CRAS AES Goes Bananas at Lazy Ape Studios

CRAS hosts one of the largest and most active student chapters of the Audio Engineering Society. They continuously work to provide students with a variety of experiences, from mic and compressor building clinics to studio tours and guest presentations. Recently we have had guests like Christian Salyer from Blazed Out Music come and talk music business with us, and Manny Marroquin talk about the life of a successful engineer. We’ve even had the John Lennon Tour Bus visit our campus and give us a great rundown of what they do to motivate the newest recruits to the music recording and production industry!

A few weeks ago we took a tour of The Salt Mine Studio Oasis in Mesa, and recently we got a chance to head to Lazy Ape Studios!

The CRAS AES toured Lazy Ape Studios in Scottsdale, Arizona last Saturday. The Lazy Ape Staff welcomed the CRAS AES with open arms. The establishment consisted of a beautiful control room with a D-Command control surface, a rack full of analog outboard gear and a live room big enough to track any instrument.

The studio was originally designed and built in 2005 by producer and mixer Ryan Greene, who has worked on projects with Alice Cooper, Megadeth, Gladys Knight, Jay-Z, Cheap Trick and contributed to games like Guitar Hero and RockBand.

Daniel Willett, chief engineer of Lazy Ape gave our students an in depth lesson on how a mix is done at Lazy Ape, from start to finish. He explained how he connects with the artists and how the music produced brings their worlds together.

CRAS Grad Anthony Pressley also gave us a breakdown on how hard an entry level engineer needs to work in order to make it in the field. He explained what he expects out of a good intern and what it takes to make it inside the control room.

The students involved in this exclusive tour were given a taste on what it’s like in an outside recording facility and furthered their education by attending this tour and listening to the words of the experienced staff at Lazy Ape.

Thank you Lazy Ape staff!! We hope to see you again real soon!