The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

Last Thursday, the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences was lucky enough to be one of the stops on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus US tour! Aside from CRAS, they visited NAMM, the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, the Summer X games, as well as countless other locations.

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit, state-of-the-art mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility. In its sixteenth year, with the very newest technology and gear, the Bus continues to be dedicated to providing young people with tours of the studios and participation in free songwriting and multimedia production workshops. With the assistance of three on-board engineers, students learn how to write, perform, record, and produce original songs, produce and shoot music videos and documentaries and complete a broadcast quality music video – all in one day!

We got an exclusive tour of the bus and all of it’s incredible workings! I was amazed that they could really fit all that technology into one bus. From pre-production to post-production, live instruments to video creation, this bus can do it all. Three individual rooms, each separated by audio and visual isolating doors, contribute to the ongoing promotion of audio education in the world. Recently they’ve been touring the United States, but once they are done with this tour, they are headed over to Europe to bring the same amazing show to a new stage.

We will certainly have more about this, but for now, check out our quick video slideshow:

If for the slideshow doesn’t load, you can check out the photos directly on our Flickr.

The Bus is highly adaptable, designed to provide students, their schools and communities with performances, demonstrations, remote recordings, and studio sessions customized for their needs, levels of experience and interest. The Bus travels the country visiting schools, musical and technology conferences and events, and partners with newspapers and other media to host Battles of the Bands with the national winner selected online.  With the NewTek TriCaster 855 and TodoCast-provided satellite system onboard, the Bus is able to produce live multicamera video productions streamed to the web in real-time.  All projects created on board are available for viewing on lennonbus.org, YouTube, and Facebook.

The Bus is made possible through the generosity of sponsors including Avid, Apple, Montblanc, Sony, Neutrik, Musician’s Friend, Gibson, Epiphone, NAMM, NewTek, TodoCast, Mobile Roadie, Audio-Technica, Roland, Boss, JamHub, Sonicbids, Disc Makers, Mackie, Ampeg, Digital Media Academy, Genelec, VOX, True Religion, Litepanels, Manfrotto, Clear-Com, Anton/Bauer, New Bay Media, Copperpeace, Apogee, Applied Acoustics Systems, McDSP, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, Noise Industries, iZotope, Slingerland Drums, and Mad Mimi.  The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is made possible by an agreement with Yoko Ono Lennon.