tech, Jeff Harris.

Jeff Harris: So Bruce, you have several CRAS grads working for you

Bruce Millett: Yes I do. When I’m looking for people, I would rather find those with the right attitude than aptitude. If they have that, the skills can be learned. All the guys I’ve had from CRAS, have the right attitude and they have already learned the actual operation of the studio.  You can’t fix studios or build studios if you don’t know how to use one. They have a very broad range of knowledge; they can walk into a room, they can run a session and from that they can work on learning the actual skills of (repairing) the electronics.

To be quite honest about electronic service and repair, over 50 % of that is actually understanding whats going on. Is it broken or is it operator error? Once you’ve gone beyond that, trouble shooting and the electronic skills are a small part of it. The whole job is far more ranging than that and the guys I’ve had from CRAS have had all all those general operational skills before they came here. Having seen a lot of students from other schools over the years, I have to say that everyone from CRAS has had a much better attitude. I don’t know if that the school is attracting them that way or is developing them that way but that’s the way it is.

About Jeff Harris: CRAS Faculty member Jeff Harris brings over 35 years of industry experience to the classroom. His industry involvement began at the renown Record Plant Studios in New York and then a 17-year tenure at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles where he served as Supervisor of Electronic Studio Maintenance, Chief Recording Engineer, and General Manager. READ MORE

The American Music Awards brought out the brightest and best in music including a number of CRAS grads who have worked with award winners and nominees on their records. Congratulations go out to:

• A.J. Clark, Assistant Engineer on Adele’s 21
• Chad Carlson, Recording Engineer on Taylor Swift’s Speak Now
• Lyttleton “Carthweel” Carter, Assistant Engineer on Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday
• Sam Holland and Thurston McCrea, Assistant Engineers on Usher’s Raymond v Raymond
• Robert Katz, Assistant Engineer on Rihanna’s Loud
• Andrew Wuepper, Recording Engineer on Jennifer Lopez’ Love?
• Rory Rositas, Assistant Engineer on The Band Perry’s Band Perry
• Andrew Wuepper, Recording Engineer on Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream

Sony Online Entertainment's audio director Rodney Gates speaks at CRAS.

CRAS graduate and audio director at Sony Online Entertainment Rodney Gates, spent an evening in October speaking to current CRAS students about the dynamics of the game audio industry. He also shared how he goes about recording and designing sounds for the award winning games he’s been involved in. In fact earlier in the same week, Rodney was on stage at the Game Developers Conference in Austin, TX accepting the Best Audio for an Online Game award for Star Wars themed Clone Wars Adventures. Students heard Rodney’s raw recordings ranging from ambience to ammunition as well as his final designed sounds including those that will be featured in the highly anticipated online game Planetside 2. Rodney exuded a lot of passion for his chosen career path, which is understandable when your job is to warp, twist and pitch a squawking flock of geese into eerie indiscernible undertones of alien worlds! Learn more about Rodney Gates and his sound design techniques in an exclusive interview and series of articles at Designing Sound.

When concert and opera audiences leave the Saenger Theatre, they seldom drop by the control booth to offer kudos for a job well done. But 1999 Conservatory grad Josh Murray doesn’t mind a bit. READ MORE

Eddie Mapp is a Front of House engineer who graduated from the CRAS in 1997 and has been out with some of the biggest names in the industry including Stone Temple Pilots, Evanescence and Papa Roach. Recently, he was tapped for his extensive knowledge on getting great vocal sounds on the road in Mix Magazine’s Mixing Vocals Onstage feature for the July 2011 issue. “When EQ’ing a vocalist, look into how the vocal is to be perceived in the mix. Does it stand out first and foremost over everything, or is it tucked away a little to give a better blend with the rest of the group?, says Mapp. READ MORE.

Mike Bangs graduated from the CRAS in 2005 and has since been involved as a monitor mixer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Billy Bob Thornton among others. Bangs was also featured in the July 2011 issue of Mix where he talks about his setup for the band Neon Trees, “I did the first couple shows with just the laptop and iPad, using the Allen & Heath iPad app. Then I added the PL-6 so I could have some physical faders.” READ MORE

These are but a few of the Conservatory grads who work across a broad range of live sound, recording, AV, post and technical jobs and are often featured in industry trade magazines and manufacturer’s websites.

Nashville Engineer and 2004 CRAS grad Robert Venable was recently interviewed in a round robin discussion on audio production in the Cloud: “Nashville producer/mixer Robert Venable says, “The majority of the time, I’m using [the cloud] for file management or distribution. I can upload MP3s, WAVs, lyric sheets, song samples, my song demo reel, and distribute those links to those I think might benefit from them. I got hired to produce a record for a female pop singer from Switzerland.” READ MORE

CRAS Graduate George Kemper at Phoenix International Raceway

NASCAR rookie driver Trevor Bayne wasn’t the only one to come out a winner at the Daytona 500. George Kemper, a recent graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS) also made his mark. Like so many CRAS students before him, George Kemper studied hard and practiced so that when the time came, he could jump in and make an impression, save the day, and land his dream job.

After graduating Oregon State University with a degree in psychology George decided that the psychology field wasn’t where he wanted to be, so about a year ago he started a new journey and enrolled at the Tempe based vocational school, CRAS (The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences). A standout student, George excelled in CRAS’s 11-month program, becoming expert in and certified on the many tools and technologies of the audio trade, among them, Pro Tools and Logic.

George Gets His Shot

In need of an audio editor for its NASCAR broadcasts, Fox Sports Sr. Audio Mixer and consultant, Fred Aldous, reached out to CRAS instructor Robert Brock, “We had a need for an editor, we wanted to record all 43 car radios, we wanted to grab them as quickly as possible, edit down some quick pieces and play them back, My first call was to Robert Brock at CRAS.”

Brock adds, “I told Fred about George (who was just finishing up his internship at a post production facility in the LA area) and while he had put other feelers out, he hadn’t heard anything back worth pursuing. I was able to sell him on George primarily because of his drive, ability to think outside the box and his personality. Fred said to give George his cell phone number and that he should leave a message because he might not be available as he was prepping to mix the 2011 Super Bowl later that week. The next call I received was from George who was in Daytona, FL. He’s hired!”

George continues, “I can’t imagine any other place I’d want to be. Before the race at Daytona, we were having some problems with the Soundtrack (digital audio program) setup handling the 43 inputs from the individual driver radio feeds. Fox was willing to purchase a costly Pro Tools HD system, but in the end I was able to use Logic Pro, a program I received as part of my CRAS student laptop package (Studio-In-A-Bag) which I had right there with me. I called Brock to double check a few things and we were quickly up and running!”

Within a few days George had his driver’s car radio edits broadcast live on Fox Sports’ Daytona 500 telecast. It’s pressure cooker situation where George would line up the edited piece he’s just created and when the director cues him, he hits the play button and it goes directly to air. George says, “ The rush of knowing what your doing is going out live is amazing.”

George is very much at home in his new world, especially when you consider that he has been on the job only a few months, and knew next to nothing about NASCAR before he started. This week George travelled to Talladega, AL for the Aaron’s 499where he has very quickly become part of the Fox Sports family.

See photos from George’s time in Phoenix for the NACAR Subway Fresh Fit 500.