“There’s a serious need to provide practical experience to people who want to build careers in this industry,” said John McBride. “Our emphasis will be on hands-on learning, in a professional environment.”
Because The Blackbird Academy is located in Nashville, the community is enthusiastically supporting the school. “We make hit records here and the students will benefit from learning not only in our classrooms and studios but also from the artists, producers and engineers that make Nashville one of the country’s great musical centers,” McBride said.
“There are a million ways to record and mix audio and I don’t want students learning from just one person,” McBride continued. “I want them learning from several people who have been successful in the industry and we’re going to focus on giving them as much time with the gear as possible.”
Tony Cottrill will be the Director of the Live Sound Engineering Program at The Blackbird Academy. Cottrill is the front of house (FOH) engineer for Exile, Ronnie Milsap and Juice Newton and uses Soundcraft Si Performer and Si Expression live sound consoles. “The Soundcraft consoles are so powerful that we can have them up and running for a professional live show in 15 minutes,” Cottrill said. “So we decided I need to teach with these consoles, because if you’re out touring with a band and you want a self-contained system with front of house and monitor consoles, a digital stagebox, cable runs and Cat5 lines, the Soundcraft consoles can do that.”
Within the Live Sound Engineering Program, Cottrill will teach students how to integrate the Soundcraft front of house and monitor consoles with the Soundcraft Compact Stagebo. Next, students will learn how to mix FOH and monitors on both consoles. “We’ll bring the consoles in and learn theory on different types of processing, using crossovers, gain structure and other essential points,” Cottrill said.
Soundcraft’s Si Performer and Si Expression consoles will also be used in the school’s main live sound area, where a full sound reinforcement system will be set up to teach students how to mix live FOH and monitor sound and learn system networking. In addition to spending time behind the mixing boards, students will learn to work with the Soundcraft ViSi app, which enables remote control of Soundcraft consoles from an iPad.
The Live Sound Engineering Program will also feature a maintenance lab with soldering stations and Cottrill and his staff will teach everything from wiring XLR and RG59 connectors to building crossovers and bench-testing components with test instruments. In addition, the course work will cover acoustics, sound system installation and other areas.
“In reality, you’re going to come across every conceivable situation, from a best-case scenario like a perfectly equipped studio to a gig where the studio hasn’t been maintained or a gig where half the PA doesn’t work,” McBride said. “At The Blackbird Academy, you’re going to learn how to get good sound under any circumstances.”
“The first thing you’re going to hear at The Blackbird Academy is that attitude is 99 percent of the gig,” McBride concluded. “We’re looking for passionate, creative, professional people.”
For more information on The Blackbird Academy, please visit www.theblackbirdacademy.com HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.
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