Rob Fetters is a superbly accomplished musician and composer, and also a wonderful guest artist.

Not surprisingly, “Be nice” was his number one piece of advice for Rec Arts students during an all-day professional workshop last Friday. He told the story of a handwritten thank you note that led to years of work with network television and how the willingness to “Save As” a mix to try it different ways often leads to better creative results. He emphasized that all work today, whether it’s music for commercials, corporate films, or released on its own, is collaborative, and that the creative process never works if you try to control it on your own.

Rob brought the framework of a song he had written for his 11 year-old son into the Flashpoint recording studios with the intention of reworking some of the parts and letting Rec Arts students have a shot at mixing while Film students documented the event. During the morning part of the workshop, the students tracked several acoustic guitar parts, live drums, background vocals, and electric guitars. As Rob spoke to high school counselors and students about his career as a composer and musician in the afternoon, Flashpoint students broke away into four controls rooms and created different rough mixes. By 4:30, we were all back in the main music control room listening.

Thanks to Rob for a great day.

Rob Fetters and Bernie Mack 

Acoustic Guitar:
Royer 121 and AKG 451 with Great River Pre’s and STC 8 Compression:

U87 for Vocals – API 512 Pre and Crane Song Compression:

Rob completing “Color” Guitar tracks in the control room:

Flashpoint Student Dan Macias on drums:
D112 and 421 for kick with API 512 Pre’s and Eq’s
421’s on Toms with Chandler LTD 1 Pre’s and Eq’s
Km 184’s on hat and ride with Helios Pre’s and Eq’s
Bock 195’s on overheads with Wunder Pre’s and Eq’s

Rob Fetters is an award-winning composer who has recorded and produced music for over 100 ABC TV commercials, and dozens of pieces for shows on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and PBS. He’s created original music for national advertising campaigns: among them Sea World, Totes, Airheads Candy, Starkist, Intel, Crest, Hasbro, US Bank, and Roto Rooter. He has also composed and produced numerous postproduction scores for corporate films and theatrical presentations, most notably for Proctor & Gamble and Sea World.

In his long career as a singer/songwriter and guitar player, he has recorded and produced albums for other artists and performed internationally in the legendary guitar-pop band The Bears along with avant-garde guitarist Adrian Belew, toured with the Cincinnati Pops under the baton of Erich Kunzel, and done session work with artists ranging from The Ohio Players and Nigerian Afro-Popster Baoku Moses to Spanish language children’s choirs and wild experiments combining legendary bluesman Big Joe Duskin with an operatic soprano.

Michelle Shocked is a remarkably powerful singer/songwriter I’ve admired since her first major label record Short Sharp Shocked was released in 1987. Late Thursday evening I found out what an engaging and sweet person she is too. Yesterday, Flashpoint Academy was fortunate to witness that power, talent, and thoughtfulness up close and personal in the recording studios and on the directing stage at 28 North Clark.

I’d inquired months ago about the possibility of Michelle coming to FPA to hold a “master-class” of sorts, and just recently received word that she really liked the idea and wanted to explore options. She told us she wanted to record a song purposed specifically for the visit and to shoot footage for a complementary music video that would be uploaded to YouTube, her own site, etc. Needless to say, we were as excited about Michelle coming in as she was about working with the students in such an intimate and experimental way.

Before entering the studios, Michelle talked to the students about her highly-successful, but turbulent career in the music industry, her life-long desire to change social stratification, her devotion to an African-American church in South Central Los Angeles, and what was particularly opportune for Flashpoint students, balancing the creative and technical with commitment, discipline, and passion. She told us the recording and video of A True Story would be the first part of a much larger project she is working on with her fiancé and fine artist David Willardson called HEART or HEAR THE ART.

As she rehearsed the framework of the song with the students and staff who served as a rhythm section, it was clear that this was a special moment in the humble beginnings of our small school. By the time she was ripping through lead vocal overdubs with all the heartfelt passion of the genuine gospel singer she is, we were mesmerized.

It was a real treat for the Rec Arts students to be able to record and Film students be able to roll cameras on such a seasoned professional. The resulting recording, video, and archival documentary footage is testament to FPA’s hands-on, immersive learning. The experience and memory is a gift for committing to the ground floor of Ric Landry’s vision.

Mic placement on acoustic guitar and vocals:

Gefell M930 on vocal and Neumann KM 184 on acoustic guitar
both with Great River mic pres and Crane Song compression:

Royer 121’s in Blum for the room:

Paul Taneja:

Myself (Bernie) going over signal flow (and the fact that I need a new haircut!) with students for the Nick Bognar Tracking Session at Flashpoint Academy:

In Studio Recording I section A, students tracked “Nick Bognar” in the main music control room and studios. Students were responsible for instrument placement, mic placement, signal flow, sound check, monitor and cue. This experience confirms that hands on learning through collaboration is the most effective form of instruction for digital media arts. The session went down perfectly – the students are top notch!

Mic placement on drums:

Mic placement on drums completed:

Bock 195 on vocals:

In Studio Recording I section B, students tracked “Deuce” in the main music control room and studios. Students were responsible for instrument placement, mic placement, signal flow, sound check, monitor and cue. This experience confirms that hands on learning through collaboration is the most effective form of instruction for digital media arts. The session went down perfectly – the students are top notch!

Mic Placement on drums:

195s for overheads, 421s on toms, 451s on hat & ride

km 184 on acoustic

451s on congas

Great news from Florida! Tiffin, a film directed by Chor Ai Lene, won first place in the Narrative Shorts category of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Last month [Oct. 2], I blogged on my work as Sound Designer for this beautifully photographed story “that traces the changes in the landscape, hearts and minds of vibrant Malaysia over the span of a decade.” Congratulations to the Ai Lene and the crew.

Ai Lene is also working with Flashpoint as Editor on Paula Froehle’s short film, The Collector, which is currently in postproduction.

Last week I met with a potential student for the fall of 2008 who is trying to decide which discipline to select at Flashpoint Academy. I began as I always do in this situation, asking just one question: “Of these four creative areas, can you identify where your passion lies?” He started with detailed descriptions of his love for filmmakers and sound designers from the Czech Republic, “You’ve got to check out Daisies by Vera Chytilová,” he said. “It’s got an amazing soundtrack for a film from 1966.” He went on to say he’s planning a trip there next summer that will last three weeks, starting and ending in Prague—one last jaunt before school begins. He told me about the music he’s making, the videos he’s shooting and editing, the animation he’s messing around with. He also told me about his recent wanderings—to the East Coast and back—trying to find something that works for him. Finally, he said, not any one of these disciplines seems to speak louder than the others.

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FLASHPOINT TAKES DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION TO ANOTHER PLANE AND GC PRO IS A KEY PARTNER IN PUTTING THE SCHOOL AT THE CUTTING EDGE

— As a GC Pro Education Partner, Flashpoint students receive great discounts and sound advice —

AES SHOW, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 5, 2007 – When it opened in September, Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, set out to change the way media technology is taught and learned. The school’s four main areas of study which include Game Development, Visual Effects and Animation, Film, and Recording Arts, literally converge rather than exist separately from each other. In order to remain focused on that goal, Flashpoint turned to GC Pro, the outside sales division of Guitar Center, to equip much of the school’s Recording Arts program. Through GC Pro, Flashpoint acquired a vast array of technology platforms and equipment from brands including Digidesign, Shure, Neumann, Sennheiser, Apple, Argosy, Tascam and Soundelux. The comprehensiveness with which Flashpoint accomplished outfitting its audio needs underscores the benefit of working with GC Pro, which has the largest range of professional audio gear under a single roof anywhere in the world.

Flashpoint was designed to be different from the start, and it would be the first new higher-education facility in the Chicago area in nearly 50 years. “Traditional schools that have digital media arts studies break them into separate departments that, because of politics or bureaucracy or just antiquated teaching philosophies, don’t communicate with each other,” explains John Murray, Chair, Recording Arts, at Flashpoint. “What our approach is based on is collaboration and workflow – the way the real world works. Today, when a major film is released, there is often a computer game version of it and a soundtrack released at the same time. The world is no longer linear, and neither should education be.”

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