Audio-Technica is dedicated to continuing music education and partnering with inspiring organizations to keep music education alive for youth around the world. To continue to inspire and educate youth with music programs, Audio-Technica teamed up with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) to help keep their Audio Education Programs active.

March 17^th, 2020 was a significant date for the SFCM, as it marked one year to which the city administered a mandatory shelter-in-place order due to the global pandemic. Although effected by COVID-19, the organization didn’t stop from continuing to provide its students with first-class education. We recently sat down with Jason O’Connell, Director of Recording Services at SFCM, who studied under legendary GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer, producer and technologist George Massenberg while attending McGill University in Quebec, to learn how they had to adapt and transform their music education programs during the pandemic, with the help of Audio-Technica’s audio gear.

Can you tell us about the audio education program offered at San Francisco Conservatory?

So five years ago we started the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at the Conservatory, which is a program that focuses on audio for video games, mixed media, and sound design. Since the Conservatory is over 100 years old, this is a fairly new program for us and we’ve been supporting around 40 to 50 students a year in the program. We are actually just in the process of opening a new building that will house the TAC program with 2 amazing concert halls, another hall specifically for recording sessions, and numerous mixing studios. This program is growing fast!

Our students are studying composition, sound recording, video game implementation using Wwise and FMod, and learning numerous DAWs like Logic, ProTools, Ableton, and Pyramix. We partner with various organizations around the Bay Area including Sony PlayStation, Skywalker Sound, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Apple, Dolby, KDFC, and SFFILM on recording projects and internships.

Can you tell us a little bit about the original setup and vetting process for audio gear at the SFCM?

When we started our Technology and Applied Composition program, we had a lab of computers with 14 workstations, and we really needed to focus in on some headphones for the program that were closed back so they wouldn't bleed too much, but also sounded great and were affordable.

So we tested a wide variety of different headphones by various manufacturers. We all just really liked the sound of the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones – they were super-comfortable to wear, and they were also affordable. After using them for a while, we noticed that they were becoming popular because all the students started buying them for themselves to use as their reference headphones. They work great in the studio, especially when we give musicians a click track, because they’re really good at isolating the clicks so they don’t bleed into the recording. And now that we’re doing the Dante setups throughout the Conservatory, we have them in all of the Dante rooms.

You recently used these Dante systems to enable students to play with others from separate rooms amid COVID-19. Can you talk more about that process?

We just recorded an opera with 15 singers, woodwind players and brass players all in separate rooms. We had our three halls set up with socially distanced strings, percussion, and other instruments that can safely be in the same room together. So we literally had 50 musicians recording an entire operatic work all on A-T headphones. The headphones are super great at isolating the sound, and they just sound really good.

I don't think we’ve ever had a broken set of headphones in the last six years and they get used a lot, I mean a lot. The thing that’s great is they have this removable cable, so if you ever have a cable issue, you just take the cable out and you put a new one in.

What’s been the biggest challenge in pivoting the education programs?

One of the challenges has been getting our students access to software and the hardware when they aren't physically in the building. We configured our systems so they can be remotely accessed from home or from the dorms so students can do most of the leg work of their projects from outside the building. Then we provide socially distanced access to our studios to finalize their projects.

How did SFCM have to rethink these programs to be more virtual amid COVID-19?

We basically have computers that are in the studios that are just locked down so those systems can be accessed remotely from students outside. Students can remote into that computer and use all of the samples libraries and software as though they were sitting in front of it. It actually kind of worked out great for us because half of the lab’s computers are running remote sessions and the other half are for live people. Because we need extra spacing in the lab, we put a live person, a remote computer and a live computer. There's plenty of distance between them to accommodate social distancing requirements while still utilizing the lab’s technology to its fullest potential. That has worked out pretty well for us.

Initially we purchased numerous Audio-Technica ATR2500-USB Cardioid Condenser Microphones for every single student in our orchestra so we could record a composition by John Luther Adams titled Become Ocean. We taught literally every single student how to place their microphone for recording their instrument and then had each one record their part to click rack at home using REAPER (Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering, and Recording), a digital audio workstation and MISI sequencer software program. I think it was like 60 or 60 people tracking their parts. We then had students mix all of it together as a final product that we delivered as our large ensemble piece at the end of last year. It was not merely adequate - it was spectacular! Following that project we took all those Audio-Technica mics and put them in every faculty studio in the building to support Zoom lessons that they do with their students.

Have there been any pleasant surprises that have come with the change in how the programs are run now?

In the past while teaching students in the classroom with me, if I wanted to play something for them -- especially when analyzing a mix or if I wanted them to hear something very specific -- the easiest way to do this would be to play it on the speakers. That worked, but every student would hear it a bit differently depending on their position within the room, so it was hard to have a group conversation about it.

Whereas now when teaching a remote class with Zoom and Audiomovers, everybody's on headphones and they all hear the exact same thing that I hear. It's a lot easier to demonstrate what panning does or the nuances of reverb and compression because we're all experiencing the exact same thing. That has actually been really helpful and it’s probably something I’ll continue to do even when we are back in person.

What has the experience been like using Audio-Technica’s microphones and headphones during this time of transition?

The quality is just great, they are very affordable, and they are super easy and intuitive to set up and use. Overall, we have been very happy with our Audio-Technica headphones and microphones, and they have become an integral part of our workflow. They have definitely helped keep the music alive and allowed us to keep teaching our students during this current health crisis. We are all thankful for that.

How can people stay connected with the conservatory?

The Conservatory has a performance calendar on our website and we live stream all of our concerts throughout the year, so something like 300 concerts a year. That's one way. Watch a concert. And then we also have Facebook and Instagram for the school and separate channels for the Technology and Applied Composition program. We post a lot of content to those sites and it has updates on all the events that we are involved in.

Stay up to date with everything the SFCM is doing by visiting www.sfcm.edu, check out the performance calendar, and visit them on Facebook.