Audeze profiles Warp Academy founder, streamer and music producer Vespers

Audeze profiles Warp Academy founder, streamer and music producer Vespers

Vespers is a sought-after producer, engineer, influencer, coach, and keynote speaker. Having worked with many of the industry’s heavyweights, Vespers is a highly-regarded thought leader and creative innovator.

In 2013 Vespers co-founded Warp Academy, where he’s assembled a team of top-tier instructors, sound designers, and audio experts. Warp Academy has been recognized as an official Ableton Certified Training Center and has worked with over 50,000 students, empowering them to create exceptional music and live their passion.

"We wanted reference-caliber headphones that gave us the same revealing and accurate impression of the music that our speakers do.  Audeze’s headphones deliver that extremely well, and sometimes expose things that we didn’t catch on our speakers.'  - Vespers

Here's our profile of Vespers:

What is your screen name?

Warp Academy

What are your favorite pieces of software?

For music production we use Ableton Live as a DAW, and then a ton of audio plugin suites.  Some notable favourites are FabFilter, iZotope, Mastering the Mix, xFer, Native Instruments, Valhalla, uHe, Sound Toys, Brainworx, and Sugar-Bytes.  

What team(s) have you played for?

Starfleet, of course.  

What channels do you stream/post to?

YouTube
Discord server
Instagram
Vimeo
Facebook
Official Site

Describe your streaming system:

2020 MacBook Pro i9 16”
Apogee Element 24 audio interface
Rode Caster Pro interface and FX unit with a Rode ProCaster mic
Sony A7SIII cameras (2), Sony PXW-FS5 camera (1)
Logitech Mevo cameras (6) for wireless / battery powered streaming
Black Magic Design ATEM Mini Pro switcher into Livestream Studio, Streamlabs OBS or Zoom
Genaray Torpedo lighting (2) for key and kicker lights
Godox M1 HSI lights for background

What's the next piece of gear/software you want to add?

2022 Apple MacBook Pro M1

Do you have any pet peeves when working?

Excessive heat and fan noise from the MacBook Pro!  Hence the desire for the M1 upgrade.

What is your favorite color?

Some people call it pink, we call it “fighting salmon”

What is the air speed velocity of an unladen African swallow?

Warp 10?

How have your Audeze headphones affected your streams/work?

Our streams involve working with high resolution music, engineering our subscribers’ songs live and offering detailed feedback.  Audeze’s “uncompromised audio” approach has been key.  We use the LCD-1 when we need something light and compact to travel with.  In the studio we use the LCD-X and XC.  Normally when we’re engineering music, we use studio monitor speakers in a mixing studio.  That’s not convenient on a stream due to feedback issues with the voice mic, so headphones are essential.  We wanted reference-caliber headphones that gave us the same revealing and accurate impression of the music that our speakers do.  Audeze’s headphones deliver that extremely well, and sometimes expose things that we didn’t catch on our speakers.  

On a final note, we use the LCD-XCs a ton when we’re shooting video on location with background noise.  You just can’t use typical headphones or earbuds for that, when it’s critical to evaluate things like shotgun mic positioning, and noise floor or hum in your recording chain.  You must have both accurate sound, and the ability to block out background noise.  So, even though it may be a bit “overkill”, we use the LCD-XCs for that too!