Group photo from the event
As David K. showed Dave and Lisa around the school they met many of the students and gave advice on mixes, offering advice and pointing out details that to those of us still learning would not have otherwise been noticed. After classes were finished for the day we gathered in Studio C with Dave while Lisa talked with our newly founded Women of Audio section. Dave started by telling us about his background in audio. Where he started in the audio business, the artists he's recorded and mixed for, how he got started with Oberheim Electronics and the drum machines he helped bring to life, and how these led to him helping build new studios. After this short discussion, he began by playing some music on the original Yamaha NS-10 speakers, when he switched over to the NS-10 box with his Reftone drivers installed you could instantly tell a difference between the two drivers. His Reftones were able to project a lot more of the lower end of the frequency spectrum. After the song he played was finished he offered to listen to any mixes that had been done by students or songs we're familiar with to compare the original drivers to his own drivers. We listened to everything from rap to metal, country, reggae, disco, and even EDM. With all of the mixes done by students or even some of our own original works, he had a bit of advice to offer us about how to make them better. Each time he started by asking the question, "what do you hear"? Some had too much reverb or other time-based effects, some lacked definition, and some were well balanced and simply needed to be honed in. After this healthy demonstration of what the Reftone drivers were capable of in comparison to their older counterparts, we broke off of the subject so that Dave could offer us young and aspiring engineers some advice. He talked about the content of our music and how we can tell a story through it. He also offered us some advice about working in the industry and trying new things to get better results from our work. Soon after Lisa and our Women of Audio here at the Conservatory entered so Lisa and Dave could give their keynote on what Reftone is all about and how control rooms have changed over the last 5 decades. They explained to us that they saw the need for these new reference speakers due to how both music and studios have changed. With a lot of music being based more in lower frequencies, it is imperative to be able to hear all of these tones when referencing your mix in order to make key decisions within the mixing process. To wrap up the evening they opened up the floor for any questions about the speakers, mixing techniques and good habits. Dave and Lisa stuck around after to talk with students and offer anything else they could. It was truly amazing hearing from these two phenomenal engineers and absorbing all of the information they had to offer.
More About Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences Section
