Volume 4, Number 5, July 2006
[UA Universe] [Ask the Doctors] [Artist Interview] [Analog Obsession]
[Support Report] [The Channel] [Plug-In Power] [Playback] [Featured Promotion]
[Graphic-Rich WebZine]
[Back Issues] [UA Home]
UA Universe
By Joseph Lemmer and Marsha Vdovin
- Featured Employee
- Upcoming Events
- News & Schmooze
- Tech Talk
- Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip
Featured Employee: Leon Bumanglag, Hardware Engineering Services Technician
 |
|
Leon Bumanglag, Hardware Engineering Services Technician
|
I'm working in the Design Engineering group. That's the group that designs and supports the analog hardware products. My job title is Hardware Engineering Services Technician
How long have you worked at Universal Audio?
I have worked here since November 2, 2004. I started on Election Day.
So where are you from?
I'm from central California. I grew up in a little town called Earlimart.
Never heard of it.
Well, I tell you what. You go out to Fresno, and you drive out to the middle of nowhere until you're halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno, and that's where it is.
So how does a boy from Earlimart become a hardware engineer?
Well, one of my ambitions in life, when I was growing up there, even though I didn't think of it in such terms, was basically to get out there. And I was pretty sharp in school, so I knew I was going to go to college, even though I was from a fairly poor family. So I had a chance to go to school at the University of Laverne, which is down in the Pomona/Claremont [California] area. I got my B.A., and I just worked various jobs over the years. I've been a schoolteacher. My first engineering job was actually working at the old Pac Bell. And then I did administrative work, which was really driving me crazy. I always thought I was going to do some kind of technical work, because I majored in math. I ended up in Santa Cruz, where there is an electronics technology program, so I went to school there. And then I started working in electronics in 1996. This is my third electronics job, but it's my first job in audio, which is the reason I wanted to study electronics: I wanted to work in audio.
“The people that I work with are just all really smart, hard-working people.”
Tell me more about what you do in your job.
One of my main things is handling the bureaucratic end. There's this thing called the ECO [ECO stands for Engineering Change Order-ed.] process. After you make something and you release it, there are always changes that happen. Somebody has to keep track of them. And there's a process for getting those changes approved, and then you have to change the bill of materials, which is the list of the parts that go into the product. And then if you change the design, that has to be approved. We never change our basic design-once a product's released, it stays the way it is. Especially here at UA-once the design has been approved, it stays that way. But there are things that do change, like a knob, or you might change a connector for whatever reason. Maybe the supplier doesn't provide one that you originally spec'd in. So somebody has to keep track of that.
What I want to do, and what I'm working toward, is being more of a designer and being involved very actively on the technical side. So the other part of my job is actually working with the designs. I do a lot of testing when where we're designing the product and building prototypes, and I've worked on designing really small parts of designs.
What do you like about your job?
I think mainly I like the environment and the people I work with. The people that I work with most directly-the other engineers in this group-are all really smart, hard-working people. And basically I've always liked being in an environment where I'm working with really good people.
Yeah. UA people are the best.
Yeah. [Laughs.] It's kind of like when you're a musician. I play music-you always want to play with people who are better than you. Or in sports, you want to play with people who are better than you. And that's kind of the way it is in this-as an engineer, I've always wanted to be around really smart people. And that's what we have here.
What do you play? As a musician, what kind of music do you make?
Mainly, in terms of performing, I do old-time American music, like fiddle music. Guitar and mandolin are my main instruments. And right when I started at UA, I found out about this Middle Eastern ensemble that I play with now.
 |
|
Leon's band, Monster Bacon (Chris Jong –fiddle, guitar banjo, mandolin; Leon – guitar and mandolin; M Mueller – fiddle and guitar) performs mostly old time Appalachian style fiddle dance music, Mexican, and miscellaneous international dance music.
|
<top>
Upcoming Events. . .
"The Doctors" Jonathan Abel and Dave Berners Teach Summer DSP Workshop July 24 - August 4, 2006
 |
The course material will be presented in daily lecture sessions interspersed with laboratory exercises. The lecture sessions will concentrate on theoretical issues in the design of digital audio effects, and will be complemented by laboratory work in which students will develop effects algorithms of their own design.
The course is intended for musicians and recording engineers with an engineering background, and for engineers and computer scientists with an interest in music technology. Previous exposure to digital signal processing, including familiarity with digital filtering and the Fourier transform is helpful. Some knowledge of Matlab and/or a modest amount of C programming experience are also helpful for the laboratory exercises.
And as far as we know, the rumors that UA President Matt Ward will be screening applicants to ensure the class is not attended by DSP engineers from UA's competitors, are only rumors.
Download the course overview.
Sign up for the class at the CCRMA website.
 |
Please check out the Recording Magazine's Great Gear Giveaway! The grand prize winner will take home a UAD-1 Ultra PAK, a SOLO/610, and a lot of great stuff from Shure, Yamaha, Disc Makers, and Berkleemusic.
Young Film Composers Competition Finals August 4, 2006
The second round of judging with Hans Zimmer as Judging Chair has taken place and five finalists were chosen. These finalists will be given a new 90-second clip from the film The Show (1927) to score. The final round of judging will take place on August 4. The grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 and will compose the entire score for the The Show.
The top five finalists are:
- John King - Fort Wayne, IN
- Darrell Raby - Los Angeles, CA (who won first place last year)
- Miles Hankins - New York, NY
- Jeffrey Kryka - Madison, WI
- David Henry - Santa Barbara, CA
Erica McDaniel, Will Shanks, Dave Berners, and Joseph Lemmer returned from another great Tape Op Convention, in Tuscon, Arizona, as this issue of the WebZine went to... uh... press. Watch this space next month for a full redux and photo album.
<top>
 |
|
UREI 813 Time Align Monitors
|
Congratulations to Bill Putnam Sr., Bill Putnam Jr. and Dennis Fink for their Tec Hall of Fame induction for the UREI 813 Time Align Monitors, which were a landmark studio product in 1976! The 813s are large studio monitors instantly recognizable by their iconic blue horn. Incidentally, Bill Putnam Jr. received his first patent as a young teenager for the foam diffuser that lines the rim of the cone.
Precision Multiband up for Tec Award
 |
The final results will be revealed at Fall AES in San Francisco in October.
Prank Fools Music Industry Bigwigs
The British lifestyle magazine Q created a fake band-Hope Against Hope-on myspace.com. Music guru Alan McGee (the man who discovered Oasis) was the biggest fish to bite when he offered the band a gig spot at his Death Disco club.
Q's deputy editor Gareth Grundy said, "You don't really expect you're going to get an offer of a gig from the man who signed Oasis for a band that doesn't exist. I'd call that quite a result."
With all of the real bands out there trying to get attention, it really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
New Zealand Herald
<top>
Tech Talk . . .
Sonar Error 21 Fix in Beta
We are pleased to announce that the close collaboration between Universal Audio and Cakewalk has resulted in a fix in the Sonar VST wrapper that is doing well in the beta stage of testing. If you are experiencing this error (21) with the software, please contact UA customer service.
UAD-1 Macintosh OS Support Change for UAD-1 version 4.3
With UAD-1 software version 4.3, Universal Audio supports OS X Panther version 10.3.9 and OS X Tiger version 10.4.x operating systems. Earlier versions of Panther will no longer be supported. The latest version of Panther, 10.3.9, offers performance superior to that of its predecessors. Apple offers 10.3.9 as a free upgrade for existing Panther users. Simply select "Software Update" from the Apple pull-down menu in the Finder.
Also, as reported in the January WebZine, Universal Audio no longer supports Mac OS X Jaguar 10.2.x as of the release of UAD-1 software version 4.2. This will free up valuable engineering resources so they can focus on critical MacIntel support for UAD-1.
<top>
Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip. . .
Switchfoot Plays Santa Cruz, Visits UA
Two members of the band Switchfoot-Chad and Tim-paid a visit to UA headquarters the day they rocked the house at Santa Cruz's famous Catalyst Club on the last stop of their recent tour. John Fields, who produced both of Switchfoot's multi-platinum releases; "The Beautiful Letdown" and their current release "Nothing is Sound," got them hooked on UA gear, so they stopped by UA to scope out some new UA hardware and software to use on their next record. Several UA people went to the concert and reported on a great show. One UA employee brought his daughter, and although she nearly deafened her father with shrieks of excitement when he told her she was going to the show, she is now the coolest chick at her middle school ("Oh my God! You hugged Jon Forman!") Thanks guys; that is inspiring.
Chad and Tim were seen leaving the building with Ultra PAKs to use on upcoming recording projects.
 |
|
Switchfoot drummer Chad Butler (left) and bassist Tim Foreman
|
 |
|
Glen Nichols
|
Future Funk Squad Remixes The Prodigy's "Spitfire" with UAD-1
This month we checked in with Glen Nichols of Future Funk Squad, who was featured in the August 2004 webzine.
Since 2004 Glen has been rather busy in his Funk Vault studio remixing various big name acts such as The Prodigy, Mylo, Yaz, Erasure and James Zabiela... "I am a massive fan of The Prodigy, so it was an honor to remix their 'Spitfire' track. When I got the parts and started the remix I knew it had to sound very fat to match Liam Howletts' rather big sound, which The Prodigy are well known for! I fed the beats through a bus and used the Pultec Pro and Fairchild 670 to make them fat and punchy. The bass went through the trusty LA2A-I love this plug-in as it's so simple but very effective! The vocals were compressed to the max using the 1176LN which is defo one of my faves! For the overall mix I used the Pultec Pro and the Precision Limiter to push it that extra few db's, and after all that Liam was rather happy with the remix, which kinda made my year!"
Glen is currently working on his second album, Technology, Don't Fail Me Now, which will be released in early 2007. "This album is sounding bigger and more expensive thanks to the UAD-it just adds that mark of quality to the sounds and the overall mixes! I've just been playing around with the Roland Space Echo, and it is unbelievably like the original which my friend has-it's unreal! I'm also so happy to welcome the Neve 1073; now that is essential for everything!!"
Audio Damage, the debut album from Future Funk Squad, is out now on Default Records. For more info visit: futurefunksquad.com
Multiple-Grammy-winning engineer Gary Paczosa sings praises of UA's newest plug-in
Gary's busy. He just finished recording Linda Ronstadt as well as The Duhks and is now mixing Mindy Smith. He's also in the middle of an Alan Jackson record that Alison Krauss is producing. Gary tried out the Neve 1073 plug-in for the UAD and said, "Sweeeet! If you have ever heard a great 1073, this will make you smile. Great plug-in!"
 |
|
Gary Paczosa Says the UA Neve 1073 EQ Plug-in Is "Sweeeet!"
|
<top>