Student Aftercare and Industry Connections
It’s nice when we get notes like this from past learners. Ironically student aftercare or industry connections are not all over our website. For all of her faults, Margaret Thatcher famously said that being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you’re probably not!
Hi Dave
Just writing with a quick update. After your introduction and advice a couple of weeks back, I have signed a contract for a pack with the guys over at Sample Magic. The first one should be out soon and we’re talking about potential projects after that is released. Some good stuff on the way – I’ll keep you posted
Fully appreciate all of your ongoing, advice and help.
Thanks again!
Nick
More on Nick by Nick:
I joined EMP back in 2011 just when the Garnish School was first starting out. I had been playing keyboards for a number of years and had bought a copy of Logic to try my hand at full production. I soon realised there was a lot more to the production game than throwing drum samples into a sampler and laying down a few tracks on top.
I knew I needed some guidance and started at looking at all of the usual places for some tuition. Dave had just started out at that point, so when I saw the ad for the Garnish School it wasn’t a hard decision to sign up. The EMP course in particular seemed to me to be an excellent proposition with a lot of depth to the material and covering a range of advanced topics. What stood out the most was the 36 hours of face time with a range of impressively qualified tutors who were also actively producing and already successful in their respective areas.
The course turned out to be an incredible experience. The original Garnish school was situated on the top floor in a studio complex out in Hoxton, so there was a really great atmosphere as you could see different musicians throughout the place heading off to recording sessions. Over the six weeks we packed in a huge amount of material working through the NI suite of synths and samplers. There were four different tutors, each of whom were experts in their respective areas. So for the Massive week, Dave brought in Larry Holcombe who was actively releasing Dubstep as part of Rebel Sonix and knew the synth inside out. For the sampling and beat programming week we had Paul Waller, who was working as a dedicated beat programmer in both the US and UK. Paul shared a load of tips for breathing life into drum parts plus some bespoke sounds from his personal library. And so the six weeks flew by as the different tutors imparted a huge amount of knowledge, offered some industry insights and stories over lunch and usually played previews of their work at the end of the sessions.
Dave’s ongoing support after EMP had finished has been as valuable as the course itself. Whatever you want to do, he usually knows somebody who can help you out. When I recently decided to do some sample work, within a couple of hours of sending an e-mail, Dave had made an introduction to the team at Sample Magic, the world’s biggest sample label. This resulted in a few proposals and discussions and then pretty quickly afterwards the first pack being signed, which I am obviously really pleased about.
I personally enjoyed the EMP course a whole lot, it was just massively motivating for six weeks to be surrounded by the other students and tutors all of whom had a huge amount of enthusiasm for making great music.
