Category Archives: News

Tim Andersen: Mix Engineer and MMI Rec. Faculty Member

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Mix Engineer Tim Anderson talks about a project 2 years in the making,

with a goal in mind….

Reminder:

Tim’s Mix Seminars  happen throughout the Summer from 10am – 2pm in Studio B

: ) Learn how to get these guitar sounds

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Check out this cool and innovative release!
T. Perry Bowers, owner of Taylor Sound Rehearsal/Recording/and Video Studios in NE Minneapolis, has released the first Silverseed album. Perry (drums and lead vocal) and partner Charlie Henrikson on guitar and BG vocals, wrote, tracked and produced all songs. The band was 2 piece at first-drums and guitar with 2 vocals, until recently adding bass for the live show. The inspirational lyrics have to do with us living on the planet among many audio surprises reflecting on the complex Zeppelin era. 2 years in the making, I was given carte blanche on the mix. The band sounds remarkably close to the record when playing live, and was a main goal of my mix. You can enjoy the featured single “Sun Inside” on the U tube link.

Tim Andersen: Mix Engineer and MMI Rec. Faculty Member

Every Day!

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

To Michael Peterson and his lovely new bride Courtney!  They were married on Saturday.  All the best!

NEWS AND A LESSON….(well, it was a lesson for me)

THE BIGS ARE UP!

Back in the day, real control rooms and their main monitors we part of a system.  Our control rooms and main monitors were designed by Westlake Audio over 20 years ago.  To bring our Westlake monitors into this century was quite the project and we are happy to say that both our A and B control room monitors are finally up and running.

If you didn’t know, a loudspeaker system is like an instrument, each driver / speaker covers a very specific range and has a ‘signature sound’ that complements the other drivers. The designers took great pains to match each component. along with designing the cabinet, the crossover network (it divides the sound spectrum into driver-specific frequency ranges) choosing the driver amplifiers AND mate the monitoring system with the control room!  After twenty-plus years, some of the drivers had fatigued and lost their ‘signature sound.’

The local team of Dave Meyers and Dave Berg came in to evaluate the drivers to determine their condition.  The 15-inch woofers were re-coned and then driven by a low frequency signal for several days to break them in.  They essentially reverse engineered the system to work with a digital crossover network that would allow greater flexibility, precision and repeatability.

‘The Daves’ then tested and refined the system’s frequency response over several days – tweaking parameters like inter-driver phase, crossover frequency and slope.  When finished, they achieved a remarkably flat frequency response – the foundation upon which we have applied a ‘curve’ that relates to the way our ears hear.  This is similar to the Equal Loudness Curve, but is adjusted for the typical listening level range between 70dBSPL and 85dBSPL.

What this means for ALL of our engineers is that we now have two calibrated reference rooms to listen and more accurately judge our projects.

We make things happen EVERY DAY!

Every Day!

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VISITORS!

World class guitarist Paul Bollenback stopped by MMI with producer Billy Peterson and engineer Brian Snowman Powers to record a few tracks. He’s in town playing at the Artist Quarter.

UPDATE!

Here’s a student update: recent Madison GAM graduate Dan Tafaro has started to work at Raven Software in Madison on the Motion Capture team. Raven is known for developing many AAA titles like Quake IV and Soldier of Fortune.

We make a difference EVERY DAY!

Every Day!

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SOUNDS FUN!

This weekend Ross tracked a live show for Darnell Davis and the Remnant that we’re going to releasing as a DVD.  Jaycen Tichi, recent grad, assisted him. The were at North Central University in Minneapolis and the setup consisted of drums, bass, guitar, 2 keyboards, organ, 3 lead vocalists and about 15 backing vocalists.  Plus a giant fog machine.

STUDENT SERVICE!

Minneapolis has created a “Student Success Center”.  We have shifted some of our most valuable players into one space in order to best serve our students!  Kristen and Drew share a large space.  This allows students  a central location to meet their needs.  As well as Youa and Katie are in the area to help with FA and Registration.

MADISON…..
Does really cool stuff, but keeps it to themselves!  SHARE!!!!! Thanks to Nella, Will, Biff and the rest of the team that consistently send me stuff!

We make things happen EVERY DAY!!!!!

Push Pull Pedal fundraiser

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On Saturday, June 9th, Children’s Hospital held its annual Push Pull Pedal fundraiser in support of the Herma Heart Center, and for the third year in a row MMI was invited to provide coverage of the event.

Milwaukee’s Herma Heart Center fixes little hearts, using surgical intervention to correct congenital problems in babies and young children. The best evidence of their success is the boisterous group of red-shirted “Herma Heart Heroes” seen in the photograph, all survivors of open-heart surgery, and all ready to ride, along with their friends, siblings and parents, in a sponsored circuit of Winnequah Park. Strollers, little red wagons and inline skates are all permitted, as the event name implies, but the short of choice is the bicycle, with or without basket, tassels and training wheels. The best sight of the day was the two little girls, no more than four years old, zooming down the slight hill on the north side of the park, escorted by a police car and trailed, about fifty yards back, by a breathless father; “they just got away from me,” he gasped.
Push Pull Pedal Photograph
DAD chair Tim Mickleburgh did the still photography; VMG chair Nella Citino made the video . MMI students have also provided graphic and motion graphic designs to help promote the event.

Every Day!

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GOOD TURN OUT!

Minneapolis hosted their first “Movies in the park….ing lot Saturday!  About 50 people from the community came to watch The Sand Lot and Goonies out in the yard. Pop corn was popped, soda was served.  A good time was had by all!

SO COOL!

Madison is sponsoring some great shows, check this out!
Here’s a list of some upcoming concerts we’re sponsoring…

7/14       Big K.R.I.T. @ The Barrymore Theater
7/23       Skeletonwitch @ High Noon Saloon
7/25       Best Coast @ Majestic Theater
7/27       Aesop Rock @ The Barrymore Theater
7/28       WJJO Band Camp, featuring Korn, Hurt, Taproot and more… (Band Camp website)

I know you are all doing great stuff!  Please remember to send.  And to those of you that consistently contribute. THANKS!!!!

We make things happen EVERY DAY!

Apple reportedly buys Italian company Redmatica

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The Italian company Redmatica has reportedly been bought by Apple. This news is still developing however recent articles on MacRumors.com  and the announcement on the Redmatica site all point to the fact that this in fact is true.
Redmatica is a company that specializes in Sampling and “keymapping” samples inside DAW programs. It works quite well with Apple Logic pro, running alongside the EXS-24 sampler in LOGIC.
More info here:

Every Day!

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Students Nic Boos,  Max Koehler, Justin Faretta,  Nick Stelloh, Collin Schroeder, Jim Thao,  and Austin Thumser have won a TELLY AWARD for the educational  video “Cyber Safety: Social Networking”  for the local nonprofit organization  The Madison Area Council on Cyber Safety for Children.

WORK IT!

Brittany Frazier is our second graduate to be working in Activision as a QA Tester. She begins later this month. Graduate Christopher Jaeger is has already started working with Activision and is really enjoying the opportunity to learn more about the company and the way they do business

GOOD TIMES!

Minneapolis students are participating in the 48 film festival this weekend.  Here is the invite!

Hey guys! The 48 Hour Film Project is tomorrow and I just have one more thing to add. Not only is it really fun to stay up for two days and watch your friends, faculty and classmates get a little ridiculous from sleep deprivation, but you will learn and do A LOT. It’s fortuitous that the 48 HFP is in the first week of the semester because we will take this video with graphics and audio from beginning to end in one weekend and in the past students really benefitted from tackling that early on. If you can do the 48 HFP you can do anything!

BEST OF LUCK!

It is with great dismay that I announce that Inger is leaving Madison Media Institute.  She has take a position at a local marketing and publishing company working in a field that is more aligned with her training and career aspirations.

Inger has spent the last two years working hard in making the purchasing area more organized and robust and has been instrumental in helping the organization save  money by identifying more cost effective vendors.  She will be greatly missed and hard to replace.

We make a difference EVERYDAY!