Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio

Hello my friends! Just a quick update to let you know that new betas have been released for Soundbooth, Dreamweaver & Fireworks. You can download them now and begin working straight away!** And be sure to use the forums up on labs, and let us know how things are progressing with the betas. We need your feedback, and it's greatly appreciated!

So, you can find everything at the main LABS site, but here are links to the individual apps:

Soundbooth
Dreamweaver
Fireworks

**note: as per the instructions on the Labs page, you *must* have a CS3 version of the aforementioned applications installed in order to use the new betas beyond the two-day grace period. Please read through the 'Getting Started' instructions at the bottom of each beta product page *before* installing. ;)

I'll let you find out about all the groovy details on Labs, but in short: GREAT STUFF! And...we've now got Multitrack support in the new SB beta! Yeah!

In the meantime, Greg, Rufus and I are finalizing our materials for Stuttgart on Monday. Stay tuned for more.

Until next time,

Blog on.

Posted by Jason Levine at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hello, my friends! Well, as my week+ in the Benelux has come to an end, naturally I had to pay a visit to my favorite place of worship...FAME. As I may have mentioned last time, I had a sense that things weren't 'the same'; ie, I just noticed that the 'in-stock' percentage of things seemed to be down quite a bit. In fact, many common things weren't in-stock at all, and most of the esoteric, "only find it at FAME"-type releases that I would normally buy were simply NOT THERE, nowhere to be found.

This, of course, left me rather distressed...but, I'm happy to say that the store is back on top, having contributed to a rather heavy purchase session this last time around. ;) Consisting mainly of 24-bit remastered reissues (along with a few bizarre gems, and some new stuff) I basically picked-up the next batch of tunes that will provide the 'song and inspiration' for the upcoming days of touring. And talk about variety: Jack Bruce, Portishead, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Chet Baker, Donovan, Grand Funk Railroad (just to name a few)....as you can see, I'm really all over the map.

From Chet to Dylan to Donovan to Whitesnake in 6 easy steps...lol

Anyways, as CD sales continue to decline, just let it be known that this old-school cat still can't get enough of that uncompressed sound!! ;) Naturally, everything *will* be ripped into my laptop as AAC256 (which is good enough for the road), but the liner notes/booklets will provide lots of good reading during the brief down-time moments over the next two weeks. (and hey...I've got my Sony MD7506 cans with me, so I can actually listen 'directly' to the CDs!)

So, that's really all for now. Not much of a rant, but another excuse to post, and another opp to plug the upcoming Master's events. Incidentally, we've just learned that Zurich has been cancelled! ;( Unfortunately, I believe the promotions went out a bit late, and as such, the registrations were simply not up to our usual standard. I don't really have any other info beyond that. So, to our friends in Zurich, hopefully we'll get to see you again soon, at another time.

Onto Stuttgart, Berlin & Graz (with a brief stop in Munich). Stay tuned for more!! (and thanks again to everyone in Holland and Belgium for hosting the last couple of events; we can't wait to come back!)

Until next time...

Blog on.

Posted by Jason Levine at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey there! Well, it's been a little too long since my last post (Oy!) and the guilt is almost too much to handle; almost. ;) As such, this is just a brief update (and I'm waiting on some pics, so stay tuned) but wanted to keep everyone up-to-date on what's been happening in the Benelux...

So, we began last week showcasing FMS, Flash, AMP & Production Premium @ the A/V Manifestatie in Hilversum. Alongside our partners, Dutchview, Greg and I conducted multiple presos over two days, largely focusing on the abilities of FMS & Flash, and hyping some of the cool content (and flexibility) of Adobe Media Player.

The only great story I have for you (with regard to bizarre-occurrences on the road) is that Greg and I took the train (each morning) to the venue in Hilversum...and we consistently MISSED THE TRAIN, coming and going, three times! Now, this is NOT a usual occurrence. And what made it even MORE weird? The trains were actually 'there' when we walked/ran up to them. Twice, the doors had already closed, and we simply couldn't get in. The third time, the train wasn't due to leave for another 3 minutes, and a whole bunch of us stood there, trying to get in (with an attendant standing there, looking on) and then we literally watched the train pull-away, whilst we were hanging onto the door! Bizarro! Fortunately, train #4 was just fine, and we've been 'back to normal' ever since. But that was seriously weird. ;)

Jase & Serge Present Together, Multimania, Kortrijk '08

Following that event, we headed out to Kortrijk. In short...Multimania was a blast!! I presented @ the Keynote with fellow Adobe Platform Evangelist, Serge Jespers, to an inspired crowd of nearly 1000 people. The best thing about it? I got to 'sneak' a whole bunch of new technologies and things...and people REALLY enjoyed it! (note: Thanks to fellow Adobe colleague Bert H. for the pics!)

Following the success of Multimania (and an additional session that I presented on HD Workflow and Blu-Ray authoring) I headed back to Amsterdam, while Greg went off to France. We'll meet up again in Zurich, to kick off round two of the 'Master's Tour' along with Rufus.

Alrighty my friends, that's all for now. I've *got* to catch up on email...and sleep.

So, until next time...

Blog On.

Posted by Jason Levine at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that a new episode of my Adobe TV series, "Short & Suite" has been posted!

This time around, you'll see me and Karl Soule talk about the making (and re-making) of Johnny Encore's classic number, Chroma Key You. I'll take you through the process of re-recording a 60s classic, and adding the touches to bring a circa 2008 recording back to the sweet sound of the Summer of Love. BTW - do those background vocals sound familiar to you? ;)

Of course, this is part 1 of 2, so stay tuned for the next episode, coming soon.

Don't forget, you can also access all AdobeTV programs from within Adobe Media Player. If you haven't downloaded AMP yet, do so HERE.

And in case you just don't feel like surfing away from the blog, here's the episode:

Well, that's all for now, my friends. I'll be gearing up for the seminars in Holland and Belgium next week, but I'll be sure to keep you up-to-date as to what's happening 'on the road'.

Until next time...

Blog on.

Posted by Jason Levine at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hey there, my friends! It's been a few weeks since NAB, which means that we're further along into 'glorious springtime'; and all I can say is....Aaachooooo!! (gesundheit!)

Allergies. Blech!!! I have been sneezing my head off for weeks...and I'm literally going out of my mind. I mean, it's bad enough that the weather is so wacky everywhere, but on top of all that, the air quality is, well, not great either. As a result, I've got a runny nose, puffy eyes, and a constantly rotating supply of Visine, tissues, and Alavert added to my usual regimen of travel goodies (oh...and Twizzlers as well).

In any event, despite the allergy-hell that I'm in, there's a WHOLE BUNCH of cool stuff happening around CS3, upcoming events, and some *other* stuff that I just can't talk about (heheehehee). I'm so giddy about all the upcoming events, however, that I was actually full-on smiles yesterday. Want proof? Here's some pics...

Puffy-eyed and smiling...

The *usual* look, which my friend Daniel refers to as 'the Levine'

So, here's what I can tell you so far...Three events coming up in the Netherlands--Correction (puffy eyes to blame, and thanks Jeroen for catching my mistake!)...1 Event in the Netherlands over two days; 1 event in Belgium:

AV Manifestation, Hilversum. 21-22 May.

Multimania! Kortrijk, Belgium. 23 May.

Masters Tour (w/Greg & Rufus) Zurich. 29 May.
Masters Tour (w/Greg & Rufus) Stuttgart. 2 June.
Masters Tour (w/Greg & Rufus) Berlin. 3 June.
Masters Tour (w/Greg & Rufus) Graz. 4 June.

Alrighty, well, that's all the time I have for, as I'm about to hop a plane. I'll keep you posted, and keep sending all the great comments. ;)

Until next time, mes amis...

Blog on.

Posted by Jason Levine at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)