SDPTUG

Hey Gang!

I know Amy posted this earlier but I have to repeat it.

You simply MUST head over to www.sdptug.org and sign up. This is something that we are EXTREMELY excited about! How cool would it be to have a room FULL of Pro Tools lovers, both experienced veterans and newbies alike, swapping tips, tricks, and general PT love?

I think it would be rather cool! But, you don't want to miss the party do you? So go sign up!


(why are you still here?)

www.sdptug.org

-Caleb

San Diego Pro Tools User Group

SDPTUG (or, the San Diego Pro Tools User Group) is up and running at sdptug.org! Stop by and trawl for tips and tricks, or join in the discussion....

Dynamics Processors Side-Chaining...Oh My!

Hey folks. In my quest to educate the masses on how to make music sound better, I have posted an in depth tutorial all about side chain processing on my website:

Pro Tools Tip - Side Chaining

I think you should check it out. Heck, go crazy even and leave some comments!

Caleb!

P.S. For Christmas this year, I am giving you... PRO TOOLS 210M from Dec 16-18 at our Downtown San Diego TRAC location. Give us a call if you want a Pro Tools Operator certificate under your Christmas Tree!

A sneak peek at Pro Tools 8

Tuesday, December 2, 7:00 p.m. at ProSound...

Professional Sound and Music of San Diego will present a first look at the upcoming Digidesign ProTools 8 release. Digidesign will be releasing this major new upgrade to their market-leading Digital Audio Workstation software on or about December 10. Come to the seminar and learn why this will change your music production life! Digidesign Factory experts will be there demonstrating the amazing new feature set and can show you how to pre-order your upgrade.

Call (619) 583-7851 to reserve a spot at the seminar...and tell 'em TRAC sent ya!

The 003 Rack+ Factory is Here!

With Pro Tools 8 just around the corner (I'm so excited!), Digidesign has done it again by releasing the 003 Rack+ Factory. I have been a 002 Rack owner for many years now, and like most owners of that system, all we ever wanted (aside from a Word Clock connector) was MORE PREAMPS! Well folks, now you can have your cake AND eat it too. With the new 003 Rack+ Factory, you have 8 analog inputs with mic preamps, 8 analog outs, 8 I/O via an ADAT cable, 2 I/O via S/PDIF, Word Clock, AND MIDI! How do they squeeze all that into one box? I dunno, but you should take a look!

Digidesign 003 Rack + Factory

Stay tuned for Pro Tools 8!

-Caleb

YOUR SONG SAN DIEGO - songwriting contest

San Diego – XETV San Diego 6 – New Home of the CW, Studio West/The Recording Arts Center and San Diego City Beat, a weekly alternative newspaper, are partnering with KPRI Radio/The Homegrown Hour and 91X Radio to promote a city-wide music contest for an original song about San Diego – the “Your Song for San Diego Contest.” The winning song will be used by XETV as a Theme Song for San Diego 6 (SD 6) and the prize package for winning writer(s) includes $2500 of recording studio time, radio air-play and appearances on SD 6 TV. Original songs may be submitted in person or by mail, on a CD, between 5:00 am, October 27th, 2008 and 5:00 pm, January 30th, 2009 (PST). Winner will be announced in February, 2009. For more details or to download an official registration form, visit: www.SanDiego6.com.

Click here to check out the promotional spot being run on SD6!!

More winners!

Congratulations our 100th Pro Tools Class contest winners! Gil Munoz won a FREE Pro Tools 101 class and Kevin Mankins won $100 off his next enrollment. Thanks to everyone who made our week so special and successful!

Our 100th Pro Tools class!

On October 27 we will start another session of Pro Tools 101 - but it's not just any session...it's our 100th class! And it wouldn't be a party if there weren't a big ol' cake, balloons, and someone in a giant dinosaur costume. Well, maybe we'll skip that last bit...but we will be partying like its 2009, so stop by the studio, join in the festivities and put your name in the hat to win a FREE Pro Tools class courtesy of your friends at TRAC!

(directions to the party here)

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Christy Gilardi who won a free Pro Tools class at TRAC! Christy is the frontwoman of DarZana and also the Director of the San Diego Day Jams Rock Music Day Camp, a 2 week summer program through the National Guitar Workshop. She's excited about her prize and so are we! Keep an eye on the site for more contests....

Loudness Wars & General Digital Geekiness

Hello everyone in internet land! Thanks for keeping up with the TRAC blog. I just wanted to let everyone know that I just posted a rather lengthy article on my personal site that discusses the loudness wars and has a good deal of digital information included. Be warned, this article has binary code involved. Read at your own risk (enjoyment).

Here is the link:
Caleb's Site

Caleb!

TRAC on musicconnection.com

Music Connection is featuring TRAC this week for their Friday Freebie! Want to win a free Pro Tools 101 course?

McDSP discount for TRAC students

McDowell Signal Processors (McDSP) has just announced their September Specials: for this month only the Academic Discount will bring their Project Studio bundle down to $95 (regularly $495), Emerald Pack Native will be $495 (regularly $1495), and Emerald Pack HD will be $995 (regularly $2795).

This is just one of the many great discounts TRAC students enjoy; if you've been thinking about getting some training let us know so we can share this discount with you!

Pro Tools Tips from TRAC

When he's not busy recording, mixing, instructing, running, biking or swimming, our own Caleb Keiter hunkers down for some quality time with his laptop and shares his pearls of Pro Tools wisdom with the rest of us....You can check it out here.

Now enrolling...the Music Creation program

We're getting ready to roll out another session of our Music Creation program and hope you can join us!

Four courses make up this program, perfect for the home studio owner or music hobbyist:


Audio Recording Techniques, focusing on the key principles of sound, hearing and acoustics...

Pro Tools 101, an introduction to and hands-on experience with the industry's leading recording software...

Signal Processing with Waves, a complete interactive training program for mastering Waves processors that includes $500 worth of plug-ins, and

The Art of Mixing, designed to give you a thorough understanding of the art of mixing: the overall process and the specific software and hardware tools used to achieve professional results.

The program starts October 11 and space is limited, so go to the TRAC site or call toll free 866 915 5835 to register!

Check out our ad in Music Connection....

Click on the image to enlarge it and read the "fine print" (a coupon!)

Great turnout for the Raise Your Level tour

Thanks to everyone who came to Studio West / TRAC last night for Digidesign's San Diego stop of the Raise Your Level tour! We all got an eyeful - and earful - of the D-Command, as well as a Transfuser demo. The folks from Digi gave away a copy of Transfuser to one lucky attendee, and we provided a gift certificate for $100 off training or studio time (winner to be announced on tracsd.com later today!).

(For a user review - or preview - of transfuser check out this ProToolerBlog post.

Come visit us during Evenings in East Village

TRAC is throwing a party at our downtown room complete with an acoustic set by local San Diego band, Crash Encore! Saturday, August 23rd --we'd love it if you could join us. Here's where to find out more.

TRAC loves the B-Side Players

...and you should, too. Here's why:

B-Side Players

and here's where:

B-Side Players at The Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach

Digidesign's Raise Your Level Tour

Digidesign will make a stop at TRAC's North County campus, Studio West, during their Raise Your Level Tour on Tuesday, August 19.

From the Digi site:  If you’re looking to be the best in the audio industry — whether you work with music or sound for picture — raise your level to Pro Tools|HD®. No other digital audio workstation (DAW) is used more in top music recording, post-production, and broadcast studios around the world. Find out first-hand how Pro Tools|HD gets you from mic to mix (and everything in between) by catching free Digidesign’s Raise Your Level tour.

The downtown iso booth...is complete!

The little polaroids you see lining the windows are pix for our Wall of Fame - all the fabulously talented people who've passed through the loft doors....

Many thanks to Bryan and our friends at Capricorn Studios for their excellent work!

Pro Tools Summer Graduates

It's been a productive summer! Congratulations to the newest TRAC graduates:

John Marinshaw - Operator (Music, Post)
Luke Parkin - Operator (Music, Post)
Dylan Watson - Operator (Music)
Edgar Robledo - Operator (Post)
Sal Agostino - Operator (Post)
Patrick Shea - Operator (Music)
Gary Miranda - Operator (Music), Expert (Post)
Willie Lee - Operator (Music)
Garrett Wysocki - Operator (Music)

TRAC is on Facebook!

The Recording Arts Center now has it's own spot on Facebook! Give us your feedback...or become a fan!...and we'll send you a little giftie.

More Pro Tools Graduates!

Congrats to Brian Rumsey, Jon Imel and Matthew Lindblad for completing the Pro Tools Operator certification!

Come Experience ICON at TRAC!

Sorry for the delay in bringing the good news to the masses but The Recording Arts Center just got our hands on the Digidesign D-Command! This new work-surface offers unbelievable control of your Pro Tools sessions without having to use the mouse.

Come by to take a sneak peak or sign up for a 200 or 300 level class to get your hands on this latest and greatest treat from TRAC!

Take Advantage of Our McDSP Discount

Register for any training course or package during the month of April 2008 and you can get a HUGE discount on the McDSP Project Studio bundle - just $95.00 for TRAC students. And we thought the regular discount ($295.00) was something! This promotion ends April 30 so if you've been thinking about signing up and you're in the market for some plug-ins, let us share our discount with you!

Win a Free Class!

Sign up to get the latest TRAC news and you could win a FREE training course. Use our Contact Form and enter CONTEST in the comments section and we'll throw your name in the hat for a free Pro Tools 101 or Audio Recording Techniques class. Contest ends April 30, 2008.

February Pro Tools Operators and Experts

We were proud to administer both Operator and Expert Pro Tools certifications this month! Introducing this month's accomplished Pro Tools users:

Andrew Bonica - Operator, Expert (Post)
Justin Carlson - Operator (Music)
John Deskovitz - Operator (Music)
Hope Dippel - Operator (Post)
Anthony Mantz - Operator (Music)
Gray Miranda - Operator (Post)
Andy Oswald - Operator (Music)
Lohit Pattanaik - Operator, Expert (Post)
Jonathan Powell - Operator (Music)
Bret Rouse - Operator (Post and Music)

Congratulations to the First Graduates of 2008!

This year's first group of Pro Tools Certified Operators are:

Anthony Jardin (Music)
Zabie Mansoor Sharify (Music)
Jack Gunn (Music)
Brian Peters (Music)

We'd like to offer our congratulations and thanks for helping us get 2008 off to a great start!