Blog


Dateline: May 5th 2011 Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The first in a series of live-in-the-studio training events with Alan Parsons is being held at the Universidad Nacional de Lanús (UNLA) in Buenos Aires on Thursday May 5th.

A concept initially explored by one of Argentina’s leading online music retailers Olimusic, the Master Class Training Session was timed to coincide with Alan Parsons Live Project tour dates in Argentina and Chile in early May and is sponsored by Argentinean distributors Sound Pro Latin America.

Over the course of a 9-hour day in the studio, Alan will conduct a recording session with Argentinean band Vaqueros Paganos starting with live tracking, followed by overdubs including vocals and even a basic mix.

Tickets for the main studio are now sold out. Some seats are still available in the adjoining theater which will receive a live video feed. Key stages of the event will also be webcast, details of which will be posted in the ASSR forums.

Master Class Training Session dates in the U.S., due to be announced later this month, will be starting in July.

Inicio de los "Master Class Training Sessions" (Sesions de Capacitación de Clases Maestras)

Fecha límite: 5 de mayo de 2011, Buenos Aires Argentina.
El primero evento de la serie de capacitación vivo-en-el-estudio con el ingeniero/productor/compositor Alan Parsons se llevará a cabo en la Universidad Nacional de Lanús (UNLA) en Buenos Aires, el jueves 5 de mayo.

Un concepto explorado inicialmente por Olimusic, uno de los principales vendedores de música en Argentina; la sesión de capacitación de Clases Maestras fue programada para que coincidiera con las fechas de presentación en vivo de Alan Parsons Live Project, en Argentina y Chile a principios de mayo y está patrocinado por los distribuidores argentinos Sound Pro Latin America.
Durante un período de 9 al día en el estudio, Alan dirigirá una sesión de grabación con el grupo argentino Vaqueros Paganos dando inciio con la grabacíon de música en vivo, seguido por grabaciones parciales para sustituir, inclyendo voces y hasta mezclas básicas!

Desdichadamente los boletos para el Estudio de Grabación y el Aula Magna, el cual tendrá una proyección en vivo de la sesión de grabación, están agotados. Etapas importantes de este evento también incluirán un 'webcast,' en el cuál se publicarán los detalles en los Foros de A.S.S.R.

Las fechas de "Master Class Training Sessions" en los EE.UU., serán anunciadas muy pronto y las clases darán inicio en julio.

Dateline April 1st, 2011: No, it’s not an April Fool. Within the first few seconds on the first Ask Alan! Webcast on March 31st hundreds of fingers were on refresh and we officially crashed!

After a few minutes to reboot and apply cold compresses the Webcast got underway and for the next two hours Alan Parsons fielded questions direct on the site, from Twitter and from Facebook. One of two questions even came in on Twitter from Japan in Kanji but we didn’t quite have the ability to relay those!

This was an experimental event and processes developed and changed in real time; Alan eventually abandoning his text-based approach for purely verbal replies. Questions – both asked and answered and asked but not yet answered – will soon appear on the ASSR forums so that there is an archive.

The prize for best question was awarded to B. Harrison for his question on how lava lamps came to be associated with recording studios. Alan not only loved this question (and was still pondering a definitive answer the following day) he also awarded an unscheduled second prize to alakalazlo for his question on monitoring. Prizes were copies of the full DVD set.

Further Ask Alan Webcasts are in the works. Though not confirmed, the next one may coincide with Alan’s concert tour in South America in May.

The ASSR team would like to thank all 250+ who took part in this inaugural webcast!

Dateline Feb 16th 2011: 11-time Grammy Award nominee Alan Parsons was proudly featured on The Adam Carolla Show last week. Ace
and Jim Ladd on CBS.

Alan Parsons and the Keyfax production crew were equally blown away by James when he was filmed at Expression College in 2008 for the Recording Vocals section of ASSR.

Then only 19, James’ drive, power, and musical insight were all too evident as he and Alan worked on recording a lead vocal and backing vocals on the AP track We Play The Game from A Valid Path.

"James had it all going on even then," says producer Julian Colbeck. "He auditioned for Idol that year but didn’t make it through. He’s got a great chance this season. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young singer more committed and more focused than James. He’s one of those ‘failure is not an option’ type of guys." "I was every bit as impressed with James Durbin's singing abilities when we recorded him in 2008 for our Art And Science Of Sound DVD series as the American Idol judges clearly were on the most recent auditions. If there is any justice he will take it all the way to the finals and I wish him every success - he clearly deserves it," commented Alan Parsons.

The whole ASSR production team will be rooting for this hugely talented singer as he enters the final stages of American Idol.

Check out this clip of James in the Recording Vocals Section.

James Durbin Links:

A.S.S.R. - Recording Vocals
USA Today - James Durbin ends the show on a high note
Santa Cruz Sentinel - Santa Cruz singer wows on 'American Idol'
MTV - James Durbin's 'American Idol' Audition Recalls Adam Lambert
Twitter - Team James Durbin

Adam Carolla Podcast
http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/2011/02/11/alan-parsons/

USTREAM comments
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12607040

Entertaining Comments
http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/2011/02/11/alan-parsons/comment-page-...

Computer Audiophile
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Alan-Parsons-Art-Science-Sound...

Dateline Feb 10th 2011: Fox rocked on Wednesday night as Santa Cruz singer James Durbin blew away the American Idol judges on the final night of local auditions before the ‘Hollywood’ stage of the 2011 season begins.

Alan Parsons and the Keyfax production crew were equally blown away by James when he was filmed at Expression College in 2008 for the Recording Vocals section of ASSR.

Then only 19, James’ drive, power, and musical insight were all too evident as he and Alan worked on recording a lead vocal and backing vocals on the AP track We Play The Game from A Valid Path.

"James had it all going on even then," says producer Julian Colbeck. "He auditioned for Idol that year but didn’t make it through. He’s got a great chance this season. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young singer more committed and more focused than James. He’s one of those ‘failure is not an option’ type of guys." "I was every bit as impressed with James Durbin's singing abilities when we recorded him in 2008 for our Art And Science Of Sound DVD series as the American Idol judges clearly were on the most recent auditions. If there is any justice he will take it all the way to the finals and I wish him every success - he clearly deserves it," commented Alan Parsons.

The whole ASSR production team will be rooting for this hugely talented singer as he enters the final stages of American Idol.

Check out this clip of James in the Recording Vocals Section.

James Durbin Links:

A.S.S.R. - Recording Vocals
USA Today - James Durbin ends the show on a high note
Santa Cruz Sentinel - Santa Cruz singer wows on 'American Idol'
MTV - James Durbin's 'American Idol' Audition Recalls Adam Lambert
Twitter - Team James Durbin

Dateline Jan 19th 2011: Complete with new T-shirts, booth babes, celebrity visitors, and appearances varying from awards presenter to guitarist, Alan Parsons and the A.S.S.R. team rocked at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim this year.

There were regular signing and meet ‘n’ greet sessions on the booth, with Alan signing everything from copies of the DVD, to T-shirts, to vinyl copies of Dark Side Of The Moon.

Friday afternoon saw Alan being interviewed by legendary music technology pundit Mr. Bonzai in NAMM’s H.O.T. Zone. Alan talked about everything, from working with The Beatles to compression, in a well-attended session that was filmed and will be posted shortly.

Friday evening, Alan and Mr. Bonzai were joined by fellow Beatles engineer Ken Scott as presenters at the TEC Awards–the Oscars of the pro audio industry– where he presented the gongs in the consoles category. Simon Rhodes, a featured interview in A.S.S.R., won for Film Sound Production on Avatar and Lindsay Buckingham was the recipient of the Les Paul Lifetime Achievement Award, an award that Alan himself won several years ago.


Spotted in and around the A.S.S.R. booth were producers Sylvia Massey, Elliott Scheiner and Niko Bolas, uber-drummer Simon Phillips, Monkee Peter Tork, Abi Colbeck and Coley Read from Sabretooth, Ken Jordan from The Crystal Method, violinist extraordinaire Christine Wu, currently on tour with A.R. Rahman, and the incomparable Stevie Wonder. Stevie and Alan’s entourages collided at one point, almost totally blocking the aisles of the Anaheim Convention Center.

Saturday night saw Alan up on stage at neighboring watering hole Spaghettini’s, joining Ambrosia’s David Pack for his annual NAMM Jam featuring the incomparable Larry Carlton (‘stunning,’ Alan was heard to comment during Larry’s solo segment), Simon Phillips, Kevin Cronin, and others.

Links:

Mr Bonzai - http://www.mrbonzai.com/
TEC Awards - TEC Awards Page, TEC Foundation News
Sylvia Massey - http://www.radiostarstudios.com/
Peter Tork - http://www.petertork.com/
Sabretooth - http://www.sabretoothme.com/
The Crystal Method - http://www.thecrystalmethod.com/
Simon Phillips - http://www.simon-phillips.com/cms/
David Pack - http://www.davidpack.com/
Christine Wu- http://www.christine-wu.com/