Universal Audio WebZine
Volume 4, Number 1, January 2006
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UA Universe
by Joseph Lemmer, Mike Barnes & Marsha Vdovin

Featured Employee: Mac Product Specialist Casey Schultheis

Casey Schultheis
What is your job title and what do you do at UA?
I'm a Mac Product Specialist for Universal Audio. I mainly support UAD-1 for the Macintosh platform. My main duties are weekly customer service issues and daily e-mail and phone support. Yeah!

How long have you worked at UA?
About seven months. I have not been counting.

What is your least favorite part of your job?
Getting up early and having to be to work at 9 a.m. In the past, I did a lot of recording at studios and worked a lot of odd hours, rarely starting before 5 p.m. So even though 9 a.m. isn't that early, it's sometimes difficult in comparison to previous somewhat nocturnal habits.

Where are you from, and how did you end up in Santa Cruz?
Well, I grew up in Los Gatos which is about twenty minutes east of Santa Cruz. My family came to Santa Cruz a lot when I was a kid because both my dad and I started surfing when I was young. Soon after I left for college, my parents moved to Santa Cruz to be closer to the beach. About five years ago, after I graduated from college, I was driving through Santa Cruz with a U-Haul on my way to L.A. I stopped by my parents' for the weekend, and I went surfing again and have been here ever since. In the past five years that I have been in Santa Cruz, I've been working with different artists and engineers and producers at many different studios. Previously, I went to a technical school near Berkeley, called the Ex'pression Center for New Media, learning more details about digital art. The school was about being totally immersed into your field of interest, and that's why I was going to that particular school. School days were Monday through Saturday with 10 to 15 hours of class each day. While I was there, I learned tons of interesting stuff, but for the most part I just met a lot of interesting people. I also found out that I actually knew a lot about this audio stuff, and people kept asking me the questions because I knew the answers. So it's kind of funny that I ended up in tech support-I still have the answers.

What kind of music do you make?
Ohhhh! I don't know! This could be a run-on sentence! I don't think that the music I make fits into a genre. I'm constantly changing the kind of music I make, so I guess it's hard to be genre-specific. It sounds like anything from Bing Crosby to Radiohead. Mostly all of my songs turn into something tech-nerdy because I end up tweaking effects and playing with different microphone techniques to get different results. You might want to call it "Fluff."

What is in you CD player right now?
Louis Armstrong. I just bought a four disk-completion at Costco for 20 bucks, and it sounds great.

What is your favorite part of your job?
Working for a great company with tremendous coworkers, having a cool boss and making awesome products. I believe that UA makes some of the most fundamental products needed to make great recordings, mixing and mastering. Also I work a normal work week. Monday through Friday, nine to five, which leaves ample time for my passion: recording, mixing, mastering. Check out my new Web page! http://www.caseyaudio.com/


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Upcoming Events...

Universal Audio & AMS Neve Limited
Under a special trademark licensing agreement with AMS Neve Limited, UA will co-develop a series of classic console plug-ins for the UAD-1 DSP Card & Powered Plug-Ins system. Under the terms of this agreement, Universal Audio will collaborate with Neve to develop and market software emulations of Neve signal processors beginning with the infamous legendary Neve 1073 Equalizer.

“Neve is a brand synonymous with landmark recording equipment innovations and some of the best sounding consoles and audio hardware designs of the past 40 years.” said Matt Ward, President of Universal Audio. “To say we are excited about having the opportunity to bring these time-honored classics and the Neve brand to the DAW world and our UAD-1 user base, would be an understatement. It is truly an honor to have a company as esteemed as Neve entrust us to create software emulations of their classic products.“

“The Neve sound is the most sought after in the world,” said Neve President Tom Misner “Its availability as plug-ins will compliment the range of Classic and New Classic Neve Outboard Units”. Simon Daniels, Product Marketing Manager at Neve added, “Universal Audio has a demonstrated ability to create extremely accurate emulations of classic signal processors. We are confident that Universal Audio will develop the Neve plug-ins with the skill necessary to maintain and strengthen Neve’s outstanding reputation.”

The 7th Annual Young Film Composers Competition
Universal Audio is once again a sponsor of the Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition. Enter now!

Don't miss the interview with last year's 3rd prize winner, Glenn Morrissette, in this month's The Channel.

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Tech Talk...

Jaguar not supported in UAD-1 v4.2
Like Apple and Steinberg, Universal Audio will no longer support Mac OS X 10.2x "Jaguar" as of the release of UAD-1 software version 4.2







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News & Schmooze...

Music Album Sales Ht Eight-Year Low in 2005
Los Angeles (Reuters): U.S. music album sales last year slid to their lowest level since 1996, squelching any hopes that the recording industry's long downward spiral may have bottomed out, according to sales data issued on Wednesday January 5, 2006. For more information, read a complete story on the Reuters' news service's Website.

Music Labels Get No Sympathy in Probe
CNET reports that an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is piquing the interest of industry watchers who wonder what will happen to digital music prices in the near future. Four major labels have received requests for information from Spitzer's office, and companies such as Yahoo, Apple Computer and America Online expect to receive similar requests. Read more on CNET's news page.

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Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip...

Big Shout Outs to Grammy Nominated UA users this month!
Gary Paczoza is competing with himself in the Grammys for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. He is nominated for: Deceiver by Chris Thile and Lonely Runs Both Ways by Alison Krauss and Union Station. The Alison Krauss and Union Station album is also nominated for Best Country Performance by a DUO or Group with Vocal, Best Country Instrumental Performance, and Best Country Album. Best of luck to Gary!
Joe Chiccarelli unleashed his arsenal of UA gear on the Grammy-nominated album Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai Volume 2 by Kitaro. This release is nominated in the Best New Age Album category. Good luck Joe!

2005 Annual Surround Music Awards
Universal Audio users were also recognized at the 2005 Annual Surround Music Awards, which were presented at a gala event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 15.

(L-R) Producer Jerry Harrison, assistant engineer Matt Cohen and engineer E.T. (Eric) Thorngren were the big winners. They captured a total of four awards for the Talking Heads' DualDisc Box Set: a 5.1 DVD-A remix of eight Talking Heads albums. They received awards for Best DualDisc Release, Best Menu Design and Best Mix: Non-Orchestral, as well as a newly created honor for Best of Show (center in blue box).
The Hear No Evil team of Stephen Parr and Sharon Stone won a Surround Music Award for Best Mix: Orchestral for Reich at the Roxy. This amazing recording featured the group Alarm Will Sound performing contemporary composer Steve Reich’s music. Londoner Stephen Parr was the only European to win.
3 Bone Audio producer Rez Dahya (left) and Artist E3 won for their first award for Best Standard Resolution Title for E3s album One Soul. It was the second time this young producer out of Toronto has been nominated.
Other UA users at the conference included Fred Maher and Ron MacLeod, who were found discussing the merits of DualDisc formats vs. DVD-V.
Media maven Marsha Vdovin met up with Phil Ramone at the Surround Pro Conference just before the awards ceremony, where he was presented with the Surround Pioneer Award.

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