UA Universe
by Joseph Lemmer, Marsha Vdovin, & Terry Hardin
- Featured Employee: Henry Heikkinen
- Upcoming Events
- Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip
- Tech Talk
- News and Schmooze
Featured Employee: Henry Heikkinen
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Henry Heikkinen in the Warrior III yoga position
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Director of information technology.
What do you do for UA?
I manage the UA online store and the my.uaudio.com Web site. I am also responsible for all internal computer operations at UA.
What type of work did you do before UA?
Before UA, I worked developing Internet audio products. Prior to that I worked developing Web and Internet-related products. I also used to work developing Operating Systems and related applications. While in school, I did physics-related computer simulation programming. My first experience with computers was programming both the Apple II and TRS-80 computers at home.
What's your educational background?
I completed an electrical engineering degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. I grew up in nearby Laurel, Maryland. I relocated to the San Francisco Bay area to attend UC Berkeley, and completed a Master's Degree in electrical engineering and computer science there.
“We have many High Fidelity-type moments at UA, sharing our familiarity with the details of our favorite recordings.”
Tell me about your musical background.
I began studying guitar and music theory in sixth grade and have taught guitar lessons. I have always had a fascination with music-related technology, particularly sound quality and recording. Although I enjoy playing music, I now am focusing on the recording of live music.
How did you end up working for UA?
After learning that Universal Audio had started up operations in Santa Cruz, I introduced myself and began working as an engineering consultant for the UAD-1 software. The idea of a company that is producing award-winning audio products in both analog and digital formats was very interesting. It was clear that UA products were among the best in the world. When plans were made to sell plug-ins online, my Internet interest and experience became a natural fit for managing the online store, which I have been doing for the last year-and-a-half.
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Which Universal Audio products do you use?
I use the 2192 Master Audio Interface for live recording and for transfer of analog recordings. The UAD-1 Precision Limiter plug-in is a great tool for mastering live 2- track material. The metering helps bring confidence when choosing the parameters. For multitrack mixes, the UAD-1 1176LN plug-in is invaluable.
What are your musical interests?
While growing up, artists that were of interest and influence ranged from rockers Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix to art rock groups such as Yes, Rush and Pink Floyd. Upon arrival to the San Francisco Bay Area, I immediately felt the influence of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Not only did Jerry create music, but he created community. Jerry inspired many to take a fresh look when approaching guitar playing and improvised jamming. I also became increasingly interested in Soul and Funk music, enjoying groups such as Earth Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, and Sly & the Family Stone. I have had the pleasure of working with many of the greatest funk musicians. At the same time, I became more interested in bluegrass and acoustic music. Bands such as New Grass Revival encouraged me to learn more about bluegrass. I have had the honor of providing technical assistance to many bluegrass artists and promoters. My favorite artist currently performing is Bob Dylan. My enthusiasm for helping artists led to the launch of two music-related Web sites: livefunk.com and livebluegrass.com
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Sirsasana yoga position
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I have studied Iyengar yoga for 12 years and am completing my second yoga teacher training program. I currently teach yoga classes regularly in Santa Cruz. Each class is tailored towards the needs and interests of the students that attend. I feel there is a parallel between the setlist of a live music performance and the sequence created for a yoga class.
What is your home studio like, and what type of music are you currently making?
I primarily record live music, so my home studio is geared towards transfer, mixing and mastering of music recorded elsewhere. I have two permanent Windows-based audio workstations at home, and several mobile recording systems. I enjoy creating down-tempo soundscape music currently, primarily with a MIDI controller.
Have you ever taught yoga to your fellow workers? Or held classes at UA?
Many fellow workers have expressed interest; so far only one has come to my yoga classes. At some point, we may start some regular classes at UA. It would be nice to do yoga without having to leave the building.
Do you listen to music when you do yoga?
The type of yoga that I study is traditionally performed without music, although many schools of yoga do include background music during the entire class. A friend of mine teaches classes with live musicians sometimes, and it is very popular.
Do think there is a connection between what yoga does for the body and mind and what music does?
Both music and yoga can draw the mind into a single focused, concentrated state. When this happens, the mental stress of daily life can be reduced. Yoga seeks to refine the body's subtle energies and to remove blockages. Dancing to music can help do this also, but even just listening to a great work of music sometimes can create an energetic shift, such as getting goosebumps.
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Trikonasana yoga position
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Riding my bike to the lighthouse, then watching the sun set and the moon rise at the same time. The sunsets in Santa Cruz are always very special and unique each day.
Do you have a favorite UA moment?
My favorite moments at UA are learning about the enthusiasm of the artists and engineers using our products. The UA products help them to create even better-sounding music. I'm particularly interested in how artists have been using the UAD-1 plug-ins as part of the creative process of developing a particular type of sound
If you could change one thing at UA, what would it be?
The people and products are great, with a large "cool" factor all around. The location is also tough to beat. Any changes should be considered carefully as they may not always improve things. From a totally selfish point of view, Id like to see UA produce some gear for portable recording that run on DC power.
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Upcoming Events...
TECnology Hall of Fame Champagne Reception October 7, 2005
The Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, which sponsors the Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards, has announced the 2005 inductees to the TECnologyHall of Fame. Established in 2004, the Hall of Fame recognizes products and innovations that have made a significant, lasting contribution to the advancement of audio technology.
The 15 innovations and products that will be inducted for 2005 will be honored at a champagne reception on Friday evening, October 7 in New York City at TEC Award-winning studio, Right Track Recording. The 21st Annual TEC Awards will be held the following night, October 8, at the New York Marriott Marquis.
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Universal Audio will be among the many Remix Hotel partners presenting three days of free technology master classes, panels, demos and clinics about music production and performance for electronic and urban-music producers, engineers, musicians and DJs. What's more, you can showcase your music there. Remix Hotel has an exclusive partnership with Sonicbids to take online submissions for showcase opportunities at Remix Hotel Chicago. Submissions will be accepted until July 10.
Remix Hotel Chicago is at the Hard Rock Hotel, Friday through Sunday August 19-21, 2005, 1-6 p.m. daily.
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Universal Audio is a proud sponsor of the Broadjam 6-Pack songwriting contest. Contestants submit original songs on any of six different themes: Love Shout, Open to Interpretation, Jokeland, Hell Gig, Christmas and Broadjam Tag. Enter in one or all of the categories to accumulate points. The artist with the most points wins a package of fabulous prizes, including a UAD-1 Project PAK and a trip to the 2006 Winter NAMM show.
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Our very own Doctors (Ask the Doctors' Jonathan Abel and David Berners) will be lecturing on Signal Processing Techniques for Digital Audio Effects (DAE) at Stanford University in California from July 25 to August 5. The lectures are part of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Summer Workshops series. You can also check out Perceptual Audio Coding from August 8 to 12.
All lectures will be given on the Stanford campus and are open to the public. For more information or to register, visit the CCRMA website, or write to CCRMA, 660 Lomita Court, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, or call 650-723-4971 ext. 320.
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Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip...
Jerry Harrison and his long time engineer Eric "E.T" Thorngren have been very busy with their Universal Audio gear. Jerry and E.T. have finished their massive task of completely remixing the entire Talking Heads catalog for DVD-A release by Warner Bros. Records. They flew to New York and supervised the mastering with Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound. Look for these landmark surround releases in October. From there, Jerry and E.T went to Charlottesville, Virginia, to produce the popular college radio band Of A Revolution. They also recorded and mixed another up-and-coming act, the Pink Spiders. Jerry also went to AES Europe in Barcelona (some people have all the luck), where he appeared on a panel about car audio with Elliot Scheiner and George Massenburg.
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Jason Carmer & His Dog, Darla
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After great success tracking in Idaho, Jason mixed the record in Morningwood Studios, which he used to co-own with Stephen Jenkins from Third Eye Blind. It was while he shared Morningwood that he built a studio on his own property and installed another vintage Helios console. (This board had spent many years in the Island Records Basin Street studio, and many great Bob Marley songs were recorded on it.) Jason also treasures his vintage LA-3, so he's very interested in comparing them with the just released LA-3A reissue from Universal Audio.
Joe Chiccarelli has been so busy, we could barely catch up with him. In the past few months, he's produced album projects for Tom McRae/BMG in the UK, Judd & Maggie/RCA Records, Maktub/Velour Music, and The Natural History for Vagrant Records. He's also mixed projects for: Eliot Morris/Universal Records, Gemma Hayes/Virgin Records, Hanson/Universal Records, Fobia/BMG, Larry Carlton/RCA Records, and Bedroom Walls for Romanticore Records.
New UAD users include the Amsterdam-based band Huron. Huron are in the studio recording a fall release for Como Park Music. Huron is very exciting to be working with the well-known producer/engineer Gareth Jones. Gareth is best-known for his work with Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Nitzer Ebb, Erasure and Interpol.
Remix magazine and Universal Audio celebrated their mutual success at the recent Remix Hotel New York with a toast on Bastille Day. Please read Terry Hardin’s report on the Remix Hotel event recently held in New York.
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Pictured are Remix Editor Kylee Swenson, UA Marketing Director Mike Barnes and Remix Managing Editor Erin Hutton
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Remix Tech Editor Rob Hanson conveys his love for the new UAD-1 Processor, the Boss CE-1 |
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Tech Talk...
Tiger Supported
UA software and Macintosh fans will be pleased to note that both UAD-1 Software version 3.9 (free update) and the UA TDM plug-ins for Pro Tools are fully compatible with Mac OS version 10.4, OS X Tiger.
Operating Systems Retired
Windows 98SE, Windows ME, and Mac OS 9 will not be supported in the next revision of UAD-1 software. When operating systems change, the tools and techniques programmers use to program for them also change. The cost in work-hours to support old operating systems becomes too great in relation to the number of people using them on their computers. Please see this month's Support Report for more information.
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News & Schmooze...
UA Survey Winners
Universal Audio would like to thank everyone that participated in our recent email survey! Three lucky winners were picked from those that participated: Roberto Ferniani of Italy won the Project PAK, Oliver Lucas of Germany won the Studio PAK, and David Myers of Canada won the Ultra PAK.
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Greg Westall
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Universal Audio is pleased to welcome Greg Westall as UA's new Senior Product Manager. Greg is a longtime guitarist, songwriter and project studio owner. He studied recording with Bruce Swedien (Bill Putnam Sr. protégé and engineer extraordinaire) while working at Alesis in its ADAT heyday. Most recently, Greg ran product management at Line 6 during development of Flextone, Amp Farm and the POD. Greg says, "I'm thrilled to be part of a company with such a strong analog design commitment, as well as unequalled software and modeling expertise. And the weather in Santa Cruz doesn't suck either..."
UA Softball
UA is looking for some ringers, particularly female ringers, for its co-ed softball team. "We're still getting it off the ground." Chief Financial Officer and team captain Alan Beans said during a brief press conference where he declined to comment on how the first game of the season went. If you're a good female softball player, you can probably get on the UA payroll...Check back next month for more news and photos.
Remix Hotel NYC Report (June 3-5, 2005)
Hellooooo, New York! Remix Hotel is here! That was pretty much the opening bell for three days of total immersion into the hip-hop world of the Remix Hotel June 3-5 at SAE Institute in Manhattan. Yours truly and Neil Ziesing (Universal Audio sales representative for the Northeast region) were on hand for this show to demonstrate the wisdom of having our UAD-1 powered plug-in system installed in the legions of existing and aspiring artists' and producers' DAWs. We were also there to expose the hip-hop nation to the history and legacy of Universal Audio.
The event was definitely well-attended, with more than 1,000 visitors on the first day, and close to that number of attendees the following two. Many people returned each day in order to learn as much as they could about how the currently available technology will affect their career aspirations. Many of the attendees of the Remix Hotel were transitioning from the pure analog world of the turntable and mixer coffin to the world of digital audio workstations. Consequently, we integrated a lot of education in Neil's and my presentations of the UAD-1 plug-ins. Of course, there was a large complement of established hip-hop and remix producers to keep the youngsters excited and inspired, including Needlz, 88 Keys, Jeru the Damaja, Royce da 5'9", Consequence, Cipha Sounds and Jae Millz.
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Steve rocking his P. Diddy look
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Another new friend of UA came by way of composer/producer Steve Pageot of Pageot Productions. Steve is currently developing tracks for the artist who pays the lease on Daddy's House Studios in Manhattan. Steve provided wisdom and encouragement to the aspiring composers and producers in attendance through his daily panel presentation of "How to Make a Hit Track." Steve's message was refreshing to this decidedly "old school" musician. He continually stressed the necessity to learn, understand, and implement traditional music theory in the creative process, rather than simply rely on technology and the happy accident to come up with the next hit track.
All in all, the three days at the Remix Hotel NYC was a two way educational street filled with cutting-edge music and the people who create it. It's not just about dance and rap, either. GrandMixer DXT, a featured artist in the Digidesign/M-Audio booth, discussed his latest film score project. Neil and I came away from this energetic three-day experience with the knowledge that Universal Audio is already making a significant impact on this segment of the industry, and our influence will only grow as artists become increasingly involved in the production process.
The next Remix Hotel is scheduled for the Hard Rock in Chicago, August 19-21, 2005. After that, the event sets up in the new SAE Institute in Los Angeles, November 4-6, 2005. Don't miss 'em. The Remix Hotel events are hosted by the fine folks at Primedia Business Magazines and Media, publishers of Remix, Mix and Electronic Musician magazines. For more information about the Remix Hotel events, visit their Website.