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WAVES CREATES A BUNDLE OF ACADEMIC JOY FOR STUDENTS AT THE BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Press Release
2004-05-06

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Specially assembled Berklee Bundle features five of Waves’ renowned plug-ins: Renaissance Reverb, EQ, and Compression, C1 comp/limiter, and S1 spatial enhancer. Waves assures affordability of the bundle for Berklee students, enabling them to begin their education with professional-level tools that will carry them beyond graduation and into their careers —

When students at the esteemed Berklee College of Music choose to enroll in one of the five “tech-heavy” majors in the college’s Professional Writing and Music Technology divisions, they will all share in the benefits of the specially assembled Waves Berklee Bundle matrix of digital plug-in processors. Ownership of this dedicated bundle of DSP plug-ins became mandatory with the start of the Fall 2003 semester for students pursuing the technical pathways of the school’s curricula. The Berklee Bundle is comprised of five of Waves’ acclaimed plug-in processors: the ever-popular Renaissance Reverb, EQ, and Compressor, along with the C1 Parametric Compander and S1 Stereo Imager. Owning this specially designed bundle will allow students at Berklee’s highly regarded music technology programs to work with professional-level toolsets right from the start and take those tools with them upon graduation.

The decision to choose Waves DSP plug-ins was made by Berklee as part of a comprehensive strategic plan to require all students to acquire certain critical technology platforms. For instance, all incoming students must now purchase Apple G4 laptop computers equipped with certain software packages. As part of this bold academic initiative, students are asked to add other specific platforms upon choosing certain majors. Those who choose one of five majors from the Professional Writing and Music Technology divisions — including the departments of Contemporary Writing & Production, Film Scoring, Songwriting, Music Synthesis, and Music Production & Engineering, which together count 241 entering students each semester — must own the Waves Berklee Bundle as part of their academic toolset.

“We had two main goals with this initiative,” explains Stephen Croes, Dean of the Music Technology Division at Berklee College of Music. “We wanted to implement the concept of students owning their own tools rather than only using ones provided by the College, and we wanted tools that would take them into the real environment of the professional world. The tools in the Waves Berklee Bundle do exactly that. The quality of the Waves processors confers professional-level capability right from the start of the educational experience. The performance of the Waves technology is perfectly compatible with all the other platforms we use here, and there is no distinction between their performance in class and the way they work in the world. We can show a student how a reverb should sound and how a compressor should work with the same tools that professionals are using to process audio today. Berklee students will take a lot with them upon graduation in terms of knowledge and experience. Now they’ll take the finest tools of their craft with them, as well.”

About Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and non-performance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing 70 plus countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

Technology plays an increasingly important role in the world around us, and has had a profound impact on the music profession. Technology has changed the way music is composed, performed, produced, recorded, and distributed. The changes have been significant, and we continue to live in a time of rapid change and advancement. It has become increasingly clear that Berklee students must be well versed in computer and music technology to succeed in their careers. Accordingly, beginning in Fall 2003, Berklee College of Music required all entering students to have an Apple Macintosh laptop computer outfitted with software designed to support their music education and coursework as students.