Universal Audio will receive a Technical GRAMMY® Award on February 7 for Universal Audio’s technical contributions to recording. This is the second Technical GRAMMY® for Universal Audio; Bill Putnam, Sr., was honored posthumously in 2000. Technical award recipients are determined by vote of the academy's Producers and Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, as well as the academy's trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. Universal Audio will receive the Technical GRAMMY® Award at a special, invitation-only ceremony on Saturday, February 7. A formal acknowledgment will be made during the 51st Annual GRAMMY® Awards telecast.
Now ExpressCard laptop users can access the entire library of world-class UAD powered plug-ins on their laptops, with the UAD-2 SOLO/Laptop DSP Card. Universal Audio is showing functional previews of the SOLO/Laptop at booth # 7003 at the NAMM Show, while the manufacturing department ramps up to full production in March. The SOLO/Laptop is about the size of a network card, requires no external power or cables, and carries the full power of a UAD-2 SOLO card. Like all UAD products, it runs on VST, AU, and RTAS, on Mac OS X (10.4/10.5) and Windows XP/Vista.
Stuart Price is one of the hottest producers on the globe, with Madonna and Seal under his belt plus the acclaimed new release from The Killers, Day & Age, so we were excited to hear that he added the UAD-2 to his arsenal of audio tools.
"The UAD-2 plug-ins were among the first plug-ins that became part of my standard setup. Not just because of their sound, but also because their operating range seems finely tuned to give quick results,” says Price. “The 1176 and Pultec have been used on the majority of the vocal tracks. I like the 1176 set with high input, clockwise release, ratio at 4:1 and then ride the output until I like the character. The Pultec has two settings for me, 8k on the highs for songs that need the sheen, and 100 Hz for vocal recordings that lack body. It is incredible that the bass on it is so much more than just 'bass.' I suppose you judge a processing collection by how many people you recommend it to, and everyone I have worked with has now gone and got one. …" Thanks Stuart!
Founded in 1992 in the north-London suburb of Islington, Alchemea College has rapidly become one of the country's most respected audio engineering schools, offering both full- and part-time courses in audio engineering and various other disciplines for the music and post-production industries.
Currently taking center stage at Alchemea is Universal Audio's new UAD-2 plug-in platform. The college has just refitted its entire suite of main workstations with new 2.8Hz 8-core Mac Pro computers, new Apple screens and Mboxes. Each computer is also equipped with a Universal Audio UAD-2 SOLO card. The Quad Mac Pro in the Programming Room is also to benefit from a Solo card. Along with the UAD-2 hardware installations, Alchemea has installed the entire range of UA plug-ins, including all the Neve compressors and EQs, the Roland and Boss effects, and the brand new Moog Multimode Filter plug-in.
And it's not just UA plug-ins that Alchemea likes the sound of. Another recent addition to the college is a UA 6176 channel strip. It's being installed in the Euphonix mixing room to provide students with more mic preamp options to flavor their mixes.
David Stocker from Audiophile Recording Studio in New Orleans checked in this month. David won a UAD-1 Ultra Pak last year at the Pot Luck Con and sent us a gushing email. “The Ultra Pak went into our mastering room, and we've since added a second UAD-1. It’s been such a sonically satisfying upgrade–the Precision Limiter and Precision EQ are fabulous and used often ... not to mention the Fairchild!!
"We purchased a PCIe Express Pak for our Pro Tools workstation, and now we have true sonic bliss--the Ultra Pak plugs, including the Neve 88RS/Helios/LA-3A/VCA VU plugs we added to our arsenal of quality plug-ins, just make ITB mixing a joy again. Hands down, these plugs sound amazing. ... I’m also a proud new owner of a UA 1176LN now. Next year: UAD-2 duo or quad--and possibly a 2-610 or an LA-610 Mk II.” Thanks, David!
UA co-founder Jim Putnam made National Public Radio’s "10 Great Unknowns" list with his solo project, Mt. Wilson Repeater. He played all the instruments on the new album and recorded it at his Phase IV Intergalactic Recording studio. Mt. Wilson Repeater is a mostly instrumental album. What vocals Putnam does offer are more like colorful accents to the vibrant sonic landscape.
NPR reports, “There's nothing particularly somber or celebratory about Mt. Wilson Repeater. The songs just sort of hang out, kicking back on lazy, warm afternoons. On the second track, 'Out Country Way,' Putnam simply sings, 'While I wait here at home for you, I'll sit and wait here at home for you,' repeating the lines over and over. But Putnam does throw in some whistled melodies, handclaps, and found sounds like kids playing that make the album overall very carefree and uplifting.”
This project came about from Jim Putnam’s first experiments with computer-based recording and the UAD-1. All of Jim’s previous work was completely analog, recorded and mixed on analog desks and tape. He had never used any computer-based audio tools, and had barely used computers. His brother, UA founder and Chairman Bill Putnam, Jr., encouraged Jim to start using the UAD-1 so he could provide feedback on the plug-ins. Mt. Wilson Repeater was a result of Jim’s experiments while learning Nuendo and UAD-1.
“The inspiration (for the album) came when I crashed my plane into this orange grove in San Bernardino," says Jim Putnam on his web site. "My cat and I were on our way to visit some friends in the desert, but we ran out of fuel. There was a clog in the fuel line. I had to dump the rest and 'go for the grove' as they say in flight school. I wasn't scared, though. I knew I would make an album."
The NAMM Show is happening now! It ends this Sunday, January 18, so get on over to our new booth location at #7003 and check out the new products. ...
Music Industry to Stop Suing Individual File-Sharers
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.
The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person, and a 13-year-old girl.
Wall Street Journal
RIAA Loses Mistrial Appeal
A federal judge has denied the Recording Industry Association of America's request for an appeal of an earlier decision to grant a retrial in its copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas.
A jury had found that the Minnesota woman had violated copyright laws by illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs. The jury ordered the woman, Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay $220,000 to six of the top music labels.
But a few weeks after the verdict was handed down, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis threw out the verdict on the grounds that he originally misguided the jury by indicating that simply the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. A new trial has been rescheduled for March.
CNET
Legal Downloads Growing Faster Than Piracy
The recession is not driving music lovers to piracy. Just away from their CD players.
The volume of legal music downloaded in the third quarter of 2008 increased 29% over the same period a year ago. That beats the growth in illegal music downloads over peer-to-peer networks, which rose 23%.
Silicon Alley Insider
