For those who don’t know, AES stands for Audio Engineering Society. Founded in 1948, the AES has grown to become an international organization that unites audio engineers, creative artists, scientists, and students worldwide by promoting advances in audio and disseminating new knowledge and research. This past weekend was the AES version of Comic Con: The 139th International AES Convention. I don’t blame you if you missed it. Even for NYC, this weekend had a lot of distractions with the World Series, Halloween, and the NYC Marathon. For people like me, who are happy to spend all day discussing snare drum compression, AES was bigger than the World Series. I wasn’t alone. There were thousands of people descending upon the Javits Center to learn, share, and discover what is new in audio today.
Thursday the 29th was the first day of AES and was jam packed with tutorials, workshops, and demos. The course offerings were a bit cooler than most college catalogs. Topics included: signal processing, 3D sound, wax cylinders, low frequency behavior, student to professional, and many more. Friday continued the dizzying schedule of workshops, but also welcomed the opening of the exhibition floor as well as day one of Live Sound Expo and Project Studio Expo. The convention ran throughout the weekend, ending on Sunday.
One in four of the attendees at AES is a live sound engineer – a significantly growing category of AES members. This statistic helped usher the return of the popular Live Sound Expo (LSE) program to AES. LSE covered three categories throughout days 2,3, and 4: Broadway, House-of-Worship/Fixed Install, and Tour Sound. LSE was hosted by pros with decades of industry experience. Similarly, Project Studio Expo (PSE) focused on teaching the “mic to monitor” basics of recording at home. PSE comprised of detailed discussions and workshops focused on the home studio engineer. Other special events at AES included lectures by API co-founder Saul Walker as well as a lecture from jazz bassist four-time Grammy winner Christian McBride.
I spent a lot of my free time walking from booth to booth in the expansive exhibition floor. Here, manufacturers share their newest products as well as provide hands-on and ears-on demos that allow us to become acquainted with the feel and sound of their products. One of my first stops was at the Avid booth. They are the makers of the DAW software, Pro Tools. While browsing the booth, the Avid Pro Tools Dock caught my eye. This product is one of the first to allow mobile-touchscreen integration into professional level DAW software. This new piece of gear works with a user-supplied iPad and the free Pro Tools iOS app to give users access to every element of a session from the iPad screen. Like the already released Artist Control ($1499), the Dock offers smooth integration with Pro Tools software by means of its push-top rotaries, soft keys, and other controls. It is also capable of communicating directly with other compatible software such as Logic, Cubase, Premier, etc. There is no price set on the Pro Tools dock and we expect it to ship in the first quarter of 2016.
I made sure to stop by the Apogee booth, a personal favorite. Apogee has been well known for some of the highest quality audio interfaces on the market. My first interface was an Apogee Duet ($649), and I still have it today. I had a really educational conversation with their crew about their recent Apogee Ensemble ($2,595) release.They enthusiastically discussed the technical aspects of the Ensemble’s low latency and CPU efficiency. The Ensemble has eight mic preamps as well as digital connectivity for a total of 30 inputs and 34 outputs.
I checked out the Audio-Technica booth, where they showcased some of their award-winning microphones. This year they announced a new mic at AES: the AT2020USBi cardiod condenser USB mic. Improving on the AT2020USB+ ($149), this new model offers iOS compatibility and high-res audio (24-bit/96kHz) at a reasonable price. It comes with a lightning cable, tripod desk stand, carrying pouch, and mic stand adapter. It is set to be priced around $199 and is shipping now.
Some of the booths showcased boutique manufacturers, some of which I knew, some I had heard of. Others were new discoveries for me. Several of these exhibitors began as convention goers who went from part-time tinkering to full-time manufacturers. Every pro-audio behemoth has its beginnings. I really enjoyed these booths as they focused on one or two pieces of equipment and the designer and owner of the company was there to tell you about every detail.
I was ogling monolithic stacks of rackmount gear and learning about how they worked, when something started to become clear to me. AES is different than most conventions; the focus seems to be more on science than sales. Manufacturers are more focused on creating relationships than closing deals. This convention isn’t about fandom or gear lust. AES is a place to ask how and why. AES is a place to learn, teach, and grow. AES is a place where masters and apprentices come to share their passion of audio engineering.
