AES Section Meeting Reports

The Critical Listening Classroom at UMass Lowell

Meeting Topic: Live to 24 Track Project Listening Session

Moderator Name: Brett Apitz

Other business or activities at the meeting: Don't forget about AES Officer elections on Apr 29.

Alex Case talks snare drum for our last meeting of the year on May 4.

Juniors who have been assisting seniors should note that Seniors need help on mix sessions too. Make yourselves available. It'll give you ideas for your projects too.

Meeting Location: Durgin Hall Critical Listening Classroom, Lowell, MA, USA

Summary

UMass Lowell AES held a listening session on Patriot's Day, April 19, to take advantage of a studio empty for the holiday. Seniors were presenting mixes of their recently finished live-to-multitrack projects.

The pieces featured a classical string trio, several rock quartets, and a few jazz ensembles. Three of the school's recording spaces were on display in the projects: a 1200 seat concert hall, a smaller recital hall, and a studio space designed for tracking. The projects were recorded to 24-track analog tape on a Studer A827 and mixed on an API Vision.

Students introduced their mixes with some information on the performers and which room they recorded in. After playing each mix, the meeting opened up to discussions. The seniors were more than happy to answer questions about microphone choice and placement, compressor settings, reverb units, and mix strategies. They were also eager to offer advice to juniors, who will be doing similar work next semester.

The meeting was a relaxed and friendly way for everyone to get together and share their recording ideas and the results those ideas produced, and for students in different levels of the program to get together and learn from one another.

- Brett Apitz, VP UMass Lowell AES

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