AES Student Blog

Interview with ERIC XU (student at NYU, USA)

- BRONZE AWARD, Cat 1.

How long did you work on your competition entry?

The recording of it took a couple hours and the mixing/listening took a week or so to finalize

Tell us about the production. Stories? Inspirations?

Since it was a live concert, the production was fairly simple...I was recording a live concert and wanted it to sound good.

What initiated your passion for audio?

When I was eleven, I started helping out with sound at church. I was always interested in music, especially writing and crafting music, which naturally leaded to an audio interest.

Funniest experience as an engineer so far?

Testing I/O between Pro Tools and a console once and setting the tone generators to 60Hz square waves, which scared my teacher thinking there were ground hums on every channel.

Biggest mistake you made during a production?

Forgetting to bring the 1/4 inch adapter for headphones so I couldn't monitor the recital I was recording.

Favorite frequency?

60Hz.

Favorite mic, outboard box, or plugin?

Favorite cardioid mic is the Schoeps CMC 6, omni is the Sennheiser MKH 20...plugin has to be Altiverb.

Best recording of all time?

Has a lot to do with the performance too, so I'd have to say Herbert von Karajan doing “Sibelius 2nd Symphony” with Berlin Philharmonic on EMI, or Cleveland Quartet playing Beethoven's “2nd Razumovsky” (Op.59 #2) on Telarc.

Do you play any instruments?

Yes. Violin.

Any other hobbies?

Volleyball, biking.

The best part about AES?

Watching my friend Ja-Ann Wang make it as a finalist in Category 4.

Where do you want to be in 10 years?

Carnegie Hall.