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James Cigler, Mac Software Test Engineer

Featured Employee: James Cigler

James Cigler is a musician, composer, advanced juggler (really!) and Macintosh guru. He's been using OS X since the public beta. He even taught himself UNIX before that because he knew that's what the new Mac OS was based on. If there is anything to do with a Macintosh, James probably knows how to do it. He has raving fans thanks to the technical support he's provided. Think about that. My mini disc and I had lunch with James, and we recorded an interview.

What are you doing for UA now?
Quality assurance; I get to do all the testing once the developers have [a new feature to test] before it goes out. It's kind of like tech support. In tech support, the job I had before, if the user called me with a problem, I would verify it. Now, I basically have to know how all the hosts work and what little quirks each one has. When any of the programmers have built something, I have to know how to slam on it and make sure it works like they expect it to.

Mac and PC?
Just the Mac stuff; [UA's PC test engineer Jor Van Gelder] takes care of the PC stuff. I plan on learning some of the PC stuff eventually because that could only help. I have set up a few systems, but I don't know any of the audio apps.

What's your main DAW at home?
I've just recently switched over to Cubase SX after debating sticking with Logic and DP. When I first got into computer recording everybody said you have to have Pro Tools, so I got an Audiomedia III on PC. That barely worked-my boss told me to get a Mac. So I got a Mac in '98 and picked up a used Digi 001.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had.”

I wish I had gotten into Nuendo and Cubase earlier. I really like those programs. One trick they let you do that the others don't that I really like is on a stereo track, you can pull up a mono plug and have that affect only one side [of the stereo] and pull up another mono plug and have it do the other side. That was one of the reasons we're going to add mono versions of the plug-ins to UAD v3.9 for OS X.

I still like Logic and DP a lot. Each DAW has a lot of stuff that the others don't have.

How long did you work at Guitar Showcase [a music store in San Jose]?
I worked there on and off for about three years. I was going to school at the time. I worked there full-time for almost two years, then I started to go back to school full-time. That was a great place to work. I used to work in the consignment shop and rent live-sound equipment.

I got to see a lot of gear. I was reading the "History of Roland" article in Sound on Sound and I kept saying, "Oh whoa-I remember we had one of those!" I never would have gotten to try that stuff if I hadn't worked there.

The gear rentals were my first foray into tech support. When I rented a system to someone, I would always ask, "Do you know how to hook this up?" and people would always say "Oh, yeah, yeah." And then they'd call 20 minutes later: "Where's this blue cable go? I've got this thing with faders..."

Everybody's favorite story from the rental department was when a customer rented our largest system [James describes a 16-channel mixer with a couple of very large amps for subs and mains]. I asked if he wanted a diagram of how to hook it up. He said "No, no, I got it." He called an hour later. At that point [in my career] if anyone called with a problem, [the other employees] would just give the phone to me.

[The customer on the phone said,] "There's no sound coming out of the microphone." [James describes a long process of debugging the system over the phone:] Speakers hooked up, cables hooked, power amps on, mixer turned on...still no sound. We tried all the inputs, checked bus routing on each channel, solos.... It is now 45 minutes later. Finally after looking at the same model mixer in the shop I said, "There's a button at the top of the fader that says 'mute' on it. Are those down? They should be up." We went through each channel one by one as he unmuted them: "Okay; okay; okay..." He did that 15 times, and when he got to the last one I heard "BBRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" [imitating PA feedback]. It was so loud I pulled the phone from my ear. When I heard it stop the customer said, "Okay, something happened."

[Taking note of the mini disc recording the interview.] My very first band in high school was recorded on mini disc with a computer microphone hanging from the ceiling. It's pretty funny. I had my friend come over and be machine operator. You can hear me and the drummer yelling at each other about who is screwing up the take, and my friend saying, "Are you guys going to get it right this time?"

You've been in a few bands, right?
Just a few. I didn't really start playing guitar until I moved out here to California with my family when I was 15. I didn't have any friends, so I needed something to do. I started taking lessons at Guitar Showcase.

I started a band in high school-a pretty lame band-a punk-rock band. Then I tried out for a pretty big band [Nothing Substantial] in the area because members were leaving. I started learning all the songs and by the time I was ready the band broke up entirely.

Later the drummer and singer-who are brothers-from that band and I started another band that was pretty successful. We did some small tours around the West Coast. I left the band because they wanted to do a lot more touring than I wanted to do. The band was called Jim Jones Brigade. I picked the name in history class. I had accumulated 30 or so names on a legal pad and looked at that one and thought, "Oh, that's messed up." Sure enough I showed it to the guys and they all liked that one. I am sure when I am older I will really regret naming it that. We recently did a reunion show in San Jose.

I used to do the website for the band; that's when I really got into computers. I learned HTML and PHP. It was a very slow nerd progression. [James also mentions some technical liberties he took with the AOL system at the time...]

Are you having fun at this job? I will delete anything sensitive.
Oh, totally. This is the best job I've ever had. Just hanging around with [UA DSP guru Dave] Berners and Joe [Bryan, UA's VP of Technology] and all these guys-you get to hang around with some of the big brains in the industry. You get to play around with all the latest software and plug-ins, which I would be doing at home anyway. I get to pick up a little programming knowledge and stuff from Jim [Wintermyer, UA's Senior Mac Programmer] and the other engineers, too. I've learned more here than I did my whole time in college.

How'd you get the job at UA?
Tom Freeman and I worked together at Guitar Showcase. Tom would come into the rental department every night and borrow the Korg Trinity. That's how we became friends. Tom got the job at UA and a couple months later gave me the tour. I thought, "Oh, this place is awesome."

I've always liked to help people. When I was learning Logic I would hang around the Logic forums a lot. Eventually you are helping other people a lot more than they are helping you, but it was worth it to hang around to learn that one cool thing that somebody else posted. All those little tricks ...

What are you doing with computers outside of work?
Ever since I started doing audio with the computer I write fewer songs, but I am way more into designing weird sounds. Now I probably have 60 or so sessions that are just sounds with drums behind them. That's one of the reasons I like Reason a lot.

So you are into sound design more than straight recording?
I like chopping a lot of audio up and making weird fades. I like to take different samples and put them on different tracks with different plug-ins and just crossfade between them.

I recently set up my old pen tablet with my DAW and it was awesome! It was way easier than the mouse, especially for drawing MIDI notes and for circular controls on plug-ins. It is only 4 by 5 inches. Now I want the bigger one.

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Upcoming Events...

Summer NAMM - July 22-24
While Universal Audio will not have a booth at NAMM's 2005 Summer Session in Indianapolis, Indiana, various UA staff will be lurking about the show, so keep a weather eye peeled and give us a shout if you would like to meet up! Also, don't miss NAMM's 4th Annual Pre-Show Party at The Hang, featuring a fantastic lineup of NAMM Member Company bands to entertain you. Watch in amazement (or horror) as your peers strut their stuff on the big stage at this one-of-a-kind industry event.

Remix Hotel - Chicago - dates TBD
Universal Audio will be among the many Remix Hotel partners presenting three days of free technology master classes, panels, demos and clinics about music production and performance for electronic and urban-music producers, engineers, musicians and DJs. What's more, you can showcase your music there. Remix Hotel has an exclusive partnership with Sonicbids to take online submissions for showcase opportunities at Remix Hotel Chicago. Submissions will be accepted until July 10.

Broadjam 6-Pack Contest
Universal Audio is a proud sponsor of the Broadjam 6-Pack songwriting contest. Contestants submit original songs on any of six different themes: Love Shout, Open to Interpretation, Jokeland, Hell Gig, Christmas and Broadjam Tag. Enter in one or all of the categories to accumulate points. The artist with the most points wins a package of fabulous prizes including a UAD-1 Project PAK and a trip to the 2006 Winter NAMM show.

CCRMA Summer Lectures 2005
Our very own doctors (Jonathan Abel and David Berners) will be lecturing on Signal Processing Techniques for Digital Audio Effects (DAE) at Stanford University in California from July 25 to August 5. The lectures are part of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Summer Workshops series. Other topics will include Human Computer Interaction (June 27 to July 8); Digital Signal Processing: Spectral and Physical Models (July 11 to 22); and Perceptual Audio Coding (August 8 to 12).

All lectures will be given on the Stanford campus and are open to the public. For more information or to register, visit the CCRMA website, or write to CCRMA, 660 Lomita Court, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 or call 650-723-4971 ext. 320.

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Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip...

Women's Audio Mission Makes a Difference
Women's Audio Mission is an all-volunteer, women-run organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the recording arts. In a field where women professionals are historically underrepresented, WAM seeks to create an environment that will encourage and enable the aspirations of women in the recording arts and expand the vision and voice of media and popular culture. WAM provides access to audio technology and offers training in its use for women of all ages to record sound for music, radio, film, television and the Internet.

WAM's founder and executive director, Terri Winston, has a unique combination of expertise and experience that led her to create WAM. She has 20 years of experience in the music industry as a major-label recording artist/engineer and producer, and she is a trained electrical engineer. Currently Winston works as a tenured professor of Sound Recording Arts at City College of San Francisco.

UAD-1 Users
Ramin Sakurai from Supreme Beings of Leisure who is working on a new album with his UAD-1

Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance has a new UAD-1 in her Logic powered rig. Lisa has spent the last several years working on film soundtracks including the acclaimed Whalerider, Ali, and the award-winning Gladiator with Hans Zimmer. Dead Can Dance has a new limited edition 2 disc live concert recording and will tour the US this summer. Venues are already sold out in many locations.

UA-TDM Users
And mega producer Tony Mazerati (Black Eyed Peas) just picked up the UA TDM plug-ins. We’ll be interviewing all these artists in the future.

Charlie Clouser is more than busy these days. He’s writing the music for two primetime dramas, Las Vegas on ABC and Numbers on NBC. His TDM plug-ins and huge rack of UA hardware are coming in handy.

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Tech Talk...

UA's Dimension D Plug-In Gets Celebrity Approval
With the recent release of version 3.9 for the UAD-1, which includes the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble emulation, all eyes now turn to verson 4.0, which will include the second of three announced emulations of vintage Roland signal processors: the Dimension D. Universal Audio recently paid a visit to Jerry Harrison's private studio to allow him and his long-time engineer E.T. Thorngren to listen firsthand to a prototype Dimension D in their own studio. The team graciously allowed us to interrupt their Talking Heads surround remix sessions for a shoot out between the plug-in and their two original units. As die-hard Dimension D hardware fans and users, they were very keen to hear the results. When we heard them say, "I can't hear a difference" and "They sound the same, incredible," we were unable to keep from patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. Thanks, guys, for letting us hang out!

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News & Schmooze...

Tape Op Con a Smashing Success!

Tape Op Con, a conference held by Tape Op magazine, completed its fourth annual show this week in New Orleans. This is the second year Tape Op Con has held the event in this musically rich city, and attendance was huge, with a particularly good turn-out from the females in the business. Women's attendance was only enhanced by the presence of Women's Audio Mission, a volunteer organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the recording arts (see related article).

Community involvement was strong, with local musicians and studios enlisted to host and help with the event. Piety Street Studio held the opening-night party at their beautiful facility and provided support for the "Potluck Studio," which was a very well crafted temporary control room set up right in the Fairmont Hotel, with an outboard rack full of the best outboard equipment in the industry. Some local musicians provided their talent for the recording demos, including classic New Orleans-style horns. Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 laid down tracks that provided the material for the Drum Workshop, the Basic Tracks Workshop, and the Mixing Workshop. Many UA hardware pieces were involved in the process, including the new 4110 4-channel mic preamps and both UA channel strips.

UA's presence was heavy as a title sponsor: our hardware was well stocked in the Potluck Studio and well represented by UA's in-house analog-hardware specialist, Will Shanks. Will participated in the Compressor Workshop, which focused on the use of bus compression, and was available around the Potluck Studio to provide demos, answer questions and show panelists how to best use the UA hardware arsenal. Dave Crane held down the fort in the exhibitor's room, where he provided demos of UA's UAD-1 plug-ins, including the just released Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble emulation.

There was a lot of buzz at Tape Op Con regarding the LA-3A reissue, and the LA-3A not only saw use in the Potluck Studio but also made an "open showing" at the UA exhibitor booth-two units, one vintage and one new, were racked together with the lids off and put on display. We had to point out to many of those who looked that the units were 30 years apart in manufacturing! Props to the engineering department and to David Stepka for his immaculate assembly!

Tape Op Con also hosted three nights of great music starting at the Howlin' Wolf; featured artists included Shellac and Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3. The last night of entertainment was held at the Rock and Bowl, where Bonerama, a killer band featuring five trombones and a tuba, were blowing classics like Zep's "In My Time of Dying" and Sabbath's "War Pigs."

Check out mug shots of all your Tape Op friends at the Rock and Bowl!

Credit Where Credit Is Due!
Thanks to Chad Levin of SCV London (our British distributor) for this great find! As engineers and producers, we know how hard it can be to get properly credited for your work, not to mention how it was before the mid-'70s when credits were virtually nonexistent! The Duke's a cool guy...not only did he give credit to the producer, but he included a picture to boot! Not too shabby for early Putnam Chicago days!