NWC’s acoustical secret

College’s audio recording lab an invaluable resource for students

Posted 9/17/19

Tucked away on stage right of the Nelson Auditorium on the Northwest College campus is the audio recording lab.

In 2009, when NWC was constructing the studio, they enlisted renowned acoustician …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

NWC’s acoustical secret

College’s audio recording lab an invaluable resource for students

Posted

Tucked away on stage right of the Nelson Auditorium on the Northwest College campus is the audio recording lab.

In 2009, when NWC was constructing the studio, they enlisted renowned acoustician John Storyk to look over the plans. He touched up the plans, correcting the room geometries and surface treaments to make it more functional.

Today it remains one of the best audio recording studios in the region. The NWC students in the music technology program say it’s an invaluable resource, and they get a lot of access to it.

The program is producing graduates who are doing some impressive work in audio production. They speak highly of their academic experience at NWC and the program’s passionate professor, Robert Rumbolz.

“I love that guy,” said Monte Nickles, who graduated from the program in 2013 and still serves on the program’s advisory committee.

Today Nickles works at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana, where he supervises all audio recordings and maintains its nationally recognized, award winning Oliver Music Barn. Previously, he oversaw the recordings of the St. Louis Symphony.

After graduating from NWC, Nickles went on to get a bachelor’s degree in audio production from Webster University in St. Louis. Even though NWC costs less and is a two-year institution, he said the music tech program offered a superior education to the university.

“It was head and shoulders above,” Nickles said.

One of the main benefits was the time he got to spend in the studio. At Webster University, studio time was highly limited with so many students trying to get a slot. It left little time for experimenting or side projects. At NWC, Nickles said he had a lot more flexibility — so much so that his peers at Webster were impressed with how much he knew.

“These kids have access every day until midnight,” Rumbolz said of his students at NWC.

 

Building a program

When the professor first came to the school in 2001, there was almost no equipment. With Perkins Workforce Training Grants, “little by little” he’s acquired the professional tools, software and hardware, to give students the level of experience he wants them to have. And he loves his job.

“My life began the day this came online,” Rumbolz said, sitting in front of the studio control panel covered with hundreds of dials and buttons.

Building studios requires some specialized knowledge about acoustics, which can be seen in the odd angles of the walls, none of which are parallel. The thickness of the walls and the materials used to construct them are also designed for sound. Even the ceilings — which have irregular surfaces that look like upside-down cities — are made to produce the ideal sound environment.

“Building for acoustics is something that is not often done,” Rumbolz said.

The music technology program at Northwest College offers students an associates in applied science with marketable skills. Rumbolz said it’s “intended to create opportunities in audio production in various fields.”

Graduates can operate sound systems for conferences or live performance, like Nickles, or produce audio for radio, television and film.

“They get a taste of a lot of different modalities for sound in a lot of different areas of media,” Rumbolz explained of NWC’s program.

It also can provide skills for a career in video game audio, which is a unique application. In film, the audience is static and production is planned; in a video game, audio is interactive, non-linear and dependent on players’ actions.

“All audio is contingent on that player experience,” Rumbolz said.

The professor said the culture of NWC is open to new ideas and directions, which flows down to the students, who talk of the flexibility the program offers for their own projects. The program, Rumbolz added, requires students to “engage their musicality,” such as learning to play an instrument.

 

Graduates continuing in the field

Justin Olmstead and Ryan Hayes graduated from the program in 2010, before the studio was completed. They built their own studio in Cody, which went beyond what they studied in the music tech program.

“We somehow did it,” Hayes said. “We weren’t even sure exactly what we were doing.”

They cater primarily to rock and metal bands — and they self-produced their own albums for their band, Righteous Vendetta.

As with Nickles, they have great things to say about the program and Rumbolz (who’s called Rob by all of his students).

“Rob does a really good job of pushing things forward so you can experiment with new things,” Olmstead said.

Added Hayes, “He’s too smart for his own good.”

Dan Firnekas graduated from the program in 2004. While he’s now working in the oil fields, Firnekas produces a podcast down in Worland with his sister, where they comment on local issues. He said it’s mostly comedy-focused.

“I still use the fundamentals Rob taught us,” he said.

Due to state law, Rumbolz said NWC can’t compete with other private studios in the region, so he has to turn away requests for studio time for work outside of college academics.

“I have to channel them to local studios,” Rumbolz said.

The students, however, use the studio for a lot of collaborative projects outside the music tech program, such as post-production work on student documentaries.

It’s been nearly 20 years since Rumbolz started teaching at NWC. Over time, he’s watched the department grow and expand, with plenty of support from the institution as he brought his vision to fruition.

“I’m really proud of the program,” Rumbolz said.

Comments