Sacramento, CA (November 13, 2025)—Florin High School, in the Elk Grove Unified School District just south of downtown Sacramento, Calif., offers a bit of everything, including, as of a few years ago with the completion of a professional recording studio, Audio and Music Production, better known as The AMP Academy.
The AMP program is led by teacher John Cronin, who developed it into a three-year California Partnership Academy program within the Career Technical Education department. The studio opened in 2022, and last year went pro with the arrival of an Audient ASP8024-HE console.
Inside Hofstra University’s New Music Recording Studio
“The studio features a large control room and tracking space separated by an acoustically treated wall with a large window,” Cronin explained. “In the center of the control room is the Audient. We opted for the double–producer desk configuration, with 24 tracks on the left-hand side and the mastering section on the right-hand side. We also have an Avid S3 for DAW control under a widescreen computer monitor, and an external patch bay installed just to the right of the console.
“Additionally, our students dig into a variety of industry software, with Ableton Live being our bread and butter,” Cronin noted. “Logic Pro is our secondary DAW, and we dig into iZotope software, including Rx, Kontakt and other Native Instruments tools, Xfer’s synthesiser Serum and the Krotos suite for sound design.”
The AMP Academy program is broken down into Introduction, Intermediate and Advanced Audio & Music Production classes. Last year, nearly 150 students were enrolled in the program.
It has grown beyond music production and now serves students pursuing a career in general digital music production, studio recording, live sound, sound design or sound for film and television.
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“I have to give a major shout out to Kirt Shearer [Commercial Music Program Director at American River College] for helping me configure our new recording studio,” Cronin said.
Said Shearer: “Incredible program, the likes of which I have never seen at a high school.
