Audio Engineering Society News archives

All meetings held in the Telus Studio, Banff Centre, unless indicated

• May 19, 2002 - Jim Anderson: "The Arts of Jazz Recording"
• February 24, 2002 - Dr. Floyd Toole: "Audio Engineering - Science in the Service of Art"
• February 9, 2002 - Internet Audio with Bob Moses
• November 19, 2001 - Lecture and party at Canada Disc and Tape
• October 8, 2001 - Surround Sound-Considerations on new esthetic criteria for multichannel recordings
• July 22, 2001 - High Resolution and Surround Recording
• February 26, 2001 - Power Trip
• February 19, 2001 - Acoustic Measurements in Studios and Control Rooms
• January 16, 2001 - Classical Music Recording
• December 4, 2000 - Auditory Design for Theatre
  
• Return to Current Audio Engineering Society News

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
May 19, 2002

Jim Anderson - "The Art of Jazz Recording"

The Alberta Section hosted well known recording engineer Jim Anderson for a meeting on May 19th at Telus Studio, Banff Centre. Mr. Anderson has enjoyed a long and illustrious career recording and mixing for the top artists in jazz, including Terence Blanchard, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, JJ Johnson, Branford Marsalis, McCoy Tyner, Phil Woods, John Zorn and many others. He has also served as Chairman of the New York Section of the AES, and is presently the AES VP for the Eastern Region.

Jim presented a two hour discussion of jazz recording and mixing techniques to an audience of 40 engineers from southern Alberta, with some attendees coming from as far away as Montana. Rather than follow a lecture with question period format, Jim chose to play examples of his work, with explanations of his approach, followed by questions from the audience about the selection. Discussion of a Joe Henderson recording led to an explanation of Jim’s drum recording techinques, including the use of multiple stereo overhead pairs and stereo kick micing, while a discussion of a Cyrus Chestnut session led to the finer points of jazz piano recording. The audience was treated to further in depth insight into Jim’s approach to woodwind, brass, and string recording with reference to mic choice and position, imaging, and spaciousness. Jim also generously shared his views on reverberation with respect to his preference for live chambers and the creation of live chambers in stairwells and other atypical venues.

The Alberta Section is looking forward to a busy summer, hosting lectures in July and August with Edwin Dolinski of Electronic Arts, Michael Bishop of Telarc, and Leslie Ann Jones of Skywalker Sound.

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
February 24, 2002

Dr. Floyd Toole - "Audio Engineering -Science in the Service of Art"

The Alberta Section hosted Dr. Floyd Toole of Harman International on February 24th for a presentation entitled "Audio Engineering - Science in the Service of Art". For the benefit of three dozen attendees Dr. Toole recapped his keynote address from the last AES convention in New York and touched on a host of issues pertaining to studio and home environment monitoring. Dr. Toole used a particularly interesting analogy with the visual arts, observing with the use of visual aids that artists use neutral light in their studios so that their choice and balance of color is not affected by lighting. Likewise recording professionals need to target neutral listening environments so as to make objective and unaffected decisions that "preserve the art" as conceived of by the creators. Dr. Toole’s dissertation on effective monitoring discussed frequency response as the critical evaluator of loudspeaker and room design, and in the course of the presentation observed that more than 50% of professional studios measure outside of what he considers "acceptable range". Interestingly, he also observed that frequency response of commercial loudspeakers vary extremely, regardless of their price point.

Dr. Toole put forward that his main evaluation technique for imaging is the use of pink noise. He put forward that the image of mono pink noise on a stereo playback system should be tightly centred and remain so as the engineer moves back from the sweet spot. Diffuse sounding noise is an indicator of bad control room design. Moving from this point to monitoring environment design, Dr. Toole observed that axial room modes between pairs of walls are the most audible problems in control rooms, and that bass management/subwoofer setups tend to yield more accurate and low end response than full range speaker arrangements. He went on to demonstrate loudspeaker placement concepts for the selective elimination of unwanted room resonances, while touching on the need for and occasional use of electronic equalization. Finally the audience heard about the use of various styles of acoustical damping, including resistive absorbers, membrance absorbers and acoustical resonators.

In attendance at the lecture was Roger Furness, Executive Director of the AES, who was in Banff to meet with Theresa Leonard, Geoff Martin, John Sorensen and the rest of the team co-ordinating a conference for AES to be held in Banff in June 2003.

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
Saturday, February 9, 2002

Internet Audio with Bob Moses

On Saturday, February 9th the Alberta Section heard from industry expert Bob Moses on the subject of Audio on the Internet. Mr. Moses is the President and Chief Technical Officer of Island Digital Media Group, and previously was founder and Chief Technical Officer of Digital Harmony Technologies. His developments have been used by a wide range of hardware and software corporations, including Rane, Symetrix, JPL, Microsoft, Harman, Peavey, Denon and many, many more. His present work is a consultancy that helps companies develop audio streaming technologies for LANs.

During his comprehensive two hour lecture Bob discussed the salient issues related to the distribution of audio on the internet, including not only the related technologies, but also the management of artist rights and new business models. As Bob pointed out, audio searches and downloads have matched or exceed almost all other uses for the ’Net in recent years, and as a force this can no longer be ignored or mismanaged by the recording industry. Issues relevant to recording engineering practice were also discussed with reference to "mastering for the format" and the audio practicioners role in translating recordings for new media. The audience also had the opportunity to participate in a single-blind listening test at the end of the lecture, comparing multiple audio players at different data rates.

After the meeting the Executive of the Alberta Section met Mr. Moses, also AES Vice President for Western Region Canada/US for a working dinner. The Alberta Section is gearing up for an AES Conference on multichannel surround in June 2003 and took this opportunity to discuss section business and preparations for the conference with Bob, while enjoying the hospitality and incredible view of the Banff Centre main dining area.

The next meeting of the Alberta Section will feature Dr. Floyd Toole of Harman International, and will be held in the Telus Project Studio at the Banff Centre, Sunday, March 24th at 7:30 p.m.

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
Monday, November 19th, 2001, 7:30pm

Canada Disc and Tape, Calgary, AB

The Alberta Section of the AES hosted an informal lecture and networking party at Canada Disc and Tape, a local CD/DVD duplication broker and mastering house. The get together was hosted by Theresa Leonard, AES Governor, and Ed Meitner, noted equipment designer and DSD pioneer. Attended by 40 local area members and students, the meeting was an excellent opportunity for producers, engineers and studio owners to liase, discuss business and tour the Canada Disc and Tape facility.

A question period on DSD technology was led by Mr. Meitner during the course of the meeting, as professionals and students alike sought greater insight into the format, with reference to the more familiar ground of PCM digital audio. Special thanks for helping with this enjoyable and informative event go to Doug Wong of Canada Disc and Tape, Theresa Leonard, Ed Meitner, and Susan Meitner whose RSVP Catering provided complimentary food and beverage.

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
Monday, October 8, 2001, 7:30pm

Telus Studio, Banff Centre

Surround Sound-Considerations on new esthetic criteria for multichannel recordings with Jean-Marie Geisen and Martha DeFrancisco

The Alberta Section was recently treated to a comprehensive dissertation on multichannel recording by former Phillips Classics producer/engineer team Jean Marie Geisen and Martha DeFrancisco. After a short introduction by Martha the audience enjoyed a long playback session from DA88 and SACD multichannel sources. Jean-Marie offered varied examples of recordings and techniques, selected to illustrate a variety of techniques and even incorporating excerpts that he felt were not effective in order to provoke interest and discussion.

Following a coffee break Martha and Jean-Marie made a more formal and technical presentation on the nature and background of the recordings played in the first half of the presentation, highlighting microphone techniques and philosophies that they subscribe to. Following the presentation there was a lively discussion and question/answer period between the panel and the several dozen attendees, which included local area producers, engineers and musicians, as well as faculty, staff and students from the host Banff Centre Music and Sound department.

The Alberta AES and Banff Centre would like to thank Jean-Marie and Martha for their kind participation in the event, and also DSD pioneer Ed Meitner of EMM Labs for his attendance and for providing an SACD player and Switchman multichannel router for playback.

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Alberta Section Meeting Report
July 22, 2001

High Resolution and Surround Recording

The Alberta Section of the AES recently hosted Grammy Award winning engineer Michael Bishop of Telarc Records for a talk focussing on Multichannel Recording and Playback of High Resolution Digital Audio. Drawing on a career of 30+ years in professional audio, Michael described his early experience and interest in surround through quadraphonic reproduction up to and including his current 6.0 recording and mixing techniques.

Michael illuminated his points for the audience (including noted DSD pioneer Ed Meitner and Sony design engineer Andreas Koch) by playing selections of multichannel recordings with a 7 loudspeaker array fitted with an elevation component. Central to the presentation were key format issues as related to recording multitrack and editing DSD format, delivery formats such as DTS, SACD and DVD, and surround playback issues. The audience was also treated to detailed accounts of Michael’s recording techniques, particularly the use of dummy-head for main pair pickup and double M/S room pickup.

Banff Centre and the Alberta AES Section would like to thank Michael Bishop for his time, Ed Meitner for the use of his AD/DA DSD convertors, and HHB Canada for the loan of a Genex 8500 for this presentation. The next Alberta AES lecture will feature European producer/engineer team Martha Defrancisco and Jean-Marie Geisen with another perspective on multichannel recording and playback.

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AES Alberta Section Report
February 26, 2001

Neil Muncy - “Power Trip'

The Alberta Section of the AES enjoyed a highly informative lecture by one of the leading industry experts, Neil Muncy of Neil Muncy Associates, Toronto, Ontario. Active in the AES, Mr. Muncy holds a number of US and international patents, has authored and published many papers and continues to consult and design systems for live, broadcast and studio facilities.

Neil’s lecture focussed primarily AC Power Systems, Power Conditioning and Filtering, with particular reference to grounding. The audience, comprised of 30 regional engineers, was treated to a general debunking of audio power mythology, with reference to his groundbreaking paper on the “pin 1 problem' of 1995. Time was spent discussing the safety aspects of grounding versus common studio problems pertaining to noise and interference. After a break Neil gave the audience insight into a new product called “SurgeX', which is a new and innovative method for power surge protection. With reference to new standards set by IEEE, Neil made a strong case against common place surge protection in favor of these newer, safer and cleaner techologies for AC power management.

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Alberta AES Section Meeting
February 19, 2001

Acoustic Measurements in Studios and Control Rooms
Claude Fortier, State of the Art Acoustik, Ottawa, Canada

The Alberta Section was treated to a very interesting dissertation on test and measurement by Dr. Claude Fortier, founder and proprietor of Canada’s State of the Art (SOTA) Acoustik. Dr. Fortier has long been associated with research and design, having presented papers and participated in conferences worldwide. His crossover filter system earned him a patent, while his loudspeaker designs recently earned a Class A rating from Stereophile magazine.

In his lecture to the Alberta Section Dr. Fortier reviewed the fundamentals of acoustic and gave a history of audio test and measurement. From that basic background he gave a detailed discussion of the MLSSA system and its application in control room, studio and concert hall analysis. Specific reference was made to his analysis of the on-site facilities and the monitoring systems in place. He also gave practical demonstrations of test techniques for loudspeaker testing, with suggested recommendations for placement in control rooms.

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On January 16th, 2001, the Alberta Section of the AES in affiliation with the Audio Program of the Banff Centre enjoyed an enlightening lecture on classical music recording by Richard King, Senior Recording Engineer for Sony Classical, NYC. Having engineered for artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Andre Previn, Wynton Marsalis, LA Philharmonic and many others in many national and international venues, Richard is an expert on acoustic music recording techniques. He has nominated for Grammy Awards in the Classical Engineering categories several times and has engineered Grammy winning classical albums as well. Additionally, as both producer and engineer, he has remastered over 60 analog recordings for CD reissue.

During his well attended talk, Richard talked about the fixed and mobile techologies currently used at Sony Classical for recording, mixing, editing and mastering acoustic musics, with specific reference to techniques used for capturing orchestra, small to mid-sized chamber groups, duos, trios and soloists. The audience, comprised of a diverse group of producers, engineers and even equipment designers, engaged Richard in a long question and answer period which referenced issues pertaining to high-resolution formats such as SACD and DVD, among others.

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On December 4th, 2000, the Alberta AES Section was also pleased to receive a lecture by one of Canada’s top sound designers for theatre, Peter McBoyle. As sound designer for the Stratford Festival, the largest repertory theatre in North America, Peter has faced and overcome many creative and technical challenges. He offered a very detailed view of the parameters of auditory design for theatre to an appreciative audience of several dozen engineers and theatre professionals.

In explaining the work that he does, Peter touched on the steps involved in bringing a presentation from “page to stage' including contract negotiation, technical specification, collaboration with creative people and talent, sound system design (specifically Meyer systems), budget, scheduling, technical installation, marking and preparing cues to script, RF tracking, sound effects, live music issues, foldback, among many other things. The audience was particularly impressed by the sophistication of the productions and the advances that have been made in theatre sound over the years.