Andy Edelstein

Associate Professor

Affiliated Departments

617-747-2396

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Andy Edelstein is an active educator, record producer, engineer, and multimedia developer. Currently teaching at Berklee Online, he has also served as associate professor and assistant chair of the Music Production and Engineering Department during his 25 years at the college. Using his Pro Tools HD system, Edelstein has produced, recorded, and mixed numerous records from jazz and rock to bluegrass, Celtic, and blues, including the genre-bending Wayfaring Strangers' critically acclaimed Rounder releases, the SpinART debut by independent rockers Apollo Sunshine, and the latest Dry Branch Fire Squad live album.

Edelstein is principal of Rapid Eye Media, specializing in multimedia production services. His design and production work is featured in a series of award-winning interactive exhibits at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Longyear Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts. Consulting clientele has included the Grammy Foundation in Santa Monica, California.

Courses Taught (1)

Career Highlights

Independent record producer and recording engineer
Recordings with the Wayfaring Strangers, Apollo Sunshine, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Andy McGhee, and Bill Gordon, among many others
Principal at Rapid Eye Media, a multimedia consulting and development company
Designer and developer of interactive exhibits for the American Jazz Museum (Kansas City, Missouri) and Longyear Museum (Brookline, Massachusetts)
Author of Pro Tools 101 and Pro Tools 110 online courses for Berklee Online
Member of the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences and the Audio Engineering Society
Former assistant chair of theMusic Production and Engineering Department

Awards

Winner of the gold medal at the NewMedia INVISION Festival (1999)
Winner of the Massachusetts Interactive Multimedia Council Award (1999)

In Their Own Words

"If a course is working, my students are going to learn more about how their brains work, their instincts, their strengths, what's compelling to them, and what they gravitate towards. Students are required to articulate their goals and plans, then critique their own and each other's work. It sounds easy enough but is often quite a challenge. Trying to describe what we're doing and why, and attempting to understand other students' motivations often reveals biases and discontinuities in our own perspectives and assumptions. 'Why?' is often the hardest question."

"In my introductory course, I try to demystify music production and bring a sense of reality to what many seem to see as a fantasy playground. Students often come in with wide eyes and incredible hopes and dreams. Dreams are great, even essential, but they need to be balanced with a fuller sense of what you're getting into, from the joy of creative expression to all-nighters, difficult people, and frustrating limitations. I realize this sounds kind of negative, but being better prepared and knowing what to expect—the positive as well as the challenging—makes it more likely you'll achieve your goals."

"In Music Production for Records, our students do a demo version and a full production of the same song. The point of the demo is to develop and explore the concept so that a version with high production values can be done successfully. It's rare that the demo plays out exactly as expected. What happened? Why? What can you learn from the experience? As you slowly realize that the initial concept isn't the be-all and end-all, that there are other possibilities, maybe you adjust the way you're seeing things."

"State-of-the-art recording studios, although quite nice, are not available to recording artists as often as in the past. But it can be motivating, even freeing, to divorce yourself from traditional practices. Lacking all of those high-end options, perhaps you'll think more creatively. You might come up with things you didn't have before, like interesting acoustics or a different vibe, and that in turn will affect the way you go about the project—often in a highly positive manner."