Two recently completed projects by the Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) have been nominated for the 2020 NAMM TEC Awards Outstanding Creative Achievement Award in the Studio Design Project category.

“We are pleased to have both Stitcher Studios and the Zhejiang Conservatory Of Music (ZJCM) nominated because they so beautifully illustrate the diversity of our client base,” said WSDG partner/director of business development, Sergio Molho. “We are especially excited about the prospects for winning our twelfth NAMM TEC Award, as we are beginning to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Founding Partner, John Storyk’s very first project, Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix.”

To date, 31 WSDG designed studios (including five multiple-entry nominations) have vied for TEC Awards since the event debuted in 1985. The company’s most recent win was the Boston Symphony Orchestra Control Room in 2017. It received the 2016 TEC for Paul Epworth’s The Church Studio in London, and the 2015 TEC for the Berklee College of Music, 160 Massachusetts Avenue complex in Boston, MA.

Stitcher’s 2000 sq. ft. podcast production studio is a key element of the firm’s 20,000 sq. ft. headquarters overlooking Manhattan’s Bryant Park. Stitcher provides a 360-degree suite of production, distribution and monetisation services to podcast creators, artists, entertainers and thought leaders.

Meanwhile, ZJCM, the Zhejiang Conservatory Of Music in Hangzhou, China, is one of the largest and most ambitious projects in recent WSDG history. Set on a 100-acre campus within an ultra-modern 8000 sq. ft. two story building, ZJCM’s 3200 sq. ft. live recording studio can host sessions of 100+ member orchestras. Its’ 26 ft. high ceiling is distinguished by an oval ceiling cloud which serves as both an acoustical treatment and a unique lighting element. The school’s live room is also used to record feature film scores and professional concert performances while providing students with real-world production experience.

“The fact that these two studio projects are so dissimilar in size and purpose makes our NAMM TEC Award Nominations all the sweeter,” Molho added. “It speaks not only to the diversity of these particular projects, but to the incredible breadth of our industry itself. We are living in extraordinary times and we work in an amazing field. We congratulate our fellow nominees, and are proud to participate in this wonderful event with them.”

Ballots for the online voting period (Nov 20 – Dec 31 2019) will be distributed online. The 35th Annual 2020 NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards will be presented on Saturday evening, January 18, 2020 in the Pacific Ballroom at the Hilton Anaheim Hotel.

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The recipients of the 2019 Berklee College of Music Scholarship have been announced.

The Storyk/Molho Family Scholarship Award was established in July 2018 with a gift to Berklee College of Music of $20,000 by the families of Berklee graduate David Molho, (and upcoming graduate Ivan Molho) and WSDG Founding Partners Beth Walters and John Storyk.

The Scholarship Award was created in memory of John’s father, Les Storyk, a great believer in education and the arts.

The Fund will support academically and financially deserving students in their later semesters of study in the Music Production & Engineering (MP&E) program. John Storyk serves as an adjunct professor of Studio Design and Acoustics at Berklee College of Music.

He, along with the entire WSDG family are long-time supporters of Berklee and have been responsible for the design of many of the College’s studios over the past 15 years, including the 160 Massachusetts Avenue Complex in Boston, and the Berklee Valencia, Spain Music Production Education Complex.

“We congratulate this year’s recipients, William Yeo and Arthur Palgi,” John Storyk remarked. “And we wish them well as they pursue their careers in the industry.”

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Podcast company Stitcher has built out larger production facilities in both its New York and LA offices with the help of the Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG).

Providing a 360-degree suite of production, distribution and monetisation services to artists, entertainers and thought leaders, Stitcher is the parent company of leading comedy podcasting network, Earwolf, as well as Midroll, the company’s advertising and sales arm.

“Our brand new headquarters are in an incredible 20,000 square foot space in midtown Manhattan overlooking Bryant Park. We identified a specific footprint of about 2,000 square feet to be our new production studios,” said chief engineer John DeLore. “From the beginning, we worked closely with Romina Larregina [WSDG project manager] to define our operational needs, both present and future, and to weigh those against the available space.

“The end result is a beautiful suite of three studios and two edit rooms, plus two additional ISO booths. We can accommodate anything from a one-on-one interview, to an eight-person roundtable, to the recording of live music in our Studio A.”

DeLore also noted that most consumers of podcasts listen in earbuds or headphones: “The voices are right there next to your ear drums, so we need to be extremely particular about getting high-fidelity sound up front. That starts with the room design, and WSDG understood how vital it was that our design incorporate complete room-within-room, floating floor isolation to preclude any leakage. Key gear components include Sennheiser microphones and Neumann Monitors.”

Romina Larregina believes Stitcher’s studios epitomise the concept of uncompromising attention to detail: “Decoupled floors, wall and ceiling structures were implemented to insure the level of isolation required between the various studios positioned adjacent to each other,” she explained. “A clean, bright, straightforward floor plan optimises every inch of allotted floor space with the most appropriate acoustic treatments to further enhance the overall high quality sound environment. Studio A was designed to set frequent musical guests completely at ease for their performance sessions. Stitcher Studios represents a new standard for podcast production.”

Image credit: © John Muggenborg

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AMI hears from Dirk Noy, Partner and Director of Applied Science and Engineering at WSDG, about the company’s Acoustic Simulation Lab in Basel, Switzerland…

How did the lab first come to fruition?

The room was opened in September 2018 and we invited some people over for a ceremonial launch event. We worked on it with a team here locally and it took around two to three months of construction to build.

It’s kind of a modular approach – the room was already existing so we just had to put some furniture in there along with some acoustic treatment for absorption and diffusion on the walls and ceiling. When we moved here about 18 months ago the room was left empty for a long time. It’s in the basement which is tough to use for anything else, so it got to a point where we finally decided to make use of the space.

How does the testing process work?

When running acoustic simulations, you have a dry signal like speech or piano recorded in an anechoic environment, and if you listen to it, it sounds completely anechoic with no reverb on it. This is usually used as a base file where the simulation program will add the reverberation signals as they occur per the calcs, and you create a stereo wav file that you normally listen to on headphones, although this doesn’t always work perfectly – I mean who wears headphones in a concert hall?

What really opened our eyes was when we started to play around with VR goggles. Users are placed in a virtual 3D space and as they turn their heads with headphones on, they will hear no change in the audio effect regardless of where they are looking in the space, as the headphones are basically glued to their ears. However, if you get rid of the headphones and install a number of loudspeakers, you can move your head to the right side and actually hear the reflections off the right side wall (reproduced by the loudspeaker that sits in that area). We then started testing the simulation software itself because we needed to make sure that our simulation program can actually generate the multidimensional files.

We’re using a program that can create a 5.1 simulation – which we then employ on two height levels – and it is also set up for 9.1, or rather 9.2 because we have two subs. We have a nine channel audio file being replayed from a DAW to all nine loudspeaker channels simultaneously. The program takes around two days to generate the files, because it takes a dry signal and generates all those reverb contents to it. We’ve not done it yet, but you could listen to a regular 5.1 or 7.1 mix in the lab as well if inclined to do so.

To do the simulation process correctly we’re using a simulation program called CATT-Acoustic, where you can transfer your room to a 3D model inside the software, and then dress it up with materials on each surface. From that information, if carefully entered and calibrated correctly, you can then insert the audio file into the program and it will calculate the simulation files overnight. You can pretty much use any audio file you want – up to now we’ve done small concert halls with piano, speech and a choir, as well as an ice hockey arena and a train station. You could even put a piece of machinery inside a factory hall or another functional space and see what’s happening when you bring in a sound absorption panel etc.

How exactly are you putting the lab into practice?

I’ll use the train station as an example, because we recently got a dry speech signal from the train operator here in Switzerland using the actual chime and voice that they use on the platform, and we were therefore able to mimic that space and test it acoustically.

This is not a production space but a dedicated listening lab – that is the main purpose, although it must be said that it’s not in use every week. A project has to be of a certain size to make it meaningful. In the last couple of months we’ve had three or four successful projects where some client teams have come in to look, listen and talk.

In terms of products, clients usually don’t care about this side too much, as long as it sounds good. We’re using the manufacturer’s data to produce the simulation files, so in the acoustical program we can select a loudspeaker type or model and it will of course change the sound of the space depending on the product chosen.

What do you hope to achieve with the lab in the long term?

It was a significant investment so we’re very motivated to make use of it. Let’s take the train station example again. If we have a client who is a station architect, they may have very little understanding of acoustics, so if we can let them listen to two or three acoustic treatment options with two or three loudspeakers options, we can have intelligent conversations with them about acoustical topics. They can then make a determination quite clearly about what they like and don’t like, even if they’re not familiar with the technicalities and terminology.

With the lab, we’ve tried to be simple but still comprehensive enough so that our hearing understands it as a three-dimensional sound field. I think at the moment, 9.1 is actually a good compromise in terms of representing reality – which is totally complex and has hundreds of thousands of sources – as best we can, while still being manageable in a project environment.

Because we are an international firm, we now have testing labs in New York and Berlin, which provide our global clients with these same options. The Swiss lab however was the catalyst for the original idea, and the room itself really does sound amazing.

I guess the main purpose is that it’s an application based setup that facilitates dialogue between acoustical experts and clients, audio architects and users of the space. The real value is that users can compare different degrees of acoustical treatment etc. – it makes it possible to base an educated decision on an issue that will make a meaningful improvement to the client’s environment and workflow. Apart from its role as an acoustic simulation lab, it’s a decision facilitator and dialogue enhancer!

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The March edition of Audio Media International is now available online.

In this issue, Colby Ramsey speaks to the owner of Beechpark Studios, a Dublin-based studio that is celebrating its 25th anniversary against the backdrop of AES this month.

Meanwhile, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter John Parr gives AMI the inside story about his studio Somewhere In Yorkshire, Daniel Wray talks to British punk producer, engineer and mixer Nick Launay about his 40 years in the business, and NUGEN Audio’s co-founder and now CEO gives us some insights about the company’s journey so far.

Elsewhere in the mag, Rosewood Studios’ owner Ed Scull talks us through the dos and don’ts of building a studio, and WSDG’s Dirk Noy reveals all about the company’s Acoustic Simulation Lab in Basel, Switzerland.

As usual, an assortment of interesting opinion pieces can be found towards the front of the mag, while the back pages feature a number of cracking product reviews including Genelec, HEDD, Sennheiser and Cubase 10!

Read all this and more in the latest issue of AMI online, here.

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WSDG Walters-Storyk Design Group has recently completed a world-class Music Production & Education Complex for the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music (ZJCM) in Hangzhou, East China.

Housed inside an ultra-modern 8000 sq. ft. two-story building, the new facility features a 3200 sq. ft. Live Room with a 26 ft. high ceiling. It is believed to be one of the world’s largest recording studios dedicated to educational projects, able to host sessions of 100+ member orchestras.

The conservatory’s twelve academic departments provide nearly 5000 full-time students with professional educational programs on composition, conducting, vocal and musical instrument performance, recording, and technology. Completed in 2016, the campus includes nine concert halls, 102 rehearsal halls, 842 practice rooms, and six small studios.

Led by WSDG founding partner John Storyk, and partners Sergio Molho, Renato Cipriano and Silvia Molho the firm’s 50+ member, creative and technical design team contributed to the collaboration. “A project of this scale requires extremely well coordinated design and technical input,” Cipriano said. “Our Basel, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany offices developed sophisticated 3D room modelling and electro acoustical surface predictions which were invaluable in establishing an extraordinary acoustic environment for the large live studio.

Equal attention was devoted to the 650 sq. ft. Control Room, which features a panoramic floor-to-ceiling window view into the live room. Our Latin office provided extremely accurate renderings, our US and Brazil team performed brilliantly on overall design and the creation of innovative acoustic solutions. And, our Miami- based Partner/Art Director Silvia Molho made a major aesthetic contribution with her interior design talents,” he added. “We also developed a noteworthy and cost-effective variable acoustic treatment for the live recording studio. Each of the expansive live room’s four walls was fitted with a 26 foot-long floor-to-ceiling, absorbent curtain hung from heavy-duty, silent, motorised tracks. Deploying these curtains can provide as much as a 50% modification of the room’s average reverberation time.”

“We were committed to providing ZJCM with an outstanding technology package,” said DTM technical director, Johnathan Wang. “For the audio system, we recommended the top-level SSL Duality console and PMC QB1-A flagship monitor speakers as an unparalleled sound system. Considering ZJCM’s ‘World Class’ goals for their new studio exquisite décor details and superb acoustics and isolation design were critical.

“Our collaboration with WSDG has been extremely satisfying,” commented ZJCM deputy dean music engineering department, Mr. Huang Xiaodong. “Their design work was impeccable, their communication with our staff and contractors was exemplary and the acoustic and aesthetic quality of the completed studio complex has met our highest standards.”

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There may often be a common misconception about podcasting, and while some might be quick to assume that they are made in a kitchen with some kind of rudimentary setup, there are in fact a number of big companies putting in a lot of time, dedication and money in order to research, create and distribute their high quality content.

With New York and LA playing host to some of the largest dedicated podcast studios, competition between and within these two hubs is fierce, and podcasting as a medium remains as popular as ever. WSDG Walter-Storyk Design Group recently took on the task of designing and building some of these facilities, each with their own specific requirements and individual challenges.

One of these was Gimlet Media in New York, where many of these bespoke podcast studios are coming to life. Gimlet itself was a company that – in around a year and a half – expanded extremely rapidly and outgrew their original studio space. They went from a very small facility to a 20,000 sq ft. floor in Brooklyn, dedicating 2,700 sq ft. of this to studio space, as WSDG partner and director of production Romina Larregina explains.

“We hit it off straight away; they were very smart and extremely engaged with every process of the project,” says Larregina. “There was a lot of collaboration and a lot of listening and communicating. Fitting the entire programme into their footprint and making it work was extremely challenging."

The company required 12 podcast studios in total plus a recording studio, each with their own specific requirements. The podcast rooms had to allow enough space for participants to have that essential face-to-face interaction, while there was a lot of discussion and layout changes based on the amount of space needed in each room. “We went to town with them to work out exactly how we would custom build each of these rooms and fit them into the designated footprint,” Larregina adds. “What was more challenging was that even though each room was a different size for a specific amount of people, they all had to behave acoustically exactly the same, and the reverberation time in each of them had to be identical.

“A half hour podcast is often edited in five to seven of these rooms over the course of a week, so the rooms have to sound the same when it comes to mixing it all together. This was also challenging in terms of determining exactly what acoustic treatment we put in the rooms and the amount, while also trying to stay within a reasonable budget.”

The technology requirements at Gimlet Media were also rather reasonable; a collection of high quality mics and a Dante audio networking system to manage and secure all of their recording equipment and data.

The podcast studios themselves are three quarters fully isolated, with a double wall construction design and an acoustic lid on the ceiling, but no floating floor. With an effective carpeting system instead, WSDG was able to mitigate the sound leakage between each small podcast studio. The recording studios had to be fully floated and isolated however because the team wanted to avoid podcast recordings being interrupted by music sessions.

“A common theme with many of these big companies making studios in New York is that they create their own music for their content, which is financially very efficient for them because they’re not having to pay royalties for songs,” Larregina observes. “Which is why there is a demand for these recording studios – there’s so much work and thought that goes into researching and creating this content.”

Another facility which WSDG helped build is Midroll Media, which recently merged with podcast listening service Stitcher. Here, many of their rooms are used for podcast recording as well as a lot of editing duties, so they needed to have the exact same setup as a recording studio, as well as being acoustically identical. This particular facility also required a live room, control room and an isolation booth.

“While working on the New York facility, which we built from the ground up, we were contacted by their LA facility – which was already built and finished – to fix the current sound isolation and interior room acoustics in their rooms on the West Coast,” says Larregina. “What was interesting here was that, as we were also involved in the audio-video systems design, there was a lot of conversation with the engineers from both facilities to make sure all of their workflows and equipment were aligned and compatible.”

Perhaps the most familiar name to rely on WSDG for their podcast studio build however is Audible, the original audio book company which was acquired by Amazon in 2008. “We built a small facility for them across one floor in 2007 but after the buyout, they expanded to the other floors of their building in Newark and called us back,” Larregina reveals. “We were able to re-use the studios that we built for them before because they were prefabricated booths.

“Their requirement was also to try and maintain the same setup as previous, albeit with slightly larger control rooms and iso-booth studios. They also required a green room and lounge area for when famous faces come to the studios to do audio book readings in the celebrity booth!”

All of these rooms are 100% fully isolated with very low ceiling heights, which proved extremely complex for the design and build teams. “As well as isolating all the walls, floors, and ceilings, we had to bear in mind all the requirements in terms of the conduits and how they run, HVAC placement etc. – They all have implications for the way these rooms are designed,” adds Larregina. “There was a lot of intricate designs on this side to make sure there were no stray connections between the rooms when they were fully isolated. They had to make this happen quickly though as demand was very high, and we were there every week checking the site during the construction phase.

“After all the hard work, it’s great when you do all the acoustic testing and measure the noise criteria and every room meets the spec. It’s very pleasing indeed,” Larregina concludes. “All of these projects met the client’s and our expectations in terms of isolation and how the rooms really function. There’s a lot of companies wanting to make these kind of rooms now which is really cool.”

www.wsdg.com

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Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) has been nominated in the 2019 NAMM TEC Award’s Creative Studio Design category for its work on Sonastério, a studio carved into the mountains of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Early in 2015, Bruno Barros, a young musician/engineer completing his education at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA, decided to create a destination studio in Belo Horizonte. His family retained famed Brazilian architect João Diniz to design a luxury home overlooking the Minas Gerais mountain range, and also engaged Belo Horizonte-based WSDG partner/director of design, Renato Cipriano.

“Superb acoustics begin with geometry,” said Cipriano. “We worked hand in glove with the architect to ensure that every square foot was precisely calibrated. The high comfort level set the stage for an extraordinary recording experience.”

The 750 sq. ft. live room boasts a 20 ft. ceiling height, an 80 sq. ft. iso booth, panoramic mountain views, custom ceiling clouds outfitted with a pro lighting grid to facilitate video shoots, and a sunburst studio logo hand-painted over an acoustical broadband wall treatment. Inside the 420 sq. ft. control room is a SSL AWS 924 mixing console complemented by Augspurger Duo8 speakers with 12 in. subwoofers, a collection of outboard gear and systems integration by Ground Control.

Barros commented, “Sonastério Studios is a work of art in itself. More than just a recording studio, Sonastério is a house of creation designed to enhance the natural expressiveness of each artist. It is the result of a collaboration between João Diniz Architecture which has a wide portfolio of award-winning designs, and WSDG, Walters-Storyk Design Group, a world-renowned acoustic architecture design firm and multiple NAMM TEC Award-winner.”

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At the AES 145th Convention at New York’s Javits Convention Center recently, I chaired a panel comprised of leading educators from five prominent seats of higher learning: Rob Jaczko, Berklee College of Music – Boston, MA, Paul Lehrman, Tufts University – Medford, MA, Dana Roun, Full Sail University – Orlando, FL, Mary Simoni, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) – Troy, New York, and Cyrille Taillandier, Drexel University – Philadelphia, PA.

You’ll find that beyond their educational chops, each of these panelists is an accomplished music and audio business pro. Collectively, they’ve recorded and mixed numerous gold and platinum hits for superstars ranging from Bruce Springsteen to James Taylor and Don Henley. One has toured the world as a FoH mixer for such legendary artists as Boston and Bon Jovi; another has performed her original award winning compositions in concerts around the globe, another has authored textbooks and magazine articles, consulted with and written documentation for leading manufacturers including Roland, Kurzweil, Yamaha and JBL; and one has served as assistant engineer to Tony Maseratti on multi-platinum albums for P. Diddy, R. Kelly, Jennifer Lopez and Alicia Keys among others.

In short, these panelists are industry superstars themselves, educators who can do, have done and then elected to share their hands on experience and unique perspectives with next generation creative and technological pro audio practitioners. And, many of their graduate students now have challenging careers with companies like Akai, Apple, Avid, Bose, Google, IBM, iZotope, Kurzweil, and Microsoft. And, not incidentally, none of these companies will even interview a potential hire without a college degree.

Entitled “What’s Driving The International Pro Audio Education Boom,” our panel was designed to explore a phenomenon that has emerged over the past few years as a formidable new trend in contemporary education. As with medicine, law, physics and other demanding fields, colleges and universities have, and continue to make, substantial investments in real estate, faculty, dedicated teaching programmes and state of-the-art facilities focused on preparing next generation pro audio professionals.

The field of professional audio has proliferated to encompass a wealth of new ancillary career paths far beyond FoH mixing for Justin Timberlake or tracking Taylor Swift’s next smash hit. Pro Audio expertise is a critical component of Game Audio Creation, the rapidly emerging Podcast field, Algorithmic Composition, Immersive Music Production, Forensic Audio, Electroacoustics, Virtual Reality (VR), and Acoustic Simulation which engages 3D software programs to aurally “visualise” the sound of a proposed room before it is built, enabling architects to correct potential acoustic problems at the design stage.

Universities around the globe are making significant investments in faculty, real estate, and cutting-edge technology in support of large-scale professional audio production/teaching facilities. 2018 looms as a watershed year for new entries: Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), Concordia College (Irvine, CA), TEC Monterrey (Mexico City), and ICESI U (Cali, Colombia), are just some of the institutions creating ambitious pro audio teaching complexes in 2019.

Our panel explored this escalating commitment to pro audio education. Topics included: • What are the issues in designing for technical and creative training? • How do we “future-proof” our new facilities? • Where do today’s (and tomorrow’s) students end up working? • Engineering vs. liberal arts / Dedicated schools vs. traditional colleges: How do we incorporate intensive audio training into a more comprehensive curriculum—or should we?

During the course of our 90-minute discussion each participant provided salient and insightful perspectives on the growing importance of formal education for aspirants for pro audio industry occupations. It quickly became clear that while hip-hop, pop, rap, and ‘rock star’ glory fantasies may inspire their forays into music, only a precious few grab those golden rings. The upside is that the majority of serious pro audio students find a way to monetise their love of music into career-worthy employment, which is one of the benefits of higher education – providing realistic direction for a student’s singular skill set. And, as Rob Jaczko of Drexel University pointed out, those career choices, while not obvious to the incoming freshman, are greatly expanded by their immersion in the University’s wider curriculum.

Outfitted with real-world studio environments, designed to duplicate the experience of working in actual recording, mixing, broadcast and writing studios, and taught by instructors who have enjoyed genuine success in the field, students form technical learning teams and learn how to collaborate to resolve complex production challenges. And, they’re constantly exposed to career options that will guide them towards appropriate career decisions.

Four of the five schools represented by the panel were leading Universities with “big ticket” tuitions, and demanding admission requirements. Many students attend Full Sail University on the Pell Grant Federal Student Aid programme; director of audio education Dana Roun reports that Full Sail students are committed to sticking with the programme. This point is best illustrated by Dirk Noy, a 1996 Full Sail graduate who won an internship at WSDG, became an invaluable member of the firm, and returned to his Basel, Switzerland home in 1997 to open the WSDG European office. Today Noy is a full partner, and Director of Applied Science & Engineering and partner/owner at WSDG, LLC (USA parent company).

Drexel professor, Taillandier, revealed that the university admits only 72 out of 800 applicants, but this stringent acceptance model translates to an extremely light “melt/drop out” rate. Berklee College of Music chairman, Music production and Engineering, Jaczko points out that every Berklee student is already an accomplished musician when they enrol. And, while performing professionally may have been their initial goal, their access to a wide range of music-related potential occupations serves as an inspiration to explore alternate music industry careers which will take advantage of all their skills. Tufts professor Lehrman noted that his University had the second smallest programme on the panel, as most of their students are primarily focused on scientific and electrical engineering careers. However, their pro audio students have built extremely successful careers throughout the industry, and many count their educational experience as a catalyst for their entrepreneurial success.

RPI’s new pro audio education complex opened in September 2018, and while designed to accommodate classes of dozens of students, Dean Simoni and her cadre are ‘breaking in’ the curriculum with a small initial group. They are confident that the new facility will attract the same high-level students as RPI has for almost 200 years.

Every panelist commented on the need for campus pro audio education centres to adhere to sound, professional design and construction standards. They need to replicate the professional production environment, assure students of absolute sound isolation between control and live rooms and other teaching areas, and provide clear lines of site to the consoles and all the video monitors to assure the absolute authenticity of every acoustic and aesthetic detail. Concerns I find particularly gratifying as a studio designer and acoustician.

During the Q&A session following the panel, the question I had been most anticipating was early on the list. ‘Considering the cost of a college education what was the panel’s opinion of Online Education?’ The answers were understandably mixed. A couple were enthusiastic, a couple were cautiously optimistic and one was emphatically opposed to the idea. Those in favour were of the mind that if the online students were genuinely motivated and capable of sticking with and absorbing the material, that benefited greatly from the ability to work without the distractions of a campus life.

My own opinion had just recently changed from sceptical to true believer. I recently became an online author and instructor for Berklee’s new Masters Programme in Audio Production. Having taught in the classroom for many years on the one subject I do know a “little” about (Architectural Acoustic and Studio Design), initially I said no to my involvement both as author and initial first year instructor. Would anyone sign on? Could I provide real world contact in a virtual “online” universe? My concerns were quickly allayed. I now have 41 students in five time zones, a wide range of ages, many with their own studios, and some even in professional groups. They are all grown ups, gainfully and some self employed, motivated, capable of doing the work and – as I’ve seen in just the first few weeks that we’ve been working together – blessed with their own largely realistic game plans for employing the education they’re paying for. All of this has been a very pleasant surprise.

Yet, the panelists and I all concur that a hands-on learning experience in a professional educational environment is irreplaceable. Not only for the knowledge that students acquire, but for the opportunity to collaborate with peers in solving problems, figuring out how to take advantage of the technology. The real reason we are seeing an international boom in pro audio education is that young people will always want to be a part of this business. It’s not just because they can’t get a foot in the door without a degree. It’s that the real world educational experience can’t be duplicated online or anywhere other than on a real-world college campus.

It’s sad in a way to acknowledge that we’ve outgrown the “internship to partnership” process, but hey, the world is constantly changing and we’ve either got to get with the programme or get out of the way. Both worlds are coexisting simultaneously and I am thoroughly enjoying this new dance. They share the common theme of wanting music and recorded content to sound as good as possible.

The post What is driving the international pro audio education boom? appeared first on Audio Media International.

The November edition of Audio Media International is now available online.

In this month’s issue, WSDG’s John Storyk gives us the lowdown on the international pro audio education boom from his panel at AES New York, and discovers how colleges and universities continue to make substantial investments in real estate, faculty, dedicated teaching programmes and state-of-the-art facilities focused on preparing next generation pro audio professionals.

We hear from Hookworms singer and producer Matthew Johnson about how he rebuilt his studio following a 2015 flood disaster, while Rosewood Studios owner Edward Scull tells us about the setup and workflow at his newly-opened recording facility in Surrey, UK.

Meanwhile, in line with this month’s console theme, Stephen Bennett explores the world of hybrid audio systems, Tobin Jones offers his thoughts on the growing popularity of hybrid mixing and recording setups, and we round up some of the most feature-packed consoles on the market in our latest Product Focus.

Leading our reviews section this month, Alistair McGhee tests out Audio-Technica’s ATH-M60x on-ear monitor headphones. Other reviews include Softube’s Console 1 MKII, Waves’ eMotion LV1 mixer, and DPA Microphones’ new 6066 subminiature headset.

Read all this and more in the latest issue of AMI online, here.

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