John Vanderslice

Today we had a guest speaker, John Vanderslice owner of Tiny Telephone in San Francisco. Of the guest lectures I've attended this semester this was easily the most entertaining. John discussed everything from processors to studio etiquette, throughout detailing an intuitive process to owning and operating your own studio.

Vanderslice began his studio 14 years ago while studying Econ. however, he soon switched to studying the arts but found that the numbers didn't quit add up. To supplement his income he worked as waiter and consistently poured money into his company. While he went into great detail on various topics, one the most salient points for me was when he was describing the dilemma that his associate presented him with.

*At some point you have to choose, either your going to be an engineer or an artist its not realistic to try and do both.*

In the presentation he also touched on the importance of transparency & forming a web of connections. I personally noticed points when I allowed my personal issues hinder handling business and from this point forward plan to thoroughly exhaust connection and relationships. Another aspect i seen as amazing was that fact that he had staff of over 11 engineers which helps him to specifically cater to the artist that comes in. I plan on taking a tour of his facilities in the near feature.

Percussionist Alex Vittum

Today I viewed a presentation by Alex Vittum. Alex is a professional percussionist based out of the east that is heavily involved with creating instruments and processors.

Beginnings

*Graduate School @ Mills
*Under Graduate @ Eddington
*Met Dr. Waters around 2001 (working Cubase)

Currently

* Works as an elementary school teach
* Builds instruments and
* Records at a studio in the East Bay

During the presentation Alex talked about his method for creating...

* Prissim (through Max 5) then highlighted the three elements that were alterable Timber - (color), Amplitude - (volume) & Frequency - (Pitch)

Note: GUI - Graphic User Interface

Then he walked through the various module within Max 5. Many of the modules resembled the functionality of the xpand plugin in pro tools. The difference in Mr. Vittums approach was that his processing was happening on the fly through a midi controller located on his drum kit.
He also spoke on how he used feed back from the speakers located directly behind him to further alter the sounds produced from the kit.

Next he displayed a processor, that was combined digital and analog. He spoke on the different methods of use and showed a couple examples using the midi keyboard. He also highlighted that fact that everything could be either digital with the exception of patching