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Meeting Recaps

Meeting notice archive

Meeting notices   from past meetings. If it's not there, it likely doesn't exist. If you have a meeting topic that you'd like to see covered, please let someone from the Section Committee know about it.

Note that the Meeting Recaps follow the calendar year (the year that the meeting actually occurred in).

n.b. Meeting reports and recordings exist for many past meetings. Audio recording of meetings is a relatively new thing, so those don't exist beyond maybe year 2000 or so. The archive is spotty, but if there is a meeting that you'd like more info on, and there isn't a distinct page on it, do inquire and it just might appear.

2013

  • January 2013
    Vroom - The Interesting World of Racing Game Sound Design 
    Turn 10 Studios' (MSFT) Nick Wiswell took us through the process of sound design for an auto racing game running on the X-Box. He talked about the kinds of sounds used, as well as the process of acquiring them, and then the ways that you might employ them in the soundscape of the finished game. For now, there is an audio recording of the meeting, and eventually there will be a link to the MS Research site where you can see a video of the meeting.
  • February 2013
    Power Tools for ProTools 10 
    Author and studio owner Glenn Lorbecki gave an overview of the latest release of Pro Tools, including a in-depth description of how Pro Tools fits into the context of the recently presented Grammy Awards telecast.
  • March 2013
    The State of the Mostly Modular Art of Synthesis 
    James Husted of Synthwerks took the section through the history of electronic music, culminating with a demonstration of his modular synthesizer rig. This was a teaser for the MMTA Synthfest, which took place 2 days later at Shoreline CC.
  • April 2013
    Audio, Radio, and Acoustics, and Signal Processing  The Richard C. Heyser distinguished lecturer for the 133rd AES Convention is James D. (jj) Johnston. The title of his lecture is, "Audio, Radio, Acoustics, and Signal Processing — the Way Forward." In his talk, JJ will discuss our present understanding of human auditory perception, pointing out how the way we actually work encourages a dichotomy of knowledge that no longer exists. He goes on to suggest some ways that education can bring artistic and technical approaches together, apply some of the technical things we know on the artistic side, and learn what the artistic side of the business needs and wants. He proposes to address such issues as "mix buss performance" claims and the performance of various processors (which are quite nonlinear, for good reason). It is his hope that we can continue to push the understanding of perception, which should help create the "really here" immersive understanding that is the goal of the realists, the "you could never be here but you wish you could" sensation of the avant-garde, and encourage the delivery systems of the world to "get with the program."

    You can read more about the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture Series on the Technical Council  website.

  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • no summer meetings
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013

2012

  • January 2012
    What the @#$%$% is FFT all about? PNW Committeeman JJ Johnston led an all day exploration in the use of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in the evaluation of audio signals and sound systems. Also discussed was the open source Mathematical Modeling program Octave. Significant time was devoted to using Octave to evaluate audio signals and as a way to analyze the performance of a sound system. The meeting was held at the Old Firehouse Teen Center (OFTC) in Redmond.
    January Meeting Report, including JJ's scrips, PPT Decks, etc. 
  • February 2012
    Audio Development for Android Games Pete Dresher, Sound Designer at Twittering, discussed and demonstrated several aspects of game audio programming for Android devices. He used FMOD, an open source tool as a way of connecting bits of score, ensuring they stayed in sync with aspects of the game, and that they stayed musically relevant to each other. The meeting was held at the Art Institute of Seattle.
    February Meeting Report,  with audio recordings of the meeting.
  • March 2012
    Desktop Mastering: Book Release Our own past Chair and Committee Member, Steve Turnidge, has gone off and written a book. A book you say? But not just any book, one covering a topic near and dear to any recording engineer: <ta-da> Desktop Mastering. Desktop Mastering is a conceptual guide, intertwining a broad range of knowledge regarding audio engineering principles and practical applications for those wishing to enhance their own as well as their clients' work. In addition to providing a step-by-step in-depth survey of a successful mastering plug-in chain, Desktop Mastering covers real-world practical applications as well as the fundamentals of audio and electronics. Also included is a personal guide to the business of mastering and how to leverage emerging social networks for positive personal and business results.
    with audio recordings of the meeting.
  • April 2012
    2012 Legal Update: Patents and Copyright The devil is in the details, and for a number of good reasons, a lawyer's expertise is in those details. Our resident lawyer, Kevin D. Jablonski, will update us on changes and nuances in Patent and Copyright Law.

    Here is an overview of the evening's discussion topics:

    • Intellectual Property in General
    • The America Invents Act
    • The Google Book Settlement -- uhhh... not so fast there!
    • Termination Reclaim
    • Interesting cases in 2011
    • SOPA/PIPA
    • DJ Girl Talk

    Kevin is a practicing attorney whose practice involves several aspects of intellectual property including patent, trademark, and copyright law. Kevin's background of electrical engineering and music make him especially well prepared to speak to these topics, especially in the context of audio.

    April Meeting Report,  with audio recordings of the evening and Kevin's PowerPoint deck.

  • May 2012
    Whitespaces and new wireless microphone technology. Van Browne took us thru an overview of new developments in the Whitespaces arena, and a look at some new technology in wireless microphones.
  • June 2012
    Another Meeting with CBS Records Legendary Engineer Frank Laico Dan Mortensen and Bob Smith organized a web-connected meeting that joined Frank and a Shoreline-based audience with David Simons, author of the book Studio Stories and a broader audience of individuals connected via a webinar.
  • July-August 2012
    There were no meetings held.
  • September 2012
    Understanding and Interpreting Audio Measurement Tools in a Real Room with a Real System or, what is that squiggly line trying to tell me and what can I do about it?
    Section Chair Dave Tosti-Lane, Sound Design Area Head at Cornish College spent a Saturday afternoon talking about and using real-time analysis tools to explore various aspects of a sound system's operation in a real room environment. October 2012
    Careers in Audio - a Panel Discussion PNW AES Committee member Steve Malott moderated a panel discussion about careers in audio. The panel was: Julian Colbeck - Keyfax Media, Glenn Lorbiecki - Glennsound, Jonathan Plum - London Bridge Studios and NARAS, Jeff Heiman - Windham Hill, PlayNetwork, & NARAS, Nancy Rumbel - Grammy winner & NARAS, Steve Turnidge - Mastering Engineer, NARAS, & AES.
  • November 2012
    We had two meetings in November:
    Copyright Transfer:  Attorney Michael Matesky II described provisions of copyright law that are now coming into play concerning your ability to reclaim a previously assigned copyright. Of course, it's complicated.
    Soldering Workshop: Rick Chinn of Uneeda Audio took the section through the process of soldering and cable making. Participants were able to make a mike cable that was theirs to keep.

2011

  • January 2011
    Rewriting a Digital Audio Workstation. Charles VanWinkle, Adobe, took us through the process of creating a cross-platform (Windows and Mac) version of their DAW program Adobe Audition. The meeting was held at Adobe Systems.
  • February 2011
    The February meeting was postponed because of snow.
  • March 2011
    Cables: Fact, Fiction, and Fraud. Steve Lampen of Belden and Kurt Denke of Blue Jeans Cable took us through the fact, fiction, and folly of the audio cable business. The meeting was held at Shoreline Community College.
  • April 2011
    Operating a Public Address System. PNW Section members Dan Mortensen and Rick Chinn did a free-form discussion of operating a sound system for live music. The meeting was held at Edmonds Center for the Arts.
  • May 2011
    Audacity Steve Hastings gave a demo and discussion of Audacity an open source (free) audio editing and mixing program. Elections were also held. The meeting was held at the Art Institute of Seattle.
  • June 2011
    Inside a Cellular Telephone. Scott Mehrens of Motorola took us through the guts of a cellular telephone, with particular attention to the audio process within. The meeting was held at the Telephone Museum in Georgetown.
  • August 2011 
    Field trip. The Section co-sponsored a field trip to NWAA Labs, in Satsop WA. Built on the site of an abandoned nuclear power plant, the Lab is an acoustical measuring facility uniquely suited to these enormous buildings. A special treat was a visit to one of the cooling towers, which has unique and interesting acoustical properties. Supersized only begins to describe these buildings.
  • September 2011
    Digital Audio Transport in an Ethernet World. Steve Macatee, Rane Corporation, reviewed Audio-over-Ethernet technologies. The meeting was held at Rane Corporation in Mukilteo.
  • October 2011a 
    There were two meetings in October. Sometimes we just get lucky.

    Bill Putnam - His Life and Legacy The First October meeting was held at Shoreline Community College. Former employees Bob Bushnell and Jerry Feree described the time they spent early in their careers working for Bill Putnam.

    Wifi | Whitespace | Wireless Mikes: Can they coexist? The second October meeting was held at Microsoft Research. Ranveer Chandra and George Nychis explored new technology being developed by Microsoft to allow a Whitespace Device and wireless microphones to coexist. A demonstration of Microsoft's technology followed.

  • November 2011
    Lies, Damn Lies, and Specifications Jonathan Novick, Audio Precision, talked about specsmanship and demonstrated a device that progressively introduced more and more distortion of a specific types into an audio signal. Audience members were asked to judge the threshold of their own audibility of the distortion.
  • December 2011
    New Requirements in the NEC and How they Affect Live Sound Systems Mark Rogers, PNW AES Committee and Consultant for The Greenbusch Group, discussed new requirements in the NEC that affect sound systems in buildings. In particular, systems for emergency evacuation are affected.

2010

  • January 2010
    Dr. Floyd Toole discussed "Upgrading the Audio Industry" as part of our January meeting. Then Dr. Sean Olive discussed a software tool used for "The Subjective Evaluation of Loudspeaker Quality." January Meeting Report. 
  • February 2010
    New Wave Modular Synthesizers
    George Mattson, James Husted, Kevin O'Neil, Scott rise, Sebastian Jaeger spoke about the re-emergence of modular (patch cord) synthesis, ala the ancient Moog 900 series, or the ARP 2600. (meeting report not available)
  • March 2010
    The Evolution of Analog Guitar Effects 
    Greg Mauser, Ian Moore & Matt Johnson spoke about the coming of age of analog guitar effects.
  • April 2010 — There was no meeting in April.
  • May 2010 Listen to a Large Line-Array
    Dan Mortensen

    Audio Perception: Why you hear what you hear
    JJ Johnston spoke about how perception alters what we hear, or what we think we hear. He devoted time to some of the audiophoolery and chicanery that permeates our industry. (meeting report not online yet)

  • June 2010 An Overview of Film Scoring in Los Angeles 
    Shawn Murphy, Emmy award winning film sound mixer talked about how films are scored in Los Angeles and gave examples of the different steps in the process.
  • September 2010 Tomlinson Holman spoke about the history and future of Surround Sound. September Meeting Report 
  • October 2010 Our own JJ Johnston spoke about his personal involvement with the development of perceptual audio coders and MP3. October Meeting Report 
  • November 2010 We had two meetings in November. On November 8th, John Vanderkooy visited and spoke about the Acoustic Centre. John Vanderkooy Meeting Report 

    On November 21st, Wes Dooley visited and spoke about the use, care, and feeding of ribbon microphones. Wes Dooley Meeting Report 

  • December 2010 Ivan Tashev,  Microsoft Research, spoke about sound capture applications in entertainment and gaming, with a view toward Microsoft's new Kinect gaming device.

    • 2009

    2008

    This year's meeting coverage is very much a work in progress, so if you come across links that return 404, it means "under construction."

    2007

    2006

    2005

    2004

    2003

    2002

    2001

    2000

    1999

    1998

    1997

    1996

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