Cleaning up and upgrading the facilities in Clapham Common is taking some time but it's all coming together. The new Studio 1 is up and running, as you can read below, and next month should bring more surprises – but let's not spoil the surprise.

Our courses in february are all full, confirming that during a recession a career in music and entertainment is actually a more likely prospect that one in banking, and looking back, this will probably prove to be a great time to start a career.

As you know, we don't advertise our celebrity students, but many of you have been doing really well since leaving their course, and those that stay in touch continue to benefit from this association. Don't forget that we are here to help: if you are doing something with your music let us know, link to our myspace, send your demos for feedback, let us know where we can buy your tracks. In this newsletter we have a few links to the music of Flavio Diaz, an ex-student that since attending the Music Production course last year has been producing the finest techno and is currently DJing around the world to promote his releases.

Imagine iTunes, with the difference that you can search for a track and play it, from start to finish, with decent audio quality, and it's free, and it's legal, and the artists and record label are getting paid for it. Well, record labels, definitely. But not very much.

How do you start? Go to www.spotify.com and download this little software (which looks remarkably like iTunes except it's a different colour).

Ok, you need to register, which is annoying, and create another password – as if we didn't have enough – and give them enough personal details to break in to your bank account, but it's no different from signing up for any other similar service.

Once you start Spotify you can start listening to radio channels created for you, or make your own playlists just as if you actually had all this music on your hard drive. In exchange for the free streaming of music you must accept a little bit of advertising between songs, and if this gets too annoying you can always sign up for the ad-free premium service at £9.99 per month.

Cool?

On the plus side in these early days there is little advertising and plenty of music to choose from (do they have the Beatles? no – but they managed to get the backing of a lot of Major record labels, so there is no shortage of Britney Spears).

On the other hand you can't download the music, in fact if you hear something you like and want to buy it there is no option to do so, which seems just plain stupid, and the website stinks a bit of corporate evil in all its super-friendliness. The idea is to create a whole social network around this music-for-free, with friends sharing music, bands having their own free-page, etc. Advertisers get to follow what you listen to, what your friends buy, and so on, just as it happens with myspace, facebook, lastfm, etc. While there appears to be limited advertising, Spotify appears to be making a lot of calls to third parties: if you are curious about who it calls and how often, all you need is a software called little snitch (mac only, but there will be certainly something similar for pc).

Miloco introduces variable rates for its Musikbox studio. We at LSS have used this studio a few times for our workshops and can gladly confirm it's an amazing studio. And now apparently, it's almost cheap (in a relative manner of speaking, of course).

'Varirates' basically means that clients will only pay for the staff and equipment they want, by tailoring their own quote down from Musikbox's £ 600.00 / day bookrate. This new setup is perfect for those looking to 'mix in the box', but make use of Musikbox's excellent monitoring.

Musikbox can now be hired for a minimum £ 325.00 / day. This charge covers the use of the Neve VR60 console, all monitoring and the Pro Tools HD3 rig with all plug-ins.

You can select from a range of staff available at a variety of fees. Standard assistants can be hired for £ 85.00 / day, or if you only need a tea boy/girl you can have one for just £ 35.00 / day. If you are considered to be a close 'Friend of Miloco', we'd be happy for you to use the room without staff.

You can then select items from the spec, and be charged for the items you want to use. This will be brilliant for those wanting to use their own gear with the room's console and monitors, as they won't pay for gear they don't need. Items can be selected individually, or within a bundle including all items from a particular category (eg. all the reverbs). If you select enough gear that the quote exceeds the £ 600.00 / day bookrate, it will be capped at the bookrate.

What an idea!! Click here for more info.

Just in time for the start of the new courses we have completed the refurbishment of Studio 1 (to be rebranded Synergy Studio) in Clapham Common.

The studio is based on a Synergy computer running Pro Tools 8 Factory, Digi003, Midi I/O, C24 control surface (featuring 24 high quality preamps), Quested S7 active speakers and a few other bits and pieces. In fact quite a few bits and some unusual pieces: the most notable being a rare Alesis X2 analogue console, which provides additional possibilities to the otherwise all-digital studio. Only 250 of these were made, and over the years the X2 has earned a reputation for breaking down more than an Italian sports car (they do break a lot, in case were wondering). Nevertheless, this one is almost half-working, and we really like the sound of the EQ, so we expect to use it quite a lot.

A Yamaha Clavinova provides 88 weighted keys and a respectable set of keyboard sounds, while the Roland V-Drum sits in the corner for anyone wanting to record some live grooves, or just annoy everyone else in the room.

Twentyfour tie-lines connect the main live room (all brand new cables and connectors) to the patchbays in the control room, so that both the X2 and C24 can be connected in any combination of inputs and sends.

The studio has also been fitted with innovative led spotlights, which cost a fortune to buy but consume next to nothing, look really cool, and hopefully will last much longer than normal halogens.

This studio will be used for the Advanced Studio Techniques course and will also be available to students of the Advanced Mixing and Sound design modules.

Check next month's newsletter to find out who won the Logic competition hosted by Digital Village, and to get details of upcoming events and competitions we are planning for the month of April. We can't reveal much, except that we will be very involved in the launch of some of a couple of really exciting new products – and as usual for those that care to join us, the odds of winning something are ridiculously good.

In March this year we are going to start a new Music Production LITE course, entirely focused on Logic. This course is not as comprehensive as the Music Production 101 course but it's ideal if you have only taken a short weekend course on Reason or Ableton and are ready to step up your game and move to Logic Pro.

The best part is that at half the price of the regular Music Production course and with only one lecture per week, anyone should now be able to get proper training while still managing a busy life. For more info see Music Production with Logic Pro

If you understand techno, if you appreciate good minimal stuff, you have to listen to these tracks.

Myspace

http://www.myspace.com/djflaviodiaz

Digital downloads (beatport)

https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/138912/Thorazine

https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/136276/Mister%20Jetix%20EP

https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/115053/MBD%20Chapter%203

Vinyl releases

We have no links, but apparently all these tracks and more are available on vinyl too and distributed through specialised retail outlets. Long live good old vinyl, we say.

Dj set !!! > show your support: Flavio will be playing at The Egg in London on the 7th of March (and in New York on the 10th of April, if you happen to be there).