AES Student Blog

by Brecht De Man, Chair of Up Your Output! 2015, Chair of the London UK Student Section, and Vice Chair of the Student Delegate Assembly for Europe and International Regions

pictures by Simon-Claudius Wystrach, Vice Chair of Up Your Output! 2015, Chair of the York Student Section, and Chair of the Student Delegate Assembly for Europe and International Regions

Early last month, the third edition of the annual student event ‘Up Your Output!' shattered records as it trumped its two previous editions, both in terms of attendance and content. A one day event at its inception, the main AES UK student event became a full weekend of audio goodness in its second run and this year expanded to a whopping four days if you include technical visits to the facilities of Solid State Logic in Begbroke, Oxfordshire on Friday, and Dolby’s Soho office on Monday. 

Over 100 students enjoyed a weekend packed with lectures, exhibits, career advice, tech talk, and meeting fellow audio students from all across the UK and beyond, with most notably a delegation of the newly revived Dutch Student Section. For the first time, a parallel workshops track was organised, in part to cope with the high attendance, as well as to have the likes of producer Barry Marshall, mixing engineer Wes "Wesonator" Maebe and mastering engineer Mandy Parnell share the key to their respective successes with the very eager crowd of budding sound engineers. 

From left to right: mastering engineer Mandy Parnell, producer and educator Barry Marshall, FOH/recording/mixing/mastering engineer Wes "Wesonator" Maebe, chair Brecht De Man and vice chair Simon-Claudius Wystrach. 

On Friday, we visited the Solid State Logic HQ in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, where got a tour of the facilities, a presentation on the history of the company, and talks on SSL's live and studio consoles. 

The implicit theme of the event was underscored by SSL’s Jim Motley, who gave the first talk on Saturday with the telling title ‘Getting a job in the industry’.

Rob Toulson, director of the Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin and committee member of the AES British Section, appealed to both drummers and aspiring coders with ‘iPhone app development for sound engineers’, using his iDrumTune app as a case study. 

You can look at his presentation here. 

The first day was concluded on a technical note with ‘Evaluating the sound quality of audio interfaces’ by Prism Sound’s Graham Boswell.
 

Following a lively social, a late start on Sunday ensured a filled lecture theatre for recording engineer Tony Faulkner, whose clever title ‘Up Your Input!’ covered ‘A discussion of microphone techniques, philosophies and psychologies in recording’. 

Julian Storer, developer at Tracktion and JUCE/ROLI, talked about developing music software and programming practices in ‘Noisy coding’. 

 Monday’s tech tour was seamlessly introduced by Dolby’s James Shannon, who closed the programme with ‘Film sound: The next generation’.

We visited Dolby's offices in Soho, for a thrilling demo of their Atmos system, showcased through various demos including clips from 'Gravity'.

We then watched 'The Leap', a sci-fi short that was picked up and remixed to Atmos by Dolby to showcase the new technology, in the presence of director Karel van Bellingen, who told us we were the first audience (barring some crew and Dolby engineers) ever to see it - more than two weeks before the film's premiere! 

During the whole event, students discussed products and careers with key figures from sponsoring companies Calrec, Solid State Logic, Focusrite, PMC, Prism Sound, Adam Audio and Acustica. Winners of the overbooked mix competition, organised between mixing workshops, as well as lucky raffle entrants, went home with prizes from Focusrite, Acustica, iZotope and Real Industry. Equipment for the workshops, lectures and showrooms was generously provided by Solid State Logic, PMC, Adam Audio and Funky Junk. Further support came from Meridian, Dolby, and venue sponsor SAE Institute London.

The organising committee thanks all the attendees, sponsors and lecturers, and looks forward to seeing everyone again at UP! 2016! 

Brecht De Man - chair (SDA vice chair Europe & International, London UK Student Section chair) [twitter|website]
Simon-Claudius Wystrach - vice chair (SDA chair Europe & International, York Student Section chair) [twitter|website]
Nikolay Georgiev - past chair & founder (British Section chair) [twitter|website]

Are you organising a student event other audio students need to hear about? Get in touch with the Student Delegate Assembly to receive support for any large audio student gathering!  

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