Alex Bohn won Silver for his submission in the Traditional Studio category.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
My name is Alex Bohn. I am a Métis Canadian from Calgary, Alberta. I recently graduated from McGill University with a masters of music in Sound Recording.
What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
My passion for audio came around 2011. The group I was in was recording our first album, and I was more interested in process of recording and tracking than I was actually playing the music. From that point on, I got more involved in the technical aspects of music, eventually going to school to really learn.
Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?
This submission was not my first in the recording competition, but was my first nomination as a finalist. I felt this track was a culmination of my growth as an engineer during my studies. The track was recorded as part of a class assignment for myself and the musicians. It was mainly live off the floor with a few overdubs and punches in to correct any issues or mistakes. The production on this track didn’t take too long to get to a place where I was happy, but took time by me continuing to tweak it.
What/Who made you join AES?
I first joined the AES in about 2013/2014 during my undergrad. Our school had a small audio program but no AES section. A small group of us and our professor started a student section so we could talk about audio engineering, bring in experts to our university, and attend provincial talks/lectures. Thanks to The University of Lethbridge and Thilo Schaller, as well as the talks put on by Theresa Leonard in Alberta.
Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 148th AES convention online.
I think the whole experience and convention was a marvel of people’s skills and ability to adapt. It was extremely impressive the amount of work and effort that must have gone into planning and organizing the convention into an online format. It is marvellous what everyone has accomplished during this conference, and I am glad to even be a part of it in my small way.
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2020
Martin Reus won Gold for his submission in the Student Design Competition.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
I live in a little town outside of Salzburg, Austria and was born and raised here. At the moment I am in the Bachelor's Degree for Information Technology and Systems Management at the Fachhochschule Salzburg, University for applied Science
What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
I was always fascinated by music. My first school had an emphasis on music. When I was 13, my brother gave me music software like Fruity Loops. After getting familiar with music production methods I developed a passion for all the technical details and soon started to develop little circuits and was hooked ever since.
Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?
The whole project is a combination of many things I have learned over the past years. The first idea was planted in my head by a friend of mine who asked me if I could build a PWM compressor. It took me a while to really understand the advantages but from the minute it clicked, I really wanted to realize the project. I had already gained knowledge in DSP and microcontroller programming. It seemed obvious to combine the analog signal path with the digital sidechain. A lot of different behaviours can be realized like that and it is even possible to behave like other compressors. At the same time, I learned to program VST plugins. After writing an Ethernet TCP Server on a microcontroller I was able to communicate with the DSP from the DAW. The goal was to develop a versatile and modern studio compressor but while doing it I realized how many possibilities are in the whole design.
What/Who made you join AES?
I have always dreamed of joining the AES. The e-library alone is a treasure trove for me, let alone all the people who contribute to this wonderful society. I hope I can contribute one day too.
Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 148th AES convention online.
My personal favourite experience was the feedback session with the judges. It really helped me a lot and gave me different opinions. Some of them really led to great improvements. Also I watched every talk that I could. It was so much great information.
Posted: Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Alla Evdokimova won Bronze for her Remix Category submission.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
My name is Alla Evdokimova. I am a student of Den Haag Royal Conservatory in The Netherlands. My main direction in the department Art of Sound - Music Production.
What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
I realised that I want to learn about audio when writing music in LogicX as demo examples of my compositions for the band "Umbra Falstrwti" which had been formed from students of jazz department of Amsterdam Conservatory . I always felt that, for me, the music world had always been something I could embrace from so many sides and sound itself became the most powerful source of inspiration for me.
Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?
I didn't choose the category right away. When I thought about the application, I had recently returned from Singapore exchange and passed by my house in Russia, where I met a group of DJ enthusiasts who taught me the important basics about this culture and techniques. As simple as that, right after my return I thought that "Remix" will be a great experience to try. I worked on the track for 2 months, customising it with AbletonLive Plug-ins and authentic sound design. It was my first entry.
What/Who made you join AES?
My tutor and great friend Bert Kraaijpoel!Thanks to him I am where I am now in my audio path!
Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 148th AES convention online.
I loved the presentation and work of Sound for Visuals Category. It showed an incredibly high level of professionalism and creativity from students.
Posted: Friday, July 3, 2020
Posted: Friday, June 5, 2020
Students! Come and get tips, tricks, and advice to push your skills to the next level!
The Student Recording Critiques are live, non-competitive listening sessions in which students receive feedback on their mixes from a panel of industry professionals. Students at any stage of their studies can sign up – but must have student registration for the virtual convention. The sessions will be held using Zoom, with music streamed via AudioMovers. Zoom Meeting ID’s will be posted at a later date on the AES website and social media channels. Any registered conference attendee can log in to listen to the sessions!
Posted: Friday, May 15, 2020
We are honored to announce the list of finalists for Student Competitions!
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Student Recording Competition: Category 1 (Audio): Sub-Category 1 (Traditional Acoustic):
Sub-Category 2 (Traditional Studio):
Sub-Category 3 (Modern Studio):
Category 2 (Sound for Visual Media):
Category 3 (Remix):
Category 4 (Immersive):
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Student Design Competition:
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Posted: Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Christian Steinmetz of Clemson University
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
I am originally from South Carolina in the US where I studied Electrical Engineering and Audio Technology during my undergrad at Clemson University. Currently I am a master’s student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona studying Sound and Music Computing within the Music Technology Group (MTG).
What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
My interest in audio came out of my interest first as a music listener. Early on I became involved in building speaker enclosures, demoing different headphones, and experimenting with amplifiers to try and build a better sounding listening system. Eventually, this lead me into the world of music production and audio engineering because I was interested in making recordings that sounded the way I wanted. Throughout high school and my undergrad, I have worked as a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. At the same time I have been focused on applying engineering in the construction of tools that advance the field of audio engineering, aiming to develop tools that assist in and extend the workflow of audio engineers. I am continuing this line of research in my thesis here at the MTG, with the application of deep learning to tasks in music signal processing.
Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?
My project, flowEQ, aims to provide a simplified interface to the classic five-band parametric equalizer. In order to effectively utilize the parametric EQ, an audio engineer must have an intimate understanding of the gain, center frequency, and Q controls, as well as how multiple bands can be used in tandem to achieve a desired timbral adjustment. For the ametuar audio engineer or musician this often presents too much complexity, and flowEQ aims to solve this problem by providing an intelligent interface geared towards these kinds of users. By applying some of the latest techniques in machine learning, like the disentangled variational autoencoder (β-VAE), we can utilize data of equalizer settings collected from audio engineers (via the SAFE-DB) to learn a well structured, low dimensional representation of the parameter space of the EQ. This low dimensional space then allows the user to control all thirteen knobs of the equalizer with only two controls, for example. For the inexperienced user this presents a powerful way to search across possible EQ configurations, where they can use their ears to find the desired effect, using knowledge aggregated from trained audio engineers. If you are interested in learning more about how all of this works check out the project webpage (https://flowEQ.ml) where I go into all of the nitty-gritty details. This was not my first entry at AES. Last year I presented my reverb plugin, NeuralReverberator, in the MATLAB plugin competition, and the year before that I presented a phase analysis plugin that aims to help audio engineers improve microphone placement for better drum recordings.
What/Who made you join AES?
I first learned of the AES through my audio technology professor at Clemson. After discovering the journal and diving into all of the interesting research being published, I decided to join. Shortly after learning about the yearly convention held in NYC, I set a goal for myself to find a way to attend. I came up with a project idea and built a plugin to present during the Student Design Competition. After sharing it with my professor, I was able to receive funding from my department to travel to the convention. Attending the AES Convention for the first time in 2017 was one of the major moments in my development as a researcher, and solidified my interest in continuing my research in this field.
Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 147th AES Convention in New York!
My favorite part of the convention was getting to present and share my project with other people interested in audio engineering. Getting to meet new people with the same interests and their own unique perspectives is, for me, one of the highlights of a convention like AES. In addition, I enjoyed attending many of talks and paper sessions where I got to hear from some of the most influential researchers in the audio community.
Posted: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
I'm Jared Richardson, from Provo Utah. I recently graduated with a Bachelor's in Media Arts from Brigham Young University, and my goal is to work in post-production sound for film and animation.
What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?
My passion for audio came partially from my little siblings. In 2014, when I was on a 2-year mission in Chicago for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I rarely got to talk to my family back home, so my little brother and sister would send me emails with attached audio recordings. They were essentially podcasts, but they always went the extra mile and included background music, fun segments, and little fictional skits. These really inspired me, and ever since I got home I've wanted to participate in all sorts of audio-related creative projects with sound effects, voice over, and mixing.
Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What inspired it? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?
This was my first time entering the Student Recording Competition at AES on a recommendation from my professor. The submission was an animated short film, Grendel, produced by BYU's animation program. Typically students don't do the sound for BYU's animated shorts, but I persuaded the faculty to let me do it, and I'm so glad I did! Production was long (several months) and pretty monotonous at times, but I enjoyed all of it. Between voice over work, Foley, sound design, overall mixing, and many meetings with the director and composer for the film, we eventually reached a place we were happy with. It's a lovely film, and I hope people who watch it feel that the sound does the quality animation justice. I am absolutely honored to have received a Silver Award for it.
What/Who made you join AES?
I attended and joined AES because of my professor, Aaron Merrill. He was the one who gave me feedback on the film, and felt like I should submit it as an applicant. Without him, none of this would have been possible.
Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 147th AES Convention in New York!
The convention was really fun! I'm not used to big cities, but being around industry professionals and those who are excited about audio and music was an exceptional experience. It felt like there was something for everyone, both on the showfloor and in the many classes/panel discussions. I would love to attend again someday in the future!
Posted: Wednesday, January 8, 2020
1) Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?
Posted: Thursday, January 2, 2020
Alex Dobson, from McGill University, received an Honorable Mention in the Remix category of the Student Recording Competition.
Posted: Tuesday, December 10, 2019
