NMU Alumnus producing the future

MARQUETTE — When it comes to modern music, a lot of people go into writing and producing songs. One former NMU media student has been working on larger projects with some well known names and faces.

A Northern Michigan Alumni is making headlines in the Media world and he’s even been working with some famous artists.

“We work with a lot of beginners to a lot of large tours. I tend to specialize in big studio builds, and some of the larger tours with clients like Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Steve Miller and so forth… Kind of Coincided when I went to school with some Pro Tools labs, which is the software that is primarily, is used as the standard in the music industry for mixing records. I spent a lot of time in the labs when I went there and I had a really good professor who became a really good friend during my time there, Chuck Ganzert, that I got pretty close to and we did a lot of music projects. We also tried to change a lot of the stuff that was going on at the university with technology,” said Mike Picotte.
Even when Mike was working with Dr. Ganzert on audio production assignments he was also taking the time to become the best.

“When Mike was a student here he made the most of his time, because he was one of our lab attendants. And instead of wasting away his time down in the labs, he made sure that he learned all there was to learn about the software in our labs and became so proficient at it, and became an expert in Digitize Pro Tools Audio software,” said Dr. Dwight Brady.

Now Mike is giving back to the department and helping the future audio production technicians learn about the industry and work with new technology.

“When we can get students to come back and contribute as well that they have gone out and done work and have a lot of information and insight that they can give back. That interaction between that current student and the former students and other industry professionals is what can really make this flourish and I’m excited to see that happening now,” said Dr. Mark Shevy.

Mike Picotte continues to help and advise Northern Michigan’s University CAPS Department on all the new and latest technology in audio and media production.