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In May 2009, Green Day released their 8th studio album titled “21st Century Breakdown” with renowned producer Butch Vig and Green Day’s in house engineer, Chris Dugan. Traveling with Dugan and the band from their Studio 880 in Oakland to Hollywood’s Ocean Way was their rack of Apogee AD and DA-16X’s and Big Ben for connection to Pro Tools HD.

When tracking began, Butch Vig and Dugan set up for a shootout of 2 tracking possibilities; record to analog tape then dump into Pro Tools via the Apogee converters or record directly into the Apogee converters and Pro Tools. To their surprise, Vig, Dugan, and the band all chose the direct connection to the Apogee converters. Dugan mentions, “to a lot of people that don’t really notice the differences between analog and digital but know what they like, those people said ‘that’s the one, whichever one that is’...and it was the Apogee’s.”

Dugan continues, “I was pushing for tape the entire time to take advantage of both tape and the Apogee converters together, but after listening back I had to admit that the digital recording direct into the converters sounded better. We used Apogee AD and DA-16Xs and a Big Ben to record the entire record.”

It’s undeniable that one of the most recognizable name brands in the world is Red Bull. Red Bull has created a complete culture around their energy drinks and young, cutting-edge fan base. Sponsoring events from extreme sports and Nascar to soap box racing and music festivals, Red Bull has positioned itself as the ‘cool’ brand that everyone wants to be associated with. Now enforcing its ‘cool’ in recorded music, Red Bull has partnered with Apogee, one of the most recognizable brands in audio, to provide the best in quality at an opportunity of a lifetime.

In 1998 Red Bull launched the Red Bull Music Academy, a musical workshop that travels the world offering classes, lectures, studio sessions and more to a select group of music makers, vocalists and DJs. Over the years the Academy has visited cities such as Berlin, Barcelona, New York City, Melbourne, Cape Town, Toronto, Sao Paulo and coming in 2010, London. Top applicants from all around the world are chosen to participate in the two week long workshop creating a collision of cultures, expertise, and musical backgrounds. Beginning in Barcelona, Apogee has been there from Duet to Symphony capturing this exciting musical experience with incredible dimension and clarity.

“At Apogee we’re proud to provide the students of the Red Bull Music Academy an opportunity to experience what we have to offer and the sound quality that thousands of producers and engineers around the world enjoy each and every day,” states Patrick Greppi of Apogee.

SAE has announced Apogee as a new partner, thus , they say, completing the 'Power Trio' partnership with Apple and Euphonix. Here's the press release...

SAE's recent partnerships with Apple and Euphonix have enabled its 50 plus international colleges to be equipped with the best in computer integration and software control. Now the final link in the audio chain has been realized with SAE's new partnership with Apogee, a company whose converters and interfaces are regarded as the reference point within the audio industry.

Of course SAE's campuses are equipped with a huge variety of studio set-ups so that their students can experience all sorts of real-world scenarios but, with this latest partnership, thousands of SAE students across the world can now enjoy Apogee's breathtaking sonic quality, from its brand new Duet audio interface right up to the landmark X-Series converters and Big Ben master clock.

SAE 's owner Tom Misner says: "We always strive to work with the highest quality audio manufacturers in the world so that our students can benefit from working with the very best equipment. With our recent partnerships with Euphonix, Apple and now Apogee, we believe we can now offer our students the very best combinations of studio technology and we are very pleased to be so closely associated with what can truly be seen as the Power Trio of the audio world."

Betty Bennett CEO and Founder of Apogee Electronics was quoted: "We are very pleased to work closely with SAE and help to advance the knowledge and skills of those young SAE students striving towards excellence."

Housed in a beautiful 5th Avenue penthouse overlooking Central Park lies Grammy nominated songwriter Denise Rich’s home studio which has become so much more than just your average writing room. Denise Rich holds songwriting credit on numerous hit songs for Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle, Marc Anthony, Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, Diana Ross, Jessica Simpson and many more which demanded the necessity for a high-end studio built in the most convenient of places, home. Now the studio doubles as a writing room for Rich and also as a tracking and mixing facility for Rich’s publishing company, Denise Rich Songs, and also her independent record label, 785 Records. Sitting in the pilot seat each day capturing and producing each session for all three entities is staff producer/engineer, Mike Beck.

Shortly after a complete renovation to the studio’s interior which included numerous gear upgrades, Beck felt there was something missing. “We installed all of this amazing gear creating one of the most desirable rooms in New York but we skipped out on upgrading the converters,” says Beck. “At first I was skeptical that cleaner converters would really make a noticeable difference, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Without the best converters, the rest of our high-end gear wasn't able to shine anywhere near its full potential.” When Beck received approval for upgrading the studios current converters he chose Apogee’s X-Series, which resulted in the purchase of one AD-16X and two DA-16X’s, each loaded with X-HD option cards for connectivity to Pro Tools HD.

Keeping up with her busy schedule, the now Apogee equipped studio continues as Rich’s personal writing room when she’s in New York. “Denise will come in with a co-writer, sit on the couch with a couple guitars and then lay down a few rough tracks. I then take that and make a song around it starting with tracking and programming each instrument all the way through mixing,” continues Beck. When Rich is not using the studio for her own writing, songwriters signed to her publishing company, Denise Rich Songs, and also artists signed to her independent record label, 785 Records, come in to work with Beck on vocal tracking and also mixing. According to Beck, “many artists that come here to work often come back because they just love this room and are amazed at the gear we have here. Apogee is very much a part of that experience. Making the switch to the Apogee X Series was the final step in designing one of the best sounding, most inspiring rooms you can find anywhere.”

Apogee’s X-Series converters are the flagship of the Apogee product line combining Apogee’s legendary conversion with the very best in high-definition digital audio. With features like the famous Big Ben C777 clock, SoftLimit and UV22HR and also an expansion slot for connection to Pro Tools HD, Apogee’s Symphony System, and FireWire, the X-Series has incredible flexibility as well as quality. For more information on the Apogee products visit http://www.apogeedigital.com/products

For more information on Denise Rich: http://www.deniserichsongs.com