Meeting Topic: An Evening with George Massenburg
Moderator Name: Terry Nelson
Speaker Name: George Massenburg
Other business or activities at the meeting:
The 19th. of February saw a 'Special Event' meeting of the AES Swiss Section at the Gurten overlooking Bern and drew nearly 100 attendees! This has to be something of a record and many thanks to all who participated in the event.
The 'Special Meeting' was a combination of the Diploma Ceremony for the graduates of the "Sound Technician" Federal Diploma (this exam being organised by the Education Committee of the Swiss AES) and the third in our series of "An Evening With...." meetings.
Meeting Location: Uptown Hall, Gurten, Bern, Switzerland
The day was made special by the presence of George Massenburg, who needs little or no introduction.
For the Keynote Speech of the Diploma Ceremony, Mr. Massenburg gave his personal opinion concerning the current state of the music recording industry and, though it could be seen as being pessimistic, in fact, it was quite positive! This was due to the fact that new possibilities for offering audio services liberated from the 'old system' are quite varied and should be looked into. The other piece of advice was "take anything! The important thing is to get experience and you can always move on if you do not like the job." The case was cited of a McGill University (Canada) graduate being offered a sound reinforcement job with a circus: the circus in question turned out to be the Cirque de Soleil and 6 months later, the graduate was in Las Vegas with the new "Beatles" show!
The AES meeting was mainly concerned with George's new live recording techniques at his "Blackbird Studios" in Nashville and videos with full surround sound were played.
The gathering adjourned to the Gurten for the traditional dinner and here, records were broken again with nearly 60 people!
Thanks to all who helped with the organisation and to our sponsors who supplied equipment.
