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Facilities

The studio equipment is updated more often than these web pages are. Instead of inflated lists and staged pictures, here are some snapshots of how the place looked in early October of 2011:

 

The Classroom

 

 

There is a nice professional photo of the classroom on the EMS home page. The trouble is it was taken in 2000 and doesn't reflect important changes, such as updated equipment and the installation of a video projector quiet enough to use in class. One of nicest features of this room is that background noise is under 30dB SPL. Students have recorded their own heartbeats in there.

 

The room is equipped with a fine monitoring system (DynAudio BMT 15s with subwoofers), a small Mackie mixer, assorted computers and processing gear as well as rolling carts with equipment appropriate to the current class. Instructors use a small video camera to project close-ups of gear they are discussing.

 

The room is really quite flexible. Here are some shots of the room in use:

 

 

Teacher's eye view, student's view, a studio session. That session wouund up on You-Tube. Here you can see the students in action.

Studio II

 

 

First year students divide their studio hours between the classroom and a composition studio that is cozy but convenient to use. It has essentially the same equipment as the main studio, except with more modest speakers. This studio also functions as an iso room for complex recording sessions.

 

Composition Workshop

 

Second year students and some graduate students work in the composition workshop, which is pretty much crammed with gear ranging from a 78 rpm turntable to a state of the art Kyma/Pacarana system. The room includes space and interface connections for students to hook up their personal laptops. The rack contains semi-retired classic gear representing the best that has been through the studio since it was founded in 1974. To the right of the rack is an Emu modular synthesizer, the first one ever sold (courtesy of Ed Rudnick). This part of the room is known as "analog heaven."

 

Recording Workshop

 

Although recording arts are not the main focus of the UCSC program, we do have an excellent recording control room. Advanced students use this to hone their studio engineering skills and to make recordings of instrumental compositions. This room features a Pro Tools setup as well as a Yamaha 02r96 console and Radar V 24 track hard disc recording system. The window looks into the classroom, and is tested at 85 dB of sound isolation. Mic lines run to the classroom and other studios, and the computer is networked to Radar and the other computers.

 

 

Digital Arts/ New Media

 

 

Digital Arts and New Media is an MFA program in cross disciplinary arts. Music and DANM intersect in the new Digital Arts Research Center (DARC). Music facilities in the DARC include a graduate electroacoustic composition studio, the Algorithmic music lab (meeting place of the summer WACM program), and a video screening/mixing studio with 7.1 sound.

 

Office PQE

Finally, some shots of the room that holds it all together. This is  the director's office on a reasonably clean day:

 

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