Podcasters, musicians and other creators can rejoice

This story has been updated from its original version to correct two errors.

Students at Washington State University can now use a new audio lab located in Holland Library to produce podcasts or music recordings with state-of-the-art equipment and technology.

Jason Anderson, who works for the library’s systems department, collaborated with students and faculty to develop a fee proposal to fund the lab. The funds come from a student technology fee, and were awarded in 2019.

“I was looking for data to understand more about what people were interested in or what their needs were,” Anderson said. “Right away, I was attracted to the requests that had come in through prior surveys about an audio function.”

As Anderson began working for WSU in 2018, he was interested to the idea of developing what was framed as a ‘maker space.’

“When I got there, I checked out what we already had and it was primarily just computers,” he said. “I was hoping to find something to move a bit beyond that.”

He reached out to others at WSU to gauge support for providing new resources to students on the Pullman campus.

Scott Blasco, associate professor of music theory, composition and electronic music; Reza Safavi, digital media coordinator and associate professor of fine arts; and Ruth Gregory, director of undergraduate studies for the Digital Technology and Culture Program all played a role in bringing the audio lab to life.

“There was a definite need in almost all of those cases,” Anderson said. “They had students that didn’t have the right equipment or a place to do it.”

He said the library was chosen to provide those resources partly because it’s open 24 hours a day during weekdays.

The audio lab is located in Room 120C of Holland Library’s Dimensions Lab. Reservations can be made on the Dimensions Lab website. It’s available during the semester from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“Right now, we have very limited scheduling in the lab because of COVID-19,” he said. “At some point, I’m hopeful we’ll be able to extend it to have a lot more use.”

The lab can be checked out once every seven days, with sessions booked up to two weeks in advance, according to WSU Insider. It opened Jan. 28 following pandemic-related delays.

In the past decade or so, Anderson says there’s been a phenomenon of libraries and educational settings taking on the role of providing these types of resources.

“There’s a lot of interest in just people creating podcasts and I think that’s still one of the primary interests,” he said. “There’s also students who do a lot of videos or animation and they want to put sound to it.”

The audio lab includes a powerful computer with two displays as well as a microphone, stand and windscreen. It also has four high-quality studio monitors, audio interface, patch bay, headphones, a keyboard and more.

Software among the digital audio workstation includes Adobe Audition, Ableton Live, Reaper, Audacity, Pro Tools and Native Instruments Komplete.

As new technology becomes available, Anderson says the university will do its best to make updates and adapt to those changes.

“I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries already,” he said. “Some are from full-on bands.”

Palermo can be reached at apalermo@dnews.com or on Twitter @apalermotweets.