Inspiring Advice from CRAS Graduates

This year has really gone by, we can’t believe that we reached our final CRAS Graduates panel!

We are really excited to have our guests for this panel, we feel this group will bring a lot of inspiring advice to our current students.  Each guest works in a varying industry in audio and we feel they will have a lot of guidance and suggestions to share with our students.

Our previous panels have brought a lot of great information to our students on succeeding in the audio industry.  Our graduates have brought a lot of real stories and experiences that our students can learn from.

On October 1st, 2015, CRAS will host the final graduate panel of the year.  Just like the panels that have preceded, this will contain some funny stories, great and inspiring advice from our graduates.  It seems that these panels just continue to evolve into really great events on campus.

Learn more about the panelist on our final Graduate Panel by checking out their bios below!

Jason Weiner

Jason Weiner is the owner/operator of Crowded Head Industries, a Los Angeles based company providing digital asset management solutions to the entertainment industry. He also owns Full Moon Studio and the Oconee School of Rock in Athens, Georgia. A member of The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, ASCAP Writer/Publisher and AES member, Jason Weiner has spent more than half of his life dedicated to the craft of audio recording.

Recipient of a music scholarship for vocal performance, Jason attended Radford University from 1997-2001; majoring first in music business, eventually graduating with a degree in Advanced Audio Production Technology. From 1998 until graduation he would assist at a local recording studio in Blacksburg Virginia, Reel2Real Studios.

After college, Weiner spearheaded a mass exodus of 15 musicians(4 bands) out of Virginia and down to Athens, Georgia. There he would spend the next 5 years as a professional musician, touring and making guerrilla recordings whenever possible. In 2005, his band had the opportunity to record with renowned mixer, Drew Mazurek(GWAR, Nothingface, Texas Is The Reason). April of the following year, Weiner had moved across the country and enrolled at the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Graduating as one of the top of his class, Weiner began working in Los Angeles, quickly finding himself contracted on projects with world class engineers such as: Rick Rubin, Joe Barresi, Jack Joseph Puig, Chris Lord-Alge, Tom Lord-Alge and Dave Pensado. In 2010, he produced, engineered, mixed and released the Music Hates You album “Where Did All This Dirt Come From” on his record label, Crowded Head Records. The album was hailed as, “The hardcore album Nirvana never made.”.

From 2008 – 2010, Weiner collaborated with The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and other major labels, on the CCD (Content Creator Data) project. The project was funded by a grant from the Library of Congress NDIIPP program. Its purpose was to create a standardized method for the collection of metadata and the delivery of recorded music masters.

By 2012, he had founded Crowded Head Industries, a digital asset management firm for the entertainment industry. Clients include: Epitaph | ANTI | Hellcat Records, Jonas Enterprises, Disney Music Group, Hollywood Records, Rise Against and more. Continuing to expand, in April of 2014, Crowded Head Industries purchased Full Moon Studio and the Oconee School Of Rock, in Athens, GA.

In 2015, Jason was presented by Disney Music Group with an RIAA plaque for his work, commemorating global sales for the Walt Disney Records Soundtrack “Frozen”.

Jason lives in Los Angeles with his wife, 3 daughters and 2 dogs and believes that the Beatles created the best music there ever was or will be. He also bowls for Epitaph Records every year at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas.

Rob Ellenberg

Rob is a freelance production sound mixer with experience in film, television, commercials, documentaries, and more.

Some of his projects include work for Disney, E!, Sony Entertainment, HGTV, Wired Magazine, the Coachella Valley Music Festival, and the Bonnaroo music festival.

He has worked with talent such as Paul McCartney and James Franco, as well as directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Lee.

Rob attended CRAS in 2009, graduating in 2010 after completing his internship at Soundworks Post production facility in Los Angeles.

Jacob McNaughton

“I was born from sound, in Phoenix, from the ashes of my father’s dreams – grew up with a Roland synth/sequencer and Yamaha four track tape recorder for toys, toys became tools, years passed, I discovered computers & never left my room, graduated from high school, confused, moved to Austin Texas, put on a tiger mask, DJ’d for rowdy college kids in living rooms and empty clubs, made friends, made a lot of music/cherished memories, starved for artistry, then, desiring food, moved home to attend CRAS, worked & studied ’till my eyes bled, (signal flow, console lust, homework due, test on test, mic check, burned up in the courtyard,) a blur, woke up in Los Angeles, more starving scrounging, worked until my eyes bled, promotion promotion – now I’m the Foley Mixer for a handful of TV shows, feeding myself (working bloody eyes) in a chrysalis wherefrom I’ll moth-burst into the stratospheres of audio – wherever my wings take me. Hello.”

Ari Blitz

Ari Blitz is a Vice President and Senior Engineer at AfterMaster HD Audio Labs (Justin Timberlake is co-owner of company).

A top graduate from CRAS in 2008, Ari applies his leading edge knowledge and unique technical skills in advanced digital audio processing technologies to develop groundbreaking audio technologies such as AfterMaster and ProMasterHD.

In addition to his research and development expertise, Ari is a music producer, mixer and mastering engineer who works on music for some of the worlds top artists including Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, Ricky Martin, Akon, Busta Rhymes, French Montana, Pitbull, Nick Cannon, Jill Scott, Adam Lambert, Collie Buddz and Alice Cooper.

These graduates will be on our Graduate Panel October 1st, 2015, giving inspiring advice to our students.  If you are in the area and would like to attend, the panel will start at 1:30 PM at our Gilbert location, in our Live Sound Venus.

Watch our last Graduate Panel from July below and get an idea on what a great panel this is to attend.