CRAS grad Clay Barlow from the 8/3/2007 graduating class has rocketed to the top of his new job in Game Audio. He is part of the team at WaveGroup Sound in Fremont California who has produced the audio for a string of wildly successful game titles including Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero: Rock the 80’s. The studio is featured in the February 2008 issue, and cover of Mix magazine and Clay is pictured on page 50. “Clay had a perfect GPA and attendance over the 8 months he was here and was motivated from day one,” says Director of Education Kevin Becka. “It’s no wonder he’s done well in his new career. Students like Clay make our jobs something special, we wish him the all the best of luck.”

photo caption: clockwise, Jon Hanson (Empirical Labs), Brenton Trotter (Stash Picks), Afton Hefley (Goblynz Groove Media), Eric Boyer (Presonus) and Ben Widmer (TC Electronic)

The recent annual Winter NAMM show in Anaheim California displayed the latest gear in music and audio to over 88,000 registrants. The show is a magnet for musical celebrities, manufacturers, musicians, recording engineers, producers and more. Conservatory staff visited the show and ran into a bevy of grads working the show for a variety of manufacturers.

Check out this great video chronicling a very special session where the Beatles’ engineer Geoff Emerick records And Your Bird Can Sing with the Fab Faux.

There are a lot of cool changes in the curriculum and studios at the Conservatory for 2008

Universal Audio puts a lot of effort into quality software emulations. The Neve 33609 Bus Compressor is a UAD plug-in based on a legacy piece of hardware used on a lot of record productions. It was originally designed by Geoff Tanner at Neve in the 70’s (before it became AMS Neve) and is based on the 2254 compressor. This unit and the SSL bus compressor are two of the best examples of products in this category.

This is TRUE mobile recording. Controlling Pro Tools from an iPhone. Check it out

Both surround production studios at the CRAS were recently upgraded with new Digidesign C24 Control surfaces. The upgrade makes the Conservatory the first educational institution in the world to certify students on the platform. “We’re excited to be right on the cutting edge with this upgrade,” says surround recording instructor and director of education Kevin Becka. “The mic preamps in the C24 are great and the surface has been completely revamped making it much more user friendly than its predecessor.” New Mac Pro towers running Pro Tools 7.3 was also part of the upgrade.

The CRAS has christened a brand new program that will give students an impressive set of tools to work with during their education, and after they venture into the workplace. Starting December 14 2007, new students will be given a 13″ MacBook laptop, M-Audio Fast Track Pro, M-Powered Pro Tools Academic, Logic Studio, Waves Certification bundle, Sennheiser 815 S-X microphone and Sennheiser EH150 headphones as part of their enrollment package. Over two years in planning, the program will integrate the laptop and gear into the 30 week on campus program using CRAS Connect, an online component used for testing, communication, online texts, glossaries, networking and much more.

“We’re excited to put the tools for study and exploration in their hands 24/7, and tying it all together with a strong web element,” says Administrator Kirt Hamm. “The package we put together represents the best software and hardware manufacturers in audio.” When fully implemented, both locations will have over 500 active Pro Tools and Logic rigs on campus.

On this day in 1904 British engineer John Ambrose Fleming invented and patented the two-electrode vacuum-tube rectifier, which he called the oscillation valve. It was also called a thermionic valve, vacuum diode, kenotron, thermionic tube, or Fleming valve. This invention is often considered to have been the beginning of electronics, and without Mr Fleming, we wouldn’t have all this great sounding audio gear.

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