AES Student Blog

15/01/2012 | Interview with JA-ANN WANG (student at NYU, USA) - HONORABLE MENTION, Cat 4.


SDA: How long did you work on your competition entry? Was this your first entry?
JAW: I worked on the film for 2 full days during finals week at school because the director approached me less than a week before the deadline. This was the first original film I ever worked on.


SDA: Tell us about the production. Stories? Inspirations?
JAW: The director told me to watch Eraserhead by David Lynch for inspiration.


SDA: What initiated your passion for audio?
JAW: My iPod shuffled to the soundtrack for Finding Neverland. That was the first time I ever had any interest in sound. I then wanted to be a composer until I realized I was a terrible composer and switched to sound effects, design, etc.


SDA: And what is your funniest experience as an engineer so far?
JAW: Recording bed sheet rustle for ten sex scenes in a film.


SDA: Biggest mistake you made during a production?
JAW: Completely deleting the best full take.


SDA: Any favorite frequency?
JAW: Frequencies that make your heart beat faster without you even knowing it (about 10kHz).

SDA: Do you play any instruments?
JAW: Violin.

SDA: Any other hobbies?
JAW: Baking gourmet cupcakes.

SDA: What is the best part about the AES?
JAW: Skip Livsay showing us his Pro Tools sessions for No Country for Old Men.

SDA: Finally, where do you want to be in 10 years?
JAW: I want to own my own post-production studio working on indie films. I would love to work on some big feature films, too!

More invterviews coming up so stay stuned and get ready for the coming STUDENT RECORDING COMPETITION at AES 132nd - BUDAPEST.

If you were smart, lucky or fortunate enough to be able to attend the 131^st Convention of the Audio Engineering Society October 20-23, 2011, you will no doubt attest that it was worth any amount to be there!

Students who made their way to the New York, along with 16,000 other fellow participants, took part in an amazing program of workshops, tutorials, technical programs, demonstrations and parties.

The world’s top audio professionals were available to student participants as mentors, recording competition judges, panelists, presenters or just to walk up to and speak with!

Students from all over the world crowded into the meeting rooms for the first and second meetings of the AES Student Delegate Assembly where outgoing North and Latin American Regions SDA Chair Philip Parenteau presided.  A representative from each student chapter introduced his or her section and announced how many members had made the trip. Initiatives of the SDA were discussed and Don Puluse of the AES Educational Foundation spoke briefly about scholarships that were available for graduate study in the field of audio.  Finally, the announcements of which entries would be finalists in the Student Recording Competition were made.

The four new categories of the Student Recording Competition made their US debut to an excellent response.  Esteemed judges included mainstays Jim Anderson, Ulrike Schwarz, David Bowles, Mark Rubel, Ron Prent, Darcy Proper, Geoff Mitchell, Martha De Francisco and Richard King. New judges who joined us this year included Grammy winner Staff Sergeant Brandie Lane, Mika producer John Merchant and noted game audio designer Steven Harwood.

Sponsors who donated prizes included PMC, API, Avid, Auralex, Shure, Sennheiser, Melodyne/Music Marketing Canada, Merging Technologies, Schoeps Mikrofone GmbH, Solid State Logic, Sweetwater, Reaper and Extreme Isolation Headphones.

The judges recognized the following entries: 

Traditional Acoustic (category 1)

•           Jamie Tagg,  (UMass - Lowell) SILVER

•           Padraig Buttner-Schnirer , (McGill Schulich School of Music) GOLD

•           Adam Grover, (The Hartt School: University of Hartford ) BRONZE

•           Eric Xu, (Steinhardt School, NYU) BRONZE

Traditional Studio (category 2)

•           Jeff Braun,  (Middle Tennessee State University) GOLD

•           Andrew Cass, (The Hartt School - University of Hartford) BRONZE

•           Takino Masumi, (Tokyo University of the Arts) GOLD

Modern Studio (category 3)

•           Hiromu Tanokura, (Tokyo University of Arts) SILVER

•           Taylor Bray, (Middle Tennessee State University) SILVER

•           Kevin Harper, (Ithaca College) SILVER

•           Robert Hunt, (Institute of Audio research) HONORABLE MENTION

Visual Media (category 4)

•           Tariq Burney,  (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) SILVER

•           Kevin Fallis, (Vancouver Film School) GOLD

•           Ja-Ann Wang, (New York University) HONORABLE MENTION

•           Sundiata Devore, (Institute of Audio Research) BRONZE

While the above entrants can feel good about the awards that they received, the true value of the Recording Competition will forever be the helpful criticisms and suggestions put forward by the judges.  Because this is done in a public forum, all who show up will reap the benefit of the judges’ wisdom!

For those perhaps not up for the competition, Dr. Ian Corbett and David Greenspan of the AES Education Committee put on three hours of Student Recording Critiques where students, in a non-competitive setting, were able to listen to comments from experts.  Thanks to Maurice Patist of PMC who made this and other great events possible by hosting it in his demo room and for providing not one but two wonderful PMC playback systems!

Students and recent graduates were able to find great career advice at the session called: Speed Counseling with Experts-Mentoring Answers for your Career. This event was organized by Kirk Imamura of SPARS (Society of Professional Recording Services) who brought together an amazing group of 22 respected industry pros in six different career tracks including record production, mastering, post, sound for film, gaming and live sound.  Niko Bloas, Leslie Mona-Mathis and Randy Merrill were just  three of the pros who spoke to the 88 individual attendees. 

For those looking for a sampling of academic audio programs or to find opportunities in the professional world, the Career and Education Fair had its strongest participation ever with universities displaying information about their audio programs and companies speaking with students about jobs available. 

While the exhibition hall gave students access to over 300 companies showing new products and offering a perspective on trends in the industry, the SDA offered its own booth just outside the main doors where student and education activities from sections around the globe were chronicled.  Student chapters were invited to share pictures and written descriptions of regional events including the Central Region Audio Student Summit (CRASS) held in St. Louis, The Central European Student Summit held in Poland and the Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit (BADASS) held in Boston.  The SDA booth also served as a great meeting place for students where information like results of the Recording Competition was posted.

Because all students love a good party, the opportunity to meet and socialize with other audio students was provided at the Student Social that was hosted downtown at NYU.  Students hob-nobbed, ate some awesome New York pizza and made friends they’ll see at conventions to come!

On the final afternoon at the second meeting of the SDA, awards were presented, prizes were given, photographs taken, outgoing SDA Chair Philip Parenteau was officially commended for his outstanding service and an election was held for a new SDA officer. Colin Pfund of the University of Hartford squeeked out a narrow victory over another worthy candidate to become the new SDA Vice Chair for North & Latin American Regions.  Congratulations Colin!

So, what was your favorite part of the 131^st AES Convention?  Did you get to see Alex Case’s lectures on Delay and Comb Filtering?  Did you meet the inventor of the MP3 Karl-Heinz Brandenburg?  Did you get your photo snapped with rock star Ben Folds (I did!)  Did you witness Recording Competition judge Jim Anderson hear things that you thought no one could hear? Did you make the connections to pros and to other students that will change your life? I want to know so please share your AES stories with the community and we’ll see you at the next convention.

John Krivit

Chair, Education Committee

Audio Engineering Society

Since 1994, the University of Stavanger Department of Music and Dance has offered a one-year graduate program in Music Production and Recording. The 60 ECTS credit program emphasizes the recording of music performance in acoustic spaces and provides practical opportunities for advanced students to enhance their audio education and experience. The program encourages students to work with a variety of music genre and can function as a viable alternative to a traditional, music recording internship.

The fulltime program of study is designed to supplement 3-4 years of higher education (bachelor’s degree) in music or a relevant field. Applicants must document previous education and related experience, including music proficiency. The program is limited to a maximum of ten qualified participants per year. International students, including ERASMUS exchange students, are welcome and encouraged to apply. All instruction is in English, and this has allowed the department to host students from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, as well as those from Scandinavia. 

Music Production and Recording at UiS provides students with opportunities to expand their musical and technical knowledge. As participants have different backgrounds, elements of the program can be modified to allow for specialization based on individual student’s personal interests. As practical exercises are emphasized, all students have generous amounts of individual studio time.

The program is completed in one academic year, beginning in mid-August and ending in mid-June. Instruction is given throughout the two-semester year, with much of the second semester focusing on practical music production and research projects. MPR students are required to complete a variety of live and studio productions and present a combination of papers and projects in music production/recording and critical listening for final evaluation.

The program includes group lectures, individual and small group instruction, study tours, and group projects. Cooperative projects frequently involve the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the NuMusic Festival, the Siddis Brass Festival, the Mai-Jazz International Jazz Festival, the Shell Music Prize Competition, the Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival, Nordic Music Week, and other professional music events.

The Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound shares the same campus as the MPR program and often provides unique research and work-study opportunities for students interested in audio archiving, restoration, and digitization.

Several acoustic environments for music recording are available for projects. The Lille Konsertsal (Small Concert Hall) was originally used by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company for recording the Stavanger Radio Symphony Orchestra. A smaller auditorium is available for solo and small ensemble recordings. A church simulation hall houses an 8-voice pipe organ and is used for performances requiring exceptionally “live” acoustics.

The Stavanger Concert House is often used for recording the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. Professional recording studios are linked to the various spaces, allowing students to compare acoustic environments along with analogue and digital production methods and technology. A new Stavanger Concert House with two halls will open in 2012, and the MPR students will be among the first to work in these performance spaces.

The MPR program’s latest studio is equipped for multi-channel surround recording, mixing, and mastering. The studio is based around a Yamaha DM2000 v.2 mixing console, a variety of popular digital audio workstation software, and a Genelec monitoring system. An additional control room is used for pre-production, editing, premastering, format transfer, and duplication. A variety of portable equipment is available for remote recording, as students frequently record in other regional venues.

MPR students are encouraged to participate in excursions to professional audio conventions within Norway and the rest of Europe, including the annual Audio Engineering Society conventions and the Nordic Sound Symposium. The MPR program is a member of the Society of Professional Audio Recording Services, and students have earlier benefited from travel grants from SPARS. In addition to visiting studios in the Stavanger area, students have travelled to Abbey Road in London and to the Norwegian Broadcasting Company studios, Lindberg Lyd, Rainbow Studio, Propeller Studio, NoTAM, and others in Oslo.

A year at the University of Stavanger will expand your knowledge of music production and recording, broaden your horizons, and change your life! The annual deadline for applications is December 15th, and all are encouraged to apply promptly. The program’s online application is active starting October 1st and is found at www.uis.no/music

Other undergraduate and graduate programs offered by the University of Stavanger’s Department of Music and Dance include classical and jazz performance, chamber music, arranging and composition, conducting, and dance.  For more information about our project partners, as well as the University of Stavanger and Norway in general, please browse these websites:

• www.recordedsound.no
• www.sso.no
• www.stavanger-konserthus.no
• www.numusic.no
• www.nordicmusicweek.com
• www.stavangerjazzforum.no
• www.maijazz.no
• www.studyinnorway.no
• www.visitnorway.com

If you have any questions, please contact the program’s director, Mark.Drews@uis.no.

"We are fast approaching 2012 and still, women make up only 27% of the technology or engineering fields, and 40% of those drop out after two years". Those unfortunate statistics are cited by New York University Professor Agnieszka Roginska who adds that "these numbers haven’t changed from when they were first reported 30 years ago.”

The Society of Women In TeCHnology (SWITCH) hosted a well-attended mixer at the 131st AES Convention to celebrate its inaugural year as a student run club for women technology students at NYU, both graduate and undergraduate. SWITCH empowers women to succeed in technology related fields, be it academic or professional, with an emphasis on music technology and the industry and arts professions. SWITCH is made up of engineers, scientists, artists, musicians, educators and music industry professionals who strive to inspire and learn from one and other. Through SWITCH, women are given an opportunity to network, collaborate, and share ideas.  

For more information on SWITCH, contact Jeanne Montalvo at nyuswitch@gmail.com. 

SWITCH can also be found on Facebook and Twitter!

Account Manager "Event Services" for iProbe Multilingual Solutions, Inc

Job description:

iProbe Multilingual Solutions, Inc is hiring a Sales Professional to join to our NYC Event Services division. We help organizations execute multi-language events by enabling presenters to communicate with their audience in any language. We supply language interpretation equipment, record and transcribe meetings and set up indoor event banners to support the marketing efforts of our clients.

Ideal candidate: a polished live sound professional with an aptitude for sales and great phone manners or a college graduate with a sales background, an interest in live events and savvy enough in physics to pursue a career in pro audio.

What are SI Systems: The Simultaneous Interpretation Systems (SI Systems) we have available for rental & sales are an often overlooked but important aspect of live sound (audio visual). Without specialized audio equipment for language distribution, communications among the members of United Nations would less effective or straight out impossible. The use of SI Systems makes it possible for foreign companies to present their stock offerings to US investors, it enables American non-profit organizations to provide educational programs to Spanish speaking audiences and it enhances training opportunities for English speaking professional to participate in overseas workshops.  You will work closely with the owner of the company to identify, qualify and develop new B2B business opportunities through cold calling and networking with AV companies, event planners, consulates and the UN missions. The job estimates 80% inside sales and 20% field visits.

The position requires a good work ethic and flexibility to satisfy on demand client needs. We are looking for someone who is a self-starter and interested in furthering their technical knowledge of pro-audio as used in a multi-language environment. As part of a small team you will get the opportunity to quickly progress.

Applicants must be US citizens or green card holders.

Application instructions:

1) Send your resume and cover note with salary requirements to Julie (paste into email body – please no attachments) to: setbon(at)iprobesolutions.com

2) In the email subject line please type: AES + Sales + “your city, state"

The Audio Engineering Society | Latin America is pleased to announce that the last edition for its StudentRecording Competition, part of the 2011 AES Latin American Conference on August 30^th, 31^st and September 1^st, has developed with much active participation and resonant success among the young of the region and the audio community altogether.

Work had arrived from students coming from across the continent, including such countries as Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela. The group of judges was conceived as the sum of many of the most renowned professionals in the land: Marcela Zorro (Colombia), Rodrigo Alsueta (Uruguay) Jorge Azama (Peru),Cesar Lamschtein (Uruguay), Andrés Mayo (Argentina), Roberto Muñoz (Chile) y Renato Zamora (Ecuador).

Among the novelties for this 2011 edition of the Latin American Competition, and for the very first time in the history of the Society, it is that the chance for student participation through teleconference was made open, allowing a contestant to present his/her work and defense via the Skype software. Also formerly unavailable was the possibility for a duo or small group of student members to join the Competition and be able to step up together to discuss their work with the judges as finalists at the RC Sessions. Never before had the AES Latin America given out the brand new “non-tangible” prize to Competition winners, in the form of Studio Time (Sondor Recording Studios; Vivace Recording Studios) or Scholarships (EMU School of Audio, Buenos Aires; ORT University, Uruguay), apart from the more common audio hardware or software awards (prizes by Focusrite, Mackie, Novation, REAPER).

The list for the Competition winners includes the following:

Edgar Iván Osorio Cocotle (Sección Estudiantil Sala de Audio) | Mexico
Lizbeth Estefanía Rodriguez Recalde + Juan Francisco Jiménez Pachecho | Ecuador
Melissa Vargas García | Colombia
Alejandro Yllarramendy López | Venezuela
Steve Gerardo Morales García | Guatemala
Francesca Crossa Espino | Uruguay

 
Some of their presentations are available online for download at the AES LAC2011 Student Recording Competition official website. 

The AES LAC2011 Student Recording Competition constituted the very second event of its kind to take place in the Latin American region. We look forward to a bigger contest and wider student participation for the coming Competition next year, at the AES LAC2012 in Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala.

Stephen Harwood Jr. will be judging entries in the category “Sound for Visual Media.” Come listen to this expert offer valuable feedback at the Recording Competition finals in New York!

Composer and sound designer Stephen Harwood Jr is best known for his critically acclaimed orchestral score for Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30 (Gearbox/Ubisoft, 2005).  Specializing in the composition of orchestral and modern orchestral-synth hybrid scores for video games, he is also an accomplished sound designer, producer, arranger and performer with experience in a broad range of styles and settings.

As a member of the IASIG Education Workgroup, Stephen is committed to supporting the efforts of aspiring game audio professionals.  He is the author and instructor of "Composing for Video Games" in the graduate film scoring program at New York University, and of "Sound for Games" at Mercy College.

The Student Recording Competition is one of the main attractions at each AES Convention. Submit your very best audio production work and receive feedback and recognition not only by experienced judges, but also by one of the most critical audience you can get.

Mentoring Answers for Your Career

Friday, October 21, 2011
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

This seminar is specially suited for students, recent graduates and those interested in career advice. Hosted by SPARS in cooperation with AES, G.A.N.G., Post NY Alliance and other audio organizations, career related Q&A sessions will be offered to participants in a speed group counseling format. A dozen students will interact with 2-3 working professionals in specific audio engineering fields or categories every 15-minutes. Audio engineering fields / categories include record production, mastering, post, sound for film, gaming and live sound.

Come to the first meeting of the Student Delegate Assembly on Thursday, October 20 at 11:15am-12:45 to sign up for this great opportunity.

Here is a preliminary list of counselors who will be participating in this event.

Record Production 

Niko Bolas
Niko Bolas is known as a “vibe oriented” producer/engineer in music studios and in forays with hi-tech companies. He has recorded and produced music and technology since starting at the famous Record One Studio in 1979. In music, he’s cut with a wide spectrum…
Classic Artists – Neil Young (The Volume Dealers), Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Keith Richards, Herb Alpert, KISS, Steve Perry…
Contemporary Artists – John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys, Melissa Etheridge, The Waterboys, My Morning Jacket…
Rising Talents – Australia’s Rushcutter, England’s Two Spot Gobi, and Chicago’s Echo Son.
Film work spans “The Breakfast Club”, “Singles”, Scorcese’s “Lightning In A Bottle”, and Beyonce’s “Cadillac Records”.

Roy Hendrickson
Roy came up under Tony Bongiovi’s tutelage during The Power Station days. He worked there for over six years and left as a freelance engineer in the early 1990′s. After working all across the country and at a multitude of studios, Roy came back to New York to establish his home base in Manhattan and forming an association with Avatar Studios. Roy has helped design and fine-tune the acoustics for Studio G, the mastering room, Studio E and W. All the rooms have received favorable reviews from our clients. As an engineer, Roy has worked with a wide variety of artists in many different genres including B.B. King, Missy Elliott, Blondie, Cheap Trick, P.O.D., Gavin DeGraw, Miles Davis, Peter Paul & Mary, Richie Havens, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, Gato Barbieri, Pat Metheny, Al di Meola, Kirk Whalum, Jeff Golub, Philippe Saisse, Roberta Flack, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, Tal Wilkenfeld and Nicole C. Mullen.

Mark Rubel (Pogo Studio)
Since 1980, Mark Rubel has made about 1,000 recordings at his Pogo Studio in the center of The Center of the Universe (Champaign IL), where he has recorded Hum, Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts, Adrian Belew, Melanie, Luther Allison, Henry Butler and many others, including work for RCA, Capitol, Warner, Jive/Zomba, etc. Mark belongs to SPARS, AES, NARAS, ASCAP, the Music and Entertainment Industry Educator’s Association (MEIEA), Chicago’s Engineering and Recording Society (EARS), and many other acronyms. Recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Audio Recording Studios, he is a member of the Grammy® Producers Committee, NARAS Producers and Engineers Wing and Education Committees. Having taught audio at the college level to more than 4,000 students since 1985, Mr. Rubel now serves as Audio Director for Eastern Illinois University’s $65 million Doudna Fine Arts Center, where he is lucky enough to teach Audio and Recording Technology, the History of Rock, and works on developing new audio and music business curricula. Mark travels about doing panels and workshops, including a 2010 AES panel with Al Schmitt, Ed Cherney and Elliot Scheiner. He has been featured in various books and magazines, interviewed Les Paul, Terry Manning and others for Tape Op Magazine, and acts as a consultant, beta tester and legal expert witness.

Mastering

David Glasser (Airshow Mastering)
David Glasser HAS OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE in audio engineering and has mastered thousands of records, including more than 80 Grammy nominees. A three-time nominee himself, he has earned two Grammy awards for mastering and restoration of the culturally significant Anthology of American Folk Music (1997) and Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton (2002). David began his audio career with the Boston Symphony, followed by eight years of recording and production for NPR. Founding Airshow in 1983 to offer location recording services, he shifted to full-time mastering in 1990 with a modest studio in Springfield, Virginia. Expanding the company to Boulder, Colorado in 1997, David has grown Airshow into one of the largest mastering facilities in the country.

Fred Kevorkian (Kevorkian Mastering)
Fred began his career in France, where he worked for Sonofrance, a well-established sound company in Paris. His background in electronics and passion for music led him naturally into the field of audio consulting and studio design. After several years, Fred decided to specialize in engineering. He became a freelance broadcast engineer working for major television networks as well as a staff engineer at Parisign Records. In 1989, Fred came to New York where he spent a total of nine years at Sear Sound. He was the chief recording engineer there, and also collaborated with Walter Sear in building and customizing unique pieces of vintage gear during the first four years. He then turned his focus to mastering, which really suited his talent and interests. Walter Sears decided to build Studio B where Fred spent the remaining five years there, mastering albums for independent and major label artists. In 1999, Fred joined Absolute Audio where he was on staff for five years before founding Kevorkian Mastering, Inc. in 2004. At Absolute, Fred sharpened his mastering skills and built up quite an impressive list of clients. In April of 2005, Fred moved to a new mastering facility designed and built by Avatar Studios where he continues providing excellent mastering services. His mastering room is located on the 3rd floor. Fred’s credits include albums by Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, The White Stripes, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Trey Anastasio, Iggy Pop, The Walkmen, moe and Jesse Malin as well as Sonny Rollins, Cassandra Wilson, Dave Holland, Clark Terry, Danilo Perez and many others.

Randy Merrill (Masterdisk)
Randy’s approach to mastering is to be as attuned to his clients’ aesthetic and practical goals as possible. He’ll go the extra mile to make sure the finished product reflects how you want your music to sound. Randy attended the Sound Recording Technology program at SUNY College at Fredonia, where he studied music theory and performance, audio engineering, and acoustics. After Fredonia, he went to work for the Eastman School of Music, where he honed his skills on all phases of music and audio production — from live and studio recording and mixing, to live sound reinforcement, jazz arranging, composition, and percussion performance. He relocated to New York City in 1999 and started engineering. He spent five years as a technical engineer at Avatar Studios (formerly Power Station) where he worked under Chief Engineer Roy Hendrickson. While at Avatar he aided in the construction of their mastering facility. It was at this point that he switched his focus to mastering. As a result of this shift, he joined Scott Hull Mastering in early 2006 as Scott’s production engineer. Shortly thereafter he started developing his own mastering clientele, and today he is a staff engineer at Masterdisk. Mastering Highlights include the modern jazz of Darcy James Argue, Bruce Hornsby’s sophisticated pop, Franz Nicolay’s indie rock and classical music for the Naxos label.

Audio Post

Sign up here!

Leslie Mona-Mathus (ABC News)
Currently Senior Audio Engineer for ABC News, Leslie is an Emmy award winning Audio Mixer/ Editor/ Sound Designer/ Producer. During the course of her thirty plus year career she has earned two Grammy nominations, four Emmy nominations, a Gold Record, a Bafta and multiple Clio and Promax awards. From staff engineer at Automated Sound Studios, to freelancer at major recording studios and music production houses in and around the NYC area, to post-production engineer at Howard Schwartz Recording, and now ABC, Leslie has recorded, designed, edited and mixed numerous CD’s, underscores, jingles, commercials, and promos. Her body of work also includes many long-form projects for major film companies, broadcast / cable networks as well as award winning independent films. As a guest speaker at several universities and secondary schools, Leslie uses her experience and keen interest to present to students in an effort to educate and mentor future generations of audio professionals. Her love of her craft, strong work ethic and commitment to the highest standards of the recording industry, drive her career and artistic endeavors forward, allowing for continued success in an ever-changing industry.

Rick Senechal (Microsoft Studios)
Rick Senechal currently leads the audio group at Microsoft Studios. MS Studios is a full service production facility located in Redmond Washington. They offer services ranging from broadcast, post, music, brand music and music supervision, UI design and general audio production. Our work is played in every global market with an up countable number of plays. Starting as a drummer and then transitioned into audio production, in these early years he ran the recording program at Fairhaven Studios on the Western Washington University. During that time he created curriculum for four university level audio classes. He has a heart for music production and creating educational opportunities aimed at increasing the skill level of the local audio community thus drawing more production to the Northwest.

Eric Johnson 
Eric began playing music professionally at the age of 16 in a local R&B band in his hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. In 1986, while attending North Carolina State University’s School of Design, Eric founded Johnsound Productions. Eric’s early work included composing, writing, and recording jingles for local and regional clients. Eric also did studio production for artists seeking recording contracts. One of his first clients was Tyka Nelson who is the sister of Grammy Award-winning artist Prince. Eric helped write and arrange Tyka’s first single, Marc Anthony’s Tune which made Billboard Magazine’s Top Forty chart during the summer of 1987. In 1988, Eric began to move away from producing artists and began to concentrate on music for advertising as well as soundtracks for non-broadcast corporate video and film projects for clients such as IBM, Caterpillar, Golden Corral, Nortel, Burroughs Wellcome, Hardee’s, and North Carolina State University. In January of 2003, Eric joined Trailblazer Studios to launch Blazing Music + Sound, the dedicated custom music and sound division of Trailblazer Studios. Blazing Music + Sound provides custom music, recording, mixing, and sound design for advertising agency, film, television, and video game production clients. Blazing Music + Sound currently handles audio post for TLC’s top rated shows Jon & Kate Plus 8 and 18 Kids and Counting. Other clients include advertising agencies McKinney( Travelocity, Quest, NASDAQ), McCann Ericksson (General Motors), television clients National Geographic/Nova, Fine Living Network, The Tennis Channel, and Animal Planet, and gaming companies Virtual Heroes, Red Storm Entertainment, and Codemasters.

Tom Paul 
A highly regarded Re-Recording Mixer and Sound Designer, Tom Paul is one of New York City’s most sought after talents in the field of post production audio. Tom got his professional start as a boom operator in 1988, moving on to production mixing in 1991. Some notable titles of his early years in production sound include: Trust, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Little Odessa, Swoon and The Yards. In 1994, his passion for sound lead him to the creative environment of post production. Some highlights of his sound design and re-recordng credits include the Academy Award winning films The Fog of War and Born Into Brothels. Other notable films include: Junebug, Palindromes, The Baxter, The King, and U2 360, the largest selling concert DVD of all time. Most recently, Tom sound designed, mixed and scored a beautiful Bulgarian filmed called Avé, selected for competition in Critic’s Week, at Cannes 2011. Further integrating Tom’s passion for music and sound, he composed and performed original piano music for the film.

Gaming 

Tom Salta (Persist Music) – Composer / Solo Artist
Tom Salta is one of the most versatile and prolific music composer/producers working in multimedia including film, television, advertising and most notably video games. Salta has garnered widespread acclaim for his distinctive, world-class produced scores featured in popular franchises such as FROM DUST, HALO ANNIVERSARY EDITION, PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE FORGOTTEN SANDS Wii, R.U.S.E., RED STEEL 1&2, TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER 1&2 and TOM CLANCY’S H.A.W.X 1&2. In addition to his scoring assignments, tracks from his debut Atlas Plug album “2 Days Or Die” grace many television shows, film trailers and video games.

Neil Goldberg (Heavy Melody Music and Heavyocity Media NYC) – Partner/Composer/ Sound Designer
Neil has been credited as composer, sound designer and dialog producer on games for an extensive list of publishers including Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Obsidian Entertainment, Eden Games and Atari. He has worked on commercial advertising campaigns for VW, The NFL, Gillette, GE, Sony, MTV and scored long form programming for Discovery Channel, Syfy, and NBC. Additionally, he’s collaborated with Grandmaster Flash on his latest album, The Bridge. Neil is also the Co-founder/Creative for the award-winning virtual instrument developer, Heavyocity Media, Inc.

Film Music 

Lawrence Manchester
Whether recording a Hollywood film score with a 90-piece orchestra for a Martin Scorsese film, tracking vocals with Beyonce, engineering the Spider-Man cast album for Bono & The Edge, or mixing Fashion Rocks in 5.1 to a TV audience of millions, Lawrence Manchester’s experience and versatility have made him one of the busiest professionals in NYC. To date, this 2010 Grammy-nominee has engineered the scores for three Academy Award-winning films: The Departed, Frida, and The Red Violin. He’s collaborated with some of today’s most accomplished composers (Danny Elfman, Carter Burwell, Marc Shaiman, Elliot Goldenthal, Howard Shore) and finest directors (Ang Lee, Julie Taymor, The Coen Brothers). Lawrence is also the music mixer for NBC’s Emmy-nominated Late Night With Jimmy Fallon where he’s mixed live performances by The Roots, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Green Day, Mumford & Sons, Vampire Weekend, Keith Urban, Public Enemy, Dave Matthews Band, The Dead Weather, My Morning Jacket, and The Muppets. In the studio, Lawrence has engineered records for Grammy-winning producers Phil Ramone, Steve Lillywhite, T Bone Burnett, and Jack Douglas and has recorded some of the most varied artists of our time including Diana Krall, Justin Timberlake, Michel Legrand, Sondre Lerche, Art Garfunkel, Regina Spektor, Natalie Dessay, Ron Carter, and Patti LuPone. As a producer, Lawrence has worked with Kelli O’Hara, and Sutton Foster, and director Michael Moore.

Live Sound

Shaun Wall (MTSG Productions)
Shaun Wall’s audio career began when an engineer at an open mic night had reached his limit and asked if he wanted to take over doing sound. This unexpected event started a two-year journey of learning about the audio world. He decided to return to college, finish a degree, and he wholeheartedly jumped into an audio education at Webster University. A few weeks later, he added cultural anthropology as a second major. Through the study of culture, community, and his personal experiences of how music can bind people together, he embarked on a mission to foster a deeper sense of community among audio engineers. While at Webster, he helped create and bring into existence AES’s first-ever student convention: the Central Region Audio Student Summit–which is now in its fifth year running. His involvement branched out into all areas of the event including sponsorship acquisition, organizing the panel/workshop schedules, contacting and securing guest speakers/panelists, taking care of any day-of-event needs, and directly interfacing with the guests and attendees to improve the convention’s effectiveness in providing desired information at a quality level. These skill sets built a foundation for the position he currently occupies. At this time, he is touring as an FOH engineer for a wonderful band and ism in the process of becoming their tour manager as well.

David Bowles will be judging entries in the Traditional Acoustic Recording category. Come listen to this expert offer valuable feedback at the Recording Competition finals in New York!

Recording producer and engineer David Bowles formed Swineshead Productions, LLC in 1995 as a classical recording production company, which specialises in high-resolution surround-sound recording. Services offered include audio production, engineering, editing, masteringand location recording for commercial release. Since its inception he has produced and/or engineered over 80 projects for commercial release, ranging from the 17th century to the music of today. He also records season performances of several orchestras and choruses for their audio archives.

Mr. Bowles is a member of Audio Engineering Society (AES): he was on the Board of Governors and served on committees for the 2008 and 2010 conventions. He alternated between chair and co-chair of the San Francisco section of the AES between 2005 and 2010. He is also a voting member ofNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), active in theirProducers & Engineers Wing and has been nominated for Classical Producer of the Year in the American Grammy awards. He has beta-tested hardware and software for Prism Media Products and been a guest lecturer for audio programmes at the Banff Centre, New York University and The Peabody Institute.

Mr. Bowles received audio training from Tony Faulkner, John Eargle, John Newton and the ESARI at Aspen Music Festival. He received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in violoncello from the Juilliard School and a certificate in early music performance practice from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. For many years he performed and recorded as cellist with both orchestras and chamber ensembles.