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It has been
such a privilege to mix audio and for over 20 years I have always
found my self gravitating back to mixing. My passion for music
really started back in grade school by taking up one of the most
primitive forms of communication, DRUMS. After stealing just
about every coffee can, pot and pans from the kitchen, my parents
decided to let me start my conquest to take over the house with
drums and later audio gear by buying me a Toys R Us drums set for
$50.00. My fascination with audio was birthed out of a necessity
for PA for our high school metal band. The neighbors were now
allowed to join in on this audio journey with the introduction of
PA in the garage. Multi-track cassette decks and later midi
sequencing followed suit. While attending three years of college
it was evident that the way to make a living and enjoying it, for
me, was to get into the audio industry. Taking over the family
glass business was not something that interested me, there was no
music involved. During my pursuit for audio knowledge I have
always kept up on my drumming skills and still play in bands to
this day. I believe that as a musician that mixes audio, it's
important to stay connected on a musical side.
Education
My education
really starts way back in grade school. I first started drum
lessons in the second grade and later in the 5th grade I joined
the Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle association. I marched for
6 years with the Blue Devils and was also an assistant drum
instructor for the 'B' corps for one year. During my marching
years I also took one on one snare lessons from Rick Odello and
Scott Johnson, both of whom were one time or another the head drum
instructors for the Blue Devils 'A' corps. I never made 'A' to my
regret but I was lead snare for 2 years in the 'B' corps. Every
summer we had extensive touring around the West Coast competing in
field shows.
During High
School I took music theory and band while still marching in the
Blue Devils. In my sophomore year I started my first company
called, of all things "Surround Sound" Had I only patented that
name! I provided PA rental for the Alcalanes High School and
various kid parties in the area. I was also mixing a lot local
bands in the San Francisco Bay area. By the time I was in my
senior year in high school I was mixing regularly in the bigger
clubs in San Francisco. I also was doing small California tours
with a band called Monkey Rhythm. We toured the college and club
circuit of California.
In college I
further pursued training in the arts. I took lighting design
courses in the theater department of Diablo Valley College. Other
courses included recording and arranging classes, vocal and choral
classes, acoustics and physics classes and music business classes.
I attended various colleges to get this training. San Francisco
State, Diablo Valley College, Los Madonos College and Golden West
College. I received my AA degree from Diablo Valley College.
During my college years I worked for two different record store
chains and became shift managers for both. One company is still
around today called Warehouse Entertainment. My goal was to
always pursue jobs that were directly related to the audio
industry. So for a good two years I was on the retail end of
audio. I then took a job with a record label. Concord Jazz
Records was a small Jazz label with some very big names. At
Concord Jazz I got to see and learn the ins and outs of the
operation of a record label. I was in charge of shipping and
receiving. This was also my first job I was exposed to remote
live recording. I was an assistant for the last live Woody Hermon
recording ever made.
After receiving
my AA degree from DVC I decided to move to Southern California
with two close friends. It was 1987 and I had no idea where I was
going to work. I soon met a man named Bill Baumgard who owned a
recording studio in Orange county. I was brought on as an
apprentice and soon began engineering small projects. Within the
year Asylamar studios was the primary studio being used for a
record label called Frontline Records. We recorded a lot of the
artists signed to this label. Artist such as Crystal Lewis, Jon
Gibson, Idol Cure, Shout, Deliverance, Sacred Warrior, Angelica,
Liaison, Tim Heintz, Benny Hester, Mark Farner (Formally of Grand
Funk Railroad) Tourniquet, Crumbacher Duke and many others.
During the years working there I first engineered a number of CDs
and second engineered even more. I was also requested to mix live
sound for some of these bands and even toured Europe and the US.
In 1990 I began
working for a church in the Ontario area mixing the audio for
their church services. I soon was hired full time as the
technical director for Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley. My
responsibilities extended to all sorts of things but the major
roles were overseeing all audio, phone systems and computer
networks for the church. We had at times up to 40 volunteers in
our sound ministry. It was a real learning experience in leading
people and organizing skills. During this 10 year period of
oversight I also freelanced as a monitor engineer for some very
large crusades called "Somebody Loves You". These were large 8000
+ attendance outreach events sponsored by Calvary Chapel Diamond
Bar. Also during this time I engineered a few in house CD
projects that were independent project by Calvary Chapel Chino
Valley. As all things do, a great time there had to end. It was
time to move on.
It was my
desire to get back into audio in a much more intense way. I soon
was working for iZ Technology as the West coast service, tech
support and sales support rep. My primary responsibilities there
was to facilitate demonstrations of the famous RADAR 24 hard disk
recording machine. I was also responsible for trade show
demonstrations and fielding technical support needs. I am very
thankful for the training and knowledge I gleaned from both Craig
Sibley (close friend and lead tech for RADAR for 8 years) and
Berry Henderson (inventor of RADAR). It was with iZ that I really
learned the inside of digital recording technology and thus opened
up a whole new area of audio knowledge. During this time of work
I also became extremely aware and versed in our competitor systems
as well. Digidesign's Pro Tools was by far the largest fish in
the pond and was therefore worth knowing about. I ultimately
bought my own Pro Tools system to greater understand it's pluses
and negatives of the DAW platform race. Unfortunately in a
downsizing effort iZ had to layoff most of it's sales force as
well as it's US tech support team. This was a fortunate thing for
me though. It opened a huge door to get back to actual
engineering. Being in the studios and working with the engineers
only increased my desire to mix audio and not just sell it. It
was at this dire time that my wife and I decided to pursue a
recoding engineering company. Later it would become Dunamis
Recording Services, Inc. Since working at iZ I have also worked
for a other companies for trade show help. One such company that I
am extremely proud to have been a part of was Millennia Media.
The makers of the famous Origin. I was honored to be a part of
the team to present the top of the line mic pres at both AES and
NAMM. John LaGruu has a wonderful company that is at the top of
it's class of outboard gear.
The past year
has been focusing more on live audio engineering and training.
With events stretching across the whole US it has been so much fun
to mix these different events. Everything from folk music of the
middle East to choral ensembles has been mixed. I am also really
excited in teaching. One on One training with audio engineers has
become a favorite thing for me. What we have going in the future
I can only speculate but I do know that audio is always a part of
it. |
