Gary Lux of Bennett Productions demonstrates their state-of-the-art concert capture process including a multi camera HD camera package and DigiDesign Venue / ProTools live mixing and recording system.

The West Coast Chapter of the Association of Music Producers (AMP) has announced the election of officers for 2006. AMP represents companies that compose and produce music and sound design for television and radio commercials, as well as commercials and promos for other electronic media. At a recent meeting of the chapter's Board of Directors, Andy Snavley of Bendy Music in Inglewood CA was elected president for a two-year term beginning February 1, 2006. As West Coast president, he also will sit on AMP's national Board of Directors, representing the chapter. Snavley succeeds Liz Myers of Trivers/Myers Music (Manhattan Beach), who remains on the Board.

Snavley said he was proud to be chosen as West Coast president of AMP. "It's my intention to continue our tradition of advocating for composers and sound designers, of expanding our reach into new markets, and providing a forum for professional sound creators," he said.

Serving with Snavley for two years will be Reinhard Denke of Stimmung (Santa Monica) as 1st vice president; Peter Donald of Jazz Planet (Santa Monica) as 2nd vice president; and Tina Reyes of Elias Arts (Santa Monica) as secretary/treasurer.

Other members of the board serving with the officers are: Dain Blair of Groove Addicts (Los Angeles); Howard Dubin of Chris Bell & Company (West Los Angeles); Andrew Hagen of Schtung Music America (Santa Monica); Liz Myers of Trivers/Myers Music; Judy Santi of Team Services (Burbank); Ann Marie Wachel of Soundelux Design Music Group (Hollywood); and Roger Wojahn of Wojahn Bros Music (Santa Monica).
 
The Association of Music Producers (AMP) was founded in early 1998 for the purpose of educating its members, and the production and advertising community as a whole, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use. With its national headquarters in New York, and regional chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Minneapolis, AMP is the first organization to represent the commercial music industry on a broad platform of creative, business and community matters. Production guidelines, legal issues relating to rights, licenses and composer royalties, talent negotiations, industry education, public relations and industry charitable endeavors are some of the bullets on AMP's agenda. At a time when the impact of music is growing exponentially in every broadcast medium, AMP is serving to give the music community a clear voice and the benefit of its own experience. AMP is an affiliate of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP).
 
AMP Website: http://ampnow.com

The West Coast Chapter of the Association of Music Producers (AMP)has announced  the winners of the 4th Annual AMP Awards for Excellence in TV Commercial Mixing. The association represents television commercial music and sound producers, who celebrated the work of their post-production colleagues at an industry party here last night. The AMP Awards are given for a “body of work” which shows outstanding ability in mixing music, voice-over and sound effects in TV commercials (known as “spots”.)  This year's top honor, Mixer of the Year, was presented to Philip Loeb of Sound Lounge in New York.

The awards event took place at the Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills.  In addition to the presentations, the evening’s festivities raised money for the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which encourages public school music education and provides musical instruments to needy students across America.

Mr. Loeb took top honors for TBS "Buttons"; AOL "Quotes-9.0 Launch"; and Fedex “Desert Island." Two other finalists whose work was cited were Rob Sayers, also of Sound Lounge, who mixed spots for advertisers Nextel, Saab and Nike; and Michael Marinelli from Buzz/NY, whose mixing skills were demonstrated on commercials for GE, M&M’s and Xenadrine.

 “This is a tremendous honor," said Mixer of the Year winner Loeb. "Mixing is just what we do, but it’s nice to have someone notice all the finer details.”

The judges also presented a Special Merit Award for newcomer Tim West of POP Sound/Los Angeles.  Honorable Mentions for a particular spot or campaign were also awarded to the following mixers: Tom Goldblatt of audioEngine/Ny for Snapple “Robot”:30-tv; Mitch Dorf of POP Sound/LA for Ford Mustang “Cornfield”:60-tv; Paul Rodgers of Avenue Audio/Chicago for Hallmark “In the Attic”:90-tv; David Baker of Crescendo!/San Francisco for California Milk Processors Board “Russian Family”:30-tv.

A new category added this year by AMP allowed the public to weigh in on which spot sounded best to them from three finalists.  The “Spotted Excellence Award” for the Best Sounding Spot of the year was given to Tom Jucarone of Sound Lounge/NY for Mountaint Dew “Sled”:60-tv.  Also on hand to receive certificates for "Sled" were representatives from BBDO/NY, the agency that produced the winning spot, and Stewart Copeland of Groove Addicts/LA, the composer and featured performer of the musical score.  Other finalists in this category were Toyota “Wheel”:60-tv and United Airlines “Interview”:60-tv.

The event at The Mosaic hotel was attended by 200 of the advertising and entertainment world's professionals.  The emcee for the awards show was Eduardo Xol, the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

"The judges were extremely impressed with the quality of entries this year," said event chairman Liz Myers,  composer and principal at Trivers/Myers Music. "That is the reason we expanded our awards list to include more winning spots.  We also looked to the public for its opinion on what the world likes to listen to in our ‘Spotted Excellence Award.’  All in all, it’s been a great year for outstanding television commercial work.”


The Association of Music Producers (AMP) was founded in early 1998 for the purpose of educating its members, and the production and advertising community as a whole, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use.  With its national headquarters in New York, and regional chapters in Los Angeles and Chicago, AMP is the first organization to represent the commercial music industry on a broad platform of creative, business and community matters.  Production guidelines, legal issues relating to rights, licenses and composer royalties, talent negotiations, industry education, public relations and industry charitable endeavors are some of the bullets on AMP‚s agenda.  At a time when the impact of music is growing exponentially in every broadcast medium, AMP is serving to give the music community a clear voice and the benefit of its own experience.  AMP is an affiliate of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP).
 
AMP Website: http://ampnow.com

Composer / Sound Designer Andy Snavley of Bendy Music and the creatives at The Designory join forces to deliver a unique audio and visual experience for the Nissan USA website Shift_ campaign.
 
“Due to the size and implementation of this site we decided to create an audio design style guide that the programmers could use for the various pages. We broke design and interface sounds into classes and built a simple Macromedia Flash sound board with working sonified buttons and controls. With this tool the web designers could easily make additions and changes to the site without the need to start from scratch with the audio. Intro pages received specialized sound design elements for each vehicle. Additionally we created custom musical elements including an audio mixer and multi zone audio demonstration. It was a blast working with the Designory team.” Says Snavley of Bendy Music.

The West Coast Chapter of the Association of Music Producers (AMP) announced today the winners of the 3rd Annual AMP Mixer Awards. AMP is made up of television commercial music producers who celebrated the work of their post production colleagues at a spirited presentation here on Saturday, April 24, 2004. The awards are given for a body of work which shows outstanding ability in mixing music, voice-over and sound effects in TV spots. This year's top honor was presented to “Mixer of the Year” Bob Gremore of Mike Recording Services in West Los Angeles.

The awards event was created by the Association of Music Producers, and this year took place in the ballroom at the famous recording studio, The Village, renowned in the recording industry as the site where Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", the Rolling Stones' "Angie", and Smashing Pumpkins' "Meloncollie" (and hundreds other top-ten albums) were recorded. In addition, the musical event raised money for the Mr. Holland‚s Opus Foundation, which encourages public school music education and provides musical instruments to needy students across America.

Mr. Gremore took top honors for three 30-second commercials, Ford "Submarine"; Discovery Channel "Nerfertiti"; and Altoids "Guinea Pig." Two other finalists whose work was cited were Jimmy Hite of Margarita Mix de Santa Monica, who mixed spots for advertisers Kill Switch, Infinity and Chandon; and Peter Rincon from P.O.P. Sound, whose mixing skills were demonstrated on commercials for Chevy, the U.S. Army, and Ameriquest.

Bob Gremore, the Mixer of the Year winner, when asked afterwards about the honor said, “As far as I know this is the only award of its kind for the work we do. After hours spent in the studio, it’s nice to have someone notice the well-mixed TV commercial.”

The judges also presented a Special Merit Award for newcomer Craig Helmholz of Crescendo! Studios/San Francisco. An Honorable Mention for a particular spot or campaign was also awarded to Robert C. Marshall of Another Country for his work on Budweiser’s "Baseball/Moat.”

The event at The Village was attended by 200 of the advertising and entertainment world's "glitterati". The emcee for the awards show was Roger Lodge, the irreverent host of "Blind Date." Celebrity presenters included Olivia d'Abo of "Law and Order," Victor Williams of "King of Queens," Kelly Rutherford of "Melrose Place," Geoff & George Stults of WB-TV's "Seventh Heaven," actress/musician Persia White, musician/actor Leon, and Grammy award winning Latin artist, Eduardo Xol.

Liz Myers, event chairman from AMP, was asked about the event stated, "We were extremely lucky to have such a talented group of musicians and actors who banded together to bring attention to good TV commercial work and to support a charity that is essential to our children's education."

The Association of Music Producers (AMP) was founded in early 1998 for the purpose of educating its members, and the production and advertising community as a whole, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use. With its national headquarters in New York, and regional chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Minneapolis, AMP is the first organization to represent the commercial music industry on a broad platform of creative, business and community matters. Production guidelines, legal issues relating to rights, licenses and composer royalties, talent negotiations, industry education, public relations and industry charitable endeavors are some of the bullets on AMP's agenda. At a time when the impact of music is growing exponentially in every broadcast medium, AMP is serving to give the music community a clear voice and the benefit of its own experience. AMP is an affiliate of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP).
 
AMP Website: http://ampnow.com

Composer / Sound Designer / Engineer Andy Snavley, formerly of CB+Co., launches Bendy.
 
Snavley began composing music, sound designing and mixing for advertising in 1995 at the bi-coastal “tomandandy”, having worked in the film sound business prior. In 1997 Andy was given a position at Chris Bell Music and Sound Design (hence since called, CB+Co.) where he composed music and sound design for many clients including: Lexus, Nike, Coke, Toyota, Farmers Insurance, Saturn, and San Jose Mercury News where his efforts earned a Clio award. Snavley also became deeply involved in music and sound design for interactive projects and was instrumental in the launch of the Tonedog division at CB+Co,
 
Says Andy, “Bendy is the company I have always envisioned. It’s a place were creativity is uninhibited and experimentation is a must. In other shops I have seen what has worked, what hasn’t, and combined that with my own vision and technological approach. Launching Bendy has been a natural transition for me, as we usher in a new era of advertising and business, so must we change the way we think about our creative work. This is a great time to be excited about our work and our industry.”
 
Recently Bendy has signed on collaborator Josh Sklair, who is best known for his work with artists such as: Etta James, Sofie B. Hawkins, The Blues Brothers, and others. Sklair recently won a Grammy for an album he co-produced for Etta James called, “Let’s Roll”. Josh has been involved in advertising music as both musician and composer for well over 10 years working for clients: Honda, Porsche, GM, Budweiser, Millers Genuine Draft, Coke, and many more.
 
“When Andy first told me of his vision for a new music company I got really excited, I have known Andy for a long time and we have always done great work together, his genius for music and sound is undeniable. At Bendy I am able to channel my experience, energy and creativity into an open environment of total expression.”