Pro Seminar Series

Our seminars are:

Intensive: Our advanced sessions go deep. Looking for seminars that do more than just scratch the surface? This is the place.

Intimate: Seminar sizes are limited to 10 attendees or less. All our seminars are held in ManHatPro's comfortable studio atmosphere. You won't be straining to see over 75 other heads. Instead, you'll get to know your instructor and you'll be able to ask as many questions as you want!

Interactive: We believe that part of professional development includes expanding your network and exchanging ideas with fellow pros. Registration in a ManHatPro seminar comes with an invitation to one of our networking events/parties. What better way to get to know fellow attendees, ManHatPro members, and NYC music pros? Expect to leave our seminars having gotten to know the ManHatPro community!

A Note on Requirements

The Manhattan Producers Alliance training seminars are master classes, geared for music industry professionals. A working knowledge of digital audio workstations and experience as a working professional are prerequisites for all pro seminars. Our seminars are Intensive, Intimate (under 12 in a session) and Interactive.

Our Catalog

The following seminars are offered by the Manhattan Producers Alliance throughout the year as part of our pro-seminar curriculum. For additional details, click on the seminar titles.

Composing for the Screen
"In film, the element of music provides a crucial role in enlivening the narrative. How does a composer find the notes, rhythms, harmonies and instruments that produce the near-magical transformation from simple story to multi-dimensional, multi-sensory -- and often deeply moving experience?" -...

Advanced MIDI Orchestrating and Sequencing Techniques
Your MIDI studio can be a powerful compositional tool for music of any style. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the musical and expressive techniques of using changes in volume, articulation, and tempo, as well as review some basic principles of classical orchestration, to breathe life...

The Art of the Cue
Composing generic cues for TV soaps and music libraries can be a lucrative and fun way of utilizing your creative skills. It can also appear to be deceptively simple, and the process is distinctly different from that of composing a song. Richard Sussman has developed a concept for approaching this...

Logic 8 Day
Come join Apple Logic Pro Trainers Steve Horelick and Jonathan Perl of Mac Audio Trainers for the second in their “Logic Day” series. In this special, full-day exclusive event you’ll get an insider’s look at all of the vast improvements in Logic 8! This latest version of Apple’s pro audio...

Sounds Good
"Most project studio owners already have the gear they need to make better recordings, but lack the skill set that a seasoned recording engineer has in order to get punchy clean recordings. Let’s talk about the basics, some gear and I will give you a few tips and show you a few tricks to get your...

Let's Get Down to Business
This day-long two-part seminar will cover best practices for publicity and promotion, as well as and tricks of the trade for managing clients in a music production setting. Part I - Independent Publicity and Promotion OK, so you're the best producer or engineer on your block. You've got...

Get It Right!
Back by popular demand, Paul Special’s all new seminar covers specific approaches and techniques to the many questions that come up when setting up a project studio, including choosing your workspace, choosing platform/software/gear, acoustic isolation and soundproofing, heating, ventilation, air...

In the Box
This class provides an in depth look at the art of mixing using digital audio workstations (DAWs). It includes demonstrations of specific mixing approaches and techniques on using real life examples. The vast majority of today's commercially released music is mixed inside a DAW. Paul provides a...

From Craft to Commission
Jack-of-all-Trades or Master of One? This course will examine how best to present yourself to filmmakers, how to understand and pre-empt problems once you've got the job, and how to refine your ability to make the right compositional choices. It will also focus on working within restrictive...

Speed Composing
Getting to the heart of different styles of music quickly, such as classic styles vs. contemporary grooves, so more time can be spent refining. Exposure to composition techniques and developing an understanding of core stylistic foundation, and that ability to deliver a project when you're pressed...

Music Preparation
A three hour discussion with Roger Blanc about his experiences handling music preparation for major motion pictures, A-list recording artists, late-night television shows and jingles that will include specific advice relating to workflow tracking, client communications, and analysis of recorded...

Sound Design
The Sound Design seminar will focus on learning a bit of the history of sound design, current practices and how we might combine the old with the new to come up with something unique. Sound design and philosophy of sound for music, theater and picture will be demonstrated and discussed. A part of...