Meeting Topic: The History of Audio
Moderator Name: Talita Miyuki Kuroda
Speaker Name: Luiz Botelho
Other business or activities at the meeting:
Vinyl mastering and its dynamic range
Reverb chambers
First digital processors and its questionable results
Edition on tape
Tube noise and general problems regarding analog system's unreliable results
Digital audio and its advantages over the analog realm
Aesthetic issues of digital versus analog sound
Recording live at the studio
Meeting Location: IAV - Instituto de Áudio e Vídeo, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
The lecture took 2 hours long and had the presence of all board members and a lot of people, members and non-members of the IAV Student Section. At the beginning, the Chairman Talita Miyuki did a short presentation to introduce the new board, explained what is the student section and talked about the activities that are being prepared for the next few months. After that, Marcelo Claret, the director of the IAV, introduced the speaker.
Luiz Botelho talked about how the vinyl was created. He explained how reverb chambers behave and how on those days they had to rely on its results — sometimes somewhat unpredictable. He emphasized his believes that today it is much easier to work with audio them it used to be. Botelho is aware that there are different opinions on the quality of digital audio, but he truly defends that at least there's a common sense that digital audio makes everyday-tasks (like edition and backup) much easier. For a few examples, he went on about the difficulties to edit a roll tape, noises from old tube amp and how they may sound different each time they are working. He also points out that many digital devices like interfaces and plug-ins can sound much better them the old equipment. Botelho discussed the urge of the new generation of audio engineers to try to reach the old sound by using classical equipment. He raised questions about this "quest" for the classical sound and stated that people should be more open minded to new technologies. Regarding the so called old-era-sound, Botelho said that much of its characteristic was actually the musicians and of course, the music. For the closure of the evening, Botelho showed an album that was recorded during the early seventies and continues to be a serious test for any top hi-fi system titled "I´ve Got The Music In Me".