U2 played to a packed house at Phoenix’s Cardinal Stadium on October 20th where Conservatory Director of Education Kevin Becka got a behind the scenes tour for a story he wrote for the December issue of Mix Magazine.

Pro Tools Elastic Time is great for fitting drum loops to a song’s tempo or changing the tempo of your entire session, as well as adjusting vocal phrasing. Check out this free lesson on D-TV

SSL users were among the majority of nominees and winners at the recent 36th annual “American Music Awards” (AMAs). The star studded event was broadcast live on ABC from the NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles and featured 43 artists and projects competing in 23 categories, with 60% of the nominees and 74% of the winners using SSL consoles to create their hits. SSL users who were nominated include: Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Carrie Underwood, Chris Brown, Coldplay, Daughtry, Enrique Iglesias, J. Holiday, Jonas Brothers, Jordin Sparks, Kanye West, Kenny Chesney, Lil Wayne, Mamma Mia, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, MercyMe, Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Rhianna, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, The Dream, Usher and Wu-Tang Clan.

“The Conservatory’s SSL studios and classes focus on real world applications and its great to see that the AMAs reflect how strong SSL’s products are in the industry,” says Director of Education Mike Jones. “SSL is one of the few, if not the only company that has maintained a consistent look and feel throughout their product line. If you start on an SSL 4000 Series console, you can easily understand and operate an AWS 900+ or Matrix from their current line.”

photo caption: Students setting up for a session on the SSL 4000+ in Studio A at the Conservatory’s Gilbert location

Founded by Grammy-winning engineer/producer Charles Dye, alternative indie artist John Ralston, and recording studio owner/podcaster Allen Wagner, Turn Me Up!™ is a non-profit music industry organization working together with a group of highly respected artists and recording professionals to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records.

Fans and audio pros have been complaining about the sound of Metallica’s new CD, Death Magnetic, in comparison to the same tracks in Activision’s Guitar Hero III. News outlets including NME, UK Mastering engineer Ian Shepard’s blog, The Guardian, and Wired magazine have all carried stories featuring comparisons of the two releases including audio waveforms as evidence of over compression and distortion. You can see the difference in the waveforms below comparing the same song from the CD and GHIII. A mystery Metal producer actually remixed a song from the Guitar Hero stems and fans have circulated a petition calling for the record to be completely remixed.

Realtraps are used in studios, home theaters and mastering environments

Check out this great video that explains how to record a phone conversation using Skype

photo caption: Scott’s Phonautograph

Edison has been known as the father of recorded sound since 1877, but Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a French type-setter and tinkerer recorded a woman singing the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune” some 17 years earlier than Edison. The difference is that Scott’s device, the Phonautograph, could not play back audio, but just record it. You can hear the recordings at firstsounds.org. For more info, read the NY Times article.

Realtraps are used in studios, home theaters and mastering environments. This video shows how they’re made