UW launches modern musicians with new recording studio curriculum

In the last 25 years, the rise of streaming has changed the game in the music industry.

Now that anyone can upload a song to a streaming service, independent musicians must master a variety of skills to break through in a saturated market. Those musicians finding the most success are not only refining their musical skills, but also business, publicity, and technical skills like studio recording and production.

With the latter in mind, the University of Washington School of Music is stepping up their offerings. In fall 2024, they hired Grammy-nominated recording engineer, producer, and drummer Andrew Munsey to lead and build out a Music and Technology program, dedicated to providing students with experience in studio recording, mixing and producing.

Now in its second year, UW students and alumni say the program, which is currently situated within the Jazz and Improvised Studies program, is invaluable to their music education and prepares them for the modern industry’s demands.

The program covers how to record audio to meet the various technical standards of streaming platforms, as well as how to mix audio, or combine multiple tracks into one final sound product, and audio production, which involves mapping the concept behind how a track will sound.

“Having a home studio or access to a professional studio is really rare. And so for the school to provide a space where you can come in for free as a student and book time and just experiment freely, without worry of money or anything, is really liberating,” said Natalie Song, a UW Jazz Studies graduate who took part in the Music and Technology program last year.

Song now works as both a performer and freelance recording engineer.

The instrument and the lab

The fruition of this new program is the result of the years-long advocacy of Ted Poor, associate director of the School of Music. Poor, also an associate professor of Jazz Studies, is a sought-after professional drummer who’s done ample studio recording, including with heavyweight artists like Paul Simon, Andrew Bird, Bill Frisell, and Pat Metheny.

“The studio itself is a musical instrument,” Poor said. “The ways that we can capture sound and manipulate it in service of our artistic voice is so powerful, and that’s something that I’ve always dreamed of for the students, to see the studio in that way.”

About five years ago, Poor explained this dream to JoAnn Taricani, UW’s previous director of the School of Music. She approved Poor’s request to put a mobile recording rig together that could be wheeled throughout the music building. From there, Poor brought in renowned Los Angeles-based engineer, David Boucher, to help the school set up “ad hoc recording studio environments” in some classrooms.

“The students loved it, and they really ate it up,” Poor said.

Clear that the students were interested in learning more, current director Joël-François Durand, who took over after Taricani’s death in 2022, gave Poor the green light to start the Music and Technology program. UW’s program joins a handful of public American universities, including Washington State University, that offer music production programs and studios to practice in.

This led to Munsey’s hire, and they began planning the curriculum and the renovation of several new recording spaces in the sub-basement of the Music building, which is still underway.

“I really do see a studio as a laboratory, and not just for the students, for the faculty here too,” said Munsey, who emphasizes hands-on experimentation in his teaching.

So far, this recording “lab” includes two control rooms, large and small recording rooms and an isolation booth all retrofitted with the necessary consoles, cables and connections to produce studio-quality recordings.

Notably, the L-shaped Control Room A, formerly an archive filled with cassette tapes, has both digital and analog recording consoles. A large window overlooks the large ensemble room, which now doubles as a rehearsal and recording space.

The main auditorium in the music building, Brechemin Auditorium, is also getting an update that will allow recitals and performances to be recorded using an Audio over IP network, a digital audio distribution system that converts analog recording signals into digital data that can be accessed through ethernet.

Real recording experience

Munsey’s Music and Technology classes are open to students both in and outside of the music department.

Currently, the program offers two lecture-style courses: Fundamentals of Sound Recording and History of Music Recording, and a more intensive three-quarter series focused on learning studio recording inside the renovated studio spaces called Studio Recording Techniques.

“For us, a lot of it’s like equipment focused. How do we get that sound? Here’s the equipment that we would use, here’s the placement, and here’s how we put together the environment for that performance to happen, you know, how do we put all the things in place so that we can capture lightning in a bottle?” Munsey said.

Students in the intensive series have day and night access to Control Room A, allowing them to practice and work on their own recordings whenever they like. They also work with two artists-in-residence, drummer and producer Kassa Overall and Grammy award-winning bassist, producer and engineer Steve Rodby, who are contributing to the direction of the program.

The Studio Recording Techniques series also gives students the opportunity to run their own recording session and record the Jazz Lab class, a student ensemble that rehearses in the large ensemble room.

“It’s like a real recording session, essentially,” Munsey said, noting that each week a different student is selected as lead recording engineer, and is asked to plan and communicate how they will proceed with recording.

At the end of the process, both classes meet to listen and analyze what’s been recorded. This gives student musicians the opportunity to look at how they showed up for the session and supplies student recording engineers with the chance to perfect their techniques, like how they placed microphones.

“I hadn’t really had the opportunity to set up five different mics and compare how each one is similar and different, or compare how different positions on one instrument can change the sound,” Song said.

Enhancing artistry

Not every student in the Music and Technology program is a musician trying to improve their studio competency or record high-quality tracks for streaming.

Some are engineering students who just see recording as a practical skill, Munsey said, or classical music majors looking to record better audition tapes. Both Munsey and Poor acknowledge that, regardless of the desired final product, learning these skills can elevate your artistry as a musician.

Song, the pianist who was in Jazz Lab last year, experienced this. Since taking Munsey’s courses, she found that learning to assume both the role of engineer and studio musician, helps her rise to the high-stakes demands of a recording session and embrace the spontaneity in jazz.

“I think it just kind of reminded me, especially in a improvisation and in a style of music that relies on improvisation…recording emphasized in me the importance of intention behind my playing,” she said.

Looking back, Song raved about her time in the UW Music and Technology program, and finds a lot of value in balancing both performing and recording skillsets in her career. Song is currently performing regularly with Maple Valley, Washington-based indie musician Lucia Flores-Wiseman, and works as a freelance recording engineer at Avast! Recording Studios in Ballard.

“If I’m not playing at a certain moment, I’m helping set up mics, and I’m helping move other things,” she said. “I really like helping inform all of that and it allows me to be more involved in the process.”

Munsey and Poor look forward to growing Music and Technology into its own degree program, and nurturing connections with other local recording studios to provide students with field trip and residency opportunities. They’re dedicated to building out the program and the recording spaces thoughtfully, and for the long-term, which they note the supportive environment in the School of Music allows for.

“How might people be using this space in 20 years?,” Munsey said. “That’s a really hard question to answer, but we want to try and make room for those possibilities.”