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SSR at Marylin Manson Gig

3 lucky SSR students enjoyed a field trip to the Marilyn Manson sound check and gig at Manchester Central Arena on Thursday 6th December. Production Manager Gary Garner took time to show the students around the venue, including a look back stage at the technical set up. The students spent the first part of the day observing Front of House Engineer ‘Shirt’ voice up the system and carry out a line check for the musicians in Marylyn’s backing band. Students were accompanied by SSR Live Sound Tutor Jay Beard (ex Cherry Ghost, Snow Patrol, Doves etc) and Technical Manager Paul Collins from creative partners S.T.S. Touring, who arranged the trip.

The Front of House set-up was based around the Digidesign D-Show console and Meyer FoH system). Students were then shown around the stage area to look at the backline equipment, monitor set-up and mic positions. Live engineer and SSR tutor Jay Beard said ‘It was a brilliant experience for our students to observe the setup and sound check. The Live Course at SSR has been developed hand in hand with key players in the live sound industry and these kind of field trips really do add value to the training. We do run our own frequent live concerts at SSR (Wired @ SSR) but it’s great to get out and see this done on a larger scale.
LIVE SOUND COURSE OPEN EVENING

Anyone interested in joining SSRs new live sound course should check out the open evening on Wednesday 15th August at 7.30pm.

This open event will concentrate exclusively on the Live Sound Course.

Visitors will be given the chance to turn their hand to mixing a live show both for the audience (Front of house) and the artists (monitors)

Tutor Jay Beard will be on hand to help (and no doubt share some anecdotes about life on the road)

This is the last open event before the course starts on Monday 3rd September
 
Van Damme Live Band Nights have landed!

The Van Damme sponsored student band nights are about to launch on Saturday the 7th July 2007.

The events will take place in the Charlie Jones Live Room at SSR, and will take place every two weeks on a Saturday starting at 4pm and finishing around 10pm. Although the events are closed to the general public (unless you are a student or friend or relative of a student), they are designed to run like any real event, requiring a team of technicians and engineers.

If you are a student of SSR and would like to apply to join the Van Damme Event team, you will need to do so at least two weeks in advance of each event. Following are the positions available:

1. Venue/Production Manager
2. Promoter/Artist Liaison Officer
3. Stage Manager
4. Front of House Engineer
5. Monitor Engineer
6. Patch/Mic Engineer
7. 2 x Recording Engineers
8. Security Staff x2

To apply for a position on the team please send a short e-mail in application to jaybeard@s-s-r.com and include “Van Damme Live Event Staff” in the subject field. You don’t need any previous experience but this will help especially with the engineering positions.


The successful applicants will form a team and will meet with Jay Beard two weeks before the event to discuss roles and the arrangements for the evening. The students will then have to organize themselves to put on the show and report back to Jay.

Please Note: These nights cannot go ahead without your participation!

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FAZE 2 International DJ Agency Guest Lecture Tuesday 15th May 7-9pm @ SSR

Purveyors of good music, friendly and knowledgeable. Often the first to bring international acts to the UK and to build the career of the best new talent around, as well as working with some of the most established artists in the genres they operate in. Faze 2 in the past have worked with the likes of DJ Yoda, Cash Money, Dexter (Avalanches), Lord Finesse, Kid Kenobi, Tim Utah (Utah Saints), The Deadly Avenger, introducing (or re-introducing) these artists to the UK and helping to raise their profile and carve out careers in the industry. They continue to work on this basis with the likes of DJ Kentaro, DJ Dopey and C2C.

Faze 2 is a premier international DJ agency based in Manchester. Established in 2001 Faze 2 was set up with the vision to launch the careers of emerging talent while relentlessly cultivating the careers of more established UK & international artists both within the UK & International dance music arena, which they continue to strive to do.

The Technics DJ Academy is proud to announce that managing director, Rob Homer, will be presenting a guest lecture, covering all aspects of the music industry, agencies, management and his artists.

The lecture will take place Tuesday 15th May in the Live Venue at SSR from 7 – 9pm, and is open to all students currently studying at SSR, offering a unique insight into this area of the industry.






 
d&b Electroacoustics seminar - Wednesday 2nd of May 2007 at the School of Sound Recording Manchester

There are 15 exclusive places for current SSR students from all courses. To apply for this exciting seminar please e-mail enquiries@s-s-r.com (including d&b seminar in the subject heading). Selection will not be random, but based on tutor recommendation and attendance.

For successful applicants, we aim to start at 11am, so try to arrive around 10.30am in time for a cup of tea/coffee. Lunch is provided and the seminar will finish around 6pm but do leave the day open ended if you can. There is no charge for the day, but we would ask that if you have to cancel for any reason that you let us know as soon as you can as we maybe able to offer your place to someone else.

The focus of the day is on achieving intelligibility in Live Sound - if you're passionate about sound, then you want to get good quality, intelligible sound to every seat in the house. Most sound engineers have a good knowledge of the electronic signal path, but are less sure of the acoustic signal path between the loudspeaker and the listener's ears. It is this part of the signal chain that we'll be primarily looking at.

d&b audiotechnik will:-
  • Define the parameters that make up a well behaved (and badly behaved) loudspeaker.
  • Examine the effect of speaker choice and placement on intelligibility.
  • Consider constant directivity and see why it is so important.
  • Explore what happens to sound in our working environment and the different factors that change its propagation.
  • Analyse addition and subtraction of sound waves and consider the drawbacks - comb filtering, and the benefits - coupling of subwoofers.
  • Investigate system sizing: how loud does it need to be, what system will achieve this level, how much headroom is needed and at what cost?
  • Look at the d&b acoustics calculator, you will receive a copy, and find out how it can help in your system designs.
  • Along the way, we will take in all the acoustics and physics you'll need. We avoid the "Chalk and Talk" approach; practical experiments, demonstrations and reasoned discussion take the place of the blackboard as much as possible.





 
Robert Scovill

Rob Scovill flew into Manchester on the 21st March 07 to deliver a live mixing and recording workshop. During the lecture students learnt about the expanding disciplines of the live engineer, and all the additional roles and responsibilities expected in today’s live environment. Some of these roles include ‘systems engineering’ ‘live recording’ ‘archivist’, ‘broadcasting’ and ‘live mastering’.

The workshop lasted for 90 minutes and was well received by all. Mr Scoville passed on a number of live sound tips which included advice such as ‘Technology should be your slave and never your master. Look at the job in hand and choose the tech; don’t let the tech limit your approach’.

All of the Team at SSR would like to thank Mr Scoville for taking the time to come to the school and give an insight into the world of Live Sound.


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Rupert Neve lecture a huge success!

Wednesday 14th march 2007 was a very special day for SSR. The legendary Rupert Neve (www.rupertneve.com) flew in from Texas USA to SSR to take part in a rare interview about his life, focusing on his 50 years at the forefront of analog audio technology design and manufacture. Mr Neve is famous for his console designs, his pioneering work on equalisation and his development of the world’s first ‘flying faders’ console.

Mr Neve thrilled a 150 strong audience over a 2 hour period with stories and anecdotes from his amazing career. As Ian Hu (SSR’s Principal) explained ‘Mr Neve is an exceptional man. His knowledge of audio is vast and the pioneering work he has carried out over the years has shaped the industry as we see it today. If there were an award for ‘outstanding contribution to the field of audio’ then Mr Neve should receive it. He is truly a legend and it has been an honour to host this amazing one-off event.’ SSR would like to extend it’s sincere thanks to Mr Neve and his wife Evelyn, for visiting SSR and for making the event so enjoyable and interesting for the students.


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SSR Live Band Nights coming soon!

SSR plan to hold a series of ongoing ‘live nights’ in response to a flood of recent enquiries. SSR students and their friends will be invited to play on stage in the new Charlie Jones Live Room, on a bi-monthly basis. The night will be open to bands, solo artists, collaborations etc and will provide live experience to performers, technicians and engineers alike.

Cable giant Vanne Damme (visit Van Damme at www.van-damme.com) have agreed to sponsor the nights which will be used to train students on the Live Sound module in the use of state-of-the-art equipment featured in The Charlie Jones Live Room.

If you are a current SSR student (or a friend of a student) and you’re interested in getting involved, email bill.devon@s-s-r.com with your name, a band biog, and myspace link. The nights are expected to start in April 2007. Watch this space!

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Rupert Neve
15th March 2007

Rupert Neve (pictured), a key developer of modern mixing consoles, will deliver a guest lecture at SSR on the 15th of March. “Rupert Neve has led a remarkable life dedicated to perfecting the art of audio reproduction,” said SSR principal Ian Hu. “His career spans over 60 years and has influenced generations of audio designers. We will be honoured to have him here at SSR."

Neve began his life in audio in Argentina, mending radios to bring people news of World War II. Arriving in England at age 17, he converted a retired U.S. Army ambulance into a mobile studio, recording choirs, music festivals and public events on 78 RPM lacquer disks. These early steps led to his pioneering development of the modern recording console.

By 1964, Neve had developed high performance transistor equipment that replaced traditional valve designs. His first client for the new transistor equipment was Phillips Records Ltd. The success of these units led to orders from Phillips and other recording studios for mixing consoles. These attained a reputation for sonic clarity and excellent workmanship. Demand grew rapidly and, by 1973, the Neve team had grown to over 500 members worldwide. During this period Neve introduced “Moving Fader Automation,” or NECAM.

Rupert Neve was inducted into the Mix magazine Hall of Fame in 1989. He received the 1997 Technical Grammy Award, was honored as “Man of the Century,” by Studio Sound Magazine in 1999 and was selected by his peers as the Number 1 Audio Personality of the 20th Century.

Operating as ARN Consultants, Neve collaborated with a number of manufacturers to produce consoles, including the Amek 9098, the Focusrite Forte and Studio models. Currently based in Texas, Neve established Rupert Neve Designs in April 2005 and launched The Portico range of modular preamplifiers, equalizers, dynamics, image controllers and other new high performance products.

Click here to read more about Rupert Neve.