New Pro Tools Forum

Check out Caleb's Pro Tools forum at http://sdptug.proboards.com!

The next SDPTUG meeting...

The latest from the San Diego Pro Tools User Group board:

Dear Pro Tools Friends,

Have you ever had one of those months where sleep is not an option because your to do list occupies all 24 hours of every day? In my dictionary, that is called April. Rest assured though, that the SDPTUG is alive and well, and growing!

We are working out the final details for our next meeting. We are shooting for sometime near the end of May or beginning of June. The location and topic details will follow soon.

Thanks for standing by!

- Caleb

TRAC grads get a summer gig....

Two TRAC graduates have accepted a summer gig with the San Diego County Fair putting their Pro Tools skills to use! Operating a mobile recording studio, the grads will make it possible for fairgoers to go into a sound booth, record vocals over a song of their choice and leave with a CD. Both candidates were selected based on their skills with Pro Tools and with people...(sniff!)...we're so proud....

TRAC congratulates Pullman Standard on winning the Your Song for San Diego contest

San Diego – XETV San Diego 6 – Home of the CW announced the winner of the Your Song For San Diego contest on Monday, March 15 on their morning news show. Local band Pullman Standard penned the winning song, “Our Town.” The song was chosen from nearly 150 entries, and it will be the musical cornerstone of San Diego 6 TV’s new image campaign for the station. Pullman Standard received a prize package for their winning song, including $2500 worth of studio time at Studio West, interviews and airplay of the song on 91X Loudspeaker and KPRI’s Homegrown Hour with Astra Kelly, acknowledgement in San Diego CityBeat, appearances on San Diego 6 in the Morning and San Diego Living and starring roles in a music video shot for the song. The music video, which will feature the band and San Diego 6 on-air personalities will debut sometime this month on air and on the station’s website at: www.SanDiego6.com.

“We are thrilled with this song,” says Judy Albrecht, Creative Services Director for San Diego 6. “It perfectly captures the feel and vibe of our beautiful city, and it’s really hooky. Everybody loves it and can’t stop singing it.” The contest, Albrecht’s brainchild, was open to San Diego based bands and solo artists who wanted to write an original song about San Diego. It was launched late last fall and yielded almost 150 song entries. Judges from San Diego 6, Studio West, 91X and KPRI selected “Our Town” as the winner based on criteria like memorability, universal appeal, lyric content, and quality of the artists. “We listened to a lot of entries that were good,” says producer Marti Amado, who helped the band produce the final studio version of the song at Studio West, “but ‘Our Town’ had something special. The lyrics were fun, the music felt good and we all agreed that Pullman Standard was a really talented band.”

Pullman Standard is Timothy Daniels on guitars and vocals, Dale Peters on drums and Austin Smith on bass and vocals. “This has been an amazing experience for us,” says Peters. “It has been a really great couple of weeks. We’re so excited about the exposure we’ve gotten and people we’ve met through the contest,” he adds. Peters and Daniels played in another band
together (Getty City) before joining forces with Smith and forming Pullman Standard. Six months young, the band intends to use the momentum from winning the contest and the media appearances to perform and record more. “It’s given us a boost for sure,” says Peters. Much of the bands’ writing has been in a heavier rock genre, but they felt that the contest called for a song with a lighter touch. “It was a good challenge to write something for a specific purpose about a specific subject,” adds Peters. “We thought that happy, feel good music fit San Diego’s endless summer vibe!”

The final studio version of “Our Town” was recorded and mixed by Kellogg Boynton IV at Studio West and co-produced by independent producer Marti Amado and Pullman Standard. The “Our Town” music video shoots were directed by San Diego 6 TV’s Issac Cadriel, Chief Photojournalist, and were shot on location at Studio West during the music session, and around San Diego at local hot spots and hangouts. The San Diego 6 camera crew included Chris Pheil, Senior Promo Producer, Darris Cooper, Jib operator and Sean Dailey, Jib camera specialist. Pheil and Stephanie Yang will handle video post-production for the station’s image campaign and for the music video. “This has been a great project all around,” says Albrecht. “Our crew got to stretch out creatively on the music video, we’ll end up with a fabulous song driving our campaign and we feel really good about being able to help launch a really talented local band.”

Additional session added...

If you're ready to go for your Pro Tools Operator certificate in Music Production and were thinking that April would be the perfect month to do it and then you stopped by our site and exclaimed, "(GASP!) The class is full!", do not fear.

We have added a second session, from April 20 - 22, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day. The class will meet at Studio West and will be taught by the inimitable Mr. Caleb Keiter.

Hope to see you there!

(Quick! Three seats have been taken already!)

Success!

On Tuesday, March 24, TRAC and Studio West hosted the very first meeting of the San Diego Pro Tools User Group! There was a great turnout - a very diverse group of industry professionals, retailers, educators, new users and old pros. Caleb did a detailed demo of Pro Tools 8 with a focus on Elastic Audio and Elastic Pitch, Mark introduced the group to engineering luminary Eric Thorngren, and we even got to give a way some cool swag from McDSP and the grand prize...a copy of Pro Tools 8! You don't want to miss the next meeting - go to www.sdptug.org to sign up!

SDPTUG meeting

The first meeting of the San Diego Pro Tools User Group is officially on the calendar! Come join Instructioneer Extraordinaire Caleb Keiter for an evening of news, tips and general Pro Tools geekiness!

When: Tuesday, March 24 @ 6:30pm
Where: Studio West "Studio A" - 11021 Via Frontera Suite A, San Diego, CA, 92127
What: What's New & Great in Pro Tools 8