AES Section Meeting Reports

San Francisco - March 12, 2009

Meeting Topic: Laughing Tiger - studio tour and lecture about recording industry

Moderator Name: Jim McTigue

Speaker Name: Ari Rios, Owner, Laughing Tiger Studios

Other business or activities at the meeting: upcoming events on Ribbon Microphone, Foley for Film and Broadcast MADI Routers. Also announcements for joining the AES, the AES convention in Europe,

Meeting Location: San Rafael, California, USA

Summary

The AES March 12th, 2008 meeting was held at Laughing Tiger studio, with owner Ari Rios. 21 people attended. Ari began by giving a tour of the entire studio, with its various live rooms and control rooms. He discussed the live quality of each room, and how to use rugs, dampeners, and wood paneling to achieve a more live or more deadened sound in each room. Ari also described how he had constructed the studio, and the compromises he had to make with his budget. For example, he decided not to float the floors, because the amount of low frequency noise transferred through the floor was negligible; he would filter out those frequencies in the mix anyhow. He also explained his "unscientific" technique of singing through scales in each room to detect resonant frequencies, and then adding bass traps or changing the room dimensions, as needed.

The meeting ended with a lively conversation about the current state of the music and recording industry. There was some discussion on whether the iPod/mp3 generation has less discerning ears, and whether they can hear the superior sound quality resulting from a good mix and a higher bit rate. Ari cited declining business, as a byproduct of smaller recording budgets and online music piracy. However, he expressed hope that with the rise of home project studios, home recording enthusiasts will bring a wave of new business, as they decide to record the more challenging portions of their projects (ex. drums) in professional studios.

Event organized by Beau Silver and Alex Sheh.

Summary by Alex Sheh

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