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News

Students jam on tour bus

Mobile studio gives public behind-the-scenes look at music

by KELLY J. SANTOS
The Daily Cougar 

Students who visited the John Lennon Educational Bus on Tuesday stepped inside the same mobile recording studio that is touring the country with the Black Eyed Peas and has hosted many other popular musicians.

Three audiovisual engineers, Steve Miller, Jesse Jensema and Jacob Voelzke, were on hand from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to give tours to the general public and private tours to classes. 

Evans Music City allowed visitors to test their skills on different Roland instruments. 

The engineers showed visitors the high-tech equipment used by professional recording artists, Black Eyed Peas' Fergie's favorite seat on the bus, and answered any questions from visitors.

"I just asked them a few tips about personal stuff, like how to edit MP3s and what to do if I wanted to record my own music," marketing senior T.J. McFall said. 

"It's kind of an interesting set-up that they have. I hope that they would come back through and let people record," he said.

Small groups were allowed on the bus to view the state-of-the-art equipment, beginning with the video studio in the front of the bus. 

The back of the bus houses all of the audio production equipment, and is where vocal tracks are recorded. 

Music instruments were set up in one area, turntables and Final Scratch in another; and computers with 30-inch screens were set up in another area. 

Jensema said big displays and top-notch recording equipment all in the tiny area of the back of the bus proved it doesn't take a huge recording studio to get the job done.

Because the bus' stop at UH was a public tour only, visitors were not allowed to take part in any actual recording. 

But at other stops, students can come in and learn to play instruments and leave with a recorded version of their work -- all in one day.

"I think it's a great idea to have just any students pop into the bus and show all their music and record it and put it online," electrical engineering graduate student Harshita Kodali said, who had never heard of a mobile recording studio before this. 

"Everybody has an identity somewhere going on, and they should be proud of it," she said.

The bus makes about 250 stops a year, Miller said. The three engineers and a bus driver travel 10 months out of the year to high schools, colleges, community centers, Boys and Girls clubs, Apple Computer stores and other sponsor locations. 

"Imagine that you live at your job," Jensema said. "We eat, sleep and work on this bus."

Sponsors, including Apple Computer, Maxell Corporation and the International Music Products Association, NAMM, donated all of the equipment and software used on the not-for-profit bus.

Behind-the-scenes footage and all the videos made with students are made into video Podcasts and can be downloaded for free at www.jlsc.com.

In addition to the bus tour, there was also information available about the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. 

The Songwriting Contest has been going on for 10 years and has 12 different categories and two different sessions. 

The deadline for the second session is Dec. 15. The winner of the Maxell Song of the Year wins $20,000.

"You can upload an MP3 to our Web site, www.jlsc.com, or you can mail in a CD, or mail in a tape. We'll take any medium," Miller said. "Recording quality doesn't matter, song content does matter. It's a great contest." 
 

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