Project Bar-B-Q -...food for music

Project Bar-B-Q is an intense conference held annually on a ranch resort in the central Texas hill country...

The goal of Project Bar-B-Q is:

INFLUENCING MUSIC HARDWARE & SOFTWAREOVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS

To this end, three to five groups are formed, each consisting of hardware developers, software developers, audio engineers, composers, and tech executives. Each group tackles a problem that has been identified as one of the industry's most important, spending two days of facilitated brainstorming to formulate its best shot at a solution. The result of this work is the annual BBQ report.

Dan Moore , our industry Bizdev represnt microsoft in the discussion.

We are proud to be able to support this unique think tank environment comprised of some of the greatest minds in the computer audio business, and learn what

The "Make Your Mark" tour (Music, 3D, Video, Film)

This week we were at San Francisco for the last stop of the Make your Mark tour!!!

With more than 500 students attending the events in 4 major cities (Boston, NY, LA and SF) this tour was a great success …

We were able to attract great PR coverage for both Microsoft and Avid, and reinforce our message that the “PC is a great platform for content creation”.
Having top artists from various disciplines, sharing and demonstrating their creative experience on the PC, and seeing students playing with the different tools was a great live evidence.

DJ/Producer Carmen Rizzo demonstrates how Pro Tools' diverse toolset lets you move seamlessly between production and performance, forever redefining the creative process and what it means to be a DJ/producer.


Animator and artist Raffael Dickreuter discussed how to start building a successful career as a digital artist


M-AUDIO is dedicated to creating cutting-edge products for digital DJs. They let you produce and perform the way you want,
so you can integrate your vinyl and CDs with the power of the computer or just leave those crates in the closet.


Visiting the Los Angles Film School, October 07

New Crossfader interviews LIVE from Atlanta

Crossfader Interviews & Content
(All content will be accessible on http://crossfader.com – links are embedded if applicable)

Featured interviews:

The Scott Storch Interview
We sat down with Grammy-winning producer Scott Storch (Christina Aguilerra, Pink, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Ja Rule, Beyonce Knowles, and Janet Jackson) to learn about how he got started in the business and what inspired him. Scott’s words of wisdom resonate deeply to those aspiring to become prominent in the music business…you have to start somewhere.


The Hank Shocklee Interview

A household name in urban and hip hop music and the producer of Public Enemy among several other groups, we spent over 30 minutes talking with Hank Shocklee of Shocklee Innertainment about technology, creative energies, and what young people can do nowadays to start capturing their creativity and build content. Plus he’s a really cool guy!

Meet Ray Williams, a man of many talents
A seasoned veteran of the music business and a mouthpiece for music enthusiasts around the world, Ray Williams (IMSTA, Music Marketing, MusicXPC, Steinberg Canada) speaks candidly about the creative process and the prominent role technology and digital tools play in that process. Ray most notably heads up the International Music Software Trade Association, a non-for-profit software anti-piracy organization based in Toronto, Ontario, whose charter is to educate music enthusiasts to “buy the software you use” and fight piracy and cracked software.

Taking the hip-hop capital of the world by storm!

The “Creativity is Fundamental” Campaign takes the hip-hop capital of the world by storm!

ATLANTA, GA - In our ongoing strategic relationship with Penton Entertainment Group, we were proud the be the Title Presenting Sponsor for the 2007 Remix Hotel Atlanta Show. This is an annual end user event held in the capital of urban and hip hop music, and is a major buzz generator for music enthusiasts, producers, and performers alike around the technologies and services that fuel this market space.

The Remix Hotel provides hands-on access to the technology and equipment used to create today's electronic and urban music via artist presentations and demonstrations, workshops, clinics and discussions. Remix puts the tools of the trade into the hands of the end user, and helps inspire young, up-and-comers to realize their creative potential through all the great tools of the trade.

Microsoft Master Class & Lecture Room
Held in a 40-seat mini-theater complete with projector, professional A/V equipment and surround sound, the Microsoft Master Class & Lecture Room provided a quiet, focused environment for our managed partners to showcase their latest offerings for PC content creation. The schedule was packed with product demos and tutorials on the latest technologies from the leading names in music content creation:

Ø Digidesign Pro Tools LE Master Class
We were fortunate to have one of Digidesign’s premiere demo product specialists, Alex Jinh, conduct daily product demos on the best selling Pro Tools LE system. Alex built a piece of music from scratch, right before an enthralled audience’s eyes…helping ends users understand how easy it is to create music on the PC.

Said Alex in an email afterwards, “People couldn’t believe we were running the demo on a PC. The system kept up with everything I was doing, never crashed, and helped make the demo successful. It really helped change people’s perception of the PC and its usefulness in making digital music.”

Ø Roland MV-8000 Production Studio Master Class
This was one of the most compelling demonstrations of building a piece of music from start to finish. Shown by the local Roland product expert Mike Acosta, the Roland MV-8000 wowed the crowd as beats were created, bass lines were recorded, voices and keys were added in, and the final piece was published to the PC…all in less than one hour’s time.

The demo went up a notch when a local Grammy-winning performing artist plugged in his bass and started recording new tracks alongside the beats, so attendees could see how you can combine live playing with electronic music. This really connected with the audience….totally awesome.

Ø Yahama Corporation Motif & Steinberg Sequel
Never to be outdone, Yamaha took over the Master Class Room with a compelling demo of their world-renown Motif keyboard workstation and interface. Yamaha product expert and Yankees fan Phil was able to build a funk tune with all the drums, bass, guitars, keys, and even voices in less than 15 minutes! The Motif can actually modulate and create parts around your central idea for a piece…you don’t have to know how to play guitar to get a great sounding guitar part to go with your idea.
Did I mention that the entire demo was centered around his HP laptop?

Ø Ableton Live 7 Master Class
Ableton originally made its mark in the music business as the world’s first music creation software dedicated to live performances…which meant the program needed to have ultra-fast response to changes made on the fly, and also feature a complete toolset for loop-based creation.
Ableton proved that was the right place right time strategy with the announcement of Live 7, a full featured workstation product that boasts a user base of over 100,000 worldwide and one of the most vocal, loyal customer bases anywhere.

Why is Remix Hotel important to Microsoft?
Events like Remix Hotel allow us to carry out our mission in a way that draws people in and excites their imagination….instead of a top-down overbearing branding and marketing approach. It is a unique opportunity to leverage existing relations with ISVs and enable them to position their product offerings as solutions that integrate seamlessly with the PC environment. It also is one of few events that allow us to accomplish several goals in one setting. When you get out there and start connecting with people one-on-one, you put some personality to your initiatives and help create the perception change that the Windows PC is a phenomenal creative content tool.