The run-up to this year’s AES Europe 2023 Convention, being held at Aalto University, Espoo, Helsinki, Finland, May 13-15, continues to build momentum with a strong Technical Program featuring over 40 topical Workshops in addition to research papers presentations, technology demonstrations and networking events.

The myriad of topical workshops highlight breaking technologies as well as audio standards and insights into audio engineering fundamentals.

Day one’s immersive audio workshops sessions include:

“The Why and How Behind Immersive and Surround Recordings,” which will examine the interaction between composers, musicians, producers, engineers and labels in immersive audio production, and a look at the plethora of target playback environments for immersive audio in “Immersive Staging Targets for Various Playback Scenarios.”

The highlight acoustics session, “Secrets of the Low Frequencies – Navigating the Quicksand,” joins additional first day workshop topics including “The Future of Wireless Audio / Headphone 3.0,” “Towards an Objective Understanding of High-End Audio,” and a “Primer to the Temporal Auditory Imaging Theory.”

Day two continues with sessions focused on the 100+ pre-registered student attendees such as:

“What Does it Take to Become a Successful Audio Engineer?,” “What I Wish I Knew (When Starting My Career)” and the first of two of the always popular Student Mix Critiques.

Further sessions include a four-part Enveloping Masterclass series with immersive listening opportunities and Q&As, explorations of modeling and emulation including “Machine Learning for Guitar Amplifier Modeling,” while important sound reinforcement issues are covered in “Essential Elements for Building Acoustically High Performance Spaces” and “Maximum Sound Pressure Level Prediction and Measurement for Live Event Applications.”

Workshops on the third day of AES Europe include:

Vital information on hearing preservation in “Safe Listening – Clinical Review, EU Requirements, Tinnitus and Treatment.”

“The Anatomy of a Recording Session: Where Musical Creativity and Technology Intersect,” features a discussion on using recording studio sessions to study creativity as a collaborative practice. A DIY software engineering educational session on “Creating Audio Plug-ins with MATLAB” is complemented by a detailed look at the now free-to-all web edition of the “AES Perceptual Audio Coders – What to Listen For” interactive online tutorial, which offers a set of valuable listening evaluation tools to the audio community.

AES Europe 2023 Workshops Chair, Aki Mäkivirta states:

“I am very excited about the line-up of excellent workshops in the upcoming AES154 Convention. These will cover the core areas of current developments in audio engineering, ranging from immersive recording and mixing techniques and sound design, to improving personal rendering of audio for headphone presentation, machine learning in the area of audio, virtual and augmented audio, creating plugins with MATLAB, and the design of acoustically high performance spaces. I am confident the AES Convention in Espoo will offer an excellent view of what is important in audio engineering at the moment, and do this at the highest possible scientific level.”

Rounding out the AES Europe 2023 program will be a Friday pre-convention Technical Tour and Workshop, and a Saturday evening Archipelago Sightseeing Cruise.  Sunday evening’s Student Party will be co-organized with Entropy, the electronic music cultural association of the Student Union of Aalto University..

You can read our interview with AES President-Elect Leslie Gaston-Bird on Audio Media International.

Welcome to issue 7 of Audio Media International

The post AES Europe : Workshops Offer Insights on Audio Production and Technologies appeared first on Audio Media International.

AES joins with The Recording Academy’s D.C. Chapter to examine diversity in immersive and spatial audio production in its event titled: “Immersive and Inclusive – A Discussion of Representation in Immersive Audio”

The Audio Engineering Society continues its AES Equity Learning Series program with the upcoming, “Immersive and Inclusive – A Discussion of Representation in Immersive Audio,” taking place online on Saturday, April 29 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm EDT (USA). Part of the AES’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiative, this educational series helps to promote and educate the audio engineering community on the benefits and challenges of creating a more inclusive environment for all professionals.

This online panel discussion and Q&A will be co-hosted by the AES and the Washington D.C. chapter of The Recording Academy, with funding by a grant from the UK’s University of Surrey. Moderator and AES President-Elect Leslie Gaston-Bird will be joined by an international group of panelists: Erin Barra (Arizona State University / Beats By Girlz), Will Kennedy (Studio Delux at Sound City), Emily Lazar (The Lodge), Carolyn Malachi (Howard University), Marcela Rada (University of Lethbridge) and Mika Sellens (Studio 5B). The event is free (registration required) and open to the entire audio engineering community.

The panel will focus on a series of important topics outlining challenges in the industry related to diversity, equity and inclusion, with some of the most prevalent issues to be discussed being access to immersive content creation tools and other barriers such as industry gatekeeping. Panelists will offer insights on appropriate recruitment practices and what gatekeepers can do to help strengthen the overall audio community.

Additionally, the role of mentorship and providing diverse and varied mentorship opportunities will be highlighted, along with ways industry leaders and organizations can help to create a more inclusive and welcoming industry. Panelists will also reveal challenges and successes with industry initiatives such as the #WomenInTheMix campaign, artist pledges, and research into qualitative data that sheds light on a clearer path to possible improvements in the community. A live Q&A session will conclude the event.

Panelists bios, topics and registration are available here.

FIND OUT MORE HERE:  Equity Learning Series Event: Immersive and Inclusive – A Discussion of Representation in Immersive Audio

You can read our feature interview with Leslie Gaston-BIrd in issue 6 of Audio Media International.

Welcome to issue 7 of Audio Media International

The post AES Announces Equity Learning Event: “Immersive and Inclusive – Representation in Immersive Audio” appeared first on Audio Media International.

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) was presented with a prestigious Technical GRAMMY^® Award during GRAMMY^® Week 2023 during a ceremony held by the Recording Academy® on Saturday, February 4, 2023, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles..

AES President Bruce Olson and AES President-Elect Leslie Gaston-Bird accepted the Special Merit Award on behalf of the Society during the ceremony.

“The Audio Engineering Society is celebrating its 75th year at the heart of audio innovation,” noted Olson in his acceptance comments. “From such milestones as the AES Convention introductions of the 45 rpm single, the Compact Disc, the MP3 format, and now streaming audio technology, AES brings together the leading minds in audio innovation and has guided the music industry with standards and best practices that continuously refine the state of the art of audio recording, playback, broadcast, and streaming.”

Gaston-Bird added to Olson’s comments, saying, “And our work is just beginning. We listen to our members and glean inspiration from women and underrepresented groups in audio who work tirelessly to create a more inclusive industry. We understand the power of networking, role models, and mentorship, and we’ll work within the industry to help create lasting, sustainable change. The next 75 years of the AES is already starting to look different from the first 75, and we are so excited about the future.” An in-depth interview with Leslie will appear in the next issue of Audio Media International magazine.

In addition to the Society’s Technical GRAMMY Award, AES members on the 2023 GRAMMY Awards winners list are:

Mastering engineer Bob Ludwig for his contribution to the Best Historical Album winner, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (Wilco)

Immersive mix engineer Eric Schilling and immersive producer Herbert Waltl for their roles on the Best Immersive Audio Album winner, Divine Tides (Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej).

Engineers Shawn Murphy and Charlie Post and mastering engineer Michael Romanowski for their work on the Best Engineered Album Classical winner, Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique – The Making Of The Orchestra (Edwin Outwater & Chicago Symphony Orchestra).

For a full in-depth interview with Leslie Gaston-Bird, please read the next issue of Audio Media international magazine, available shortly.

Welcome to issue 7 of Audio Media International

The post Audio Engineering Society Accepts Technical GRAMMY® Award appeared first on Audio Media International.

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced Bruce Olson as President for 2023, the Society’s 75^th anniversary year.

Olson, whose term of service began on January 1, is an AES Fellow whose decades of active service to the Society have helped shape international audio standards and practices, while he has further contributed to the Society as a Governor and Chair, Treasurer, and committee member of his local AES section.

“Bruce is perennially an invaluable driving force in the AES and to the industry as a whole,” states previous President Josh Reiss. “His depth of experience within AES leadership and his industry acumen, as well as his acute technical insight, position him as a strong leader for continued growth as the AES enters its 75^th year as the hub of audio technology and innovation.”

As the Chair of the Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee (AESSC), and having served as the Chair of the AES Working Group on Grounding and EMC Practices (SC-05-05), Vice-Chair of the AES Technical Committee for EMC (AESTC-EMC), and as a member of various AES standards groups, Olson received the AES Fellowship Award in 2018 “for outstanding contributions to AES Standards and to sound reinforcement system design and practices.” In addition to Standards, He has served on numerous AES Committees including Awards and Education, the 144^th Convention, and a decade on the Laws & Resolutions Committee.

“It is an honor to serve as President of the Audio Engineering Society. I am pleased by the confidence and trust of our membership,” states Olson. “Through our international team of dedicated industry professionals, the AES continues to bring together the greatest minds with the latest technologies, both through our wide array of events – ranging from those that are industry-wide, such as our highly successful AES New York 2022 Convention, down to local section meetings – and through the standard-setting work that helps align the industry as a whole. I ask that you join us this year in celebrating audio innovation in all its forms and become a part of this worldwide audio community as we face and shape the future together.”

Olson is the founding member of Olson Sound Design, a consulting firm he started in 1991 specializing in acoustical and technical systems design for Performing Arts Centers, Recording Studios, and Houses of Worship.

Prior to this, he worked for 13 years in audio and acoustical systems design, installation, testing and project management for Minneapolis, MN-based AVC Systems. He is also active in live sound system design and mixing.

Olson has been an invited speaker for sessions, workshops, classes and seminars organized by the AES and many more. He has taught college courses on the use of sound reinforcement, recording, lighting and acoustic facilities.

In 2017, Olson was presented with the ASA Fellowship Award for contributions to design and modeling of electro-acoustic systems for architectural spaces, and is also a member of IEEE, SMPTE, Syn-Aud-Con and USITT.

He continues as an active musician and is a member of the Ria Saxophone Quintet and The Bend in the River Big Band.

The post Audio Engineering Society Welcomes Bruce Olson as President appeared first on Audio Media International.

AES show made its return to in-person international-scale events in New York last week.

Registrations for the 153^rd International Audio Engineering Society Convention came close to 7,000, which, combined with the co-located 2022 NAB Show New York, drew 16,500+ industry professionals.

The Exhibition floor featured more than 100 audio exhibitors among the 350+ brands showcasing their latest offerings.

From the opening day’s new Skill Building Sessions through the TechTours on the last day of the show, a cross section of the audio industry gathered for an outstanding lineup of events, including standing-room-only Keynotes from Jack Antonoff and Susan Rogers.

With the return to an in-person event, the 153^rd AES International Convention once again served as the core meeting place for many of the top engineers, producers and innovators in the world of audio as they came out in full force to catch up on the latest industry happenings, and also encourage and inspire the next generation.

“I’ll tell you what, I am the happiest guy to be back here in New York City at AES because this is where the family is, this is where our family is. AES is driven, and it’s great to see everybody, and the energy this year is amazing,” said five-time GRAMMY®-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge about the Convention, where he took part in several high-profile Tech Program and Mix with the Masters sessions.

Within the Exhibition Floor aisles, demo rooms and experience stages, attendees were treated to product debuts, hands-on demonstrations and opportunities to make meaningful connections with the brands that are so integral to their lives.

“We have had a very, very successful couple of days here at the AES Show,” said Hannah Bliss – VP of Marketing, North America, for exhibitor Focusrite Group U.S. “One thing that was really surprising is the increased number of students and their level of engagement. They’re asking about professional development. They’re asking about jobs. They’re not just asking about tech. There have been a lot of musicians and studio owners, also. We’ve had three years of not being able to see gear, touch gear, talk to manufacturers, so everyone seems really engaged.”

Neumann’s Jennifer Lee, Trade Marketing Manager, Pro Audio/East, shared similar sentiments during the Convention: “We have been having a fantastic show, showing our end-to-end solutions at the booth, and showcasing our immersive setup in our demo room. We’re here featuring our new M 49 V microphone and KH 150 monitors, and it has been packed.”

Avid also made a strong showing at the AES New York 2022 Convention, hosting the Avid Partners Pavilion as well as their own booth on the show floor. Avid’s events technical supervisor Matt Diggs commented, “We are so excited to be back at AES New York. We have new products on display with Pro Tools | Carbon and the new M-Box Studio and happy to be back here with everyone in person, after such a long break, and we will see you at the next show.”

“The enthusiasm and excitement were electrifying as the community of audio professionals gathered in-person in New York for the first time in far too long,” said AES President Josh Reiss. “The aisles were quite literally packed with attendees who came together to immerse themselves in the world of audio, meet with old friends and make new ones, discover cutting-edge ideas, reinforce and expand knowledge and skills, explore the latest tools with hardware and software developers and gain insights into what’s to come in the future, this 153^rd AES International Convention had all the hallmarks that have made AES Conventions so crucial to professional audio for nearly 75 years.”

The Convention now continues online from October 26 – 27, and the event is included in the AES All Access package and available to a worldwide audience through registration at AESShow.com.

Exhibitor bookings and information for next year’s AES New York Convention, will be available this December. Additionally, the AES will hose its 75th anniversary year’s AES Europe 2023 Convention at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland next May.

The post AES New York 2022 Concludes, Online Event to follow appeared first on Audio Media International.

AES 2022 saw DiGiCo reveal the latest in its range of theatre targeted Quantum consoles, the all-new Quantum338T. With ‘in the box’ mixing reducing the need for outboard equipment and a lightweight control surface, the addition of the most recent theatre specific software features makes the Quantum338T perfect for regional and touring theatre productions.

Building on the outstanding audio performance of the Quantum338, the Quantum338T offers theatre sound designers and mixers a programming and operating workflow that enhances the cue system with DiGiCo’s renowned Auto Update and cue data management tools.

Auto Update allows designers to establish intricate inter-cue relationships, with changes made to channel settings automatically propagating to other related cues. Character variations, often a result of costume and prop changes, are handled with the Alias function, and cast changes are easily managed through the Players function.

Quantum338T’s channel processing and mixing functions are identical to its live focused Quantum338 counterpart, but the crosspoint matrix gains individual nodal delays and matrix aliases. This enhanced matrixing system plays a hugely important role within complex theatre output processing and this is all achieved without compromising any of the Quantum338T’s general processing capabilities.

Quantum338 is based on seventh generation FPGAs and includes 128 input channels with 64 busses and a 24 x 24 matrix, all with full channel processing. There is a new look and feel dark mode application and three 17inch 1000 nit, high brightness, multitouch screens, allowing both the meter bridge and soft quick select buttons to be displayed on each screen. There are also 70 individual TFT channel displays and the floating Quantum chassis features 38  x 100mm touch sensitive faders laid out in three blocks of 12 fader banks, plus two dedicated user-assignable faders, each complete with high resolution metering.

A new level of local audio connectivity and performance comes via the ‘Ultimate Stadius’ 32-bit ADC and DAC conversion, which are built in to Quantum338 as standard, alongside six single or three redundant MADI connections, dual DMI slots and a built-in UB MADI USB recording interface.

Mustard Processing, Spice Rack, Nodal Processing and True Solo, all launched last year for the Quantum 7, are also standard on the Quantum338.

Mustard processing is a set of channel processing strips that work alongside standard Quantum channel processing. Each Mustard processing strip provides a choice of two pre-amp modellers, a four-band EQ (including all-pass filters), four different boutique style compressor models and a gate/ducker. Quantum338 is equipped with 36 mono Mustard processing strips which can be used on any channel type.

The Spice Rack, meanwhile, supports plugin style native FPGA processing options, allowing you to build a rack of up to eight insertable processors. The first of these is the Chilli 6 – a six-band multi-band compressor which allows full control of all parameters, including DiGiCo’s unique, patented, release shape control, which means Chilli 6 is perfect for shaping vocals and instruments as well as focusing on problem frequencies.

DiGiCo’s theatre specific software extension, already familiar to users of the Quantum7T, SD10T, SD12T and SD9T, can be added to any Quantum338; a simple unlock code can be entered to enable the theatre features on any Quantum338 console

.

The post DiGiCo reveals Quantum338T appeared first on Audio Media International.

With just a week to go, as excitement for the AES New York 2022 Convention ramps up the Audio Engineering Society has announced that this year’s Heyser Lecture will be given by AES Fellow Dr. Gilbert Soulodre on Thursday, October 20, at 6:00pm.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Heyser Lecture – The Twists and Turns of a Career in Audio” will take an inspiring look at Soulodre’s winding path of converging audio opportunities and breakthrough moments that have helped his career and contributions to the collective audio community.

“Audio engineering is truly a multi-disciplinary field that combines aspects of room acoustics, psychoacoustics, spatial perception, analog and digital signal processing, mathematics, electromagnetics, computer modeling, psychology, musicality and artistry,” shares Dr. Soulodre. “Working in audio allows you to try your hand in completely different areas while still moving toward the same goal. For me, the AES has always served as the primary crossroads between these various fields and is the unique place where diverse viewpoints from all disciplines can come together.”

“In this talk, I will discuss some of the research and product development work that I have done over the years, including a look at subjective listening test methods, spatial perception and immersion, loudness perception and metering, and sound source separation. During the unexpected winding path that my career has taken, I have had the great privilege of meeting and working with some of the ‘big names’ in the world of audio and acoustics. I will share anecdotes about some of these encounters and how they influenced my path forward, including a notable encounter with Richard Heyser early on in my career.”

Established in 1999 by the AES Technical Council and the Board of Governors, in conjunction with the Richard Heyser Scholarship fund, the Heyser Lecture series, featured at each AES Convention, brings eminent individuals in audio engineering and related fields to speak on a relevant topic of choice.

The Heyser Lecture is part of the AES New York 2022 Convention Special Event Series open to all registered Exhibits+ and All Access attendees.

The AES in-person Convention returns on October 19–20, with additional trining opportunities on October 18 and Tech Tours and Networking events on October 21. Then, on October 26–27, an online event will bring its own separately curated program of workshops and papers to a world-wide audience.

The Convention Schedule-at-a-Glance, full Tech Program listings and registration options are available at AESShow.com.

The post “A Career in Audio”: Heyser Lecture by Dr. Gilbert Soulodre at AES 2022 appeared first on Audio Media International.

The post AES Executive Director Colleen Harper to Step Down Next Month appeared first on Audio Media International.

AES has lifted the lid on what the program sessions will look like ahead of the event streaming onliine from May 25.

AES members can register now at a special discounted rate of just $89 ($49 for AES student members) through April 26. Find out more about the AES Show Spring 2021 Convention and register now at AESShow.com/Spring2021.

Sessions and speakers are detailed below…

The post AES Show Spring 2021 streaming from May 25th, speaker line up revealed appeared first on Audio Media International.

The AES (Audio Engineering Society) has announced details of its first ever Immersive Audio Academy, which will explore technology and solutions in immersive and binaural audio.

Registration is now open for the one-day online event, taking place on Thursday, February 11 from 12:00pm to 9:00pm ET.  The event will launch a series focusing on the latest production and emerging technologies in immersive and binaural audio. 

The programme’s Workshop and Master Class sessions will take on diverse applications of immersive audio production, from live events, to gaming, movies, and beyond. Participants will receive a certificate of achievement after completing the sessions. 

The AES Immersive Audio Academy will open with Introduction & Immersive Audio Past, Present & Future with event co-chairs Steve Martz and Andres Mayo, followed by the Genelec partner session Immersive Audio for Music: A practical session to develop from stereo to immersive. 

Immersive Audio for Live Events follows, with insight to the challenges and opportunities in immersive sound reinforcement hosted by Etienne Corteel and Scott Sugden of L-Acoustics.

Further implementation of immersive audio practices will be discussed by Scott Selfon of Facebook Reality Labs in the session Audio Futures: Technologies for Games, which looks at the immersive worlds of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality and their implications for current games, both screen- and head-mounted-display-based. 

The following session, Immersive in Recording / Conversion to Dolby Atmos, will take an in-depth look at the GRAMMY-winning album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? by Fantastic Negrito (Xavier Dphrepaulezz), who will take part in the discussion, along with the album’s engineer, Nahuel Bronzini, and mastering engineer Michael Romanowski, who handled the Atmos mixing and mastering.

A workshop and masterclass session – Producing High Quality Immersive Audio – follows, presenting an intensive hands-on session exploring 360 audio production, hosted by Andres Mayo (@360MusicLab) with Brian Glasscock (Sennheiser) and Achim Fell (Dear Reality). 

The afternoon concludes with a look at Immersive in Movies, with John Kellogg and Brian Slack of Xperi/DTS, who will demonstrate a system whereby an immersive audio mix can be acoustically encoded into a 5.1, then decoded back to an immersive environment.

Registration is $49 for AES members ($99 non-member), with members also receiving access to on-demand playback of the Academy sessions. Register at aesshow.com/immersive, and make plans to join us for the first event in AES’s series dedicated to immersive audio and related technologies.

The post AES announces first ever Immersive Audio Academy appeared first on Audio Media International.