AES Paris 2016
Saturday, June 4, 12:00 — 13:30 (Havane Amphitheatre)
Opening Ceremonies
Awards
Keynote Speech
Presenters:Alex Case, University of Massachusetts Lowell - Lowell, MA, USA
John Krivit, Audio Engineering Society - Brookline, MA, USA; Emerson College - Boston, MA, USA
Bob Moses, AES - Vashon Island, WA, USA
Sean Olive, Harman International - Northridge, CA, USA
Michael Williams, Sounds of Scotland - Le Perreux sur Marne, France
Abstract:
Opening Remarks:
• Executive Director Bob Moses
• President John Krivit
• Convention Chair Michael Williams
Program:
• AES Awards Presentation by Sean Olive, Awards Chair
• Introduction of Keynote Speaker by Convention Chair
• Keynote Address
Awards Presentation
Please join us as the AES presents Special Awards to those who have made outstanding contributions to the Society in such areas of research, scholarship, and publications, as well as other accomplishments that have contributed to the
enhancement of our industry. The awardees are:
CITATION AWARD
• Humberto Teran
FELLOWSHIP AWARD
• Dave Fisher
• Ralph Kessler
• Brian C. J. Moore
• Rozenn Nicol
• Kazuho Ono
BOARD OF GOVERNORS AWARD
• Dorte Hammershøi
• Bert Kraaijpoel
This year’s Keynote Speaker is Alex U. Case. Case is Associate Professor of Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In addition to full time undergraduate and graduate teaching, Case has presented dozens of invited lectures and master classes on audio, acoustics, and education across the U.S. and internationally. His research and professional activities focus on the technical foundations, creative motivations, and aesthetic merits of recording and signal processing techniques used in multitrack production. Widely published, Case is an author, with over 100 articles in journals and industry trade publications, entries in the Grove Dictionary of American Music, and two titles with Focal Press. He is also President Elect of the AES. His keynote address is entitled “Intuition, Rebellion, Courage, and Chance – Historic Moments of Creative Signal Processing That Resonate to This Day.”
Artists learn, in part, by imitating those who came before them, but they succeed by finding their own voice. Audio artistry is no different. Recording engineers are influenced by the recordings they admire, Keeping up with the advances in audio is a full time job. A glance at the rich schedule of events that fill the Technical Program here at the 140th AES International Convention confirms: we always have so much to learn, to discover, and to master. Technology and craft are always in flux, presenting audio engineers with opportunities for newer, faster, and better. Some advances are fleeting—doomed to fade—but others become industry touchstones. Learning from the ear-grabbing sonic inventions that came before us, we can be better prepared should audio fate drop-in on our recording session. Let your search for better recording and mixing techniques be informed by these key moments in sound recording history.
Saturday, June 4, 15:15 — 16:15 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 1—Binaural Audio from Auro 3D
Presenters:Wilfried Van Baelen, Auro Technologies N.V. - Mol, Belgium
Bert Van Daele, Auro 3D & Galaxy Studios - Mol, Belgium
Abstract:
Headphone Demos
Headphones are more and more becoming the main reproduction device for all kinds of content, including immersive sound through the use of binaural processing. In this session, Auro-3D content will be demonstrated using the Auro-Headphones real-time binaural processing, as used in mobile devices and consumer devices. The demonstration will not only include the reproduction of "native" (recorded and mixed in) Auro-3D, but also the unique upmixing capabilities of Auro-Matic for Headphones, delivering an immersive listening experience from regular stereo and surround sources.
Saturday, June 4, 15:15 — 16:15 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 2—3D Audio Projections
Presenter:Daniel Shores, Sono Luminus - Boyce, VA, USA; Shenandoah Conservatory Music Production and Recording Technology - Winchester, VA, USA
Abstract:
Crossing over Into Immersive Audio
Since it’s inception in 1996, Sono Luminus has operated with the singular focus of providing the home consumer with a unique listening experience, which we describe as Performance Fidelity. In 2006, Sono Luminus took the leap from studio to record label and have since created albums focusing in classical and acoustic music that have resulted in eighteen GRAMMY nominations, including nominations in the categories of Surround Sound and Best Engineered classical, as well as one Latin GRAMMY award winning album. In 2011, Sono Luminus began releasing it’s recordings using the Pure Audio Blu-ray. Sono Luminus felt this would be the perfect delivery method for their surround recordings to the largest consumer base. In 2015, Sono Luminus began its experimentation and implementation of 9.1 Auro-3D recording. To date, Sono Luminus has created numerous 9.1 recordings, five of which are now commercially available with more on the way. Immersive audio quite literally takes the listening experience of the home consumer to the next level. It allows Sono Luminus the opportunity to deliver an even more in-depth, intriguing, and unique listening experience.
Recording both on location, and in the 100 year old converted church in the Virginia countryside that is now the home of Sono Luminus Studios, Sono Luminus focuses on techniques for capturing native immersive audio, rather than mixing for the format.
In the end though, it is all about the serving the music, and we have taken the opportunity to work with the musicians and composers to develop recordings that bring out the all of the musical nuances in a way not possible before.
Examples in this projection will demonstrate various styles of music including choral, early music, Celtic, percussion, electronics, experimental music just to name a few demonstrating vastly different instrumentation and sonic textures.
Samples will include selections from:
Peter Gregson - From the Album "Touch"
Skylark Vocal Ensemble - From the Album "Crossing Over"
Ensemble Galilei - From the Album "From Whence we Came"
International Contemporary Ensemble - From the Album " In the Light of Air"
Inscape - From the Album "Petrushka"
Ayreheart - From the Album "Barley Moon"
Los Angeles Percussion Quartet – From their upcoming untitled album.
Saturday, June 4, 15:45 — 17:15 (Havane Amphitheatre)
Podcasting - Telling Your Story with Sound
Presenter:Jim Anderson, New York University - New York, NY, USA
Abstract:
A podcast can be more than a monologue or an interview; it can be a rich environment for using sound to tell your story. One can use sound in many ways, whether it’s to set the scene, illustrate a concept, or enliven a journalistic endeavor. The talk will take the audience on an international aural journey from the 'hollars’ of Kentucky to the streets of Grenada in search of sounds. With Jim Anderson’s deep background in broadcasting, he will demonstrate the power of sound to illustrate and enrich a podcast.
Saturday, June 4, 16:15 — 17:15 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 3—Binaural Audio Projections from the BBC
Presenter:Tom Parnell, BBC - Manchester, UK
Abstract:
BBC Research & Development has been working with program makers in recent years to create binaural productions. State-of-the-art techniques in recording, object-based mixing, and processing of audio have been applied to create spatial listening experiences for BBC audiences listening on headphones. This listening session will present clips of binaural program material produced by the BBC.
Program:
• Unearthed - An interactive natural history story with binaural sound, originally presented on the BBC Taster website
• Ring - A binaural horror play, part of Radio 4's Fright Night on Halloween 2015.
• The Stone Tape - A binaural ghost story, part of Radio 4's Fright Night on Halloween 2015.
• The Turning Forest - A 3D sound fairy tale, shown as a virtual reality piece with dynamic binaural sound at TriBeCa Film Festival 2016
Saturday, June 4, 16:15 — 17:15 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 4—3D Audio Projections from 2L
Presenter:Morten Lindberg, 2L (Lindberg Lyd AS) - Oslo, Norway
Abstract:
The music captured by 2L features Norwegian composers and performers and an international repertoire reflected in the Nordic atmosphere. The surround sound recordings of Lindberg Lyd not only transform the entire listening experience, but also - more radically - these innovative recordings overturn some very basic concepts regarding how music is played and even composed. 2L emphasize surround sound with Pure Audio Blu-ray and HiRes file distribution, and have garnered no less than 23 American GRAMMY nominations since 2006. Sixteen of these in categories Best Engineered Album, Best Surround Sound Album and Producer of the Year
2L record in spacious acoustic venues: large concert halls, churches and cathedrals. This is actually where we can make the most intimate recordings. The qualities we seek in large rooms are not necessarily a big reverb, but openness due to the absence of close reflecting walls. Making an ambient and beautiful recording is the way of least resistance. Searching the fine edge between direct contact and openness - that’s the real challenge! A really good recording should be able to bodily move the listener. This core quality of audio production is made by choosing the right venue for the repertoire, and by balancing the image in the placement of microphones and musicians relative to each other in that venue.
There is no method available today to reproduce the exact perception of attending a live performance. That leaves us with the art of illusion when it comes to recording music. As recording engineers and producers we need to do exactly the same as any good musician: interpret the music and the composer’s intentions and adapt to the media where we perform. Immersive audio is a completely new conception of the musical experience. Recorded music is no longer a matter of a fixed one-dimensional setting, but rather a three-dimensional enveloping situation. Stereo can be described as a flat canvas, while immersive audio is a sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially; surrounded by music you can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions.
Saturday, June 4, 17:30 — 19:00 (Havane Amphitheatre)
Heyser Lecture
Presenter:Rozenn Nicol, Orange Labs - Lannion, France
Abstract:
The Richard C. Heyser distinguished lecturer for the 140th AES Convention is Rozenn Nicol, a research engineer on spatial audio at Orange Labs in France. She has worked on the development of innovative 3D sound technologies such as binaural, WFS and ambisonics, to enhance future telecommunication services. The title of her lecture is "The 3D Audio Revolution from Labs to Mass Market."
Over the past 25 years, there have been many major evolutions in spatial audio. After more than 50 years of stereophony, new technologies, such as Wave Field Synthesis, Higher Order Ambisonics or Vector Base Amplitude Panning, were introduced. They promise an enhanced 3D audio experience, where virtual sound sources can be accurately synthesized in any direction. Various formats of multichannel audio are now proposed: from 5.1, to 7.1, 10.2, Auro-3D (9.1, 11.1 or 13.1), 22.2, and Dolby Atmos (5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, 7.1.4, 9.1.2). Not only the number of channels increases for a better sound immersion, but also sound spatialization is extended to elevation effects. In parallel, more and more tools are available for the capture, the editing, the coding and the reproduction of spatial audio. However, since these evolutions require more and more complex setups of loudspeakers, spatial audio is faced with the risk of being limited to movie theaters or amusement parks. Fortunately, a new step was recently reached with the binaural adaptation of any multichannel audio to headphone listening. Pioneer experiments from radio or television (BBC, Radio France, France Télévisions) show that spatial is very close to becoming a mass market product.
Sunday, June 5, 17:00 — 18:00 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 5—Binaural Audio from Radio France
Presenter:Hervé Dejardin, Radio France - Paris, France
Abstract:
"Sequences" - The live production of electronic music for Surround Sound Reproduction
Come and listen to extracts from “Sequences” in Binaural Sound reproduction. “Sequences” takes advantage of the latest innovations in the field of multichannel mixing techniques. This immersion in the surround audio space offers the listener the opportunity to better understand and experience the specificity of electronic live music. Radio France, France Télévisions and Milgram production have united their unique sound and image expertise for this project, and propose a new experience in electronic music listening.
Sunday, June 5, 17:00 — 18:00 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 6—3D Audio from Auro3D
Presenters:Wilfried Van Baelen, Auro Technologies N.V. - Mol, Belgium
Bert Van Daele, Auro 3D & Galaxy Studios - Mol, Belgium
Abstract:
3D Loudspeaker Demos—9.1, 11.1, 13.1
In this listening session, various examples of immersive content in the Auro-3D formats will be played. The demonstrated content will range from movie excerpts and trailers to music in various genres. The examples will show the added value of 3D immersive sound reproduction from an artistic as well as an emotional point of view.
Sunday, June 5, 18:00 — 19:00 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 7—Binaural Audio from Radio France
Presenter:Frédéric Changenet, Radio France - Paris, France
Abstract:
Ever since November 2015, Radio France has been presenting “Du cinéma pour dos oreilles,” public WFS audio projections of Dramas, Concerts and Documentaries in studio 105 equipped with 30 loudspeakers. We propose listening to samples of these productions in the Binaural version.
Sunday, June 5, 18:00 — 19:00 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 8—Surround Sound Audio Projections from Radio France
Presenter:Hervé Dejardin, Radio France - Paris, France
Abstract:
"Sequences" - The live production of electronic music for surround sound reproduction
Come and listen to extracts from “Sequences” in 8.0 Surround Sound Reproduction. “Sequences” takes advantage of the latest innovations in the field of multichannel mixing techniques. This immersion in a surround sound audio space offers the listener the opportunity to better understand and experience the specificity of electronic live music. Radio France, France Télévisions and Milgram Productions have united their unique sound and image expertise for this project and propose a new experience in electronic music listening in 8.0 Surround Sound.
Sunday, June 5, 19:30 — 22:00 (Off-site 1)
Banquet
Abstract:
For this year's banquet join us in the heart of the Ile Saint Germain at Issy Les Moulineaux. Originally used entirely for agriculture, the island has had a chequered history becoming largely urbanized and almost industrialized at one point before being saved and transformed through a major project into an island park and haven of greenery. We will enjoy French seasonal specialities in a Napoleon III pavilion. French gastronomy is of course world renown and in 2010 was added by UNESCO to its lists of the world's "intangible cultural heritage." Our banquet menu will reflect this with a classic aperitif and three course meal sure to delight your palate.
There will be a musical interlude on a highly original instrument guaranteed to arouse your aural and visual curiosity - played by Robert Hebrard, musicologist and pioneer in experimental instrument manufacture in France. The number of seats is limited, but you can reserve your place now, and pay for your ticket(s) on arrival at the Convention. There will be bus transport from the Convention to the restaurant and returning to the Palais des Congrès afterwards.
Cost: 85€ per person (Must pay onsite)
Note: this event is already SOLD OUT
Monday, June 6, 16:45 — 18:00 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 9—Binaural Audio from France Télévisions
Presenters:Daniel Khamdamov
Gilles Porte, La Generale de Production - Paris, France
Gaël Segalen, IhearU - Paris, France
Abstract:
New Productions Using Binaural in the French Media Landscape
Presentation by Daniel KHAMDAMOV
TOUCHE FRANCAISE is a documentary web series ( 12 x 7 min) written by Guillaume Fédou and Jean-François Tatin, directed by Jean-François Tatin. The series offers a travel back into the French Touch musical scene, through a playlist of twelve iconic tracks of French electronic music from 1995 until today.
It revisits the emergence of a new popular culture, portraying
chronologically this movement and offering a sensory and musical journey back in times through an original and curated soundtrack of the French Touch sound. Interviews and never-before-seen personal archives of the internationally renowned French artists who contributed to this new musical style tell of a generational and global phenomenon born with the Internet bubble.
Each of the 12 episodes delves into one chosen aspect of this movement and focuses on one track and artist such as Laurent Garnier, Air, Justice, Daft Punk, Sébastien Tellier, Vitalic, Kavinsky etc.
Lasting approximately 7 min, the episodes are tailored for a quality audio streaming and perfect sonic immersion : binaural recordings and a spatial sound design offer the spectator a multisensory innovative experience.
Each episode ends with an original recording of the title track by a selected up and coming musician or band. French musician Christophe Chassol has composed the score and designed musical textures following his “ultrascore” technique, i.e., capturing a particular location's color, music, and sounds.
Presentation by Gaël SEGALEN
Dancers are musicians: Symétric à la lune (“Symmetric to the moon") is a musical piece made exclusively from the sounds of dance (moves, steps, breaths, …), a sound library recorded by Gaël Segalen in conjunction with dancers, improvising in public spaces, listening to their own sounds while producing them (mixed recording technics: binaural, stereo AB, mono, for many grounds, densities and perspectives).
Made originally for headphones (audiowalks organized in different cities), and for boat cruises with the geolocalized app Soundways (Cap Digital, Futur en Seine) created by “Collective Mu for Bande Originale,” an artistic exploration along the Canal de l'Ourcq, Paris and northern suburbs, summer 2014.
Composed, reworked and mastered by Gaël Segalen for vinyl Edition on Paris based label Erratum (May 2016).
Monday, June 6, 17:00 — 18:00 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 10—3D Audio from the Jurassic and Early Triassic
Presenter:Michael Williams, Sounds of Scotland - Le Perreux sur Marne, France
Abstract:
"Le Monde des Dinosaurs"
The publication of the natural sounds of Jurasic Dinosaurs in the collection of biological recordings published by 'Frémeaux & Associés' is based on the research work done by Professor David Weishampel from John Hopkins University in Maryland, who studied the characteristics of air passing through the empty comb of the Parasaurolophus. The 'natural' sound recording engineer Jean-Luc Hérelle has put together the sounds of the Iguanodon and the tyrannosaurs in a Giant Sequoia Forest during the early-Jurassic (a period going back some 200 million years). The creation and production of this sound material is based on some recent scientific findings on the relationshship between dinosaurs and today's birds, and of course dinosaur replicas produced by paleontologist using much that has been discovered about dinosaurs since the 19th Cantury. These sounds are a real insight into this prehistoric world. If you were not able to experience the sounds of these giant animals at first hand, then get in your time machine and come to this fantastic soundscape audio projection.
This series of audio projection soundscapes will include extracts from
1) The Plateosaurus, Nothosaurus, Coelophysis, Dimorphodon, Barapasaurus, Plesiosaurus and Rhamphorhynchus from the triassic/early Jurassic period.
2) A small group of Archaeopteryx who are hunting insects, surrounded by a few Camptosaurus, a Megalosaurus and a Scaphognathus. These are all from the Jurassic era.
3) The soundscape of an open swamp forest with the Pterodaustro, an Iguanodon, the Euhelopus, the Stegosaurus, the Acrocanthosaurus, the mighty Deinonychus, the spectacular Parasaurolophus, and the final scream of the Tyrannosaurus, accompanied by the song of the Pteranodon.
Monday, June 6, 18:00 — 19:00 (Room 352A)
Audio Projections 11—The French Media Landscape
Presenters:Silvain Gire, ARTE Radio / ARTE France - Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
David Kleinman, BinauralCircus - Paris, France
Pascal Rueff, L'Agence du Verbe - Plouec du Trieux, France; Feichter Audio
Abstract:
New Productions Using Binaural in the French Media Landscape
Presentation by David KLEINMAN:
“Dernier round” (“Last round”) is the first episode of the series “Qu’est-ce que j’fous là?” (What in Hell am I doing here?). 3 minutes in a boxing ring: a journey in my head, ears wide open…
For “Dernier round,” I was on the ring, fighting with gloves and everything … and microphones in my ears.
Images are the best enemy of sound!... I’m searching for a way to reconcile them.
Presentation by Silvain GIRE
In the head: The conductor of the orchestra
By Charlotte Rouault and Benoît Bories
Production: ARTE Radio (4’ 48’’)
Hear the classical orchestra from the “point of listening” of the conductor. Violins on the left, cellos in the back …
ARTE Radio produces the ongoing series “Dans la tête” (“In the head”) in binaural audio. 4 minutes in the head of a metro driver, a hockey player, a basketball player in a wheelchair, a gynecologist …
Monday, June 6, 18:00 — 19:00 (Room 351)
Audio Projections 12—Contemporary Music in 3D Audio
Presenter:Hugo Romano Guimarães, N - Barcelona, Spain; Neu Records - Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
N is a production company based in Barcelona devoted to surround and 3D audio recordings in natural acoustics. We specialize in the recording and reproduction of classical and contemporary music in immersive audio formats, with a realistic aesthetic approach.
The way we “see” sound is inspired by the soundscape of natural acoustics, with its immersive perspective, richness of timbres and colossal dynamic contrasts. When the perception of these aspects are carefully taken into account in doing an immersive recording and the right techniques are used, the result is a natural and realistic sound reproduction that creates the illusion of being there.
We want people to hear what they couldn’t experience in a live performance and we do that by transporting them to a privileged place in the center of the event: a place where you are truly immersed in the musical experience.
This privileged situation is not a naturalistic recreation of a musical event: it’s rather a hyperrealistic sound illusion of a musical event, created by the manipulation of several factors:
• Our microphone array design, which combines an association of different distances, angles and polar patterns in such a way that it produces not only a good sense of localization, but also an extremely natural timbre, and a sensation of space that music needs in order to expand and breathe;
• The selection of venues with voluminous spaces we choose for our projects, where sound can develop freely with unfettered dynamics, free of physical compression, and where we can find the perfect balance between direct and reverberant sound in a real context;
• And an artistic direction in close collaboration with the composers, which allows them to write music considering all these possibilities and creating new ways of experiencing music.
We present the albums of our label Neu Records in 3D sound installations, a diffusion format that allows the creation of an immersive listening context and gives a compelling social dimension to our projects. Our productions go beyond mere recordings, becoming a hybrid between sound art exhibitions and live concerts. At the same time, the physical format of the albums has also changed. The booklets become books with download codes, facilitating the reading of the texts we edit, and it’s only a matter of time before physical CDs are no longer produced.
Monday, June 6, 19:30 — 21:00 (Off-site 1)
Organ Concert
Saint Etienne du Mont Church
Place Sainte-Geneviève, 75005 Paris.
Graham Blyth, Challow Park - Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK
Francis Rumsey, Logophon Ltd. - Oxfordshire, UK
Abstract:
Saint Etienne du Mont Church
Buses will be leaving Palais des Congres at 19:00. Concert will be 19:45 to 21:15 followed by buses back to Palais des Congres.
Organists – Graham Blyth and Francis Rumsey
Saint-Etienne du Mont Church stands on the site of an abbey founded by Clovis and later dedicated to Ste Geneviève, the patroness of Paris. Such was the fame of this popular saint that the abbey proved too small to accommodate the pilgrimage crowds. Now part of the Lycée Henri IV, the Tour de Clovis (Tower of Clovis) is all that remains of the ancient abbey - you can see the tower from rue Clovis. Today the task of keeping Ste Geneviève's cult alive has fallen on the Saint-Etienne du Mont Church which almost adjoins the Panthéon. Building began in 1492 and was plagued by delays until it's final completion in 1626. The architectural style of the church is unique in Paris, the result of the transition period between flamboyant gothic and renaissance. Inside the intricate and ornate 16th century choirscreen is the only example still in a church in Paris.
The organ case is the oldest one in Paris and is still in its original state, it was carved and built in 1631 by Jehan Buron. The organ itself has seen several transformations: an earlier 1772 four manual Cliquot instrument was completely revised in 1873 by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll who added a 16' Bombarde to the Grand Orgue, reduced the number of manuals to 3 and built a new 42-note Récit. Most of the old pipework was retained, mainly all Positif pipework; it was a 39-stop instrument. On this occasion, the organ was inaugurated with the participation of César Franck. Ten years later, Cavaillé-Col came back to improve his work. A major alteration was completed in 1956 by Beuchet-Debierre based on instructions by Maurice Duruflé and it is now a 90 stop instrument. Titular organist from 1929 until his death in 1986, Maurice Duruflé was also a notable composer, the use of his Pie Jesu by Michael Jackson in a prelude to a song on his album HIStory in 1995 may, or may not, have amused him.
Program to include:
Marchand: Grand Dialogue in C
Bonnet: Variations de Concert
Lefébure-Wely: Sortie in E flat
Franck: Chorale no. 3 in E minor
Messiaen: Dieu Parmi Nous
Challow Park Studios, Oxfordshire, UK, is sponsoring this concert
