AES Student Blog

1) Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and what do you study?

I grew up just outside of Chicago but moved to Nashville about 4 years ago to attend Middle Tennessee State University. I finished my undergraduate audio production degree there in 2015, and now I’m working on finishing my masters in recording arts and technologies here at MTSU. I plan to graduate with my masters in the Spring of 2018. 

2) What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start? 

Like most people, my musical journey started out by being a musician. I took piano lessons as a kid, I played clarinet and trumpet in my school band, and I was a guitar player for a variety of rock bands throughout high school and college. I was lucky to attend a grammy winning high school that had music theory classes and a small MIDI based computer lab. This was my first introduction to music technology and the power that it had. Eventually I invested some money into a basic recording setup of my own so that I could record and produce my own songs. It wasn’t long before I became totally obsessed with audio. I used every chance I could to learn more about how to make better sounding music. This new found passion is what brought me to Nashville to attend MTSU and where I now produce local bands and songwriters. 

3) Tell us about 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 song I submitted for the competition was written by a friend of mine Natalie Madigan who is also a student at MTSU. I originally demoed a few of her songs as part of a class project during the later part of 2016. I was really impressed by her work so we decided to do a song together in our free time outside of class. The song was written to raise awareness about sexual assault and therefore had a lot of emotional depth to it. I wanted to maintain that feeling with the production of this song so we used a lot of dark tones, big reverbs, and ethereal sound effects. The production started out as just a piano and vocal recording. After the piano and vocal was recorded, I took the tracks home and programmed some strings and a bass line for the song. Next we recorded the drums. Then after adding and chopping up some additional sound effects and synth parts, we recorded the various background vocals parts heard in the track. The entire process from demo to a finished mix was probably about 4-5 months since we had to find time to work on it between our busy schedules and school work. This was my 3rd time entering the competition. Last year I won bronze, and this year I won gold.

4) What/who made you join AES?

My school is who really got me to join AES. When I first came to MTSU and was researching various organizations that were involved with audio, AES was one of the first names to pop up. I wanted to be involved in everything any anything audio that I could so it seemed like a no brainer to join the AES.

5) Tell us about your favourite experiences at the 143st AES convention in NY!

I think my favorite experiences at the the 143rd AES convention would have to be both winning gold in the student recording competition, and going to the student party at Jungle Studios. I had set a goal a while back to win gold at the AES student recording competition so the moment my name was announced as the winner was a moment of pure elation. It was also really cool to see and spend time in Jungle Studios knowing that some very successful artists had stood and created some hit songs in that very same room. As always, the AES convention is always a great opportunity to see and reconnect with old friends.

To listen to Kyle's project click here:

Thank you to Merging, the company that brought the incredible DAW Pyramix into the industry, and one of our sponsors for the student recording competition!

Merging Technologies is the world’s foremost manufacturer of high-resolution digital audio recording systems.  The list of customers reads like a who’s who in the recording industry and recordings made with Merging Technologies’ systems regularly receive the recording industry’s prestigious Grammy® Award. 

The company was founded in 1990 in Chexbres, Switzerland by Claude Cellier; an electronics graduate of the Institute of Technology in Lausanne  Prior to this, Claude worked for the famous Swiss audio maker Nagra Kudelski for 10 years. Within a short time of its founding, Merging quickly established a reputation for their expertise in digital signal processing and associated hardware, and with their Pyramix Virtual Studio, was one of the first companies to produce a DSD recording system. 

In 2007, Claude Cellier was presented with the Audio Engineering Society Fellowship Award  for outstanding contributions to the development of high-performance, high-resolution audio workstations.  Merging Technologies currently has over 20 employees with offices in Switzerland and the UK.

Like many other audio technology companies, Genelec’s roots are deeply seeded in the world of Broadcast & Music recording technology. Our current offering is the most complete in the market place: from the very compact 8010 to the massive 1236A with technologies like Directivity Control Waveguide™, pioneered by Genelec and the Smart Active Monitor technologies featuring AutoCalibration etc. Still to date, after 10 years in the market something Genelec is alone of. Genelec stays at the forefront of speaker technology and is proud to serve many of the worlds finest audio facilities.

Slate Digital and Eiosis are award-winning, industry-standard brands of professional audio software that are used on many hit records made by world-renowned mixing engineers. At Slate Digital and Eiosis, we are a team of dedicated people evolving in a friendly environment, with a focus on quality and innovation.

Our products combine science, technology, and art. Each product is a new challenge as we always strive for perfection. Our customers appreciate how far we like to refine our algorithms and graphical interfaces.

Eiosis and Slate Digital are growing thanks to the passion, hard work, and talent of each team member. Our company culture is to let people be proactive and autonomous: new ideas are welcome and encouraged and excellence is highly rewarded. We have a lot of dreams and ambitions for our future and our growth, so we are searching for talented people to develop all these exciting projects and bring them to success!

Cycling '74 are once again sponsoring the Student Competitions, with some prizes of Max MSP licences.

Cycling '74 creates software for the specialized needs of artists, educators, and researchers working with audio, visual media, and physical computing. They are best known for their work with the digital signal processing software environment Max.

Mandy Parnell became interested in recorded music at the age of 5, listening to records on a portable Dansette player . She studied music and music technology through her school, college and university years, training and working in recording studios until landing an internship at a mastering studio.Mandy worked her way up through the ranks, eventually becoming a world renowned mastering engineer in her own right. She finally decided to launch her own facility, Black Saloon Studios. Her 24 years of experience have allowed her to discover and develop her philosophies in analogue and digital audio, while working with an amazing array of artists.

She has been nominated and won numerous awards, Grammy, Tech Awards, MPG and various others. She is also an active member of the AES, Grammys, APRS and MPG, and lectures on mastering and the music industry across the globe.

Thank you to Big Bear Audio for sponsoring the recording competition.

Big Bear Audio is a high end audio design house based in London, founded by AES UK Vice Chairman Charlie Slee. Focusing on both pro and consumer audio products, Big Bear Audio designs and manufactures analogue electronics tools for the professional and audiophile.

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Auralex Acoustics is the industry leader in acoustical treatment products, including acoustical absorbers, diffusors, sound barriers, construction materials, isolation platforms and complete room treatment systems. Let the experts at Auralex help you achieve world-class acoustics in any room.

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Sonnox is the leading designer of innovative, high quality, award-winning audio processing plug-ins for professional audio engineers. Oxford Plug-Ins are used in an extraordinary range of audio applications including mixing for music production, live sound, broadcast, TV & Film, and even scientific and forensics projects. 

The Sonnox design team traces its heritage back to the 1980's, to the development of the legendary Oxford OXF-R3 digital mixing console. With a base price of $1 million, the OXF-R3 was installed in major recording studios worldwide, and became widely accepted as the first ‘musical’ sounding digital console. 

As music production began shifting towards digital workstations, the console inspired a series of unique software developments starting with the Oxford EQ and Dynamics plug-ins.

The expanding family of Oxford Plug-Ins quickly acquired a reputation for excellence among leading engineers worldwide; a reputation that was earned through a no-compromise attitude to audio performance and a desire to push the boundaries with intuitive and novel user interfaces.

Sonnox continues to develop unique, high-quality plug-ins for audio production, embracing new technology and formats with partners such as Avid, Universal Audio and Fraunhofer.

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