SPARS president Leslie Ann Jones and entertainer/comic Sinbad
A good time was had by all on Friday, July 22, at Maggiano’s Restaurant at the Grove Mall in Los Angeles, where members of SPARS (Society of Professional Audio Recording Services) and Southern California’s studio community gathered for a luncheon that was co-sponsored by West L.A. Music and Solid State Logic.
SPARS president Leslie Ann Jones (pictured with entertainer/comic Sinbad, a client of West L.A. Music) welcomed members and guests to the meeting. Grammy-winner Jones is also Skywalker Sound’s director of scoring and music recording.
Attendees heard presentations given by West L.A. Music vice president George Adjieff, who discussed the retail company’s turnkey design and installation services for studios, churches, schools and corporations locally and nationwide; and by SSL’s director of commercial applications, Chris Jenkins, who traveled from the UK to demonstrate SSL’s Matrix, its new 16-channel, 40-input analog mixing console, which offers a 16-fader DAW controller for routing outboard processors like plug-ins.
Among those in attendance were Jeff Greenberg, SPARS’ past president and owner/operator of the Village Recording Studios in West Los Angeles; Paula Salvatore, director of Capitol Studios in Hollywood; producer and five-time Grammy winner Val Garay; Solid State Logic president Phil Wagner; and West L.A. Music president Don Griffin and Recording Accessories department manager Mark Spiwak.
SPARS luncheons are designed to create and encourage networking opportunities within regional pro audio communities. “Not only is it a lunch for SPARS members, but we allow the sponsors to invite a certain number of people, as well,” says Jones. “And that’s great, because then the recording studio members of SPARS get to [meet] with those people, as well.”
From left: Ellis Sorkin of Studio Referral Service, Sinbad, and Paula Salvatore, director of Capitol Studios.
“It’s a place where recording professionals can meet and share information with each other, and just see each other in person, [which is important] because so many people are busy running their own facilities every day,” Greenberg says. “We’re really all in the same business. And while some people are competitors, we’re also friends who respect and like each other.”
Jones concurs: “The SPARS luncheons are always a lot of fun because the studio community never, I think, gets a chance to just hang out and chat and catch up when it’s not a convention or an organized dinner thing where everybody’s at separate tables. I think it was really great that SSL took this on to promote their new small Matrix console. It was a very good demo, and everybody had a chance to take a look at it, as well.
“We’re trying to do [SPARS luncheons] more often,” Jones concludes. “We’re getting into AES time. But I’m hoping that the next one will be in the latter part of this year.”
Fore more information on SPARS (and to see more photos from the luncheon), visit www.spars.com. For more information on West L.A. Music, visit www.westlamusic.com, and for more information on SSL’s Matrix, go to SSL’s Website.
