 |
| Broadway Actor Susan Egan sings during a recording session in August at Cal Poly Pomona. |
 |
| The Tascam DM-3200 digital recording console. |
 |
| Stephen Cook plays the new grand piano during the recording session with Egan. |
During the spring and summer quarters, the Music department acquired a record-breaking $80,000 of new equipment and instruments from funds released by College of Letters Arts & Social Sciences Dean Barbara Way.
Professor Arthur Winer and Technician John Sandhagen spent the summer installing and testing the new equipment and instruments, making sure everything would be ready for the fall quarter.
The new equipment ranges from the mundane (cables, cases, stands, etc.) to the spectacular, with the recording studio's new Yamaha C3 grand piano topping the latter category.
“It's a really good one,” says Sue Babcock, the department's piano technician, who spent almost a week in June preparing the piano.
This August in the Music department's recording studios, Winer used the new piano when recording Broadway star Susan Egan along with her accompanist Stephen Cook.
“The piano is a dream to record,” Winer says. “It's ideal – quite balanced lows and highs. I look forward to teaching with this new instrument. In previous years, students learned how to mic a piano using an old upright. This is a huge improvement as a teaching tool, allowing me to show students professional techniques.”
Many other improvements expand the department's ability to make professional-level studio and concert recordings. The recording studios in particular received state-of-the-art equipment and software upgrades. Programs such as Professor Lori Huff's MIDI Ensemble will benefit greatly.
The improvements include:
- Moog analog synthesizer
- Latest software for the ProTools HD digital audio recording system
- Improved acoustics
- Variety of audiophile-quality microphones
- Improved electrical power in both studios with the addition of two Furman IT20II balanced power supplies
- A real spring-reverb processor made by Demeter
- An analog parametric equalizer made by Great River
- No-Noise plug-in made by Sonic Solutions
- 16-input Tascam DM-3200 digital recording console, which adds the capability of manual control of ProTools
- A fully-functional patch bay to allow the use of high-end analog processing, including a new Presonus ADL 600 tube microphone preamplifier and a Drawmer 1969 preamplifier/compressor
- 500 GB external firewire hard-drive for audio storage
- USB microphones for six computers
- Six dynamic microphones for computers
- Eight-channel MOTU 896HD live-recording rig
- Focusrite ISA 428 four-channel microphone preamplifier
- Manley Variable MU Limiter/Compressor
- Six microphone splitters
- Masterlink ML9600 CD recorders, one for Nadia Spachenko's piano studio and one for Susan Burns' vocal studio
For more information about new technology and equipment in the Music department, contact Winer at ahwiner@cpp.edu.