123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 1 2007 October 5–8 Jacob K. Javits Convention Center New York remarkable array of talent was gathered to create the 123rd Convention, held from October 5–8 at the Javits Center in New York City, under the chairmanship of Jim Anderson. AAHigh on the list of the most successful conventions in 1142 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2007 December 123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 2 recent years, the 123rd attracted 21,000 visitors to its bustling exhibi- tion floor and inspired technical program. Over a year’s preparation by a dedicated committee led to an event that was highly praised by industry veterans and newcomers alike… J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2007 December 1143 123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 3 AES 123RD CONVENTION Roger Furness, Wieslaw Woszczyk, Jim Anderson, convention chair AES executive director AES president Daniel Levitin, keynote speaker, gave a masterful presentation at the opening ceremonies. OPENING AND AWARDS CEREMONY such as the Heyser Lecture and the keynote addresses given At the standing-room-only opening ceremony, Roger Fur- at the opening ceremony. ness, AES executive director, welcomed everyone to New Presenting awards to those who had served their profes- York and introduced Wieslaw Woszczyk, AES president, sion or the Society in outstanding ways over the years, who spoke of the international expansion of the AES, whose Theresa Leonard, chair of the Awards Committee, intro- membership is now at its highest level ever. Audio, he said, duced those individuals being recognized at the 123rd. John is more important today than it has ever been, and the AES is Meyer was awarded the Society’s Silver Medal. This presti- the most important global force that shapes the future of gious award, in honor of audio pioneers Alexander Graham audio. Twenty five years ago the compact disc was launched, Bell, Emile Berliner, and Thomas Edison, was received gra- marking a crucial transition of consumer audio from analog ciously by Meyer who commented on the previously to the digital age. Concluding his opening address, unusual idea of using music as a test signal, which he had Woszczyk praised the amazing team that had brought pioneered. Crediting people such as John Chowning, Julius together this convention. Smith, Elizabeth Cohen, and Mark McCarthy, as well as his Jim Anderson, convention chair, praised the efforts of his wife, Helen, he said that we have a chance to build com- committee who had worked tirelessly to deliver the event pletely linear sound systems and that AES has an important that the delegates would now experience. It had been his role to play in standardization and test signals. privilege to work with them, he said. A new feature was Fellowship Awards were presented to Graham Blyth in being introduced in the form of a keynote address every recognition of a distinguished career in mixing console lunchtime, based on the considerable popularity of events design and service to the Society; Bob Ludwig for outstand- 1144 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2007 December 123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 4 AES 123RD CONVENTION Fellowship Award recipients: clockwise from right, Graham Blyth, Phil Ramone, Josef Zikovsky, Neil Muncy, and Bob Ludwig John Meyer, left, receives Silver Medal Award from Wieslaw Woszczyk Theresa Leonard, Awards Committee chair John Strawn receives Board of Governors Award ing contributions to the art and practice of audio mastering and to the advancement of sound quality in recorded music; Neil Muncy for outstanding contributions in the fields of noise susceptibility and EMC in audio systems; Phil Ramone for outstanding contributions in the fields of audio record- ing, music productions, and the innovative use of technology; and Josef Zikovsky in recognition of substantial contributions in the field of electroacoustic applications. Citations were awarded to David Bialik in recognition of making broadcast audio an important part of the AES mission and to Francisco Miranda Kirchner in recognition of his dedication to and promotion of the activities of the AES in Mexico. A Board of Governors Award was given to John Strawn David Bialik (left) and Francisco Miranda Kirchner receive Citation Awards in recognition of his chairing the AES ➥ J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2007 December 1145 123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 5 AES 123RD CONVENTION 121st Convention in San Francisco. The keynote speaker at the 123rd Convention was Dan Levitin, professor at McGill University and leader of its Laboratory for Music Perception, Cog- nition, and Expertise. Levitin’s recent book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, has received considerable critical acclaim for its brave attempt to explain what it is about music that has such a powerful effect on At the AES business meeting: clockwise from humans. Levitin, who has also been a producer and top left, Roger Furness, musician of some note, told the audience about his executive director; background and how famous producers such as Wieslaw Woszczyk, Sandy Pearlman had taught him all they knew with- president; Han Tendeloo, out being paid. This amounted to an amazing “aural secretary; Chris Freitag, Tellers chair, and Louis education” because what they could hear in tracks Fielder, treasurer. was a revelation to him. He wanted to know “why am I getting goose bumps when guitarist Carlos Santana rubs Agnieszka Roginska a piece of plastic across these metal strings?” This led him to (left) and Veronique his current academic pursuit. Although he had initially Larcher, papers dropped out of college when “his loudspeakers caught fire,” cochairs, present a he went back some years later to study psychology, “essen- certificate to Phiippe- tially to study goosebumps,” he said. By the age of five, he Aubert Gauthier, AES 123rd Convention explained, most children have learned the rules of their cul- Student Paper Award ture’s music, which hard-wires their brain’s built-in “music winner. module.” While it is unlikely that there is a music gene, Lev- itin suggested that a good memory, attention, will power, self-belief, and an appropriate physical configuration (such Nyasha Chigwamba as Oscar Peterson’s large hands), all contribute to musical (top) and Ben Fields genius. In a dazzling talk—humor, smooth pacing and deliv- were among the many ery, great PowerPoint slides and audio samples, and a timely authors who presented killer ending—Levitin went on to show a number of things papers in poster sessions that demonstrated the remarkable capacity of the human brain to respond to music, including some examples of 500- ms snippets of music that the audience immediately identi- fied. “No computer in the world can do that!” he pointed out. EXHIBITION Authors presenting A packed-to-the-rafters exhibition featured close to 450 papers in lecture exhibitors hosting a plethora of novel products and services. sessions included, Those discussed here are just a few of the notable recent clockwise from top left, Siegfried launches in evidence on the exhibits floor. Linkwitz, Zhixin Chen, Of particular note were the partnerships between mixer György Fazekas, and workstation manufacturers and the introduction of more Adriano Farina, sophisticated control surfaces for workstations. Among these Jean-Marc Jot, and was Digidesign’s new C|24 mid-format control surface, John Vanderkooy which is based on the previous Control 24, offering improved user workflow and completely updated analog circuitry. Such control surfaces introduce the possibility of tactile control to audio workstations such as ProTools that otherwise would have to be controlled using a mouse and screen alone. Also in the workstation field, SSL launched ProConvert, an application that tackles the thorny problem of conversion between one workstation format and another. This had been developed by Cui Bono Soft, a company acquired just before the show by SSL. Steinberg and Euphonix were also showing the results of recent work designed to integrate the Nuendo workstation with Euphonix controllers using the EuCon protocol. This involved a complete redesign 1146 J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2007 December 123rdWrapup.qxd 12/27/07 3:59 PM Page 6 AES 123RD CONVENTION The ZED-14 stereo mixer incorporates USB-send and -return for integration with PC or Mac workstations. A large number of new product introductions were evident in the loudspeaker and amplifier domain. In a joint venture with amplifier manufacturer CAMCO, L-Acoustics was launching its new integrated amplifier and DSP platform in 2U rackmount modules. The LA4 and LA8 units offer inte- From left, Keith Johnson, Klaus Heyne, and Oliver Archut were among the experts who presented master classes. grated digital EQ together with network control and loud- speaker protection. Another amplifier venture to note was Nexo’s NXAmp 4x4 and 4x1 providing an incredible 4x4000W of power, and based on Yamaha’s EEEngine tech- nology. Also at the reproduction end of the signal chain, Klein + Hummel introduced its new O 410 midfield monitor system, which is a tri-amped three-way loudspeaker with a bass response down to 34 Hz and an optional digital input working up to 192-kHz, 24-bit resolution. For sound rein- forcement applications, D.A.S Audio launched its new Refer- ence Series of mid-sized loudspeakers, there being six two- way systems and three subwoofers, including new rotatable horns with two different dispersion patterns. Genelec intro- duced its SE (Small Environment) DSP monitoring system, designed to solve a lot of the acoustic problems of limited Among those who gave workshop or tutorial presentations were, clockwise from top left, Elliot Omiya, Takehiro Moriya, space in the reproduction room.