There’s nothing like spending a lazy Sunday afternoon building your very own optical compressor!  That’s what CRAS students and instructors did under the supervision of Conservatory instructor and grammy award winner Jeff Thomas.  This particular piece of audio deliciousness is inspired by the legendary LA-2A compressor, but with a few of chef Jeff’s own special mods for additional spice.  Ingredients were specially brought in from China, United Kingdom and the good ol’ USA.   Check out photos from the event held on June 28th, 2009.

On June 3rd, CRAS Students built their own version Keith’s Black Box!  Conservatory live sound instructor Keith Morris helped students build an i/o box that uses Keith’s own proprietary transformer design.  Keith’s Black Box can be used to convert balanced to unbalanced or vice versa, remove ground loops, and add or subtract 6dB of amplitude on stereo signals.  Most importantly many prefer the sonic coloration the box imparts on all signals that pass through it!    Check out photos from the event here.

CRAS’s student chapter of the the AES (Audio Engineering Society) put on a microphone build clinic for all interested students.  The diminutive omni directional microphone fits entirely in a Switchcraft XLR connector. Microphone kits cost just $20… labor not included!  Check out some photos from the event.

Roll your mouse over the gold and platinum records for more details about the grads who worked on these award winning releases from the top names in music.

Fox Sports Senior Mixer Fred Aldous recently invited some CRAS students and staff out to their production facility during a NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Sixteen CRAS grads scored twenty-three Grammy nominations and two awards at the 2009 ceremonies held on February 8th in Los Angeles. The impressive list of winners who employed CRAS-trained audio pros in their sessions include Lil Wayne, Jennifer Hudson, Big & Rich, Sugarland, Beyonce, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and Metallica. Congratulations go out to all our nominees along with Miguel Scott and Aaron Renner who won gold statues for Lil Wayne’s A Milli and Jennifer Hudson’s CD Jennifer Hudson.

John Brown recently finished the on-campus portion of his education at the Conservatory and is now interning at Sweetwater Sound. “My experience so far has been more than I ever expected it to be – the facilities, staff, and gear is amazing,” says Brown about the next step in his career. Sweetwater is an online audio and musical gear sales company with a brand new facility that cost more than $36 million to build from the ground up.

“We have 3 studios here at Sweetwater and I float between them on a daily basis taking in as many different experiences as I can,” says Brown. “

Studio A features The Digidesign ICON D Control Surface, Pro Tools HD, Apogee converters, multiple preamps and compressors from Focusrite and Avalon. John has helped on nearly 20 sessions since he’s been at Sweetwater. “We have recorded a dobro, violin, viola, cello, flute, fiddle, mandolin, sax, drums, shakers, piano, vocals and other intstruments.”

Interns and employees at the facility can take advantage of many in-house non-musical offerings including a hair stylist, movie/game rentals, workout center, a Warehouse and printing center among other things. All in all, life is looking rosy for Mr. Brown who is considering a sales position after being asked to stay on at the company after his internship.