Meeting Topic: Digital Audio Effect — Sound goes Digital
Moderator Name: E-Jo. Voelker
Speaker Name: Prof. Udo Zölzer (University of Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg), Stephan Möller, Sven Duwenhorst ( TC Works GmbH, Hamburg)
Other business or activities at the meeting: Joint meeting with DEGA German Society of Acoustics
Meeting Location: University of Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg, Germany
DEGA and AES had invited to this joined meeting in Hamburg in the Institute for Electrical Engineering at the invitation of Prof. Udo Zölzer at the University of Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. Around 35 experts, members and students were present.
In the first presentation Prof. Udo Zölzer started with a review on analog audio mixing consoles which were built many years ago when he was with company Lawo in the Black Forest. With a mass of transistors , resistances and inductions it was possible to manipulate the audio signal with a minimum of audible distortions. Digital signal processing was necessary to replace these analog systems. Now calculations can be performed in the digital domain by changing signals just by means of computers with appropriate algorithms. In the central part of his speech Prof. Zölzer gave an overview on nonlinear signal processing applied to digital audio signals. In a second presentation Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Möller, a member of the staff of the institute, described the sound characteristics of a very famous VOX guitar anplifier. This tube amplifier is still produced and on the market. The analog sound and amplification can be totally replaced by a digital signal processing algorithm. He simulated every part of the original analog amplifier including the loudspeakers. He presented a sofware plug-in with a special DSP audio engine. The participants were able to compare both sounds of the original amplifier and the software plug-in when reproduced by stereophonic loudspeakers.
Dipl.-Ing. Sven Duwenhorst of TC Works GmbH, Hamburg, explained some special audio sofware effects which are on the market. He explained for instance the changing of the human voice with regards to tonality, sharpness, speech or other properties. He explained audio effects by changing frequency response curves and compared the sound impressions of natural sound and their digital replacements. The following discussions were highly motivated. Sound engineers wanted to know how these effects can be used in post production for changing sound images. Many students at universities are working in this field of digital sound effects and their use in recording and reproduction.
Prof. Ernst Völker had organized this meeting for both the DEGA where he is chairman of the Section Electroacoustics and for the AES where he is chairman of the Central Germany Section. He reported on the plans for the upcoming 116th AES Convention in Berlin in 2004-05-8/11. He invited everybody to come to the next section meetings in Berlin at the University of Bildende Künste on 2004-01-12 and in Babelsberg at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen on 2003-12-04.
