The Production Institute/Entertainment Education

SAE OnLine has selected me to develop and teach online courses for their new rollout. I'll be offering two pro audio classes, first a FOH Mix Engineer class and second a Monitor Mix Engineer class. Two things I may know a thing or two about. :)

I'll be hosting an SAE class at the Georgia Theater today. I teach these classes fundamentals of live sound. We'll setup the stage and mic some vocals and some instruments and let the guys jam and take turns getting their hands on the mixing consoles.

Beware the Scrutinizer: The Frown will Hunt You Down

Well, it's been a while since I last posted on this. Needless to say my schedule hasn't allowed for much extra curricular activity. I'm mainly focused on finishing the curriculum. I've actually been working on two different sets of curricula, one being a 12 month course with 22 total classes. The other has been a custom curriculum for a local county highschool. They are interested in offering a 9 week program for students who are interested in the production arts.
In addition to all that, I'm about to go live with a web-streaming setup to deliver classes to institutions outside of the Athens area. I hope to deliver my first streaming classes to the SAE Institute of Technology next month. I've been traveling to Atlanta to the SAE campus to deliver lectures on live sound and I hope to reduce the travel time by employing this streaming technology. Please stay tuned for more updates in 2009. The Production Institute will be making great strides to open our doors in 2009. If your interested in any way, don't hesitate drop me a line! ricwallaec@gmail.com

I taught a two day class for the SAE Institute of Technology this week. I hosted them at the Georgia Theater here in Athens for day one and taught the day two class at their new facility in Atlanta. At the Georgia Theater I'm able to utilize the venue's state of the art Meyer Sound Labs "M2D" speaker system. This allows me to put these guys in the hot seat with live mics and really focus on what's happening in realtime. There is no substitute for actually twisting knobs while the band plays!

During day two at the SAE facility, which by the way is very impressive, I gave two lectures on Advanced Mixing Techniques and Advanced Feedback Suppression methods in the morning and conducted a hands on PA System Patching and Wiring session in the afternoon.



These classes are a direct spin off from my main curriculum for the Production Arts. These young men will be finishing their recording arts curriculum later this year and will enter the job market for Sound Engineers in a recording facility. But as I point out to them, a well grounded, educated sound engineer can make a lot of money doing many things other than just working in a recording studio. Well rounded engineers can operate any PA or recording system they are asked to. It's all about educating yourself!

A fascinating look at the search for better visualization techniques. What I found intriguing was the first example. Naturally it deals with sound and what are known as Chladni Diagrams.

"Ernst Chladni, a musician and amateur scientist, found a way to make visible the vibrations caused by sound waves. He covered metal and wooden plates with sand and ran a violin bow against them. When the plate vibrates, sand collects at the stationary nodes, having been shaken from the moving regions. These nodes are the zero-crossings of the standing wave that produces the sound. Being a musician, he was interested in the theory of sounds and he used the tools at his disposal, in this case a violin bow."

Just testing here folks.