Audio Education 2024, Pt. 2: LIU Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment

Don’t pass up Part 1!

Long Island University’s Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment, founded by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter in 2008, recently unveiled a new Dolby Atmos studio on its campus. Not only is Roc Nation School the first program in Brooklyn to offer a fully integrated Dolby Atmos Music curriculum—in partnership with the Dolby Institute—but the facility is also one of the largest professional Atmos music recording studios in New York.

Designed by Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) and integrated by Pro Audio Design (PAD), the 2,400-square-foot facility features a large tracking space with four iso booths and a 750-square-foot control room. According to John Storyk, WSDG founding partner, “This project is an amazing example of what happens when you take the best of what we do in higher-ed facility design and hip-hop studio work and apply it towards something that benefits the growth of future industry leaders and artistic creatives.”

PAD president Dave Malekpour, who previously designed Baseline Studios, where Jay-Z recorded numerous projects, collaborated with Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and producer Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton on the facility’s audio technology choices. Young Guru, Jay- Z’s longtime engineer, joined Roc Nation in mid-2022 as director of the Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production program.

The school offers undergraduate degrees in applied music; music technology, entrepreneurship and production; sports communication and marketing; and vocal performance to about 300 students, half of them from New York state. “Every detail in the facility was methodically curated for our students,” Young Guru says, “and I’m excited for them to maximize their learning experience on campus and prepare to enter the workforce with an unprecedented advantage.”

The studio is outfitted with an SSL Origin analog mixing console flanked by custom Zaor studio furniture with a 9.1.4 Augspurger monitor setup comprising stereo Duo15-Sub18 speakers with additional Duo8 speakers for the center, surround, wide and rear zones. A pair of Avid MTRX Studio interfaces and a Grace Design M908 monitor controller manage the immersive system. The outboard racks house pieces from Neve, Pultec, UA, Empirical Labs, Avalon and API. The Avid Pro Tools Ultimate rig offers plug-ins galore from the likes of Waves, Antares, SoundToys, Celemony and Universal Audio.

“Our new facility will enable students to gain immersive experience using the latest technology to put themselves in the strongest positions to thrive after graduation,” says Tressa Cunningham, dean of the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment. “It also creates a new opportunity for the school to engage with the larger creative community.”

CONTINUE ON TO PART 3