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Malcom begins the meeting by welcoming everyone into the meeting, "the first one of the month" and appreciate the energy and enthusiasm. He then goes over what AES is in broad scope, mentioning that it is an international organization that unites engineers and others as well as sets standards for gear.
Malcom then movies n to the member benefits, saying that it is free to attend the meetings at CRAS! But then explains the other benefits such as discounts, career resources, as well as access to networking and news opportunities. He encourages people to sign up in 12th Cycle so the $50 student discount lasts for as long as possible, as well as how the membership pricing increases $25 per year up to $125. Then covering the committee resources that AES offers, touching on cinema audio, spatial audio, and video game audio.
Then Malcom explains that Eventide has partnered with CRAS to give all students in 5th cycle and above 6 months free of their plug-in access, also that Eventide will be giving the school some pedals that will be available in the projects office. Showing off some products like the Black Hole, and other microtonal shift delay pedals. Malcom then says that David Kohr has sent over the 9 total pedals that the school is getting and that if someone wants more information to talk to him. The next announcement that is made is that the CRAS WOA is doing a Sound Bath event in the Studio A room on June 7th, and how everyone is invited!
Malcom then asks the room for introductions and asking the questions of "What made you enroll in class?" "Where do you hope to be in 3-5 years?" He mentions that he wants to be successful enough in 3-5 years to be able to work from home to spend time with his family. During the introduction Bea mentions the opportunities and financial bonuses in Broadcast audio and how she is interested in that facet of the industry. This then sparks a small discussion about how important it is to make money in the industry. KJ talks about how his goal is to make it as an engineer for Plug And Beat, a niche subgenre.
After concluding the introductions, Malcom shows the office holder staff contact info and introduces them again. Then he explains the Mentor team and how there are cycle specific study groups, 1 on 1 meetings, and Walk-Ins available every cycle. Sol then adds on by explaining how to get in contact with the student help email to be set-up with a mentor for 1 on 1 tutoring.
Malcolm then explains the AES subgroups and how those are setup, with only needing two other people interested to create a subgroup that can be about anything audio related! Sol touches on his edm production subgroup, Mikey explains the Jam subgroup that happens every week in the studios, and Bea explains her Guitar and Bass subgroup, relating to the technical and theoretical aspects of Guitar and Guitar-like instruments. Malcolm then covers and explains the sound design subgroup lead by Starr and how that subgroup is dedicated to learning how to make your own samples to use in productions, and to remove the reliance on Splice.
Sol starts the production tip of the week with a question: Who has heard about granular synthesis before? A few scattered responses range from strong yesses to affirmative maybes. Sol shows off a snare sample as a part of the AES sample flip challenge and demonstrates how he has used a granular synthesis plugin to turn it into a variety of different sounds. He demonstrates how he has used the synthesizer to create a pluck lead. They then demonstrate how they used the same synth to create a kick, once again using a sample of the same snare. He plays out the loop to show how manipulating a single sound into multiple pieces can, if you know how to manipulate the sound, create interesting and unique musical components.
CJ then re-iterates that the AES board is trying to get mix tips from the instructors to show off in the meetings and asks the crowd to ask instructors about small tips and tricks that they may have!
Malcom then shows one of the CRAS grad success stories, Chris Dennis and reads out the advice Chris gives on his CC page "Find an environment that is in-line with where you want your career to go and learn from the people who have made it to where you want to be." Then also plays a clip from an interview at NAMM where Chris talks about his story as a CRAS Grad, interning at Record Plant Studios and his work with diamond artist Roddy Rich. The biggest piece of advice that Chris gives in the video is to "Be Present" and how vital it is to be involved in the process and to put in the work.
The meeting concludes with Ollie reminding everyone to sign in to get their outside hours, samples for the sample flip challenge, as well Malcolm asking people to network.
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