IPR Students Raise Money to Fight Cancer

Posted on April 18, 2013 by admin

Last quarter IPR teamed up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Minnesota to raise money for the nonprofit’s Pennies for Patients program.  Through events hosted by Aneesa Adams’s and Elise Roberts’s Global Citizenship classes, IPR students raised $442.42 that will go toward funding for research grants and patient services such as financial aid and family support groups.

Pennies for Patients Flyer

With this campaign, students exercised both their creative and business skills.  Roberts’s class organized a breakfast buffet for the school, offering donuts, juice, cereal, and coffee for donations, and Adams’s class provided pizza in exchange for donations.  Students also came up with the creative idea of the “human jukebox,” where they took donations to play specific songs and genres.
Continue reading →

Posted in General Media, Newswire | Comments Off

34 Facts and Features of Pro Tools 11

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jeff DesLauriers

34 Facts and features of Pro Tools 11:

Faster-than Real-time Bounce

  1. Requires the iLok 2 (old turquoise color iLoks will not work).
  2. Will require 10.8 Mountain Lion.
  3. Old silver/blue face hardware, though ‘not officially supported’, will supposedly work.
  4. Won’t work with Core 2 Duo Apple computers.
  5. Offline Bounce is phase accurate (tested by doing a real-time bounce to disk, then an offline bounce, then reversing the phase on one of them. They cancel. With other DAW’s offline render this is not the case).
  6. Offline Bounce is up to 150x faster than real-time – 1 hour in under 1 minute.
  7. Ability to right click on a stem or track and offline bounce it. If you select import after bounce it’ll bring the bounced file into the clips list to be dropped on the track it came from, fulfilling the ‘freeze track’ request from users.
  8. Ability to bounce a WAV and MP3 at the same time.
  9. Bounce multiple stems at the same time… as in bounce multiple bounce sources at the same time.
  10. Session folder now contains a “bounced files” folder where all bounces will go.
  11. Automation playback position is 100% accurate when offline bouncing… another issue with offline bouncing in certain other DAW’s.
  12. Dynamic Plug-in Processing – When a track doesn’t have audio to play back, the new Avid Audio Engine will take CPU away from plug-ins that are on that track. Pro Tools did not do this in v10 and earlier, includes the ability to enable/disable this feature from the Playback Engine window.
  13. Workspace Browser rebuilt. Dynamic search in Workspace Browser, same way that the search function acts in the clips list. Unified Project and Workspace Browsers.
  14. New 64-bit Avid Audio Engine (AAE).
  15. Dedicated input and output buffering system in Avid Audio Engine makes for near zero latency record on native systems with sessions that have large tracks counts and a lot of plug-ins.
  16. Ability to record automation on the same track that you are recording audio on, at the same time.
  17. Automation is now time-stamped just like audio files.
  18. Track meters are 30% taller in mix window.
  19. Track meters have been completely redesigned and are much higher resolution.
  20. Track meters are capable of show one of 17 different metering standards.
  21. Track meters can show track amplitude and plug-in dynamics at the same time.
  22. Mini dynamics meter in plug-in insert point.
  23. Ability to view all sends on a track in fader/meter view at the same time.
  24. New hot keys to bypass inserts by selected track:
    • Shift –A (all)
    • Shift – 1 (sends A-E)
    • Shift – 2 (sends F-J)
    • Shift – E (EQ)
    • Shift – C (Dynamics)
    • Shift – V (Reverb)
    • Shift – D (Delay)
    • Shift – W (Modulation)
  25. The Media Composer Avid Video Engine (AVE) is now integrated into Pro Tools (in Pro Tools 10 and earlier used a separate video engine).
  26. Ability to play XD Cam, Avid HNX HD, Avid DNX HD, MXF HD, Apple Pro Res, and all other video formats supported by Avid Media Composer.
  27. Support for the same range of video interfaces that Media Composer supports: Avid Mojo DX, Avid Nitris DX, AJA, Black Magic Design, etc.
  28. Ability to import a high res video and choose to view it in full res or ‘offline’ lower quality with a mouse click.
  29. Can now edit video in Pro Tools properly.
  30. Ability to enable/disable the Avid Video Engine from the Playback Engine window.
  31. Video Satellite is now included with Pro Tools 11. No longer a separate authorization.
  32. Can run Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools 11 on the same machine, co-install.
  33. RTAS plug-ins will not work in Pro Tools 11.
  34. Support for Apple Retina Displays.



Posted in Audio Production, Newswire, Recording, Sound For Picture, Technology | Tagged , | Comments Off

Pro Tools 10 AAF/OMF Export/Import Tutorial

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Brian Jacoby

OMFI (Open Media Framework Interchange), OMF for short, and AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) are both professional file formats intended to interchange session information between audio and video applications. Along with Final Cut’s XML support, where there is a will, there is generally a way to exchange session data such as audio and video tracks, track settings, editing decisions, metadata, automation, and more between virtually any audio or video application. While the emphasis for both (all three, to include XML) standards is certainly video production, the interchange formats can be very useful for exchanging sessions between audio platforms like Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, etc.

In this short video, Jeff DesLauriers discusses how to export a Pro Tools session from Avid’s Pro Tools 10 to an AAF file, including step-by-step explanation of the export window’s options.

He also explores the resulting output files(s), and demonstrates the process of importing an AAF into a Pro Tools session, including a step-by-step explanation of the import options.

While Avid has, of course, just introduced a bunch of new features including an extended video engine allowing playback of a larger variety of video sources in Pro Tools 11, we’re betting 99% of this will all still apply after you upgrade.

Posted in Audio Production, Newswire, Sound For Picture | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

IPR Faculty member James Patrick composes, produces, and designs sounds for the 18 part cinematic new music suite; Wreck by Mary Ellen Childs.

Posted on April 8, 2013 by admin

IPR Faculty and electronic musician James Patrick releases his latest contribution to the arts and music world in collaboration with Minneapolis Chamber Music composer, Mary Ellen Childs.

JP's Timfog Bio Pic

This 18 piece electro-acoustic concerto is a culmination of both years of chamber and new music compositions, as well as several years of collaboration between the composer (Childs) and the sound designer/producer (Patrick).   IPR asked James a few questions about the piece, in hope to bring some light into the world of such an artistic process.

IPR:  “How did this project begin?”

JP: “Through my own love of electronic music and my involvement in the local music community, circa 1994+, I have always participated in the projects that I believed in, regardless of the esteem or financial variable associated with it.   Through that ernest appreciation of all things musical and electronic, I played many low paying gigs and worked my proverbial butt off in the pursuit of carving out a lifestyle involving what I loved.    Eventually, I was contacted by some students at the University of Minnesota’s Electronic Music Club.  This was around the year 2000.   They were throwing an academic electronic music festival, eventually to be tagged the “Spark Festival,.”  At the time, the club had no money and no real plan.  We all sat down and made something happen.   We planned a few nights of music and had a great time.    After doing that a few years in a row, the University granted us a budget.   The project gained momentum, and after about 10 years there was enough momentum to mention Spark Fest anywhere in the United States and get an instant red carpet treatment.   That was huge for me in my early career.   Being a curator at that point of this festival connected me with countless composers, musicians, producers, and artists.  It is through those connections that I met Mary Ellen Childs.   She heard my work and fell in love with my intentional usage of the interplay between dissonance, consonance, realism, escapism, and the other variables that make “hand crafted” electronic music truly unique.

Continue reading →

Posted in Faculty Profile, Newswire | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Putting the Master Mix Studio to the Test, Continued

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Brian Jacoby

Second Night of Tracking with Aimee Lee, Mitch Hare and Others in Master Mix Studio A

This is the second part of a multi-part series. If you missed the first part of this series  last Monday, check out the first article for details on the first day’s basic setup, drums, organ, piano and guitar, as well as microphone, preamp, eq, compression selection. Today’s update will be a bit less novel-esque than yesterday’s post because we have a lot less to cover.

To review, on the first night we had guests Matt Jacobs on drums, Mitch Hare on organ and piano, and Lindy Pedersen on guitar working out arrangements and getting basic tones in the control room. We took a couple of practice takes to tape and listened back to make sure we were get the right vibe for each arrangement. On our second night in the room, Bassist Dik Hedlund, Saxophonist Rich Manik and Vocalist Aimee Lee joined us to track three tunes. All three were tracked live in the room with only the vocal isolated. On the two tunes featuring a vocalist, headphones for the musicians consisted only of vocals and talkback, with the exception of Aimee who received a full mix, so everyone continued to listen and play together as an ensemble in the room.

Vocals were tracked through a vintage Neumann U67 in the connected iso booth. It was difficult to setup Aimee so she could see everyone in the room, but we made sure she at least had visual communication with band leader/pianist Mitch Hare. A pop filter was placed close to the microphone to get rid of any nasty plosives (“p-pops”). Aimee monitored the same mix through her headphones as we were listening in the control room, with the ability to add a little extra “more me” through the Lengevin cue mixer.

U67 Prepared for Vocals
Continue reading →

Posted in Audio Production, Newswire, Recording | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Aimee Lee, Brian Jacoby, Put Master Mix Studio to the Test

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Brian Jacoby

Testing IPR’s New Master Mix Studio with a Live Recording

Earlier this quarter I approached Mitch Hare, a friend and member of IPR’s faculty and curriculum team, about a session I wanted to setup over the break between quarters. I’d worked closely with studio builder Dave Ahl during the architecture and construction of the new IPR recording studios but hadn’t had much time since to spend in each room getting a feel for the final touches. I’d recently mixed the Junebug project in Master Mix A and performed a couple of minor acoustic tweaks along the way but had not yet tracked anything in the new “raved-about” live room, which had been designed to be much larger and open than the original Master Mix space.

I invited Mitch (an accomplished pianist, bass and organ player) to pull together an ensemble, who would be recorded “live” in the new space. I would use minimal micing techniques and isolation, the ultimate test of a recording environment. The live nature of the performance also gave me the perfect opportunity to go back to one of my favorite techniques and record virtually everything live to tape.

Mitch pulled together an ensemble of great Minneapolis musicians and selected a few songs to work with. We knew we wanted to take our time to get everything “right” up-front, so we blocked out the week to make sure we provided ample time for rehearsal and setup at the beginning of the session. Ultimately, recording and mixing would be the easy part.

This first wide shot gives a general layout of the room on the first night, drums on one side of the room, B3 and Lesie, opposite, Piano and Guitar placed to the drummer’s right. Ultimately, Saxaphone, Bass and Vocals will join us to the drummer’s left.

Wide Shot of the Master Mix Studio Setup, First Night
Lots of photos and session notes after the jump!

Continue reading →

Posted in Audio Production, Newswire, Recording | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

IPR Instructor James Patricks’ Gamut Gallery Nominated by City Pages as “Best Art Gallery in the Twin Cities”

Posted on March 21, 2013 by admin

Gamut Gallery Nominated by City Pages as “Best Art Gallery in the Twin Cities.”

We at IPR are very excited and proud of our Faculty member for this accomplishment, and would like to congratulate him and encourage our readers to click here and vote for Gamut Gallery!

Roots of The Gamut Gallery from Rastermind on Vimeo.

Continue reading →

Posted in Faculty Profile, Newswire | Comments Off

Music Legend Peter Asher at IPR’s DIY360

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Tina Halfmann

Peter Asher’s name might not be in your mental database, but if you attended his interview with Kevin Bowe at DIY you can now add his name to your list of “Seminal People in Pop/Rock History That I Have Met.”

If you missed his recent visit, you can still see a video here on IPR’s YouTube Channel, IPRMediaArts:

If you have not quite conceptualized that list, his name is a pretty impressive start. Why? The guy shared his room with Paul McCartney (who was dating his sister) for two years at the Asher family residence. He was already singing in coffee shops with Gordon Waller when Paul tossed him a Beatle throw-away “World Without Love” which catapulted Peter & Gordon to #1 hit pop status. Besides Paul McCartney, Mr. Asher has his own amazing list of “Who’s Who” to tout. But he’s humble. His talk was not so much an interview as simply hanging with a guy who has amazing stories and a bit of advice. It was thrilling to hear his stories from his vast career.

Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Newswire | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Pro Tools VCAs and Trim Automation to Make Mixing Easier

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Brian Jacoby

Automation Basics

While compression can be a powerful creative tool, over-compression of signals during recording or mixing can become a “lazy” way of maintaining balance throughout playback of a song. If all of the dynamic volume changes of the sources are removed or highly reduced through compression, mixing becomes largely a set-and-forget process of balancing instruments and applying processing/effects. This however, does not necessarily result in the most interesting mixes, and can often make a performance sound flat or dull.

Through effective mix automation, this phenomena can be avoided and the precious micro and maco-dynamics of a source can be preserved, resulting in an end product with so much more life than its over-compressed counterpart. Taking the time to actually “ride” levels throughout a song turns a mix into a kind of performance, allowing each component to remained balanced despite wide dynamic changes, while preserving the integrity of the original signal.

While many music styles and sources can actually benefit from effective (and often high) compression, the resulting “sound” should be a creative choice, not a by-product of shortcuts to make the mixing process faster, or lack of knowledge or technique.

Automation can easily become as much as 50% of the total time that I spend on a mix, even in simple fader/mute console automation systems.

Pro-Tools-Coalesce-Automation

The power of modern DAW systems gives you many more options to manipulate the performance of a mix in real-time and by opening up more possibilities, can serve to increase the time spent on this crucial step.

When time is money, I obviously have a motivation to get things done quickly, but DAW mixing speeds up so many of our process to a degree that it should allow us to spend more time to get these critical finishing touches “right”.

Continue reading →

Posted in Mixing, Newswire | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Showing We Care by Helping Grant Sabrina’s Wish

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Gary Teagarden

Sabrina, make-a-wishThe philosophy at the Globe Education Network of schools is ‘We Care’.  We care about our students, our employees and our communities.  We promote service and applied learning in our classrooms to give students a quality education and to give back to our communities.  We look to see what the community needs are and what resources we have to help.

One of our community partners is Make-A-Wish® Minnesota.  Make-A-Wish® Minnesota grants wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.  Make-A-Wish® Minnesota was founded in 1982.  More than 3,800 wishes have been granted across the state since that time.

The Make-A-Wish foundation started with one boy’s wish.  Chris Greicius was 7 years old and his wish was to be a police officer.  Numerous individuals came together to grant this wish and Make A Wish was born.  There are 62 chapters in the US and its territories.  The organization has touched the lives of more than 250,000 children worldwide.

Over the years the Globe Education Network has supported Make-A-Wish® Minnesota with volunteering, service learning projects and financial donations. This year we are proud to have partnered with Make-A-Wish® Minnesota to help participate in granting the actual wish of Sabrina.  Sabrina’s wish was to write and record her own songs.  Sabrina used the facilities of the Institute of Production and Recording as well as the talents of Sabrina, Make-a-Wishengineer Kevin Bowe and producer Steve Hodge to record her CD “Revolution.”

Sabrina performed her songs live on December 14th at the Macy’s Believe Day at the Mall of America.  She will have her CD release party on Saturday, January 20.  Sabrina shares the story of her wish in this short video donated by the Globe Education Network.

All of us at The Institute of Production & Recording are proud to have been able to help make Sabrina’s wish come true.



Posted in Newswire | Tagged , | Comments Off