Jamie Anderson

I sent a coded message through an anonymous Internet re-mailer. I knew that Jamie Anderson had to tread carefully, and for that matter, so did I. There are mad dogs loose on the LAB every day of the week ready to accuse honest working guys of conflict of interest, favoritism, good-old-boy networking and who knows what else. Jamie didn’t take his car out of the Mackie/EAW parking lot, because that is watched around the clock by strolling “townspeople.”

I left my rocket car in front of the Prosoundweb.com offices and unobtrusively sauntered down to Peg’s Diner. Suddenly, all the lights went out, a trap door creaked open, and there he was – Jamie Anderson, leaping lithely through and brushing some dust and cobwebs from his stylish garb. I took a seat where I could keep an eye on the front door, and prepared to be enlightened. Jamie did not disppoint.

Jamie Anderson deftly demolished the misunderstandings that some of the public harbors about using Smaart. “I am picking this up to show me the problems in the system. It is not an EQ. It is not an extension to an EQ.” He added that his two main directives to the classes he teaches about using Smaart are “solve the problem at the source” and “use the right tool!”

To put that in concrete terms – Jamie is an advocate of:

- choosing the right equipment to configure a system
- maintaining that equipment in proper working order
- room treatment as a way to make said room sound good
- adjusting delay times of a system with Smaart
- and only having first done all the above, then maybe thinking about touching the EQ functions of the program

Speaking out against “measure-bation,” Jamie explained to me that the main focus of the Smaart classes he teaches is “how do you get a good measurement?” The thrust of the class is to get the students understanding how “to make a measurement that is valid,” getting good information into the computer and verifying it. They learn how to avoid the measurement of irrelevant noise, whether from a mic or within the computer.

Pretty down to earth, which is not that surprising when I learned more about Jamie’s background. After starting out in theatrical lighting, Jamie became interested in the eternal question: “How do I tame the system?” Cues created in studios did not sound the same when played back in the theatre space.

While studying at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Jamie and his classmates convinced Dan Healy and Don Pearson (Grateful Dead FOH and founder of UltraSound, respectively), to let them check out a system one Saturday morning before a Boston gig. Healy immediately laid down the law to the youngsters, that they had better have their theory together, and really understand electronics, if they wanted to eventually work with the big rigs. At school, Jamie went on to learn about SIM, TEF, how to use an RTA, and pink noise.

Clutching his Yale Drama master’s degree thesis in tech design and production, with sound design as the focus, Jamie entered the working world, and taught at USC for a year. Eventually, Bob McCarthy, “one of the guys who created SIM,” offered him a job at Meyer, where SIM II was underway, and Jamie ended up staying there for six years.

SIM is kind of like having three Smaart processors working simultaneously, measuring the output of a console, the output of the EQ in line after that, and a measurement mic, while comparing the three. While at Meyer, Jamie was sent out with the Grateful Dead as a systems engineer and SIM trainer. Previously, the Dead crew had used a Hewlett Packard analyzer.

Jamie began to break the system up into zones, each controlled by a Meyer CP-10 parametric equalizer. Eventually, he went independent. Working for A-1 Audio, Jamie then went on k.d.’s “Drag” tour. He also did “tons of theatre work – opera, installs, and five Montreux and six Telluride festivals.” He has seen it all, folks! Well, not much death metal or gangsta rap, I guess.

I snuck off to meet with my rapper buddies and metal head pals, while Jamie disappeared down the trap door that emerges deep within the hulking riverside complex where SIA Software lives, formerly owned by EAW, now by Mackie. I bought a Peg’s Diner T-shirt from the counterman before I left, just to confuse the opposition. We both had the roast turkey special. Eat at Peg’s!