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Scotts Valley High School is the home of the newest music production
studio in town after several local music engineers spent a rainy
Saturday working with students last month to set up a computer
workstation loaded with some of the hottest recording and production
software on the market.
“(Scotts Valley companies) Antares Audio
and Universal Audio wanted to get involved in music education,” said
Beth Hollenbeck, high school music teacher. “So it was a real outreach
on their behalf.”
Key features of the new studio include an iMac
workstation installed with Logic Studio Pro, a $500 program that allows
the user to write, record, produce and perform almost any kind of
music.
“It was really interesting to see how a music studio is
set up,” said freshman Zane Wurtz, an electric guitarist in the school’s
band who helped with the installation, along with students Chris
Lallemand and Grant Simmons. “I’m so happy there’s a studio now.”
The
studio — installed by Universal Audio president Matt Ward and his
staff, as well as Jeff Forehan, director of Commercial Music at West
Valley College — will allow Scotts Valley students to continue their
music production education from middle school through college levels.
Antares Audio CEO Georganna Hildebrand and the Scotts Valley Rotary Club also contributed to the project.
Hollenbeck
said her choir and band classes can record their work, and she might
institute a recording and engineering section in her curriculum.
The companies donated their time and solicited donations to outfit the studio.
“It’s
a personal interest of mine, and the company is fostering education,”
Ward said. “We want to help create a program here that feeds music
technology programs (at local colleges). There will be more tech-savvy
people, which helps our industry.”
Ward said he is thrilled
about the hands-on nature of the studio, which will connect students’
lessons in core subjects, such as math, with a real-world application in
music production.
“When I was a student, if someone could have made the connection, it would have made a big difference,” Ward said.
Scotts
Valley Middle School classes already use Garage Band, a simpler
software program, but the high school had nothing of the sort,
Hollenbeck said. Now, students who begin learning music production in
middle school can expand their work through high school and into
college, she said.
Read more: Press-Banner - Recording studio installed at Scotts Valley High School