Employee Feature: Senior Software Engineer Scott Cooper

Scott Cooper, Senior Software Engineer

What's your official job title at UA?
Senior Software Engineer. I work on the Powered Plug-ins, on the application side of things, which covers the user-interaction programming and the host interface.

What is a typical day for you at UA?
For me, there's still a lot of learning to do, about what the products do, how the hosts work, and so on. That part is really fun. I write code, spending my development time about equally on the Mac and Windows platforms. There's very little sitting in meetings, as we're still a small enough group to do most things one-on-one. If I'm working late and I can't concentrate, I like to go bang on the drum set in the studio to unwind a bit.

So you play the drums?
Very badly. I also play the guitar pretty badly, but I've been practicing lately and improving quite a bit. It's amazing how you get better when you practice!

“If I’m working late and I can’t concentrate, I like to go bang on the drum set in the studio to unwind a bit.”

So where are you from?
I was born in Reseda, California, but I spent the latter half of my youth on the San Francisco peninsula. Both of my parents were born in California, too. Now I'd say I'm "from" Santa Cruz, since I've lived here off and on for 12 years.

 How long have you worked at Universal Audio?
I'm one of the newest members of the company. I've only worked here since May. I guess that's four months now.

What type of work did you do before UA?
I've worked in software ever since I got my college degree at 21, with one notable exception. Recently, I worked at SGI on their visualization supercomputer products, and before that, I taught at UC Santa Cruz for a year and a half.

And the notable exception?
While I was a graduate student, I found myself hanging out at this café in Chapel Hill so often that people would joke that I should work there. I ended up doing just that, working at this fantastic café-it's called Caffe Driade-which serves some of the best espresso anywhere. I worked there while I was still a student, and for a while afterward. I'd like to run my own café someday.

What were you doing in North Carolina?
I attended graduate school at UNC Chapel Hill. They have a highly regarded Computer Science program, which did some of the pioneering work in interactive 3D graphics and virtual reality.

What do you like about your job?
Well, first and foremost, I really believe in our products, and it's easy to see that they're having an impact. That is really important to me. The people I work with are incredibly interesting, and talented, both technically and musically. That's inspiring. And it doesn't hurt that I can ride my bike to work, which I should really do more often.

What kind of music do you like?
I'm into indie rock mostly. I'm a huge Guided By Voices fan, although they're no longer together. I also dig the Shins and Spoon. I'm not too hip to the latest stuff at the moment. The last show I went to see was Neko Case, which was fantastic. I'm looking forward to checking out the new Lambchop record.

What are your hobbies?
I play the guitar, cook, and play video games. I also like to play tennis and Frisbee, and I want to get back into surfing, which I had to stop doing because I was living in landlocked North Carolina. I read a lot. I love a good novel. I watch a lot of movies too, and I like fiddling with my home theater system. Oh, and I travel a fair bit. I've been to something like 30 U.S. states and 10 countries.

Do you have a favorite "Santa Cruz" moment?
I think that would be the day I talked my girlfriend into taking her first ever roller-coaster ride, on the Giant Dipper at the Beach Boardwalk. She was laughing and crying at the same time, but she will grudgingly admit to having had fun. I love that roller coaster! My first ever tube ride at Pleasure Point is way up there too.

Will you tell us about your family?
My folks both work in advertising, so I don't know where this nerdy streak came from. I was an only child, and the oldest of all my cousins by 16 years, so I was incredibly spoiled by my grandparents. My mom's folks ran a restaurant in Manhattan Beach, California, called Uncle Bill's, and now my uncle Matt has taken it over.

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Upcoming Events . . .

Precision Multiband up for TEC Award UA has been nominated for an industry TEC Award for the Precision Multiband plug-in for UAD. The winners will be announced at the Grammy-style TEC Awards Dinner on October 7. Watch the UA home page for the results!
	UA Precision Multiband, TEC Award Nominee

121st AES Convention
UA is attending AES in San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center right now, until Sunday, October 8. We are very pleased to be announcing some great new analog products. See News & Shmooze below, or if you're in the Bay Area, come to the show and check it out!

 UA Sponsors AES Student Design Competition
Universal Audio will be sponsoring the AES Student Design Competition. Universal Audio has donated a UAD-1 Project, UAD-1 Flexi and a UAD-1 Ultra PAK. The design competition is a competition for audio projects developed by students at any university or recording school, challenging students with an opportunity to showcase their technical skills. Prizes will be awarded Sunday, October 8, 9:00-10:30 a.m.

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News & Schmooze . . .

New Analog Products
At the 121st AES in San Francisco, UA is pulling back the curtain to offer a preview of some exiting new analog products we'll be shipping early next year. Please extend a warm welcome to the new 2-LA-2 and the Desktop Console System!

2-LA-2 Twin T4 Leveling Amplifier

As astute UA fans have already guessed, the 2-LA-2 is a stereo matched pair of LA-2As that can also be used in dual-mono mode. But wait, there's more! Each channel features two different T4 optical gain reduction circuits; one is the same as the UA Classic LA-2A, and the other has a faster attack and release. Yes, you can have all that, at price that will knock you out.

The Desktop Console System (DCS) is a new collaboration with Euphonix co-founders Rob and Scott Silfvast. DCS is a new series of microconsole components designed for the desktop recordist. DCS features the quality and functions of a high-end console, in a modular format.

DCS Remote Preamp

The first in the DCS series is the Remote Preamp, a pair of transimpedance mic preamps with DI inputs, combined with a three-way cue mixer. The Remote Preamp also features Mid-Side recording with decoded monitoring, a talkback mic, and much more.

As with all DCS series components, the analog signal path can be controlled up to 300 feet away through DCS-Link and a CAT-5 cable.

The next in the DCS series will be the Monitor Master, which is analogous to the master section of a high-end surround console. More on that later!

Online Music Holdouts Give In as iTunes Popularity Surges
Analysts say the online holdouts-including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Garth Brooks, Radiohead and Kid Rock-probably can't avoid iTunes forever as fans flock to the Internet to buy music.

But the artists argue that online distribution leaves them with too small a profit. And, they say, iTunes wrecks the artistic integrity of an album by allowing songs to be purchased by the track for 99 cents. Some bands, such as AC/DC, have released albums on other, more flexible sites, but not iTunes.

-USA Today

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Tech Talk . . .

Intel 925 motherboard chipset with UAD-1e PCI Express card
We are investigating an issue with the UAD-1e PCIe card installed on PC motherboards based on the discontinued Intel 925 chipsets. Users of these systems may be experiencing problems during installation or system boot. We hope to have a solution for this issue soon. This issue does not affect any other Intel motherboard chipsets, and does not affect the UAD-1 PCI card.

Universal Mac Drivers for UAD
Mac users, please click over to our UAD downloads page and try the new Mac Universal Preview Release. This new code will be released soon, and will cover Power PC and Intel Macs.

Sonar Error 21 Fix
Updated October 12, 06: The Cakewalk VST Adapter fixes are now out of beta and available in the latest Cakewalk VST Adapter release, for Sonar version 5 and below. The update is included in Sonar 6.

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Press • Artist • Engineer • Producer Gossip . . .

Joe Chicarelli and the Shins UA customer and Super Producer/Engineer/Mixer Joe Chiccarelli has been busy with his UA gear. Joe has been working with the Shins on their anticipated new release, the follow-up to 2003's Chutes Too Narrow, at Supernatural Sound Studios in Portland, OR.
	Pictured (left to right): Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval, Joe Chiccarelli, singer/songwriter/guitar player James Mercer and keyboardist Marty Crandall

Happenings in the Stratosphere
UA's home away from home in New York, Stratosphere Sound (owned by Rock Stars, James Iha, Adam Schlesinger and Andy Chase), has been booked nonstop. Stratosphere's 2-610 and LA-2A have had quite a work out lately. Fountains of Wayne have been busy recording their new album with Adam Schlesinger producing and Geoff Sanoff engineering. Norman Cook, Mr. Fatboy Slim himself, was in for a small vocal session. Melissa Auf Der Maur (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins) was doing overdubs for her new record. The classic America recorded and mixed their new album here with James Iha and Adam Schlesinger producing. Gretchen Moll was in doing vocals for a song on her new movie, with owner Andy Chase producing. And Juliana Hatfield was in doing tracks with Andy producing and James Iha in Studio B doing a remix of The Postmarks.

New Distribution Partnership Kicks Off in the UK Mike Barnes and Erica McDaniel crossed the pond to be special guests of UA's new UK Distributor HHB Communications. HHB held a press conference at London's trendy Ivy Restaurant to celebrate its appointment as exclusive UK distributor for Universal Audio's full range of analog and digital audio products. Read the press release.
	Pictured (left to right): UA VP of Marketing Mike Barnes, Directress (hey, it was her idea) of Sales Erica McDaniel and HHB Director of Distribution Ian Jones