Sound Designer Travis Powers

Travis Powers

— From commissioning workstation platforms like Pro Tools HD, to acoustical treatments and monitoring, GC Pro has been Travis Powers’ trusted partner as he works on classic shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The PJs, Dilbert and other major animated hits —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, July 21, 2016 — Arguably, the toughest balancing act in audio isn’t in the final mix — it’s in achieving equilibrium between the creative power and the technical complexity of pro audio technology. That’s an equation that Travis Powers has always encountered, first as a musician programming samplers and processing gear, and then later applying the same digital techniques as Sound Designer, Supervising Sound Effects Editor and/or Composer for hit animated television series including The Simpsons, Futurama, Dilbert, The PJs, The Critic, The Tracey Ullman Show and King of the Hill. Powers’ sound effects work has received multiple awards, including a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing, for The Simpsons’ episode “Treehouse of Horror VIII.” For years now, he has turned to Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, for gear and technical expertise. “I don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about the technical side of the equipment in my studio, ”You want to deliver really well-prepared material to the final mix, because on the stage it is about merging the dialogue, music and effects, not spending time cleaning up, balancing or modulating the tracks. The high track count, powerful design plugins and sonic clarity of the system Ziv put together for me gives me the confidence that what I’m hearing in my studio translates to what will be heard on the screen. That’s why I’ve been happy for years to leave the technical side to GC Pro.”

GC Pro’s West L.A. location has been Powers’ go-to resource for a long time. There, dedicated personnel such as Ziv Gross (Account Manager) and Derek Snyder (Manager, Strategic Development) have been helping clients pick the right gear for their needs and getting them up and running on it as quickly and transparently as possible. “Travis has been working with Derek and I for quite a while now; we try to anticipate his needs and get him comfortable with new equipment as easily as possible,” explains Account Manager Ziv Gross, who set Powers up with his new Avid Pro Tools HD system and Genelec 8330 SAM® Monitoring System in 2.1. And GC Pro will be part of expanding that system to full 5.1 in the very near future.

Gross recalls, “When we handled the new Pro Tools HD system for him, we also transferred all of his plugins and sound libraries from the old computer, so that he was up and running without having to wait for the process. It was plug and play within just a few hours. My rep from Genelec and I came over to his studio to set up the new system and tune the monitors to the room. No other retailer does all that.”

Powers agrees: “These guys are always on top of it,” he says. “Recommendations for new equipment, new acoustical treatments, letting me know about upgrades — they always keep me up to date. My work never stops, and neither do they.”

Powers’ close relationship with GC Pro, and the gear and setup they’ve assembled together over the years, has helped with the blossoming of an entirely new career – that of Travis’ daughter Veronica Powers, an up-and-coming performer in her own right. As a singer-songwriter and actress in her teens, Veronica has recently broken out with high-profile live performances and her brand new single and video “You’ve Got Something.” Travis notes, “I’ve never put any pressure on her at all to enter show business; it was all organic and natural for her, but growing up in a household with a recording studio certainly an influence, I believe! Getting started years ago, we were able to produce music and videos for Veronica in-house, thanks to the gear setup I’ve been lucky to put together – not to mention the guitar we got her from Guitar Center. Now the opportunities are stacking up, with several producers interested in her moving forward – she co-wrote ‘You’ve Got Something’ with Francci Richard (songwriter for Fergie, Keyshia Cole, Patti LaBelle, JoJo). She is currently writing a song with pop star Pixie Lott, produced Barry Blue, and is managed by vocal coach and talent consultant CeCe Sammy (Pop Idol, S Club Search, The X Factor). I am beyond proud. I guess it’s like a veteran quarterback getting to see their kid grow up into a great football player all their own.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

ESPI 10.29 Studios in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

The main control room at ESPI 10.29 Studios, located in the Marina neighborhood of Mazatlán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The studio was outfitted by the Malvicino Design Group with gear sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of the Malvicino Design Group. © 2015.

— Equipment purchase and installation was carried out by GC Pro Affiliate Program member Malvicino Design Group —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, August 26, 2015 — Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, recently collaborated with GC Pro Affiliate Program member Horacio Malvicino of the New York-based Malvicino Design Group, on the design, outfitting and commissioning of the private production facility for Mexican regional music star Espinoza Paz. The vast majority of the multi-room facility’s audio equipment was sourced for the Malvicino Group through Javier Willis, Account Manager at the San Diego, California GC Pro office. The facility, named ESPI 10.29 Studios, is located in the Marina neighborhood of Mazatlán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The new three-story construction houses Paz’s private offices, a lounge and a large kitchen and dining room seating two dozen on the ground floor; two control rooms and a large tracking space with three isolation rooms on the second floor; and guest accommodations on the top floor.

The main control room is outfitted with a 48-input Solid State Logic Duality mixing console, a 48-track Avid Pro Tools|HDX3 system and a Studer A827 Gold Edition 24-track analog tape machine, Ocean Way Audio HR2 main monitors and racks of outboard processing. The second control room houses a 24-fader AMS Neve Genesys mixing console and another Pro Tools rig.

Views of the 24-fader AMS Neve Genesys mixing console and other gear in the second control room at ESPI 10.29 Studios, located in the Marina neighborhood of Mazatlán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The studio was outfitted by the Malvicino Design Group with gear sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of the Malvicino Design Group. © 2015.

“My idea was to come up with a studio on par with anything in the U.S. I think it’s some of my best work,” says Malvicino, who has more than two decades of experience providing acoustical, architectural and technical systems design to recording studios and other production facilities around the world. Malvicino says that he was given carte blanche by the artist regarding equipment choices as well as room layout and technical, acoustic and interior design.

“I’ve been in the Latin music business for many years and I’m connected with a lot of producers,” Javier Willis reports. “In 2013 one of my producer friends brought me to Espinoza’s manager, who was in the process of shopping around. We hit it off and started ordering the equipment. We then brought Horacio in for the studio design and the equipment integration and installation.”

Malvicino notes, “Banda music requires a lot of people playing live, so I wanted to build a room that allowed a lot of people to record together, with variable acoustics. The panels on the side wall swivel; they have absorption on one side and reflection on the other side. You can change the RT [reverberation time] in the room by about 25 percent.” TADI, the Mexico City-based exclusive manufacturer of acoustic treatments for Malvicino’s projects worldwide, supplied the acoustic treatment at this new facility and additionally acted as the general contractor and interior designer. “The live room ceiling is 21 feet high, so we outfitted it with condenser mics hanging in specific locations so that they can not only use close miking but also the room. And they can bring in a couple of large format P.A. speakers, feed them the mix, crank up the listen mics and use the studio as a live chamber,” he said.

ESPI 10.29 Studios, located in the Marina neighborhood of Mazatlán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The studio was outfitted by the Malvicino Design Group with gear sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of the Malvicino Design Group. © 2015.

A view of the tracking room (background) and console (Solid State Logic Duality mixing console), main monitors (Ocean Way Audio HR2 main monitors) and other components in the main control room, at ESPI 10.29 Studios, located in the Marina neighborhood of Mazatlán in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The studio was outfitted by the Malvicino Design Group with gear sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of the Malvicino Design Group. © 2015.

Malvicino elected to install Ocean Way Audio HR2 monitors, driven by Lab.gruppen and QSC Audio amplification, in the main control room. He consulted with Ocean Way founder Allen Sides to ensure optimum performance in the space, which is 32 feet deep with a 21-foot ceiling. “That’s the first time I’ve done soffit-mounted Ocean Way monitors,” says Malvicino. “They sound incredible—so good that the engineers are having a hard time working on the near fields.” Both control rooms feature Neumann KH 310 near field monitors with KH 810 subwoofers; ADAM and Yamaha NS10 speakers are alternatively available.

“The outboard gear is what you would expect,” he continues, including rack units from Empirical Labs, GML, TubeTech and Universal Audio. “They like a warm sound so I included a bunch of Chandler EMI compressors and mic preamps. There’s Bricasti and Lexicon reverbs, and a lot of 500 Series modules—API, Burl Audio, Grace Audio, Little Labs and SSL.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

GC Pro Helps Yaniv Farber Outfit His New Studio

The control room of Yaniv’s Studio, the new facility run by Yaniv Farber in Southern California and outfitted by equipment sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of Yaniv Farber © 2014.

— Farber is translating his success in the tile and stone business in Southern California into an expanded professional recording studio enterprise, and GC Pro is there to outfit the new facility from start to finish —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, July 9, 2014 — For over 20 years, Yaniv Farber’s main business has been Sandy Ceramic, Inc., a high-end tile, granite and marble installer in Southern California. But aside from that, Farber's passion has been music, which he had recorded and edited on small home studio platforms. This year, he decided to make a big move; in a renovated building on his property he created the elegant facility Yaniv’s Studio. And it was outfitted from top to bottom with equipment sourced through Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users.

Products purchased for the studio by Farber through GC Pro include an Avid Pro Tools HDX system, Apogee I/O converters, Tube Tech MP2A dual-channel tube mic pre, Focal SM9 monitors and a microphone collection that includes a pair of AKG C414 XLII’s and a C 451 B 65th Anniversary model; a Blue Bottle Mic; Neumann TLM 49, U 87 AI, TLM 67 and M 147 mics; a Sterling Audio ST6050 Ocean Way Signature Series Microphone; and Sennheiser MD 441 and MD 421-II microphones.

The live/tracking room of Yaniv’s Studio, the new facility run by Yaniv Farber in Southern California and outfitted by equipment sourced through GC Pro. Photo courtesy of Yaniv Farber © 2014.

“I decided to go for it,” Farber says, simply and earnestly. “I’m trying to make a business of it.” He has a lot of personal resources: in addition to his experience as a musician, engineer, editor and producer, his time in the construction business included working on other studios as they were being built, which gave him knowledge and insights for his own studio design, which includes a vocal booth and several iso booths. “It’s designed for my work but also to be available for other artists, engineers and producers to work in,” he says. “Most importantly, we can do live sessions here. It’s a great-sounding room to record in.”

What’s also great, Farber adds, was working with GC Pro. “Ziv Gross at GC Pro, he’s my man!” he exclaims, noting that the GC Pro Account Manager helped him choose gear, tweak his acoustical design and assemble some of the systems. “Then there’s the technical support, which is always there. Working with GC Pro has been a great experience.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

Post Pro Looks to GC Pro for Neve Genesys

The control room at Raleigh, North Carolina-based facility Post Pro, featuring a Neve Genesys console sourced through GC Pro.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, August 5, 2013 — Matt Horton’s Raleigh, North Carolina-based facility Post Pro is a primer on what it takes to keep a commercial studio facility afloat and successful in an uncertain economy and in a secondary market. The most recent location opened last December, but Horton has done business in two other locations over the last two decades. Horton chose early on to diversify his services; he’s hosted recording, mixing and mastering sessions for a range of well-known artists including Matchbox Twenty, Big Daddy Kane, Evanescence, Swizz Beatz and Julio Iglesias, as well as audio post work for corporate clients like Winnow Creative and Brazilian filmmakers. Horton has also been overseeing a transfer of original two-track masters from legendary art rockers Devo. Horton notes, “The way we’ve made it work is to be able to do it all, a bit of everything that the client could need,” from basic tracks to mixing, mastering and video post, to CD and DVD duplication and even audio restoration and forensics services. With the opening of the new complex, Horton sourced a Neve Genesys console through Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users.

The tracking room at Raleigh, North Carolina-based facility Post Pro. The facility features various gear, including a Neve Genesys console, sourced through GC Pro.

The new studio facility consisting of the following spaces: Studio A’s large tracking room and spacious control room, the latter centered around a 24-channel Genesys console with Neve 1073 microphone preamps and Neve 1084 equalizers on each channel and Avid Pro Tools HD and Studer and Tascam analog multitrack recorders; a smaller preproduction studio loaded with over 30 vintage and new hardware synths and drum machines; and the Video Post Suite featuring a Euphonix MC Pro control surface and Blackmagic Design hardware.

Horton notes, “That [Genesys] console is amazing, and having the 1073 microphone preamps on it just takes it to another level,” he says. “You’d actually have to work to make it sound bad. It just sounds great naturally, as soon as you turn it on.”

There’s lots of other gear, esoteric and otherwise, much of it sourced through GC Pro. Horton says they were the only place in the country that could get him the Neve Genesys, which he says he bought before he ever actually heard it. “I’ve worked on a Neve many times and I know what a 1073 sounds like, and it just makes me gush inside,” he notes. “Getting that Neve console was a very happy moment – I was blown away by it. It just sounded like heaven.” Horton says that GC Pro has been a resource for him for most of the years he’s owned Post Pro, and he’ll be back there in the near future to add more Neve 1084 preamp/EQ modules for channels 17-24 on the Genesys.

GC Pro isn’t just a resource when he’s at the studio, though. Horton fondly recalls them being able to deliver a Roland Fantom-G6 workstation keyboard to him while he was on the road with Guns N’ Roses. “I was programming keyboards for them and I called and asked if they could get the workstation to me ASAP,” he recalls. “And it was waiting for me when I got to the hotel. They take care of me in the studio and on the road.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

New Avid Pro Tools|HD Native Thunderbolt

GC Pro is happy to offer you the brand new ProTools|HD Native Thunderbolt, a new generation of Pro Tools|HD system that enables you to compose, record, edit, and mix music and/or sound for picture with great speed and ease. Consisting of an HD Native Thunderbolt interface or PCIe core card, Pro Tools HD software, and Pro Tools HD Series interface, Pro Tools|HD Native harnesses the power of your Mac or PC to deliver pristine sound, incredible performance, and the lowest latency of any host-based DAW.

Choice of HD Native Thunderbolt interface or PCIe card
Unlike USB- or FireWire-based DAWs, which are inherently prone to latency, Pro Tools|HD Native employs either a high-speed Thunderbolt interface or PCIe core card to connect Pro Tools HD Series interfaces with your laptop or desktop computer. By eliminating distracting monitor latency while recording, increasing your I/O capabilities, and providing 64-bit floating-point processing for more headroom and a higher mix resolution, you get a professional native solution that meets the highest audio standards.

You can now choose an Avid Pro Tools|HD Thunderbolt interface that's best for your application... PCIe card for desktop systems, or the new Native Thunderbolt interface (perfect for laptop and mobile systems).

Pro Tools HD software
Award-winning Pro Tools software has been the industry-standard digital audio production platform for years. The software tightly integrates your HD Native hardware and computer together as one, delivering exceptional performance and reliability—even with large mixes. And it comes with all the tools, advanced workflows, virtual instruments, and plug-ins you need to compose, record, edit, and mix music and/or sound for picture.

One or more Pro Tools HD Series interfaces
Capture and play back audio in stunning clarity and easily work with a wide range of analog and digital gear. Whether you want to streamline your setup with an all-in-one interface, provide mic or MADI connectivity, or need a tightly integrated, flexible system that can handle complex productions with up to 64 channels of I/O, there’s a Pro Tools HD Series interface that’s right for you—choose one or more to complete your system and customize it for your needs.

GC Pro: Your Pro Tools Experts
For over a decade, GC Pro's reps have received special training in specifying the perfect Pro Tools system for your needs. From project studios to commercial rooms, post-production facilities, and more, Pro Tools is now more flexible and powerful than ever before.

Visit www.gcpro.com or call 877-704-2776 to find your local GC Pro representative and order your new Avid HD Native system today!

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.