Gary Gottlieb, educator and AES Eastern Region VP presented "How Does it Sound Now?"; where he shared excerpts of interviews conducted with 31 celebrated engineers, from a book of the same name, where he asked each individual to reflect on how they defined quality and strove to maintain it in their work as audio technology evolved over their careers. A recurring theme was that the actual gear in use had little to do with the success of the final product. Rather it was the ability of the engineer to know how to get the most out of what they had; to have the skill to get the right sound in the tracking session to avoid needing to fix something subpar later in the mix; and finally to develop the intangible skill of knowing how to pull the best possible performance from the talent.
The meeting was organized by the Philadelphia Temple and Drexel student AES sections. The topic had particular resonance as the majority of those in attendance were at the early stage of their own careers and could value the most from the insights presented. A livery Q&A session followed the main presentation where audio education and creating work opportunities were discussed.
