Podcasts about fender play

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we're revisiting our conversation with Michael Garski, the director of software engineering at famed electrical guitar manufacturer, Fender. Prior to this position, he worked as a principal software architect at Viant, a principal software architect at MySpace, a manager of internet development at Countrywide Financial, and a manager of system architecture at Fandango, among other positions. He also had a four-year stint in the US Navy, working as an engineering laboratory technician. Join Corey and Michael as they talk about how artists are angels and Fender's job is to give them wings, how Fender has diversified its offerings in recent years, how serverless is a mindset and how Fender approach serverless technology, how Fender's traffic surged during the pandemic and how everything mostly scaled up without a hitch, the challenges of teaching students to play instruments over the internet, the vendor lock-in boogeyman, and more.Show Highlights(0:00) Introduction(0:42) Dragonfly sponsor read(1:25) How does Michael describe Fender's work(2:08) Fender's work to go serverless(4:13) The impact of COVID on Fender(6:19) Explaining Fender Play and how it works on the backend(9:44) Working with MediaConvert(11:30) Experiences with scaling and hitting AWS service limits(12:52) Why Michael prefers working on the customer side(15:33) The Duckbill Group sponsor read(16:15) Frustrations with gateways and third-party apps(19:03) Managing a massive influx of users during COVID(21:13) The vendor lock-in boogeyman(23:19) Cloud costs vs. saving time(24:49) Walking the fine line of criticism as a director(28:09) Enforcing consistency across services(31:52) Where you can find more from MichaelAbout Michael GarskiMichael Garski has worked in the Los Angeles tech industry for over 20 years, across companies including Fandango, Countrywide Home Loans, MySpace, Viant, and is currently at Fender Musical Instruments as the Director of Platform engineering were he leads the devops, data, and api engineering teams. His focus currently is on building the platform to support the consumer facing digital products for Fender. The most prominent application he supports is Fender Play, a web and mobile application that provides video-based instruction for guitar, bass, and ukulele for more than a quarter-million subscribers.LinksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgarski/Original Episodehttps://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/keep-on-rockin-in-the-server-free-world/SponsorsDragonfly: dragonflydb.ioThe Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com 

Christina (Rood) Calio - Co-Founder Co-Founder Popins  Go to www.thejasoncavnessexperience.com for the full episode and other episodes of The Jason Cavness Experience on your favorite platforms.  Sponsor CavnessHR delivers HR companies with 49 or fewer people with our HR platform and by providing you access to your own HRBP.  www.CavnessHR.com Christina's Bio Christina lives in Seattle with her husband, artist Joie Calio (7Horse, dada). They have two daughters, living in Seattle and Los Angeles. A graduate of the University of Washington, Christina started her career in LA leading international marketing and sales at Geffen Records from 1986-2000, touring with bands from Guns N' Roses to Nirvana. In 2000 she took a position at Microsoft leading music business development first at Windows and then at MSN, Zune, and Xbox as the music industry transitioned from a physical music business (CDs) to digital (MP3s). In 2017-2018 she left Microsoft to found Calio Music, advising businesses and artists at the intersection of music and technology; and worked at Fender to launch Fender Play, a subscription for online guitar lessons. Today, she is the Co-Founder of AR/VR startup Popins www.popins.io and supports three non-profits in Seattle  We talked about the following and other items Popins The Music Industry Entrepreneurship Non Profits  Christina's Social Media Christina's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinacalio/ Christina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinamcalio/ Christina's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccalio  Christina's FB: https://www.facebook.com/christina.calio Christina's Email: Email: christina@popins.io Company Website: www.popins.io Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popinsdotio/ Company Twitter: https://twitter.com/popinsdotio/ Christina's Advice  I would say just keep going and keep a sense of humor. There are a lot of sticky situations that we all find each other in and someone told me once, I think it was wedding advice. Try to find something to laugh about. That and music, don't forget music if you're down.

Nous avons appris le décès du bassiste des Pogues : Darryl Hunt, il avait 72 ans. Les Pixies poursuivent la découverte de leur prochain album "Doggerel" avec "Vault Of Heaven" et une vidéo loufoque, à voir sur Classic21.be. Maneskin a annoncé une série YouTube qui s'intitulera ‘'On The Road'' sur les coulisses de la tournée de concerts et festivals du groupe. Le fabricant de guitares Fender a remarqué une considérable hausse dans l'apprentissage des titres d'Elvis Presley sur son application, Fender Play, depuis la sortie du biopic. Flea des Red Hot Chili Peppers n'aime pas être pris en photo avec les fans. Une Polémique est en train de naître sur le passé de Metallica depuis son pic de popularité auprès des fans de la série "Stranger Things". --- Classic 21 vous informe des dernières actualités du rock, en Belgique et partout ailleurs. Le Journal du Rock, chaque jour à 7h30 et 18h30.

What Cliff covers: Data as an indicator Don't put process above purpose Data-driven culture Using analytics to frame the story Storytelling in analytics Time for the data plumbing Meet: Cliff Kim brings more than 10 years of experience to his role as Director of Insights and Analytics for Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC), one of the world's leading musical instrument manufacturers, marketers, and distributors. A digital storyteller, Cliff is dedicated to growing Fender's physical and digital business through data-driven insights, conversion rate optimization, marketing, and product analytics, and continuous consumer research. During his tenure at Fender, Cliff helped build PlayThrough, an initiative where Fender offered a free three-month subscription of Fender Play®, the complete online learning app for guitar, bass, and ukulele, to support the community during social distancing. This initiative brought nearly one million new players to the app. He also led a study that brought insights into how the guitar business has changed because of these new players. Learnings from the data gathered helped the team launch Beginners Hub, a network of online resources that includes every tool a new player needs to start, stick with and eventually master their guitar, bass, or ukulele. Prior to joining Fender, Cliff held leadership roles at Live Nation Entertainment, ESPN, Yahoo!, among others. He is a UC Riverside alumni and currently resides in Los Angeles California. If you have any questions for Cliff, please feel free to reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliffkim/ I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

Hope you're in for some chip talk, and we don't mean Cool Ranch.This week our main topic concerns silicon chips - semiconductors, microprocessors, and integrated circuits, their unprecedented shortage in almost every device we use, and (perhaps) the forthcoming analog revolution.Also discussed: a super neat pair of shows with Bethany Thomas, Tawny Newsome, and Ted Leo, positive gear deals, Trent Reznor blasting through Les Pauls, new Focusrite interfaces, the Moog Model 15 app, an updated Klon KTR, Joy Division, Fender Play partnering with Barbie, and Johnny Marr's wild 9-pickup Strat.No chunky flops.

About MichaelMichael Garski is the Director of Platform Engineering at Fender Musical Instruments, where he leads the teams responsible for service development & testing, devops, and data. He's been with Fender for over 5 years and prior to that  worked as a software engineer & architect on back-end systems at Viant, MySpace, Countrywide Home Loans & Fandango. He is passionate about application reliability and observability and their impact on customer satisfaction.Links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgarski/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Your company might be stuck in the middle of a DevOps revolution without even realizing it. Lucky you! Does your company culture discourage risk? Are you willing to admit it? Does your team have clear responsibilities? Depends on who you ask. Are you struggling to get buy in on DevOps practices? Well, download the 2021 State of DevOps report brought to you annually by Puppet since 2011 to explore the trends and blockers keeping evolution firms stuck in the middle of their DevOps evolution. Because they fail to evolve or die like dinosaurs. The significance of organizational buy in, and oh it is significant indeed, and why team identities and interaction models matter. Not to mention weither the use of automation and the cloud translate to DevOps success. All that and more awaits you. Visit: www.puppet.com to download your copy of the report now!Corey: If your familiar with Cloud Custodian, you'll love Stacklet. Which is made by the same people who made Cloud Custodian, but put something useful on top of it so you don't have to be a need to be a YAML expert to work with it. They're hosting a webinar called “Governance as Code: The Guardrails for Cloud at Scale” because its a new paradigm that enables organizations to use code to manage and automate various aspects of governance. If you're interested in exploring this you should absolutely make it a point to sign up, because they're going to have people who know what they're talking about—just kidding they're going to have me talking about this. Its doing to be on Thursday, July 22nd at 1pm Eastern. To sign up visit snark.cloud/stackletwebinar and I'll talk to you on Thursday, July 22nd.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. We talk to a lot of people here on this show who are deep in the weeds of SaaS companies, or cloud vendors, or cloud vendors cosplaying as SaaS companies. Today, we're taking a bit of a different direction. My guest is Michael Garski, Director of Platform Engineering at Fender Musical Instruments. They make guitars among many other things. Michael, thank you for joining me.Michael: Oh, thanks for having me on, Corey.Corey: So, one of the things that I really appreciate about what you do as a company is I can, at least presumably, explain it to someone who is not super deep in technical weeds without 45 minutes of explainer first. The easy answer is, “Oh, Fender. You folks make guitars.” These days, no one just does one thing, I have to imagine. How do you describe what the company does?Michael: Oh, well, to quote Leo Fender, his view was that artists are angels and it's our job to give them wings. So, in addition to actually making and developing guitars and amplifiers, we've branched off into consumer-facing products to actually teach people how to play those instruments.Corey: You folks have been relatively outspoken about the various things you're doing at different AWS events. I mean, my approach to that tends to be that if AWS is great at making bricks that you can use to build amazing things with, “Well, great, can you draw a picture of the house that you can build with this?” “No, we're going to have a customer come out and talk about that stuff instead.” You folks have been focusing on a lot of serverless work, and you've been very public about the fact that you are almost entirely serverless-driven in terms of architecture if I'm not mistaken.Michael: That is true.Corey: Tell me about that. How did you get there and what brought it about?Michael: So, I work in the digital division in Fender. We started, let's see, we're coming up on five years I've been there. So, what we did was, initially, we started building services that could run within a container, or on an EC2 instance, but we started looking at Lambda functions. We had need to ingest a product catalog, so the IT team was able to drop us off a product catalog into an S3 bucket, and the easiest thing to do then was just trigger a Lambda function to then process that file. And it just kind of snowballed in from there.Corey: I think the common problem when people hear ‘serverless' is they think, “Oh, great. More discussions about Lambda functions.” And Lambda is almost getting something of a tarred reputation in some circles because when we can build amazing things with it ourselves, we love it, but when we ask AWS how to wind up integrating two services, or about a feature gap, their response is, “Oh, use a Lambda function for it,” It starts to feel like they're using it as spackle and the spackle has become load-bearing. Do you view serverless as being purely function-driven or is it broader than that?Michael: It's much broader than that. Serverless is a mindset where you're looking beyond just Lambda functions to using a lot of third-party services so that you can actually focus on your core business. Like, we use Zuora as a subscription provider for web-based subscriptions; we use Algolia for full-text search; we use a variety of other services so that we can just focus on the core business.Corey: One thing that's been on everyone's mind, somewhat recently, has been the idea of dramatic changes as far as user behavior goes. And in the more traditional environments where you see things like EC2 instances or on-premises data centers, back when the pandemic first hit and companies that were very focused on a model of business that aligned directly with people behaving in certain ways that they suddenly didn't, would the 80% drop-offs or more in their user traffic, but their infrastructure spend just kept hanging out exactly where it was, in a straight line. So, at some level, it feels like yes, the whole point of cloud is that it can be elastic, except no one builds it that way for a variety of reasons. When COVID hit, what changed for your business?Michael: Change for our business is we launched a program called Playthrough, okay we did this about a year ago; we started it, we gave away three months of Fender Play for free. It was a single-use code that a user would redeem and no credit card required, and over a period of five days, we saw our traffic increase by more than ten times. And we had very little changes we needed to make. Everything scaled up, we had no issue with—we used a lot of Lambda functions, DynamoDB, everything just scaled up fine. The only point that became a bottleneck was our Elasticsearch cluster. However, beefing up the nodes and adding a few more nodes that resolved that issue immediately.Corey: So, I'm going to go out on a limb and postulate that you folks increased pickup when the lockdowns hit, if for no other reason then, “Well, I'm trapped at home and I'm tired of staring at the guitar on the wall. I may as well learn to play it.” I would guess. I could be way off base on that.Michael: No, no, that's very true. Even since then, even after that program has expired—of course, not everyone then converts and sticks around—but many, many did, many more than we thought would did stick around, and our usage and our goals were exceeded for this last year, and we're in a healthy place, and looking at continuing to grow and expand in the future.Corey: So, one of the applications that I think gets a fair bit of attention—rightfully so—lately, is something called Fender Play, and as best I can tell, that is a app that works in web, it works on mobile, and it's a video-based instruction tool for guitar at least, but some other instruments as well. How did that come to be? Did that exist before COVID hit? Has that been something that's been in the works for a while? Or was it, “Well, we're going to do a two-week sprint and build this thing from scratch?”Michael: No, we launched that—this June we're coming up on the fourth anniversary since it's been launched, so we launched this in summer of 2017.Corey: One of the problems I've always found is that it's challenging to learn to do something that is as, I guess, physical and intricate, et cetera, as playing an instrument without having someone in the room looking at you and smacking you with a stick whenever you do things that are wrong. “Nope, that's a bad habit. If you keep doing that it's going to hurt you.” How do you approach that as a company from a non-interactive perspective of someone who's going to watch a video and do things and maybe it'll work, maybe it won't? Particularly in light of things like, well, the competition is YouTube, which, you know, I'm going to roll the dice and sometimes I'll see a great tutorial, sometimes I'll see one that I don't realize teaching me terrible things, and then it's going to recommend some baseless conspiracy theory because YouTube. How do you differentiate that? What makes Fender Play different?Michael: So currently, you're right; it's just a video-based instruction app. There's not any way to, like, provide direct feedback to students within the web and mobile applications. However, we do have an online community, and our Fender Play instructors do an office hours feature, is where they'll actually answer questions live and talk to students. We are investigating and doing some earlier research in some, possibly, being able to provide that type of feedback to users, but it's very challenging problem, just due to the nature of you're playing an instrument that has multiple strings, so you're trying to pick out the chord that they're playing in, and the timing. But it's something we definitely need to add.Corey: There's something to be said as well for the kind of care and attention that you folks wind up putting into your media where, “This is how you finger a chord,” and someone on the YouTube video will do it for two-tenths of a second, and they're filming it with a potato that isn't focused properly and pointing at the wrong part of the guitar. You folks have a high bar for quality on this. Is that done in-house? Do you wind up just going through a bunch of random folks that you just wind up offering a bunch of gift cards to, or free guitars to do this? How does the program work on the back end?Michael: So, we have an in-house curriculum team that puts together the lesson plans to really help people learn in small bite-sized lessons so that it's not too overwhelming at once. And that curriculum then is shot and filmed by an in-house video team that put that together; they upload the data into S3 for the final cut, then that gets transcoded via MediaConvert, and we serve it up via CloudFront.Corey: It's rare to wind up talking to a company that is something of a household name about something that they're doing, and hear the AWS services that they're using not trend toward a baseline mean if I can be so bold. Normally, you'll see some of the case studies, like, “Oh, this is an online bank. What services are they using?” “Oh, they're using EC2, and S3, and load balancing because did you miss the part where it's a bank?” They're not going to use these far-future services due to regulatory risk, among other things, in many cases.You're using Elemental MediaConvert, which is one of those relatively high-up-the-stack offerings that isn't broadly known. It's one of those services that is focused on specific use cases and specific industry verticals in a way that a baseline primitive service isn't. What does MediaConvert do?Michael: What it does is it takes the final edit of the video, and we have several different presets so that it will put it into an HLS format with different bitrates so that the user is getting the best quality video depending on their bandwidth.Corey: When I looked into it in the early days when it was first launching, I found that it looked an awful lot like Elastic Transcoder, which is a service that they've had for a while, only they changed up some of the capabilities. It's obviously far more capable as a service, but they also added something that felt like 15 different billing dimensions to it, “So, what is this going to cost me?” “Well, we're going to run it for a month and find out if we're still in business.” And it seemed like it was one of those very difficult to get started with and run experiments with service. Now, obviously, services evolve over time. When you started looking into it was that experience roughly akin to what you felt, or am I completely and unfairly slandering in the product?Michael: We actually started out using Elastic Transcoder and then moved over to MediaConvert, I believe it was last year. We found it to be a little bit easier to use, and the pricing overall in transcoding the videos for us is really a drop in the bucket as compared to actually hosting them and serving them up via CloudFront. And when we switched over to MediaConvert, we adjusted our settings to lower the maximum bitrate for a given video, we found that after a certain point, the quality to the user just doesn't really improve, and yet we're paying to serve the larger video.Corey: One statistic that I found was that in March of 2020—you know which I believe we're still in at this point; just, it's the Endless September model, applied to March—you wound up seeing over an order of magnitude in traffic increase within five days, and looking at that through a lens of traditional architecture, that means that nobody sleeps a whole heck of a lot. Given that you're in on the serverless story, and you have been since before that hit, what was that scaling experience like for you?Michael: Scaling experience was completely seamless. We use a lot of Lambda, DynamoDB, Kinesis, SNS, to glue things together, and no problems whatsoever. Just had to bump up our Elasticsearch cluster a bit, that was really the only thing because we saw some latency starting to rise on some of our APIs.Corey: Let me ask the uncomfortable question then because whenever I tried to scale things up quickly in a cloud environment, what was your experience with smacking into various AWS service limits as the traffic grew?Michael: Initially, we actually requested some service limits increase to make sure we weren't hitting the concurrent Lambda invocation limit, and same thing with Cognito, making sure that we weren't going to hit any limits as far as sign-ins and things like that. So, we were able to just put in requests, and they served us around pretty quick turnaround time on that, as well.Corey: It really does seem like there's a strong benefit on the serverless space, but I had to double-check before we started recording that you do, in fact, work at Fender because you are a staunch advocate for observability. And usually, when someone is that passionate about observability, you can guess that they work at an observability-slash-monitoring company. It's akin to the idea of someone selling mattresses telling you that mattresses are great and you should have four of them. You're on the customer side of that and still very passionate about it. Where'd that come from?Michael: Came from my time years ago, when I worked at MySpace—if anyone can still remember that—working on the search systems there. And as the company started winding down, to laying people off, and being one of the only people left working on those systems, being able to know and understand them, you just have to, so you have to continue to monitor and find ways to monitor, and that really ingrained how important instrumentation is and being able to really understand the health of your application as it's running so that you can see, yes, everything is good, and then when something doesn't look right so that you can know where to start looking, and you can be alerted of a problem.Corey: So, I tend to view the world in olden terms where monitoring was what we did, and we use something like Nagios, which was the second-worst option out there because everything else felt like it was tied for first. I also take a somewhat regressive view that observability is to monitoring as DevOps is to being a systems administrator. It's the same thing, but by using the more modern terminology, you can charge more for it. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you take a somewhat contrarian [laugh] view to that.Michael: Yes, yes, I do. It's about really understanding how your applications is running. It's not just looking at, oh, how many HTTP 500s am I serving up per hour, if I hit a threshold for the last hour? It's a lot more than that. It's really being able to really dig in and see what the issue is or what's working really well.And to that end, we rely on two services for this. We use Honeycomb and Epsagon. Honeycomb, kind of, acts as our top layer because it gives us the really good high-cardinality metrics where I can punch in a user ID and I can see all the API traffic that this user has performed. As well as, even just like when we launched the Playthrough when our traffic rose, that the reason we discovered that our latency was dropping was due to a service-level objective being triggered in Honeycomb on latency. And we were able to respond to that using that before customers really noticed anything at all.Corey: As an Epsagon customer myself, I'm always conflicted when I find myself going into their service and using it to figure out what the heck's going on with my giant pile of Lambda functions, and API gateways, and whatnot, wired together because the experience is uniformly excellent, but I'm also frustrated in that it needs a third-party to even begin to allude to what's going on. It feels, on some level, like the vendor that is providing this service to me should be reasonably effective at telling me what it's doing, and when it's breaking. I understand that how I wish the world is and how it actually is are two radically different things but does that ever strike you as well?Michael: Whether or not AWS should be providing that type of level, that seems… that seems like more of a service that you can have competition and other vendors that really specialize and get in the weeds on it. I don't think AWS needs to provide every service you could possibly use for your application. That's not something I'm too concerned about. I don't really even think it's their place, frankly.Corey: No, no, I understand. The problem I keep running into, on some level, whenever I try and diagnose it natively is, I look at CloudWatch and it's difficult to understand that is this—in my case because again, I'm still early days with a lot of these things—is it the API gateway that's having the problem? Is it the CloudFront distribution that is tied to that? Is it the Lambda function? Where's the handoff?Trying to understand where in a complicated application the failure is occurring is a challenge. And let's be clear, most of that is a problem of my own making because I didn't have the good sense to instrument this thing in a reliable repeatable way when I built it. It feels like everything is tied together with duct tape, and baling wire, and spit, and a bit of luck. As a counterpoint, the more companies I talk to, the more I realize that no, no, this is actually how most people feel [laugh] when they look at things that are working. It's, yeah, it's terrible. It's a trash fire, but it makes money so we're going to roll with it.And there's always, on some level, a sense of what we've built is very far from the platonic ideal of what we should have built. Does that resonate with you, or do you take a step back and look at what you've achieved with a perspective of, “This is awesome. More people should do it exactly like this.” And honestly, if it's that one, I'd love to take a look at what you've built.Michael: I think there's always room for us to improve on what we're doing because we're constantly learning and evolving to improve both, even at such a low level of like, “Okay, how do we lay out the files in our service repository to make the best organization to make sense?” All the way up to, “Okay, how are we going to do tracing? And what kind of information do we need to get from that so that we can find problems when they occur?” We're always looking to learn what others are doing, and talking to others in this space. No one will ever be a hundred percent right. There's always room for improvement everywhere.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by LaunchDarkly. Take a look at what it takes to get your code into production. I'm going to just guess that it's awful because it's always awful. No one loves their deployment process. What if launching new features didn't require you to do a full-on code and possibly infrastructure deploy? What if you could test on a small subset of users and then roll it back immediately if results aren't what you expect? LaunchDarkly does exactly this. To learn more, visit launchdarkly.com and tell them Corey sent you, and watch for the wince.Corey: One thing that you folks have done that I think was really interesting and didn't get as much play as I think it really deserved, was that, especially in the early days of the pandemic, you wound up seeing that massive increase due to giving out almost a million free three-month subscriptions to Playthrough. Additionally, you also worked closely with LAUSD, the Los Angeles Unified School District, to add Fender Play to their middle school music program's curriculum to help supplement their remote learning programs. First, was that all in the same timeframe? Or—and, two, what has it been like, I guess, working with a organization that is, I guess, on some level, not particularly cloud-first. I would imagine. When I lived in Los Angeles, I never got the sense that LAUSD was full-on serverless, full on-board with cloud, full on-board with remote learning. And then the pandemic of course exacerbates all of that.Michael: Yeah, so those were really two different projects. So, that the Playthrough project that started in March, and we started working with Los Angeles Unified School District last year during their summer school program; started out with 1500 students and we put it together very quickly. Essentially, we use the same three-month codes that we used for that Playthrough promotion so that we could set things up very quickly for students and gave out, through our nonprofit arm of Fender, the Fender Play Foundation, gave out 1500 instruments to these students to use during the summer school program. And that program became so successful, we continued on with them in the fall, and now in the current semester, and we will be again this summer. I believe there's 7000 students in the program now.And working with their IT team has actually been quite nice. And in dealing with partners, you wouldn't think much of, “Oh, it's a school district, what do they have?” But as far as just ease of working with them, we actually hooked into their SAML provider in Cognito so that LAUSD students could authenticate when they come in through the remote learning systems. And they were great to work with and very helpful and cooperative.Corey: One of the arguments that you'll see that comes up against serverless, from time to time, is that you are now indelibly linked to your provider, but you can't take what you've built with all of these services and just move it over to Azure or GCP on a moment's whim. Now, in practice, people who tend to build for that, just build everything on top of EC2 and very little else, and then run it entirely in AWS and never move it to any of those other places. But was there friction with making that, I guess, architectural commitment to a single vendor?Michael: Oh, you're bringing up the vendor lock-in Boogeyman.Corey: Oh, I absolutely am. Most people who bring that—when I bring it up as a straw man so you can attack it, most people who bring up the vendor lock-in Boogeyman, “Oh, you have to go multi-cloud,” are either trying to sell you something that is required if you want to go multi-cloud, or they're a cloud provider themselves who know that if you go all-in on one provider, it will certainly not be theirs.Michael: I think if you properly architect your applications with separations of concerns that you could move to, say—okay, say Lambda wasn't working out for us anymore, and we needed to take our applications and, where, we're going to put them into a container, but we're going to stay in AWS. Our applications are set up in such a way that Lambda is basically a deployment pattern. We could easily convert those individual function handlers into route handlers with a minimal effort because the business logic and then the underlying data storage are separated. So, it would be feasible for us if we wanted to, say, move to Azure and use Azure Functions and whatever comparable service they have to DynamoDB. I'm not too familiar with a lot of their offerings.But that would certainly be possible to do it with, obviously, some effort and really, at the end of the day, the resources you have working on the applications are end up going to costing you much more than any, sort of like, software licensing or specific savings you're going to get from a cloud vendor, so might as well go ahead and just use those service that they're providing. So that you can just focus on the business.Corey: My approach has almost universally been that looking at an awful lot of companies and their AWS bills, it is a challenge to find an environment where the resources in the environment cost more than the people who are operating them. In the context of business, AWS bills seemed giant and enormous, right up until you look at payroll and then it's, “Oh, okay.” That's counterintuitive for folks who are learning this, and I fall prey to it myself is, when I'm playing around as a hobbyist trying to build something I value, my time is free because I'm learning as this goes, and then in that context, especially when I was starting out as a student, it was, “Oh, great. So, this winds up costing me $7 a month. Oh, that's a lot of money. That's my ramen budget, so I'm instead going to wind up spending eight hours avoiding it charging me anything.” It's the exact opposite from the direction you want staff that you're paying to work on these things to go in. How do you approach the idea of increasing the cloud cost if it will save time for your team?Michael: It's a balance between, where do we need to build this ourselves? And then not only build it, you have to operate it and maintain it? Or what is the cost of getting this third-party service? And that's really what it comes down to in all of them. And do we actually want to spend time working on this piece of infrastructure that these other people are specializing in and do so well? I've got better things I can have people doing than that.Corey: Speaking of people, one thing that you talk about, as you self-describe, is that you wind up not writing a whole lot of code anymore, but you're something of a stickler for observability and enforcing consistency between services, so you'll periodically do things like submit a PR to tweak a log message to put your mind at ease, was one example that you gave. Given that you're a director, which is generally manager of managers style approaches, how do you avoid having those PRs come across to your team as either micromanagement or a condemnation of what they've built? Because I get it; when I see something that's easy and small to tweak, I want to go ahead and get it fixed immediately. I don't want to go back and forth and play those games; I just want it done. But I'm also always weighing that against, I don't want to have people think that I'm judging them somehow for something I'm very much not.Michael: That's a very good point. The larger technical decisions on how things are laid out, I generally just try to—I don't insert myself into. I let the team go ahead, and make those decisions, and leave that direction, and let them take the charge on that, and I take the approach of looking at it as more of a guiding, and mentoring and teaching to really hone and instill that discipline in really being able to understand what the applications are doing. And as our team is growing, I have less and less time to even do those things, but I can go through the systems and go, “Hey, how come we're not tracing this call to the reCAPTCHA servers? Let's add that in there.” And I'll just at this point now, I mainly just write Jira tickets to have someone else actually do the work.Corey: The more I do this, the more I realize that as complicated as the technology is, the people are in many ways, far more complicated. And let's be fair here, non-deterministic things that work super well on one person one month could work entirely differently a following month, or even with the same person, or between teams. It's a constant balancing act, on some level. And giving people a sense of psychological safety has always been the biggest challenge. The thing that surprised me about management, back when I was running ops teams was the more, I guess, responsibility you accrue as you rise from individual contributor into the management—or ‘rise' is sort of a wrong term; it's an orthogonal transition—is that you spend a lot more time on the people problems, and your ability to directly control or affect change diminishes because you have to do everything via influence. You get a lot more responsibility with a lot less direct power [laugh] over the outcome in some ways. Does that align with how you see it, or am I just—do I have very strange approaches on management? Which may be true, and why I got out of it as fast as I could.Michael: No, that is a good point because you are having to [unintelligible 00:27:05], like, influence, and guide, and more take a higher-level view, as opposed to really getting into the weeds of like, “Okay, what methods are we going to put on this interface? How are we going to, say, architect the internals of an application?” Those are details I just really don't have time for anymore. But larger things as to making sure that we're okay, it's like, “What's the performance of this?” And, “Overall, is something that can be adapted as the business needs change, and as we change? And as we learn, what can we do to modify it?” And more just things like guiding, and mentoring, and really taking a higher-level view of that.Corey: I'm going to selfishly ask about something that I struggle with myself. That goes a bit more into the technical area, but you talk about enforcing consistency across all of your different services. What does that mean? Similar coding style? Similar instrumentation?Because I look at the things I built and microservices that power my internal nonsense, and each one of those is very different than all the rest. So, whatever your version of consistency is, I know I'm not doing it. But how do you view it?Michael: So, there's really two types of consistency. The one I really refer to the most is in observability. So that, if you've got a thousand Lambda functions out there, and each one is logging things slightly differently, that's just a pain to deal with, and realistically, dealing with a thousand unicorns is a real pain. So, through that observability, at least in Lambda, we use an internally developed middleware to make sure that the logging is consistent, and it's easy enough to use. And then other consistency, like, just within projects of how we lay things out.That's something that's been consistently evolving. What's the folder structure in how we organize the code? And we've kind of been evolving that over the last three years. And within about the last six months, we've come up with a really good pattern and a template for the future. And it's not much different from what we started out with, but it's a little bit easier, really, to comprehend as a new engineer coming in. It makes more sense.Corey: I have to ask—and I understand if you don't want to give a particular endorsement in any direction—but do you go through Serverless Framework, SAM CLI, the CDK, using the console and then lying about it? What is the template that you wind up using for that uniformity? Because even internally, I use three or four of those different things and professional advice: don't do that.Michael: Let's see. So, in our development, QA, production environments, infrastructure is all managed with Terraform. Each engineer has their own personal AWS account so that they can work on things there—Corey: Oh, that makes billing granularity super easy.Michael: Oh, yes. You can tell who's got EC2 instances running up for too long. But for the most part, we'll use Serverless Framework in that regard to say—for the engineer can just deploy into your local environment. Although we are working on ways to reuse the Terraform infrastructure and deploy that. But we have our own build and deployment pipeline that we built using CircleCI, and all of our Lambda functions are in Go.And so having to compile, say, 20 binaries in a service, that gets kind of slow, one of our DevOps engineers actually came up with a way to use Lambda to build the Lambdas, so that we can build them all in a distributed parallel fashion during the build process.Corey: One thing that I do love about the whole serverless approach—and it is a neat part about Lambda—is no two people ever seem to do it quite the same way. You can tie things together in so many different and exciting ways, and it's fun. It's almost like a modern version of playing with Lego. And I know that if Jeff Barr is listening, he just perked up at that. But I love the concept that you can take so many different ways to achieve similar outcomes. And it almost gives a bigger sense of creativity in how you approach problems. Has that been your experience?Michael: Oh, definitely. It's not only the creativity; it's also the flexibility in how you solve it, and the ability to adapt and evolve as services evolve, or change, or there's new ones are added. And to the point of using AWS, kind of, saying, “Oh, using a Lambda function to do this.” Like, using Lambda functions for customizing behavior of Cognito with the Cognito triggers, is to me, I think, a perfect way to customize the service to do exactly what you need to do.Corey: I want to thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. It's always appreciated. If people want to hear more about what you have to say and how you view these things or even, possibly, decide to work with you, okay can they find you?Michael: I'm somewhat active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the best place to find me. Please go ahead and connect to me; tell me you heard me on the podcast here.And yes, we are hiring. We have, all within our technical organization, from client, to web, and mobile engineers, data engineers, DevOps, API, we're always hiring and if we don't have something right now that fits your experience, let me know that you're interested and I'll put you on the list so that when we do have an opening, we'll reach out right away.Corey: And we will, of course, include links to that in the [show notes 00:32:20]. Thank you so much for being so generous with your time. I appreciate it.Michael: Thanks for having me on, Corey. It was nice talking to you.Corey: Michael Garski, Director of Platform Engineering at Fender Musical Instruments. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with a comment telling me that I'm almost certainly doing that chord incorrectly.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Iz Avila explains how the Fender Play Foundation is helping LAUSD students.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What a great conversation with Tom Allen, the founder of AI Journal. We cover a lot of ground. Tom discusses artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality and the metaverse, blockchain, and so much more. We spend a lot of time on the mindset that helps people find opportunities *now* for success in the future by being able to capitalize on all of these new innovations. Connect with Tom Allen and the AI Journal: Email: tom.allen@aijourn.com Instagram: thallen LinkedIn: Tom Allen Twitter - TheAIJournal1 Apps for learning to play music: Fender Play: https://www.fender.com/play Yousician: https://yousician.com/ AlphaGo - The Movie: https://youtu.be/WXuK6gekU1Y Links to Free (and inexpensive) online courses so you can take part in the future: EdX: https://www.edx.org/ Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/ Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/ Udacity: https://www.udacity.com/ Skillshare: https://www.skillshare.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/digital-skills-programs Google: https://grow.google/certificates Unity: https://learn.unity.com/courses Pluralsight: https://www.pluralsight.com/ Unreal Engine: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/onlinelearning-courses Book: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson: https://amzn.to/3wHneP9 Book: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil: https://amzn.to/2R4UYab

People typically think of social as a sound-off world, but when you’re a beloved brand like Fender, audio is king. Today, we speak with Social Media Specialist Maddie Spivek about producing content for a community of creatives, what Fender Play did last year when EVERYONE was looking for a new hobby, and (bonus!) she tells us the first show she wants to see post-pandemic.

This topic was inspired by Fender, founded in 1946: It discovered that 90% of new guitar players quit within 3-6 months, many within 30 days. Those who stick with it for one year become a customer for life. So it created the Fender Play app, a digital library of over 3,000 online video lessons on how to play the guitar. It attracted around 130,000 subscribers within 3 years, with a 95% retention rate. Subscribers spent 40% more on Fender products. During COVID Fender offered a free trial to Fender Play, and attracted 1 million subscribers within several months. We can learn three lessons, according to Tien Tzuo’s newsletter: Practicing experimentation makes perfect—It’s OK to admit you don’t know what you don’t know. “You find holes by falling into them. Then you fill them and you never do that again.” Constantly tinker with pricing and packaging. Stay in tune with the customer: understanding the qualitative human elements of the customer experience Listen to the analytics: retention is important, but so are harder-to-quantify metrics like engagement. People are messy and complicated

In Episode 91, Greg and Pam discuss fish knitting, dead microwaves, and virtual knitting opportunities. They also cover part of chapter 4 in Knitting Rules! Special thanks to Clay Groves from the Fish Nerds Podcast for this episode's intro! SPONSORS We are Knitcrate Ambassadors! Are you the kind of knitter who would enjoy receiving a surprise package of yarn in the mail every month? Then you need to sign up for a Knitcrate subscription. Every month, you will receive a selection of curated yarn, a pattern specifically paired to use with the yarn, and a treat. Use code KD20 at checkout for 20% off your first package when you sign up for a subscription. 6 Shades of Stitches is a handy reference guide that invites knitters to experiment with a variety of new stitch combinations. Step-by-step instructions and a full-color photo of a hand-knitted swatch are included for each stitch. With Marina Molo's knitting expertise at your fingertips, you have all the tools you need to create patterns that finally make your dream designs a reality. This timeless and influential book is poised to inspire a whole new generation of knitters who have yet to discover the joys and comforts of knitting. Download your free copy! NOTES Dear Listeners We would love to have YOU record and introduction to the show! You can find details in the Ravelry Group Pages. Note on Ravelry Links Note that many of the links in our show notes refer to pages on Ravelry.com. If visiting Ravelry causes you harm, please be cautious clicking links. If you are interested in a link that is inaccessible to you, you can email info at unravelingpodcast dot com and Greg and/or Pam will happily send you the information. Greg's Projects Greg finished the Romi's Mystery Shawl 2020. He's using Meadowcroft Dyeworks Cross Creek Sock in the Pisgah National Forrest and Harold's Crayon color ways. He's also adding beads! Check out his project page. Greg started and finished a Sweet-ish Fish ornament/toy. He gave it away. Greg is working on a pair of socks. He is using 2 Guys Yarn Company Tweedy Toes yarn in the “No Pants!” colorway. Pam's Projects Pam finished the Super Soft Merino Snowflake Scarf by Purl Soho. It is for the Foster Care to Success Red Scarf Project. She is used Allegria Grande by Manos del Uruguay. Pam finished finished her sock spin! The cheviot fiber is lovely from Sadie Spins Yarn! Pam worked on Scott's Socks – toe-up, stockinette, FLKHusing Patons Kroy Sock Fx. Pam worked on the Flohmarkt Shawl by Mary-Ann Lammers. She is using Passion Knits Yarn in a BFL nylon base. Pam cast on the Dumpster Fire ornament by KinoKnits. She is using KnitPicks Palette. Pam started another spinning project with 2 ounces of merino. Knitting Rules We picked up in Chapter 4 of Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter and covered pages 86-92. Next time we will finish chapter 4, pages 92-101. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has a Patreon account for $6 a month and it looks like she is offering great content. Current/Upcoming Unraveling Events The #KnittingMagicKAL is in full swing. Knit anything from the Knitting Magic book and join the fun! We will be giving away more chatter prizes next month, so be sure to go make some comments in the Ravelry thread in order to have a chance. The Carolina FiberFest Virtual Pop-Up Market is scheduled for Saturday October 31 and Sunday November 1. You can find out more and play along in our Facebook Group. Miscellaneous Greg co-hosted an episode of the Fish Nerds Podcast and had a lot of fun. Greg is taking ukulele lessons through Fender Play. Pam mentioned that she tried the Long Tail Bind Off on her scarf. Pam is reading the book Murder, She Knit. Greg mentioned the Operation Sock Drawer book. Affiliate Link Disclosures This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link to Cooperative Press, Amazon, or Knitcrate and subsequently make a purchase, we'll receive a small commission from the sale. You pay the same, and the commissions will help cover our podcasting expenses. Our opinions are always our own, and we're never compensated to endorse any particular product or service. Find us all over the Internet Subscribe in iTunes: The Unraveling Podcast Podcast RSS Feed: Unraveling Podcast Twitter: @UnravelingPod Facebook: Unraveling Podcast Instagram: @UnravelingPodcast Ravelry Group: Unraveling Podcast Greg is KnittingDaddy on Ravelry, @KnittingDaddy on Instagram, and also writes the KnittingDaddy blog. Pam is pammaher on Ravelry  and @pammaher on Instagram

https://youtu.be/FFag2a148Qc In this episode of the PodStorm, let's talk about some little marketing ideas that can produce legendary results. Christopher shares two stories to depict this: the first, about how legendary guitar brand Fender got 500,000 emails almost overnight during the pandemic, and how Colgate got kids to brush their teeth with ice cream. Fender Got 500,000 Emails During C19 Christopher narrates stories from his friend and copywriter Cole Shaefer of Honeycopy.com about Fender, a legendary guitar company that makes guitars and amps and other various musical equipment.  Recently, they proved that radical generosity and thoughtfully aggressive can produce legendary results. “You need to manufacture guitar players because there ain't no guitar-buying if there ain't no guitar players. So what Fender has done over time is they transform themselves from a hardware company into a software company. In doing so, they built their own data flywheel.” - Christopher Lochhead The hardware company set up a software platform called Fender Play, designed to teach people to play guitar. Listen to the episode to find out what else happened when Fender decided to give access to its software, for free. Don’t Forget About Colgate Another story Cole Schaffer told Christopher happened way back in 2009. Colgate was devising of marketing efforts to get kinds onboard with the whole “brush your teeth twice a day” movement.  “Imagine you're the CEO or the CMO of Colgate, and you're trying to get kids to brush their teeth. What's the opposite of what most people would do? Well, give them ice cream, but that's exactly what Colgate did. So imagine instead of a generic stick inside, it's a stick that looks a lot like a toothbrush. It's in the shape of a toothbrush. It's a wooden Ice cream stick in the shape of a toothbrush with a copy on it that says, ‘Don't forget’, and Colgate started handing out Ice cream, ice cream bars to kids.” - Christopher Lochhead Key Takeaway These are both legendary examples of simple ideas that are very thoughtfully aggressive and radically generous at the same time. So how might that apply to your business? “Think small, think simple, think cheap, sometimes not having much of a budget drives creativity. And ask yourself what is an insanely simple, cheap, thoughtfully aggressive, radically generous idea that we could pull off fast and then go do that?” - Christopher Lochhead To hear more about how to devise little marketing ideas with legendary results, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger. He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur. Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist. In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion. He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive. Links: Cole Shaefer Honeycopy Fender wants to teach you guitar (for free) during quarantine How Colgate reminded kids to brush their teeth by feeding them ice cream 024 The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator w/ Eddie Yoon We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

Fender Play is rockin’ right now. Beginning and intermediate guitar players are flocking to Fender Play to learn, develop and […]

We talk Bluetooth oddities in macOS, the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, and Rob's new iPad Air.LinksAirPods: Automatically and instantly switch between iPhone, Mac & iPadThe Magic Keyboard Turns the iPad into a New Computing DeviceMagic Keyboard: Turning the iPad Into Something NewAn unfair fight? New iPad Air versus 2016 iPad ProPicks of the WeekRob: GuitarTuna (related: Three months' free Fender Play lessons)Kirk: CiderologyIan: Right Angle USB-C Cable

At my late and tender age, I'm *finally* learning how to play the guitar. To explain the benefits of learning an instrument, I went right to someone who knows the topic inside and out: Fender's Director of Product for Digital Learning, Mary Keenan! Among other things, we talked about the development of, and learning strategy behind, Fender's online learning platform, Fender Play. We also learn whether Mary's partial to Telecasters or Stratocasters. Car Con Carne is sponsored by C&H Financial Services.

At my late and tender age, I'm *finally* learning how to play the guitar. To explain the benefits of learning an instrument, I went right to someone who knows the topic inside and out: Fender's Director of Product for Digital Learning, Mary Keenan! Among other things, we talked about the development of, and learning strategy behind, Fender's online learning platform, Fender Play. We also learn whether Mary's partial to Telecasters or Stratocasters. Car Con Carne is sponsored by C&H Financial Services.

Marco Greenberg shares how primal drives can be the key to unlocking your motivation and potential at work.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why the world's most successful people are “primitive”.2) How to tap into your primal drive using the ROAMING framework.3) How to weaponize your insecurities.Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep564 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT MARCO — Marco Greenberg has spearheaded marketing communications and public affairs campaigns for an array of Fortune 500 corporations, healthcare organizations, and notable venture- and angel-backed startups, and has served as a senior advisor to foreign governments, democratic movements, and NGOs. Previously a managing director at global PR giant Burson-Marsteller, he sees his role as a creative catalyst for breakthrough communications. An in-demand speaker and facilitator, he has written opinion pieces for a range of publications, including Business Insider, Entrepreneur, NY Daily News, Tablet Magazine, WeWork's Creator.He holds a BA from UCLA and an MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and taught as an adjunct professor of Innovations in Marketing at NYU and entrepreneurship and PR at Fordham University. He splits his time with his wife and three grown children between the upper west side of Manhattan and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.• Book: "Primitive: Tapping the Primal Drive That Powers the World's Most Successful People"• LinkedIn: Marco Greenberg• Website: PrimitiveBook.com— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Organization: HOBY, founded by Hugh O'Brian• Book: “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport• Book: “Einstein's Dreams” by Alan Lightman• Book: "How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything: Yes Anything!" by Albert Ellis• Book: "In Praise of Wasting Time (TED Books)" by Alan Lightman• Book: “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath• Book: "The 1940 Cincinnati Reds: A World Championship and Baseball's Only In-Season Suicide" by Brian Mulligan• Book: "The Way of Go: 8 Ancient Strategy Secrets for Success in Business and Life" by Troy Anderson— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —• Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument with your first two weeks FREE at fender.com/AWESOME• Blinkist. Learn more, faster with book summaries you can read or listen to in 15 minutes at blinkist.com/awesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ozan Varol discusses how to make giant leaps in your career by thinking like a rocket scientist.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) How success can hinder growth—and what to do about it. 2) How to turn worrying into productive preparation. 3) How rocket scientists see and use failure.Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep563 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT OZAN — Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor and author. He served on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project, and later pivoted and became a law professor.He's the author of Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life. The book is # 1 on Adam Grant's list of top 20 books of 2020. The book was named a “must read” by Susan Cain, “endlessly fascinating” by Daniel Pink, and “bursting with practical insights” by Adam Grant.• Ozan's book: Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life• Ozan's podcast: Famous Failures• Ozan's website: RocketScienceBook.com• Ozan's newsletter: WeeklyContrarian.com• Get bonus videos by emailing your receipt to Rocket@OzanVarol.com by April 30!— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • App: Readwise• Tool: Instapaper• Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant• Book: Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress by Christopher Ryan• Past Episode: 072: Unleashing Simplicity with Lisa Bodell• Past Episode: 176: How to Prevent Terrible Decisions using Red Team Thinking with Bryce Hoffman— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —• Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument with your first two weeks FREE at fender.com/AWESOMESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

Google's own system on a chip for future Pixels and ChromebooksApple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing technologyGoogle distribution numbers updateHands-On the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 ProOPPO Ace2 5G announcedPixel 4a packaging leaksA new Braille keyboard on AndroidMore weather replacements for DarkSkyRead our show notes here: http://twit.to/aaa468shownotesJason - Fender Play (90-days free): http://twit.to/aaa468aRon - Snap Search: http://twit.to/aaa468bNick - Disney+: http://twit.to/aaa468dFlo - Muzio Music Player: http://twit.to/aaa468cThis Week's Poll http://twit.to/aaapoll468 Hosts: Jason Howell, Florence Ion, and Ron Richards Guest: Nick Gray Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Sponsors: ZipRecruiter.com/worktogether legalzoom.com LastPass.com/twit

If you’re using your time physical distancing to learn guitar, Fender is offering free guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons to the first 500,000 people to sign up for Fender Play. It’s a free trial, but you don’t have to handle over any payment details to get access, so you won’t run the risk of getting charged if you forget about it. Once you sign up, you’ll need to tell the site which instrument you’d like to learn. As you learn, the site will track your progress.

We're switching it up on the pod this "Good Friday" and only delivering you wholesome, positive news:- John Krasinski’s got the Hamilton creator on Zoom chat to lead the cast in an online rendition of the show’s opening number for a 9-year old girl who missed her chance to see the musical Hamilton- Trolls World Tour opens up today in your home- Learn guitar for free at Fender Play – 3 month free subscription- After 13 years, 2 giant pandas in a Hong Kong zoo finally mated- Tyler Perry picked up the tabs for all the elderly citizens who were shopping during the senior shopping hour in Atlanta- Matthew McConaughey did some virtual bingo games with a Texas nursing home- Michigan man earlier this week stood on the corner of a gas station by the hospital and held up a sign that said free gas for nurses – he ended up spending $900- #GlobalWorkFromHomeDay- National Hug Your Dog Day- National Siblings Day- Stock market closed today, but up 2,025 points this week- 7pm in NY, everyone on their balconies cheering - 370,000 total RECOVERED Covid cases- Final Note: google “Good Morning Ralph 3 year old”

ANNOUNCMENTS Quarantine Song Challenge- Are you a musician or instrumentalist that has currently found yourself indoors more than usual, and with extra time on your hands? Well, in order to break up the monotony and create a little fun, I am doing a "Quarantine Song Challenge".   Details: Starting Friday April 10th, I am giving all who would be willing, a challenge. The mission should you choose to accept it, is this: Create a song within a 2 week time-frame. That would put you handing in your final submission on Friday April 24th. This should be a version of your best rough mix, or if you're very productive a completed masterpiece that's fully mixed and mastered. I will then choose 3 of the best submissions and showcase them on my channel live for all to hear and give my personal feedback as well. The submission with the most votes will be mixed and mastered by yours truly.   Technicalities: Submissions need to be in high quality WAV files preferably 24bit. If your hopeful of winning, make sure that your project is recorded and mixed in 24-bit with a sample rate of 44.1-kHz     EAR TO THE GROUND   1  With all the uncertainty surrounding local businesses and the some of the cold crafty moves of corporate America, it is refreshing to hear that there are still a few good companies out there. Fender, is no exception.    How does this sound for a midday stress release at work? You leave your desk, pick up a guitar and just jam. It's a workplace feature that's core to Fender. This 71-year-old company has crafted instruments for musical icons ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Jimi Hendrix, and in its new Hollywood headquarters, (designed by Rapt Studio) guitars line the walls -- acoustic, electric, one-of-a-kind beauties- and employees are encouraged to play any time of day. (Talent is not required, but I suspect it's greatly preferred.)  This historic company is currently focused on investing in new technology and talent, which is helping Fender keep up in an increasingly competitive music world.    Bennett Kolasinski (Fender/Software Engineering Manager) “We've interviewed a lot of people for jobs here, and sometimes they're like, ‘Do I have to play guitar?' We do have some sick guitarists, but we also have people that don't know how to play, and they're maybe working on the Fender Play app. It's a product that teaches how to play guitar, so we need those nonmusical points of view.” To get a look into the psyche of Fender's leadership, here's what the CEO of Fender had to say, Andy Mooney (Fender/CEO) “I met Phyllis Fender, Leo Fender's wife, last year, and she said something that really struck me. Later in his life, Leo had said to her that he believed all artists were angels and that God had put him on this planet to give them wings. That's been the mission of the company: Whether we do it by digital means in terms of encouraging people to learn guitar or whether we're physically putting guitars in their hands, we're trying to give wings to artists.”   2 If you've been researching ways to hone your craft during these trying times, then look no further than Produce Like A Pro. Produce Like A Pro is the equivalent of an internship at a major studio with an amazing producer as your mentor. Warren Huart, the founder of Produce Like A Pro, is a record producer, musician, composer and recording engineer based in Los Angeles, California. Heralded as a multi-platinum producer for more bands than I have time to name, Warren is the owner of Spitfire Studio in LA. Since 2014, he has opened up his world to an ever growing community of audio lovers through the Produce Like A Pro Academy and his YouTube Channel.    Recently as a way of giving back to his followers and soon to be's, he has generously made some of his paid course free for the public to create a way to learn during this time of isolation. Some of the courses available now are:   Anatomy of A Mix: Mixing A Singer/Songwriter Follow Warren through his hybrid mix process and learn how to use a combination of both analog and digital processing to create awesome sounding music. See a complete breakdown of his mix and learn exactly how he makes his mixing decisions. In this mix, you will learn more about EQ, compression, saturation, multiband compression, distortion, and even parallel processing. Then, you can download the multitracks and mix the song yourself! Mixing In The Box In this course, you learn how to mix completely in the box! There is no need for extra hardware or equipment with this course. It is 100% computer-based mixing with plugins! You'll get to learn more about fundamental parts of mixing including EQ, compression, saturation, multiband compression, distortion, parallel processing and more! Follow along with Warren as he goes through each step of the mix and show you exactly what he is doing, as well as explain why he does it, so you are able to apply these principles to your own mixes! Recording and Producing Drums with Matt Starr In this course, Matt explains his drum kit choice and his philosophy behind choosing the right components to create a huge drum sound. You'll  also learn how to control the ring of your toms and snare, how to make your kit and tom sound cohesive, and how to keep your snare tuning consistent through longer recording sessions and live events. As if that wasn't enough, you will also learn how to create a signature sound for your drums by learning special micing techniques.      3 FREE PLUGS    SPAN - Although this plug in has been around for awhile, a lot of newcomers may not know it exists.  Voxengo's SPAN is a free real-time “fast Fourier transform” audio spectrum analyzer plugin for professional sound and music production applications. SPAN supports multi-channel analysis and can be set to display spectrums from two different channels or channel groups at the same time.  What's more, your spectrum's color can be chosen to taste. SPAN also features output level metering with adjustable ballistics and integration time and K-0.system metering (including calibration K-system metering).  SPAN displays level metering statistics, headroom estimation and true peak clipping detection. Correlation metering is available as well. I personally love to use this plug in on my reference tracks. By utilizing its dual metering feature you can see the frequency spectrum of your reference track overlaid on top of your current mix, this has been a huge help in getting my mix to translate better, both creatively and technically.   Rough Rider -  Rough Rider, by Audio Damage, is a modern compressor with a bit of "vintage" style bite, and a uniquely warm sound. Perfect for adding compression effects to your drum buss, it also sounds great with synth bass, clean guitar, and backing vocals. Definitely not an all-purpose compressor, Rough Rider is at its best when used to add pump to rhythmic tracks. Still, you can use it however you'd like. The Compressor Police aren't gonna come to your house and give you a citation. So download it for free, slap it on a track and start cranking some knobs.   Project Time - This useful plug in from HOFA shows the time that has passed during an open DAW project. It records time in hours, minutes, and seconds, has a pause function and even writes a log so you can see when you worked on the project and for how long. Every log entry can be commented on as well. The timer starts as soon as it gets loaded into a plug-in slot in your DAW. The stopped time is saved with the closing of the project and resumes by reopening the project. Perfect for keeping track of your time for a multiplicity of reasons.   MAIN THOUGHT   Developing A Mix System   When it comes to anything creative, we creatives generally shy away from anything that tries to inhibit or place us in a box. For this cause, some are staunch defenders of not using templates, or anything that may "guide" the creative process outside of the creators own bounds. While I see the purist approach of that and do ascribe to the thought that creativity should be unbridled, at the same time we live in an ever demanding world that is constantly at war with our precious time.    That said, if I can alleviate some of the more mundane tasks that slow me down in my initial approach, you'd better believe I'm all for it! This is why I personally use templates. Now, I know, the purist in me cringes at even saying this but the minimalist in me says, "speak on". At this point it is imperative for me to outline exactly what I mean when I say "templates".   Picture this: The inspiration hits. You pick up your instrument of choice, for all intrinsic purposes we will say guitar, and the juices are just flowing. You bang out a killer chorus and now you're really feeling it! You kick open the door to the studio, fling out the keyboard tray, turn the computer on (at this point the juices are still flowin'). Finally your desktop opens, you open up your DAW and select, "Create New Project". Now, in your purist mind you select "blank project", denoting that nothing is in your path to inhibit creativity, just a clean slate!   Now, load in an empty track. Set the routing options up in your DAW. Name it something creative, like guitar goodness. At this point, you've just burned 3 minutes up, but your creative fires are still burning hot! You pull out your favorite guitar, plug it in to your got-to amp and mic it up with that favorite mic of yours. So, now another 7 minutes has been robbed. The creative fire is burning, yet, the flames are diminishing. You tune up the guitar, take care that your levels are good going into the DAW, and finally 30 minutes later you get that guitar take into a newly created track.    Keep in mind, you're using your favorite guitar. It's your go-to amp. Yet, even after the take is nailed you know you're going to have to do some processing on it. So, naturally you reach for your favorite compressor plug in and a good reverb. The same ones you use on every mix, because much like that favorite guitar and go to amp, you know them. Now you dial in that go to setting that you normally use on every guitar track to start with, and you've effectively wasted another 20 minutes getting it to that point. Ah, but your being creative!    At this point the smoldering embers of creativity give way to the time and as you gaze toward the wall clock you realize that in an hour and a half you have one guitar track to show for yourself and time is up because kids need bedtime stories and the wife needs the trash taken down.    Now had this scenario been changed by the addition of utilizing templates. You could still have 30-45 minutes left to lay down a second layer of guitar or develop a melody on the keys. After all, you already knew what guitar you were after, what amp you were using, and your mic choice.In a sense you were using those starting points as templates for your tone. So, what if you would've loaded a project template that already had the name "Electric Guitar Track" tacked on it, along with your two favorite starting plug ins for guitar, set to your favorite starting positions. Just think of how much time you could've saved yourself.    Remember, part of the beauty of the digital recording age is that at anytime you can go back and change things with an instant recall of settings. So it really doesn't do any good to start from scratch when you can always go back and perfect a templates approach.    Ok, so what does all this have to do with mixing?   Well, much like the scenario we just discussed in a recording session, you can save yourself time and frustration by developing a system to mixing that can be completely adaptable to your workflow. I will briefly describe current system and show you what I mean.   Import all the tracks in to my DAW (Cakewalk by BandLab) Name every track that doesn't fit into my pre-named slot within my template Make sure they are color coordinated with applicable track icons Bottom out my all faders and switch the Master Bus to mono (this will aide in hearing phase issues) Bring up each element one at a time and get a feel for where it needs to set in the mix Do a rough mix of levels and take care of edits EQ those elements that are stepping on one another until cohesion is achieved  Switch the Master Bus to Stereo and begin panning things L-C-R Slowly start adding in desired effects, being mindful of level matching - this includes creating sends to my template reverb/delay/saturation channels Fold back down to Mono and Import Reference tracks Get my best Mono mix with my desired effects in place Let it bloom back out to Stereo and get out my note pad Once I am happy with my current mix I listen back all the way through "blindly" and touch nothing, I only write down what I hear needs addressed Address the issues found on the first pass and listen to it again, same rules apply, touch nothing only write down what I hear Rinse and Repeat until the said mix is done   Now, if you notice, my approach is one that gets all of the technical stuff out of the way first. Then I move into the creative phase without anything to inhibit my flow. Next I move into an analytical stage that allows me to make decisions with more clarity, as well as keeps me from continually fiddling with knobs. Now, although this method does vary from time to time, this has worked for me and allowed me to finish my projects faster and with less strain on my mental faculties, faculties that are now and always have been in question since I was born.    I would encourage you to develop a system, a templates of sorts that you use every time you approach a mix. Improve on it over time until you can become the master of the mix instead of the pupil of time. I'd like to close by saying this, the system needs to come before creativity. Why? Because creativity can follow the system, but the system will never be able to follow creativity.   Download your free copy of this 15 Step Mix System here: 15_STEP_MIX_SYSTEM   Sources/Links: 1- 2  

ANNOUNCMENTS Quarantine Song Challenge- Are you a musician or instrumentalist that has currently found yourself indoors more than usual, and with extra time on your hands? Well, in order to break up the monotony and create a little fun, I am doing a "Quarantine Song Challenge".   Details: Starting Friday April 10th, I am giving all who would be willing, a challenge. The mission should you choose to accept it, is this: Create a song within a 2 week time-frame. That would put you handing in your final submission on Friday April 24th. This should be a version of your best rough mix, or if you're very productive a completed masterpiece that's fully mixed and mastered. I will then choose 3 of the best submissions and showcase them on my channel live for all to hear and give my personal feedback as well. The submission with the most votes will be mixed and mastered by yours truly.   Technicalities: Submissions need to be in high quality WAV files preferably 24bit. If your hopeful of winning, make sure that your project is recorded and mixed in 24-bit with a sample rate of 44.1-kHz     EAR TO THE GROUND   1  With all the uncertainty surrounding local businesses and the some of the cold crafty moves of corporate America, it is refreshing to hear that there are still a few good companies out there. Fender, is no exception.    How does this sound for a midday stress release at work? You leave your desk, pick up a guitar and just jam. It’s a workplace feature that’s core to Fender. This 71-year-old company has crafted instruments for musical icons ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Jimi Hendrix, and in its new Hollywood headquarters, (designed by Rapt Studio) guitars line the walls -- acoustic, electric, one-of-a-kind beauties- and employees are encouraged to play any time of day. (Talent is not required, but I suspect it’s greatly preferred.)  This historic company is currently focused on investing in new technology and talent, which is helping Fender keep up in an increasingly competitive music world.    Bennett Kolasinski (Fender/Software Engineering Manager) “We’ve interviewed a lot of people for jobs here, and sometimes they’re like, ‘Do I have to play guitar?’ We do have some sick guitarists, but we also have people that don’t know how to play, and they’re maybe working on the Fender Play app. It’s a product that teaches how to play guitar, so we need those nonmusical points of view.” To get a look into the psyche of Fender's leadership, here's what the CEO of Fender had to say, Andy Mooney (Fender/CEO) “I met Phyllis Fender, Leo Fender’s wife, last year, and she said something that really struck me. Later in his life, Leo had said to her that he believed all artists were angels and that God had put him on this planet to give them wings. That’s been the mission of the company: Whether we do it by digital means in terms of encouraging people to learn guitar or whether we’re physically putting guitars in their hands, we’re trying to give wings to artists.”   2 If you've been researching ways to hone your craft during these trying times, then look no further than Produce Like A Pro. Produce Like A Pro is the equivalent of an internship at a major studio with an amazing producer as your mentor. Warren Huart, the founder of Produce Like A Pro, is a record producer, musician, composer and recording engineer based in Los Angeles, California. Heralded as a multi-platinum producer for more bands than I have time to name, Warren is the owner of Spitfire Studio in LA. Since 2014, he has opened up his world to an ever growing community of audio lovers through the Produce Like A Pro Academy and his YouTube Channel.    Recently as a way of giving back to his followers and soon to be's, he has generously made some of his paid course free for the public to create a way to learn during this time of isolation. Some of the courses available now are:   Anatomy of A Mix: Mixing A Singer/Songwriter Follow Warren through his hybrid mix process and learn how to use a combination of both analog and digital processing to create awesome sounding music. See a complete breakdown of his mix and learn exactly how he makes his mixing decisions. In this mix, you will learn more about EQ, compression, saturation, multiband compression, distortion, and even parallel processing. Then, you can download the multitracks and mix the song yourself! Mixing In The Box In this course, you learn how to mix completely in the box! There is no need for extra hardware or equipment with this course. It is 100% computer-based mixing with plugins! You’ll get to learn more about fundamental parts of mixing including EQ, compression, saturation, multiband compression, distortion, parallel processing and more! Follow along with Warren as he goes through each step of the mix and show you exactly what he is doing, as well as explain why he does it, so you are able to apply these principles to your own mixes! Recording and Producing Drums with Matt Starr In this course, Matt explains his drum kit choice and his philosophy behind choosing the right components to create a huge drum sound. You'll  also learn how to control the ring of your toms and snare, how to make your kit and tom sound cohesive, and how to keep your snare tuning consistent through longer recording sessions and live events. As if that wasn't enough, you will also learn how to create a signature sound for your drums by learning special micing techniques.      3 FREE PLUGS    SPAN - Although this plug in has been around for awhile, a lot of newcomers may not know it exists.  Voxengo's SPAN is a free real-time “fast Fourier transform” audio spectrum analyzer plugin for professional sound and music production applications. SPAN supports multi-channel analysis and can be set to display spectrums from two different channels or channel groups at the same time.  What's more, your spectrum's color can be chosen to taste. SPAN also features output level metering with adjustable ballistics and integration time and K-0.system metering (including calibration K-system metering).  SPAN displays level metering statistics, headroom estimation and true peak clipping detection. Correlation metering is available as well. I personally love to use this plug in on my reference tracks. By utilizing its dual metering feature you can see the frequency spectrum of your reference track overlaid on top of your current mix, this has been a huge help in getting my mix to translate better, both creatively and technically.   Rough Rider -  Rough Rider, by Audio Damage, is a modern compressor with a bit of "vintage" style bite, and a uniquely warm sound. Perfect for adding compression effects to your drum buss, it also sounds great with synth bass, clean guitar, and backing vocals. Definitely not an all-purpose compressor, Rough Rider is at its best when used to add pump to rhythmic tracks. Still, you can use it however you'd like. The Compressor Police aren't gonna come to your house and give you a citation. So download it for free, slap it on a track and start cranking some knobs.   Project Time - This useful plug in from HOFA shows the time that has passed during an open DAW project. It records time in hours, minutes, and seconds, has a pause function and even writes a log so you can see when you worked on the project and for how long. Every log entry can be commented on as well. The timer starts as soon as it gets loaded into a plug-in slot in your DAW. The stopped time is saved with the closing of the project and resumes by reopening the project. Perfect for keeping track of your time for a multiplicity of reasons.   MAIN THOUGHT   Developing A Mix System   When it comes to anything creative, we creatives generally shy away from anything that tries to inhibit or place us in a box. For this cause, some are staunch defenders of not using templates, or anything that may "guide" the creative process outside of the creators own bounds. While I see the purist approach of that and do ascribe to the thought that creativity should be unbridled, at the same time we live in an ever demanding world that is constantly at war with our precious time.    That said, if I can alleviate some of the more mundane tasks that slow me down in my initial approach, you'd better believe I'm all for it! This is why I personally use templates. Now, I know, the purist in me cringes at even saying this but the minimalist in me says, "speak on". At this point it is imperative for me to outline exactly what I mean when I say "templates".   Picture this: The inspiration hits. You pick up your instrument of choice, for all intrinsic purposes we will say guitar, and the juices are just flowing. You bang out a killer chorus and now you're really feeling it! You kick open the door to the studio, fling out the keyboard tray, turn the computer on (at this point the juices are still flowin'). Finally your desktop opens, you open up your DAW and select, "Create New Project". Now, in your purist mind you select "blank project", denoting that nothing is in your path to inhibit creativity, just a clean slate!   Now, load in an empty track. Set the routing options up in your DAW. Name it something creative, like guitar goodness. At this point, you've just burned 3 minutes up, but your creative fires are still burning hot! You pull out your favorite guitar, plug it in to your got-to amp and mic it up with that favorite mic of yours. So, now another 7 minutes has been robbed. The creative fire is burning, yet, the flames are diminishing. You tune up the guitar, take care that your levels are good going into the DAW, and finally 30 minutes later you get that guitar take into a newly created track.    Keep in mind, you're using your favorite guitar. It's your go-to amp. Yet, even after the take is nailed you know you're going to have to do some processing on it. So, naturally you reach for your favorite compressor plug in and a good reverb. The same ones you use on every mix, because much like that favorite guitar and go to amp, you know them. Now you dial in that go to setting that you normally use on every guitar track to start with, and you've effectively wasted another 20 minutes getting it to that point. Ah, but your being creative!    At this point the smoldering embers of creativity give way to the time and as you gaze toward the wall clock you realize that in an hour and a half you have one guitar track to show for yourself and time is up because kids need bedtime stories and the wife needs the trash taken down.    Now had this scenario been changed by the addition of utilizing templates. You could still have 30-45 minutes left to lay down a second layer of guitar or develop a melody on the keys. After all, you already knew what guitar you were after, what amp you were using, and your mic choice.In a sense you were using those starting points as templates for your tone. So, what if you would've loaded a project template that already had the name "Electric Guitar Track" tacked on it, along with your two favorite starting plug ins for guitar, set to your favorite starting positions. Just think of how much time you could've saved yourself.    Remember, part of the beauty of the digital recording age is that at anytime you can go back and change things with an instant recall of settings. So it really doesn't do any good to start from scratch when you can always go back and perfect a templates approach.    Ok, so what does all this have to do with mixing?   Well, much like the scenario we just discussed in a recording session, you can save yourself time and frustration by developing a system to mixing that can be completely adaptable to your workflow. I will briefly describe current system and show you what I mean.   Import all the tracks in to my DAW (Cakewalk by BandLab) Name every track that doesn't fit into my pre-named slot within my template Make sure they are color coordinated with applicable track icons Bottom out my all faders and switch the Master Bus to mono (this will aide in hearing phase issues) Bring up each element one at a time and get a feel for where it needs to set in the mix Do a rough mix of levels and take care of edits EQ those elements that are stepping on one another until cohesion is achieved  Switch the Master Bus to Stereo and begin panning things L-C-R Slowly start adding in desired effects, being mindful of level matching - this includes creating sends to my template reverb/delay/saturation channels Fold back down to Mono and Import Reference tracks Get my best Mono mix with my desired effects in place Let it bloom back out to Stereo and get out my note pad Once I am happy with my current mix I listen back all the way through "blindly" and touch nothing, I only write down what I hear needs addressed Address the issues found on the first pass and listen to it again, same rules apply, touch nothing only write down what I hear Rinse and Repeat until the said mix is done   Now, if you notice, my approach is one that gets all of the technical stuff out of the way first. Then I move into the creative phase without anything to inhibit my flow. Next I move into an analytical stage that allows me to make decisions with more clarity, as well as keeps me from continually fiddling with knobs. Now, although this method does vary from time to time, this has worked for me and allowed me to finish my projects faster and with less strain on my mental faculties, faculties that are now and always have been in question since I was born.    I would encourage you to develop a system, a templates of sorts that you use every time you approach a mix. Improve on it over time until you can become the master of the mix instead of the pupil of time. I'd like to close by saying this, the system needs to come before creativity. Why? Because creativity can follow the system, but the system will never be able to follow creativity.   Download your free copy of this 15 Step Mix System here: 15_STEP_MIX_SYSTEM   Sources/Links: 1- 2  

Episode #20 - April 6th, 2020 - 1:34:16 This week on Get Geek we talk about the movies, TV, comics, and music we're consuming lately in the World of Geek! HBO’s Barry, CBS All Access’ Picard, anime Tekkaman Blade, manga Devilman vs Hades, guitar app Fender Play anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Netflix’s Castlevania, Netflix’s Altered Carbon and Marvel Comics’ Immortal Hulk, we geek over it all! Stay safe, Geekdom! Important Stuff Theme music by www.bensound.com (https://www.bensound.com/) (Happy Rock) Check out our sponsor, (http://thedojonyc.com/) (10-82 Cypress Avenue, Ridgewood NY 11385) for more information.

QUINCE MILLONES DE RAZONES PARA APRESAR A MADURO. Estados Unidos ofrece una recompensa de hasta 15 millones de dólares por el arresto del presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, según anunció el secretario de estado Mike Pompeo. La medida supone profundizar la presión de Washington para forzar la salida del poder de Maduro, al que califica como gobernante "ilegítimo" y "dictador" y al que ahora considera también como líder de un cartel de drogas en colaboración con la ex guerrilla colombiana de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Tanto Maduro como Cabello, acusados de conspiración para el narcoterrorismo y de conspiración para importar cocaína a Estados Unidos, se podrían enfrentar a penas de entre 20 años de prisión o cadena perpetua.   BBC | ANSALATINA    EE.UU YA SUPERÓ A CHINA. Estados Unidos superó a China e Italia por el mayor número de casos actuales confirmados de coronavirus el jueves, según The New York Times, que rastrea los casos y muertes reportados, después del día más mortal del país desde el comienzo de la pandemia, cuando 263 personas murieron este jueves. 81,048 casos activos.   ALTERNATIVA A ZOOM. Las ciudades de todo el mundo se encierran debido a la pandemia de Covid-19 y Zoom se ha convertido en una nueva estrella de videollamadas. El servicio ha demostrado ser útil para conectar escuelas, lugares de trabajo y amigos. Pero ahora Zoom se enfrenta a más competencia. El gigante tecnológico chino Tencent ya tiene su propio servicio de videoconferencia con un nombre igualmente corto : se llama VooV. VooV se lanzó el viernes pasado y está disponible en más de 100 países y regiones, según la compañía. Una característica destacada para VooV es su filtro de belleza, que los usuarios pueden activar durante las llamadas de conferencia, presumiblemente para parecer más arreglados mientras se relajan en pijama. Zoom tiene un filtro de belleza propio escondido en la configuración, pero los resultados son bastante modestos. Las empresas chinas adoptan un enfoque más agresivo. PLAY STORE FENDER LIBERA SU CURSO. La empresa de instrumentos musicales Fender, ha confirmado que en pro a aprovechar el tiempo en cuarentena en todo el mundo, ofrecerá tres meses de clases gratis, para los primeros 100.000 nuevos suscriptores de su plataforma web Fender Play. Las lecciones gratuitas, son para los interesados en aprender a tocar guitarra, bajo o ukelele. FENDER ESTRENOS HBO EN ABRIL. Llega abril y, aunque no podamos salir de casa todavía, las novedades de las principales plataformas de SVOD siguen saliendo. AS MEGADETH ARMÓ SU PLAYLIST. La agrupación de thrash metal, Megadeth, se ha unido a la cuarentena mundial, dando diferentes maneras de poder sobrellevar la situación con música, por ello, la banda ha compartido un extenso playlist, donde incluyen agrupaciones como Exodus, Cryptic Slaughter, Iron Reagan y artistas como Ozzy Osbourne y Dr. Know. Dicha lista está disponible en Spotify y cuenta con 32 temas en total. Megadeth también se ha visto afectada por el Coronavirus, ya que se canceló el Hell & Heaven Metal Fest 2020 donde participarían este año. Sin embargo, lograron completar sus fechas en Europa que culminaron en febrero. SPOTIFY  

Neurosurgeon and author Mark McLaughlin shares the science of fear and what to do about it.You'll Learn:1) How fear affects our decision-making2) How to manage your fears effectively3) The two techniques to help you outthink your fearsAbout Mark: Mark McLaughlin is a practicing board-certified neurosurgeon, a national media commentator, author of the book Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Outthink Fear, and acclaimed keynote speaker. He is the founder of Princeton Brain and Spine Care where he practices surgery focusing on trigeminal neuralgia and cervical spine surgery. McLaughlin is also a thought leader in performance enhancement and physician hospital relations. Book: Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Out-Think FearWebsite: MarkMcLaughlinMD.comItems Mentioned in the ShowApp: Ten Percent HappierBook: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward WilsonBook: 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story by Dan HarrisBook: Traveler's Gift by Andy AndrewsPersonality: Camillo GolgiPersonality: Rene DescartesPersonality: Sanjay GuptaPersonality: Santiago Ramon y CajalPlanners: Franklin PlannerSystem: Cartesian Coordinate systemSystem: David Allen-Filing SystemTerm: ConsilienceUniversity: William & MaryThank you, sponsors!Magic Spoon. Enjoy free shipping on delicious, healthy, high-protein cereal that reminds you of childhood. Free shipping on the variety pack at magicspoon.com/HTBA.formstack. Get home earlier with simplified workflows. Visit formstack.com/awesome for a 14-day free trial.Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument with your first two weeks FREE at fender.com/AWESOME.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gary Burnison shares what professionals need to start doing differently to advance in their careers.You'll Learn:1) Three mindsets to accelerate your career growth 2) The overlooked elements that determine career fit3) Why most meetings are meaninglessAbout Gary:Gary Burnison is the CEO and member of the board of directors for Korn Ferry, a global organization consulting firm. He is also an author, having written several books on career management. His latest book, Advance: The Ultimate How-To Guide For Your Career, is an insider's look on everything professionals need to take control and get ahead in their careers. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes, CNBC, Bloomberg, FOX Business, and other major international news outlets. Mr. Burnison earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California and holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from Pepperdine University.Gary's book: Advance: The Ultimate How-To Guide For Your CareerGary's website: KornFerry.comGary's website: Korn Ferry AdvanceResources mentioned in the show:Website: GlassdoorBook: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer JohnsonPrevious Episode: 273: Taking Control of your Career with Korn Ferry's Gary BurnisonThank you Sponsors!Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument with your first two weeks FREE at fender.com/AWESOME.Pitney Bowes. Simplify your shipping while saving money. Get a free 30-day trial and 10-lb shipping scale at pb.com/AWESOMEformstack. Get home earlier with simplified workflows. Visit formstack.com/awesome for a 14-day free trial.View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep556See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning journalist and speaker Celeste Headlee shares how doing nothing can help you accomplish everything.You'll Learn:1) Why idleness isn't laziness2) What's causing you burnout 3) The productivity benefits of shorter work hoursAbout Celeste:Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of Heard Mentality and We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter. In her 20-year career in public radio, she has been the Executive Producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She also served as co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway, from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel. Celeste's TEDx Talk 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 19 million total views to date.Book: Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving.Website: CelesteHeadlee.comItems Mentioned in the ShowBook: The Paris Library: A Novel by Janet Skeslien CharlesPrevious episode: 221: Becoming a Great Conversationalist with Celeste HeadleeThank you, sponsors!Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument with your first two weeks FREE at fender.com/AWESOME.ZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. Get a free trial at ZipRecruiter.com/HTBASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nicolle Merrill shares practical tips for changing careers--and beating the doubt that comes with it.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why it's OK to not have it figured out. 2) Powerful, clarifying questions for charting a new career path. 3) Smart alternatives to a second degree. Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep535 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT NICOLLE — Four-time career-changer Nicolle Merrill excels in professional reinvention. A liberal arts graduate, she has written for Four Seasons and National Geographic private jet tours, taught digital communication skills to global executives, and sold adventure travel programs in New Zealand. As the former Associate Director of the Career Development Office At Yale School of Management, she coached hundreds of MBA students and professionals through all phases of their career transitions. Nicolle currently freelances as a conversation designer and analyst at an artificial intelligence startup. Her human-centered approach to career change, combined with a relentless curiosity about emerging career trends, has led to speaking engagements across the US, as well as in Canada and Ireland.• Nicolle's book: Punch Doubt in the Face: How to Upskill, Change Careers, and Beat the Robots• Nicole's LinkedIn: Nicolle Merrill• Nicolle's podcast: 50 Conversations• Nicole's Twitter: @pdxnicolle• Nicolle's blog: FutureSkills.blog— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Article: “Cross-Silo Leadership” • Article: "Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring"• Website: Udemy• Website: Coursera• Website: Udacity• Website: Wix• Book: Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Dr. Sherry Turkle• Previous episode: 167: How to Love Your Work…and Get Work You Love with Nick Campbell— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nicolle Merrill shares practical tips for changing careers--and beating the doubt that comes with it.   You'll Learn: 1) Why it’s OK to not have it figured out 2) Powerful, clarifying questions for charting a new career path 3) Smart alternatives to a second degree   About Nicolle: Four-time career-changer Nicolle Merrill excels in professional reinvention. A liberal arts graduate, she has written for Four Seasons and National Geographic private jet tours, taught digital communication skills to global executives, and sold adventure travel programs in New Zealand. As the former Associate Director of the Career Development Office At Yale School of Management, she coached hundreds of MBA students and professionals through all phases of their career transitions. Nicolle currently freelances as a conversation designer and analyst at an artificial intelligence startup. Her human-centered approach to career change, combined with a relentless curiosity about emerging career trends, has led to speaking engagements across the US, as well as in Canada and Ireland. Nicolle’s book: Punch Doubt in the Face: How to Upskill, Change Careers, and Beat the Robots Nicole’s LinkedIn: Nicolle Merrill Nicolle’s podcast: 50 Conversations Nicole’s Twitter: @pdxnicolle Nicolle’s blog: FutureSkills.blog   Resources mentioned in the show: Article: “Cross-Silo Leadership”  Article: "Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring" Website: Udemy Website: Coursera Website: Udacity Website: Wix Book: Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Dr. Sherry Turkle Previous episode: 167: How to Love Your Work…and Get Work You Love with Nick Campbell   Thank you Sponsors! Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off.    View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep535

Ryan Hawk shares how to transition from individual contributor to team leader.—YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why top performers often struggle as new managers. 2) What most managers fail to prepare for. 3) Powerful ways to build your team's trust. Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep534 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT RYAN — Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast with millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome To Management: How To Grow From Top Performer To Excellent Leader (McGraw-Hill, January 28, 2020).A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and VP of Sales at a multibillion-dollar company. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer's leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates “Leadership Circles” that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders.• Ryan's book: Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader• Ryan's podcast: TheLearningLeaderShow.com• Ryan's website: LearningLeader.com• Article: “Want To Cold Email Your Heroes? Read This…”• Tool: 25 Getting to Know You Questions— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins• Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant• Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins• Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant• Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni• Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni• Book: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough• Personality: Ryan Caldbeck• Personality: Seth Godin— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off.• Autonomous. Get your ridiculously customizable, ergonomic office chair at a ridiculously good price at autonomous.ai See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan Hawk shares how to transition from individual contributor to team leader.   You'll Learn: 1) Why top performers often struggle as new managers 2) What most managers fail to prepare for 3) Powerful ways to build your team’s trust   About Ryan: Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast with millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome To Management: How To Grow From Top Performer To Excellent Leader (McGraw-Hill, January 28, 2020). A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and VP of Sales at a multibillion-dollar company. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer’s leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates “Leadership Circles” that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders. Ryan’s book: Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader Ryan’s podcast: TheLearningLeaderShow.com Ryan’s website: LearningLeader.com Article: “Want To Cold Email Your Heroes? Read This…” Tool: 25 Getting to Know You Questions   Resources mentioned in the show: Book: Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni Book: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Personality: Ryan Caldbeck Personality: Seth Godin   Thank you, Sponsors! Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off. Autonomous. Get your ridiculously customizable, ergonomic office chair at a ridiculously good price at autonomous.ai   View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep534

In this episode, Alan Kohll interviews Bhawna Provenzano from Zappos. Bhawna, the director of employee benefits and diversity at Zappos, has helped grow the wellness program at the company over the last nine years. A new wellness initiative called 'Strum for the Sole' offers access to the Fender Play app that gives employees access to online lessons for acoustic and electric guitars, bass and the ukulele. Zappos has even dedicated a jam room on its corporate campus in Las Vegas where employees can go to relax during the workday. The company says it creates social connections, reduces stress and encourages people to slow down and express creativity.

What can bring Emily back to Nashville for the first time in four years (after living there for eight)? Summer NAMM! She met with some great folks, including: -DeDe Heid from SWIM (Smart Women in Music) about their new initiative. -Adam Roher from Let 'Em Hear about weather, changing Nashville -Kevin Equitz from Equitz Guitars about scooters, their collaboration called the Ainsley, and moving to Nashville. -Rick Patci (her husband) about cicadas and their favorite inside joke that has somehow survived  -Blake Wyland from The Tone Mob about wearing shorts in the winter and long pants in the summer, BBQ, Pizza, and Burgers. -Scott from Stringjoy about Being confused for a Belmont grad, Bonnie Prince Billy, and how the original Prince's exploded (breaking Emily's damn heart). -Evan Jones from Fender guitars about their major research studies, and what they're doing to make playing guitar inclusive for all people of all skills levels, including Fender Play and Fender Next.  Also thanks to Matt for the lodging and friendship, Sarah, Rachael, and Kay-leigh for getting sincerely tipsy at Waffle House, Lenore from Paradigm for being a boss, Ana Lee from WMOT for the best lunch hangs around, Devon for the bro deal on margs at Redheaded Stranger, Sean Sullivan for being a great producer and engineer, Michelle and the rest of the All Night Boys for the rock'n'roll, Kate Cauthen for being my favorite photog in Nashville, Bryan Simpson and Matt Menefee of The Golden Age for being such remarkable songwriters and musicians, Brant for the laughs, Bruno and Caitie Jones for being the best shirt screenprinters in the business, and to anyone else who made the whirlwind of a trip to Nashville such an amazing one. 

"In this episode, we get to hear from one of the most iconic and influential brands in the world - Fender - or more formally known as Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. Fender was founded in 1946 by the Leo Fender and is best known for the Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars. These instantly recognizable guitars have been played by the likes of Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and so many more. I got to meet with the Vice President of Engineering at Fender, Josh Couch, at the Fender offices in Hollywood California. Josh, and his team, learned from the data and created new apps like Fender Tune and Fender Play that are opening up the world of guitars to a whole new set of people."

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.   I’m Fred Fishkin.       Chances are learning to play the guitar has been one of your long lost goals.   Well, with online learning, maybe it’s time to get busy. The folks at Fender …have updated Fender Play…and it is designed to help get you started...

Fender Play is the complete learning app for guitar, bass and ukulele. The app features step-by-step lessons, progress tracking and exclusive online community of like-minded players and instructors. Fender has released new updates to its online learning platform, Fender Play, to deliver features faster to its users. The platform is built on a serverless backend using AWS' Lambda and DynamoDB services. The use of GraphQL is another update which will allow the Fender Play team to build a flexible Application Programming Interface (API) to help future proof the platform's applications. GraphQL provides the user with a more streamlined experience that is tailored to the individual's learning path, while also making the app itself faster and more responsive. When Ethan Kaplan was 16 he started a fan website for the band R.E.M. The rest of his career extends from there. He is now Chief Digital Officer and General Manager, Digital at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. I invited Ethan onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about Fender Play's new platform updates to deliver faster user experience.

Techstination interview: Learning guitar on your bucket list? Fender updates Fender Play.

This episode was brought to you by: Sinasoid - Tech Tuesday D'Addario XL StringsChase Bliss AudioVibes Ear Protection (Use code: 60CYCLE for discount + free shipping!) In this episode Ryan talks about finally selection a catchphrase for the show. Steve talks about getting the Mt. Hood Fuzz, a collaboration between the Get Offset podcast and Spruce Effects. Pictures, yo! 1. Cassette Guitar 2. Will inexpensive Chinese guitars rise in value like Japanese guitars of yesteryear? 3. Car Reverb 4. Is the Fender Play discount a good deal? 5. Hook or Loop? This week's music was sent by Coe Schneider of the Flippin' Flippers Podcast. The song is called "The Passenger" and is a Chris LeDoux cover.

Guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, and educator Ray Bergstrom has a busy and varied career in music. As a guitarist and singer, he performs regularly with gypsy jazz trio the Icy Hot Club, world rock group the Nikhil Korula Band, folk-pop singer-songwriter Katie McGhie, and thrash metal band Clash of the Titans. As a songwriter, he leads his own band, Red Wind Temblor, and received a 2016 Grammy Certificate for his contribution to Ziggy Marley’s Grammy-winning album Ziggy Marley. As a producer, he works with clients from around the world to turn their musical ideas into polished recordings. As an educator, he runs an online guitar academy with legendary studio guitarist Carl Verheyen, does consulting work for Fender Play, and has taught Physics of Music classes at Los Angeles Pierce College and Woodbury University.

Guitarist Jen Trani was recently on tour with Adore Delano, has partnered with Fender for their Fender Play series and has numerous instructional videos on YoutTube with millions of hits from people who want to learn to play the guitar like her. She joins host J.J. Jurgens to talk about her passion for teaching people to play and how to also tackle their mental hurdles in life.  RSS Feed: http://afterbuzztv.com/aftershows/tomgirl-afterbuzztv/feed/ ABOUT TOMGIRL:  AfterBuzz Tv's TomGirl is a brand new vodcast series hosted by JJ Jurgens, covering all aspects of sports, entertainment, fashion, and adventure! Each week, tune in on TomGirl Tuesdays LIVE or listen on iTunes or any other podcast location, to find conversations with leading members of the community. Follow JJ Jurgen on Twitter @JJJurgens and the show's official twitter handle at @TomGirlTV! Follow us on http://www.Twitter.com/AfterBuzzTV "Like" Us on h --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tomgirltv/support

Aaron and Brian talk with Michael Garski (Director of Software Engineering @FenderDigital) about building serverless applications for their Fender Play digital learning platform. He explains how the Lambdas are built, version controlled and tested, as well as provides into the broader architecture and how their Dev and Ops teams are integrated. Show Links: Fender Website Fender Digital Fender Play Combining DynamoDB and Amazon Elasticsearch with Lambda [Podcast] Serverless Performance, Monitoring and Best Practices from Fender [PODCAST] @PodCTL - Containers | Kubernetes | OpenShift - RSS Feed, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn and all your favorite podcast players [A CLOUD GURU] Get The Cloudcast Alexa Skill [A CLOUD GURU] A Cloud Guru Membership - Start your free trial. Unlimited access to the best cloud training and new series to keep you up-to-date on all things AWS. [A CLOUD GURU] FREE access to AWS Certification Exam Prep Guide - At A Cloud Guru, the #1 question received from students is "I want to pass the AWS cert exam, so where do I start?" This course is your answer. [FREE] eBook from O'Reilly Show Notes Topic 1 - We appreciate you reaching out to tell us about your experience. So let’s talk about your background prior to Fender and some of the things you focus on at Fender. Topic 1a - Are you a guitar player? Do you have a favorite guitar riff? Topic 2 - We’re going to talk about how you use serverless (AWS Lambda) for Fender Play, but before we do that, I want you to walk us through that the guitar player experiences in the Play framework. Topic 3 - Let’s talk about the challenges in delivering this framework that lead you to consider using Lambda (and other AWS services). Topic 4 - Let’s dive into the architecture that you’ve built. What have been easier to evolve and what challenges have you run into? Topic 5 - Fender Play starts with a free trial and then can evolve to a paid service. How much did your engineering team connect those subscription requirements with your choice of using serverless technologies? Topic 6 - What are some lessons or best-practices that you’d recommend to someone new to serverless (either in development or ops). Feedback? Email: show at thecloudcast dot net Twitter: @thecloudcastnet and @ServerlessCast

If you like music, or play the guitar, you know the great guitarists like Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, and The Edge, Jimmy Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In addition to their talent, they have something else in common: The Fender guitar. For years, rockers and other musicians have relied of Fender to help them belt out killer solos and get audiences on their feet. But like always, music continues to change. While the electric guitar is still popular, many of today’s top performers and novices are turning to the acoustic guitar. Evan Jones is the Chief Marketing Officer at Fender. He and his colleagues turn to data analytics to get a better handle on musicians, customers, and prospective customers. After analyzing the data, their creativity took over, and Fender Play was born. Jones joins us today to discuss his marketing career, the always-evolving music business, and how Fender is more relevant than ever, thanks to the community of musicians known as Fender Play. Learn how the William and Mary Center for Corporate Education can help you and your organization develop your top talent through customized executive education and professional development programs. Visit us at www.wmleadership.com. Thank you for listening.

One of the reasons I love recording this tech podcast is learning how technology is revolutionizing every aspect of our world. When you think about the digital transformation, you don't automatically think of guitars. Fender Digital is leading the online revolution and modernization of Fender with a new division dedicated to digital education, innovation, customization, and mobile learning. Micro-Learning ensures that some guitar skills being mastered in less than 2 minutes and personalized curriculums based on the user’s favorite songs all through online learning. “Ninety percent of people who pick up the guitar will drop out after one year, and we see Fender Play as a solution to that challenge.” Ethan Kaplan

Journalist Geoff Edgers joins us to discuss his Washington Post article about the slow death of the electric guitar. Sponsor: Rogue Ameoba’s Audio Hijack. If you can hear it on your Mac, you can record it with Audio Hijack. Download the free trial from Rogue Amoeba, then save 20% with coupon code NEXTTRACK. Check out Audio Hijack now. This week’s guest: Geoff Edgers on the Washington Post Show notes: Why my guitar gently weeps – The slow, secret death of the six-string electric. And why you should care. How Much Did This Guitar Story Cost Me? $2,376.99 – The story behind my story on the death of the electric guitar Behind the scenes of ‘The slow death of the electric guitar' – a.k.a. how we got paid to set a guitar on fire Fender Play Tom Feldmann Toby Walker School of Rock ♫ Episode #48 – Musician Dave Harrington of DARKSIDE and the Dave Harrington Group on Music Between Genres Our next tracks: Kirk: Santana – Soul Sacrifice (Live at Woodstock 1969) Doug: Adrian Belew – Desire of the Rhino King If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast. Special Guest: Geoff Edgers.