AES Student Recording Competition
The AES Student Recording Competition is a unique opportunity for student attendees of international AES Conventions to receive feedback and recognition for their audio production work. If you wish to participate, the faculty advisor for your student section must nominate your recording to represent your school in one of the competition’s four categories.
An individual student or production team may participate in multiple categories by submitting a different recording in each category. However, each AES student section may submit only one entry per competition category. If multiple students or student groups in a section wish to enter the same category, they must consult their faculty advisor. One suggestion for student sections is to hold preliminary contests to identify the best project in each category.
Students are expected to submit competition mixes that represent their best final mixing efforts without additional mastering. Judges frequently criticize student mixes for excessive peak limiting and inadequate dynamic range. Therefore, contestants should resist the temptation to maximize loudness to the detriment of tonal balance and musical dynamics.
Even if you don’t have a recording in the competition, you should consider attending the Recording Competition events at the AES Convention so you can hear the highest quality projects created by other students, learn from the thoughtful comments of the judges, and share your opinions and suggestions with others in attendance. The goal of this program is to showcase high quality music and recorded sound in a healthy environment of constructive criticism. We hope you’ll participate.
Please read carefully through the complete rules and policies.
133rd AES Convention San Francisco 2012
Check back soon for more information.
Former Recording Competitions
132nd AES Convention Budapest 2012
131st AES Convention New York 2011
130th AES Convention London 2011
129th AES Convention San Francisco 2010
128th AES Convention London 2010
127th AES Convention New York 2009
126th AES Convention Munich 2009
125th AES Convention San Francisco 2008
124th AES Convention Amsterdam 2008
123rd AES Convention New York 2007
122nd AES Convention Vienna 2007
121st AES Convention San Francisco 2006
132nd AES Convention Budapest 2012
One of the biggest student participation we’ve seen in years. Here are the finalists’s names (congratulations) and the received awards and prizes (thanks to our sponsors):
CAT 1 | Traditional Acoustic Recording
GOLD AWARD
TERESA KUNZ (Universität der Künste Berlin)
Schoeps MK22 CMC6 microphone + REAPER license
SILVER AWARD
SIMON LINDSKOG (University of Lulea-Pitea)
Telefunken M80 microphone + soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
BRONZE AWARD
Vytautas Kederys (Hochschule Darmstadt)
Price: Amarra player + REAPER license
CAT 2 | Traditional Studio Recording
GOLD AWARD
KONRAD GLAS (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien)
IGS Audio Cool Miner channel strip + REAPER license.
GOLD AWARD
GYORGY BAROCSAI (University of Lulea-Pitea)
Looptroter Audio Engineering Saturate 2 + REAPER license
BRONZE AWARD
JOCHEN DANNWOLF (Robert-Schumann-Hochschule/FH Düsseldorf)
Amarra player + REAPER license
CAT 3 | Modern Studio Recording
SILVER AWARD
YOANN SAUNIER (Conservatiore National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris)
D16 Bundle + soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
SILVER AWARD
DANIEL MEYER (Universität der Künste Berlin)
D16 Bundle + soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
BRONZE AWARD
ALEKSANDRA CIEPLOCH (Frederic Chopin University of Music Warsaw)
soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
HONORABLE MENTION
GYORGY BAROCSAI (University of Lulea-Pitea)
soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
CAT 4 | Sound For Visual Media
GOLD AWARD
NIKOLA JEREMIC (Advanced School of Electrical Engineering Belgrade)
Celemony Melodyne + REAPER license
GOLD AWARD
MARTA OLKO (Frederic Chopin University of Music Warsaw)
Charter Oak SP1 Headphones + REAPER license
SILVER AWARD
DANIEL MEYER (Universität der Künste Berlin)
Telefunken M81 + soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
BRONZE AWARD
CHRISTIAN SANDER (Robert-Schumann-Hochschule/FH Düsseldorf)
soundchannel.org subscription + Amarra player + REAPER license
131st AES Convention New York 2011
- Gold - Padraig Buttner-Schnirer, Banff / McGill University Schulich School of Music - Schoeps CMC6- MK22
- Silver - Jamie Tagg, UMass - Lowell SSL plugins
- Bronze - Adam Grover , The Hartt School: University of Hartford
- Bronze - Eric Xu, Tokyo University of the Arts
- Gold 1 Jeff Braun, Door Open, Middle Tennessee State University - API
- Gold 3 surround Takino Masumi, WaterScape for Soprano Saxophone and Alto Saxophone, Tokyo University of the Arts - Sennheiser headphones and extreme isolation headphonse
- Bronze 2 Andrew Cass, Beatrice , The Hartt School - University of Hartford
- Silver Hiromu Tanokura, "NEW YORK COUNTER POINT", 1st movement,Tokyo University of Arts -Melodyne
- Silver Taylor Bray,Keep THE GHOST AWAKE, MTSU - Avid (Mbox+ProTools10)
- Silver Kevin Harper, JHARI, Ithaca College - Pyramix
- Honorable Mention LBlue Hunt, SWEET DREAM,S Institute of Audio Research
- Gold Kevin Fallis, Vancouver Film School - PMC speakers
- Silver Tariq Burney, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Sennheisser headphones and 100$ Sweetwater
- Bronze Sundiata Devore, Institute of Audio Research
- honorable mention: Ja-Ann Wang, New York University
130th AES Convention London 2011
The Student Recording Competitions attracted 55 student submissions from all over the world, competing in four categories: Traditional Acoustic Recordings, Traditional Studio Recordings, Modern Studio Recordings and Sound for Visual Media.
Jim Anderson (left), Bill Crabtree (right)
Diana Gorovaya (left), John Krivit (right)
Traditional Acoustic Recordings
Bronze: Vilius Keras - Hochschule Darmstadt (stereo)
Bronze: Damien Giromella - London College of Music (stereo)
Bronze: Nadezda Nikolaeva - Russian Academy of Music Moscow (surround)
Traditional Studio Recordings
Silver: Kevin Harper - Ithaca College (stereo)
Bronze: Julien Carton - Conservatoire de Paris (surround)
Bronze: Diana Gorovaya - Russian Academy of Music Moscow (stereo)
Modern Studio Recordings
Silver: Krzysztof Salawa - Frederic Chopin Academy of Music (stereo)
Silver: Kevin Harper - Ithaca College (stereo)
Bronze: Michal Korzeniowski - AGH Krakow (stereo) Bronze: Tim Tautorat - HfM Detmold (stereo)
Sound for Visual Media
Gold: Aleksandra Cieploch - Frederic Chopin University of Music Warsaw (surround)
Silver: Michael Zoellner - University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf (surround)
Bronze: Clement Cornau - Conservatoire de Paris (surround)
Judges offered their time and expertise tirelessly: Jim Anderson, Alex Case, Bill Crabtree, John Dunkerley, Michael Fleming, Ray Gillon, Dave McLaughlin, Ronald Prent, Darcy Proper, Ulrike Schwarz.
Prizes were made possible through the generosity and commitment to education shared by our sponsors: Cockos, Focal Press, Melodyne, Merging Technologies Pyramix, PMC Loudspeakers, Schoeps Mikrofone and Sonivox.
129th AES Convention San Francisco 2010
The Student Recording Competitions attracted 66 student submissions from all over the world, competing in seven categories: Stereo Pop/Rock, Stereo World/Folk, Stereo Jazz/Blues, Stereo Classical, Surround Non-Classical, Surround Classical, and Surround Sound for Picture.
The real heroes in the competition are the judges, who volunteer significant time to the cause, offering expertise of the highest level: Jim Anderson, David Bowles, Betty Cantor-Jackson, Vince Caro, Dana Jon Chappelle, Shawn Everett, Malcolm Fife, Akira Fukada, David W Hewitt, David Miles Huber, Leslie Ann Jones, Jim Kaiser, Richard King, Lolly Lewis, Dave MacLaughlin, Glenn Lorbecki, Andres Mayo, Ronald Prent, Mark Rubel, and Alan Silverman.
The generous sponsorship of the following exhibitors enriches the experience for the students, adding a bit of hardware and software to the honor of being an AES winner: API, Cengage Learning, Focal Press, Genelec, Izotope, Massenburg Design Works/Avid, Melodyne/Music Marketing Canada, Merging Technologies, PMC Monitors, Schoeps Mikrofone GmbH, Solid State Logic, Sonivox, and Sound Toys. These sponsors are donating a valuable, high quality product to the recording competition, showing an inspiring commitment to keeping the next generation of sound recordists involved in the AES and pursuing the highest production standards. The entire SDA and every member of the Education Committee very much appreciate their support.
Kevin Harper (left), Alex Case (right)
Lolly Lewis (left), David W. Hewitt (middle), David Bowles (right)
Student winners include:
Stereo Rock/Pop
Tim Hall Middle Tennessee State University
Kyu Sik Chang Chung-Ang University
Kevin Harper Ithaca College
Stereo World/Folk
Brad Delava The New England Institute of Art
Christopher R. Conover Middle Tennessee State University
Meining Cheung Ruiz The Banff Centre
Stereo Jazz/Blues
Tim Hall Middle Tennessee State University
Gonzalo Garcia The Banff Centre
Bryan Lovett & Brett Long Hartt School of Music
Stereo Classical
Yao Lu Johns Hopkins University
Kevin Harper Ithaca College
Justin Shelton University of Texas at Arlington
Surround Classical
Scott Strathman Indiana University
Tetsuro Kanai Tokyo University of Arts
Kevin Harper Ithaca College
Surround Non-Classical
Jeremy Dudman Middle Tennessee State University
Kevin Harper Ithaca College
not awarded
Sound for Picture
Alejandro Yllarramendy Vancouver Film School
Piper Payne The Banff Centre
not awarded
128th AES Convention London 2010
Recording Competitions attracted more than 130 student submissions from 27 student sections across 20 countries, competing in six categories, and we are pleased to announce the winners:
Darcy Proper (left), Mark Drews (right)
Garry Gottlieb (left), Luis Herranz (middle), John Krivit (right)
Stereo - Jazz/Blues
- Teresa Kunz - Berlin University of Art
- Krzysztof Salawa – Fryderyk Chopin Academy
- Adam Tiller – McGill University
Stereo - World/Folk
- Liu Da – Beijing Union University
- Daniel Deboy – Institute of Electronic Music Graz
Stereo - Pop/Rock
- Roland Rath – Technical University Graz
- Nathan Hilton – The Banff Centre
- Luis Herranz – Microfusa Barcelona
Stereo - Classical
- Emma Lain Fernandez – Detmold University
- Robert Migas – Fryderyk Chopin University
- Peter Venus – “ Prometheus! ” - Institute of Electronic Music Graz
Surround - Classical
- Clement Cornuau – Conservatoire de Paris
- Alexander Mikhlin – Russian Academy of Music
- Krzysztof Salawa – Fryderyk Chopin Academy
Surround - Classical
- Liu Da – Beijing Union University
- Luis Herranz – Microfusa Barcelona
- Christoph Frank – University of Music Graz
Judges offered their time and expertise tirelessly: Jim Anderson, Ken Blair, David Bowles, Bill Crabtree, Mark Drews, Gary Gottlieb, Tony Falkner, Philip Hobbs, Hugh Robjohns, Tin Jonker, Jim Kaiser, Bastian Kuijit, Thor Legvold, Barry Marshall, Andres Mayo, Dave McLaughlin, Ron Prent, Darcy Proper.
Awards were made possible through the generosity and commitment to education shared by our sponsors: Cengage Learning, Focal Press, Izotope, Melodyne, Merging Technologies Pyramix, MOTU, PMC Monitors, Schoeps Mikrofone GmbH, Sennheiser,Solid State Logic, and Sonivox.
The SDA continued to recognize the significant generosity of PMC through the Institutional Award. One school was chosen by lottery among all institutions that participated in the competition and were present at the SDA closing meeting. This year’s winning school was Berlin University of the Arts.
127th AES Convention New York 2009
There were approximately 110 entries to the 127th AES Student Recording competition.
The SDA would also like to thank our sponsors: AES, Lavry Engineering, Genelec, Shure Incorporated, JBL, Schoeps, Ron Streicher, Focal Press, Sonivox, iZotope, and PMC.
Thomas Geiger (left), Alex Case (right)
Stereo Classical
- Sebastian Braun - Erich Thienhaus Institut Musikhoschule Detmold
- James Clemens Seely - McGill University
- Patrick Fiorello - Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford
Stereo World/Folk
- Rishi Daftuar - University of Michigan
- Christopher Johns - McGill University
- Hugo Vejar - CEARTEC
Stereo Pop/Rock
- Thomas Geiger - Institute for Electronic Music, University of Music & Performing Arts Graz, Austria
- Christopher R Conover, University of Michigan
- Jacob Lansky, New England School of Communication
Stereo Jazz/Blues
- Brittany Keen - Institute of Audio Research
- Cecile Tournesac - Clive Davis School of Music, New York University
- Sebastian Braun - Erich Thienhaus Institut Musikhoschule Detmold
Surround – Classical
- Thomas Geiger - Institute for Electronic Music, University of Music & Performing Arts Graz, Austria
- Martin Kistner - University of the Arts, Berlin
- Patrick Fiorello - Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford
Surround – Non Classical
- Janosch Brenneisen - FH Duesseldorf
- Thomas Geiger - Institute for Electronic Music, University of Music & Performing Arts Graz, Austria
- Erick Thompson - University of Colorado Denver
Score/Sound For Picture
- Peter Roesner/Phillip Treiber - University of Music & Performing Arts Vienna, Austria
- Luc Hanneuse - IAD/INSAS
- Bing Jee Ng - Institute of Audio Research
A grand prize drawing was also held to win a pair of PMC Loudspeakers. All schools that were represented among the recording competition entries were included in the drawing. Ithaca College won the loudspeakers.
The SDA would also like to thank the following judges: Mark Rubel, Susan Rogers, Martha DeFrancisco, Darcy Proper, Jim Anderson, Dave Hewitt, Michael Bishop, Leszek Wojcik, Richard King, Ronald Prent, Robert Friedrich, Lawrence Manchester, Tim Starnes, Ron Sadoff, Mark Suzzo, Michael Barry, and Ira Newborn.
126th AES Convention Munich 2009
The recording competition winners from the 126th Convention in Munich have been announced.
Approximately 80 entries were received for the competition
Stereo - Pop/Rock
- Anton Persson - Luleå University of Technology
- Simon Oberender - Detmold University of Music
- Lars Spurr - The Royal Danish Music Academy
Stereo - Jazz/Blues
- Benjamin Ribolet - Conservatoire de Paris
- Grzegorz Sikora - McGill University
Stereo - World/Folk
- Brian Losch - McGill University
- Nils Carlsson - Luleå University of Technology
- Robin Ken Boes - Detmold University of Music
Stereo - Classical
- Ulrich Treutwein - University of Music and Perfoming Arts Vienna
- Wojciech Mielimaka - Fryderyk Chopin Univerity of Music
- Johannes Oscarsson - Luleå University of Technology
Surround - Non Classical
- Daniel Deboy - University Of Music And Dramatic Arts Graz
- Jonathan Hoffman - FH Duesseldorf
- Kyohei Takahashi - Tokyo University of the Arts
Surround - Classical
- Johannes Oscarsson - Luleå University of Technology
- Maria Kantorowicz - The Banff Centre
- Alexander Mikhlin - Russian Gnesin Academy of Music
- Tobias Gensheimer - Honorable Mention - FH Duesseldorf
The SDA would like to give special thanks to our judges and the following sponsors: Beyer Dynamic, Merging Technologies, Schoeps, George Massenburg DesignWorks, Sennheiser, and Focal Press.
125th AES Convention San Francisco 2008
Announcing the results of the 125th AES Convention Student Recording Competition in San Francisco.
Classical
1st - John Fredenburg, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University
2nd - Elaine Maltezos, University of Miami
3rd Tobias Hoff, Universität der Künste Berlin
Judges: Martha De Francisco, Peter Cook, David Bowles
Jazz/Blues
1st - Rishi Daftuar, University of Michigan
2nd - Tobias Hoff, Universität der Künste Berlin
3rd - Julian David, University of Applied Sciences Duesseldorf
Judges: Graemme Brown, Leslie Ann Jones, Steve Bellamy
World Folk
1st - Tobia Hoff, Universität der Künste Berlin
2nd - Timothy Miller and Thomas Dyer, Middle Tennessee State University
3rd - David Bell, University of Miami
Judges: Bob Ludwig, Paul Stubblebine, Bob Katz
Pop/Rock
1st - Trevor Simpson, University of Maryland
2nd - Brian Losch, The Banff Centre
3rd - Phillip J. Shirks Jordan, Middle Tennessee State University
Judges: Tony Berg, Shawn Everett
Sound for Picture
Finalist - Michael McConnell, Cogswell Polytechnical College
Judges: Michael Nunan, Mark Willsher, Luke Dunn Gielmuda
Classical Surround
1st - Nathan Chandler, McGill University
2nd - Dave Vettraino, Indiana University
Honorable Mention - Tetsuro Kanai, Tokyo University of the Arts
Judges: Kimio Hamasaki, David Bowles, Martha De Francisco
Non-Classical Surround
1st - James Clemens-Seely, The Banff Centre
2nd - Julian David, Uni
