ProSound News - December 2008 - (Page 66)

viewfromthetop Raising the Bar Nick Phoenix, Quantum Leap Producer, EastWest A by Fred Goodman s with most of the movers and shakers of the pro audio industry, Nick Phoenix started out as a musician—playing piano and writing songs. In 1995, he was working at West LA Music selling keyboards and writing music at night. He was selling a lot of Roland samplers and was excited about some of the sample CD-ROMs that had begun to surface. So he decided to make one with some of his guitar-player friends. Phoenix recalls, “I knew EastWest was the biggest sample distributor, and so I approached them with Quantum Leap Guitar and Bass. They liked it, and that was the beginning. Right about the same time, my composing career began to pay well, so I quit the music store and began making sample libraries and scoring film trailers and TV shows. The two worlds of scoring and sounds are interconnected. I only make sample libraries or virtual instruments that will help me in my day-to-day scoring.” That initial relationship with EastWest developed into involvement for Phoenix. With his strong musical and mathematical background, Phoenix says that computer music makes sense to him. “I think I have had success with music software because EastWest and I make products that composers, like myself, would use. I develop ideas that only fill holes in currently available software, or simply if I feel something can be done better, even though it has been done many times before. A good example of that is Quantum Leap Pianos. I think my background influences EastWest, because I have pushed the company into the film-score world. That is my passion, and now it is also an EastWest passion.” When asked about the EastWest team, Phoenix states, “The team is always changing, but now that EastWest Studios is open, I think we’ll be a lot more stable. It’s a fantastic place to work. We have our own small team of editors and programmers, and we work closely together trading drives. I try to not get too involved with the editing, but usually I end up doing some of it. I usually do a lot of the advanced programming myself, but my assistant, Justin Harris, is getting pretty good at it as well. My focus is on conceiving new products, finding the musicians and engineering and producing the sessions.” Doug Rogers, EastWest’s founder, leads the development of all products and produces many of them along with Phoenix. Phoenix still produces most of the Quantum Leap products (QL is a wholly owned subsidiary of EastWest), while Rogers and he produce some of the larger products together, such as Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Choirs and Quantum Leap Pianos, all of which involve a large team of people to create and can take years to complete. On the company culture and philosophy, Phoenix stresses, “It’s simple. We try to raise the bar in terms of the work that we do. We are always looking to create new and innovative products that are really usable. We make products that target top composers and musicians—anyone that’s on top of their game. Our products tend to be more detailed than those of our competitors, and that’s partly because we invest a lot of time and money into making them.” Though Phoenix points out that the company’s initial focus is making products that will satisfy top professionals, because a lot of musicians now have a home recording setup, they need the best virtual instruments they can find to compensate for the fact that they don’t have a good recording room, or in many cases, any recording room. “And so, that’s a large part of our business also, because we bridge that gap,” he elaborates. “We purposely make sure there’s not a great deal of difference between what we charge for our products and what other virtual instrument producers charge, so we can reach a wider market. For example, our home users could purchase a really cheap piano and record it or they could purchase one of our collections for less money and have access to four top-of-the-line pianos that cost half a million dollars and are already recorded.” In dealing with the competition, Phoenix remarks that EastWest doesn’t really focus on that at all. “We just focus on making good products that we think our customers need. That’s the best place to put your energy, we think. We’re aware of our competition, but they don’t decide what types of collections we’re going to develop. We don’t make products just because someone came out with a particular product. We make products because we think that either there’s a hole in the market that needs to be filled or that there is something out there that can be done better. That’s usually what guides our new product development.” Going forward, Phoenix believes that the company’s strengths are sound, vision and perseverance. “Overall, I believe we have the best-sounding products,” he says. “This will only improve as we are now based in the best recording studios I’ve ever worked in. All the Quantum Leap titles are unique and stand alone in the world of music software. Even the less popular titles all have their place. Quantum Leap has come out with quite a few massive titles over the years.” EastWest has spent the last two years creating a huge creative space that allows the company to expand. It purchased Cello Studios in Los Angeles, which was formerly United/Western, and recently completed a $5 million renovation by designer Philippe Starck to make the studio complex into the new company headquarters. Construction was completed at the end of October, and the team has just moved back in. Phoenix relates, “We still have another couple of months of work to do on the studios themselves, just cleaning them up, re-commissioning the equipment. We didn’t want to touch the studio acoustics because they have proven themselves over a 50-year period with more engineering awards than any other studios. It will be officially reopened to the public on January 17, the Saturday during NAMM.” He continues, “This new space will greatly benefit the soundware side of the business by having superior-sounding rooms and the best equipment in the entire world, but it will also be used as a creative recording environment for VIP artists.” Phoenix concludes, “We also spent the past two years developing our own software to run our virtual instruments, and that’s something we are very excited about. We won’t stop until we can ‘read their minds’ musically.” Company: vitalstats EastWest 6000 Sunset Boulevard Hollywood, CA 90028 Phone: 323-957-6969 Fax: 323-389-3456 Web: www.soundsonline.com 66 prosoundnews.com December 2008 http://www.soundsonline.com http://www.prosoundnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProSound News - December 2008

ProSound News - December 2008 Sound Business Contents Hank’s Best Yet Sound Recording Studio Showcase: Great City Productions Software Tech Tracks Sessions Anticipating Post’s Future Post Showcase: Eargasm HD Audio Post The Business of Being Creative Sound Innovations: VRsonics VibeStudio Spatial Design Suites Field Reports: Product Profiles Yes We Can Hear Obama Live Sound Showcase: Stone Temple Pilots Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View From the Top Product Spotlight Classifieds Advertiser Index Company Index Music, etc

ProSound News - December 2008

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