BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - JULY 2008: Nestled comfortably between Berkeley and Oakland, Ex'pression College for Digital Arts educates over 500 students a year in the contemporary fields of animation, gaming, motion graphic design, and sound arts.
Two-thirds of those students graduate from Ex'pression's
two-and-a-half-year program with a concentration in sound arts, taking advantage of the fifty-some industry professionals who devote their time and expertise in the training of Ex'pression students, as well as the department's fifteen professional-caliber recording studios. The sound arts
program recently converted one of the classrooms in their 100,000 square-foot facility to a Walters-Storyk-designed hybrid mastering and recording studio, dubbed "Studio 2." With the help of San Francisco's Cutting Edge Audio and Video Group, they loaded it with top-of-the-line
signal processing equipment, including mic pres, EQs, and compressors from API, and fronted it with an impressive pair of ATC SCM150ASM mastering-grade
monitors.
"By the time our students are ready for Studio 2, they will have been
through a lot," explained John Scanlon, director of sound arts for
Ex'pression. "They will have recorded and mixed through everything from
project studio workstations to huge consoles. They'll know MIDI and mic
technique and timecode and live sound. And they'll be mixing Pro Tools
sessions in their sleep. In short, they'll be well-prepared, knowledgeable
audio professionals. But the lessons they'll learn in this new room will
take all of that to the next level."
Studio 2 will serve two principal purposes. First, students will learn the
subtle and demanding art of mastering through world-class gear and the
industry's highest-of-the-high-end reference monitors, ATC SCM150ASLs.
Second, students will learn to hear the sometimes subtle and sometimes
not-so-subtle effects that gear from different high-end manufacturers have
on audio signals. Again, the ATC monitors will serve the critical function
of nakedly revealing those differences.
"The idea was to collect in one room the very best high-end input processors
and summing mixers from a variety of manufacturers," explained Jeff Briss,
co-owner of Cutting Edge Audio & Video Group. "Students will explore the
different characteristics of gain staging; the sound of different mic pres,
compressors, and EQs; and the different qualities of summing mixers. All of
the gear in the room is undeniably great, but each piece has its own
personality. Students will learn to appreciate and take advantage of those
personalities!"
Enough to make any gear geek slip in his drool, the room boasts Chandler
preamps, compressors, and Germanium tone controls; Neve 1073 preamps; Manley
Massive Passive EQs, Pultec EQs, and Variable Mu compressors; a Waves
MaxxBCL compressor; Manley mic and line mixers; a Speck line mixer; and a "lunchbox" of six API 512C mic pres, as well as a ten-slot rack of API 550A
three-band EQs and API 525 compressors. A Digidesign C|24 control surface
interfaced with a muscular Pro Tools HD3 system acts as the studio's
backbone.
"From the moment we started talking about the idea for this room, we knew we
had to include an assortment of API pres and processors," stated Scanlon. "They helped define the 'analog sound' of the late 1960s that's so coveted
these days. But instead of other company's mock-ups or approximations, the
uncompromising API circuitry actually delivers that sound. And who else
makes EQs that allow you to boost 20kHz and actually hear it?"
With so much processing power in one room, Ex'pression didn't skimp on
monitors. "I heard ATC monitors for the first time at a recent studio
install in Berkeley," recalled Scanlon. "They managed to impress me and
scare the hell out of me at the same time! I was listening to some classic
albums that I knew backwards and forwards and started hearing things that I
never heard before. And some of those things were gaffes that no engineer
would let by - if he was able to hear them!
"Since then, I've also come to appreciate that a good mix on ATCs will
translate beautifully to other speakers and rooms," he continued. "That's a
hugely important lesson for our students - we always teach them that no
matter how much they expose poor recording or mixing techniques, you're
always better off with truthful monitors. You have to be able to hear it to
get it right!"
Studio 2 is now up and running, and, since classes start every five weeks at
Ex'pression, the next wave of students is already turning knobs and learning
the lessons that will make them much sought-after in the industry's
competitive job market.
ABOUT API AUDIO
Automated Processes, Inc. remains the leader in analog recording gear, with
the Vision surround production and Legacy Series recording consoles, the DSM
Series rack-mounted mixers, and the classic line of modular signal
processing equipment.
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ABOUT ATC LOUDSPEAKERS
ATC's drivers are manufactured in-house to exacting tolerances and are
legendary for their many design innovations, such as the innovative SL
magnet system and the company's renowned Soft Dome mid-range driver, which
achieves exceptionally broad and even dispersion to produce a flat response
anywhere in the room. Situated in Aston Down in rural Gloucestershire,
England, ATC was established in London in 1974 by acoustics engineer and
musician, Bill Woodman.
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