AES Student Blog

Mathew Lane audiotools are innovative new solutions, created when no other hardware or software could be found suitable for the task. 

The DrMS spatial processor is Mathew Lane's first product, already widely accepted by audio professionals as a unique plugin. It's being used by top producers and engineers on songs by well known artists such as Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and many others. Legendary mix engineer Dave Pensado is a fan and has been showing the use of DrMS on several of his Pensado's Place Into The Lair videos.

DrMS is a unique spatial processor, available as AAX/RTAS/AU/VST plugin, with a wide range of applications for mixing, mastering and post production - going from simple MS (Mid-Side) encoding/decoding, over stereo field width and depth enhancement, to fixing mono compatibility issues and more.

http://www.mathewlane.com

http://www.facebook.com/MathewLaneDrMS

Cycling 74 are once again sponsoring the Student Design Competition, 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.

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iZotope makes innovative products that inspire and enable people to be creative. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, iZotope has spent over a decade developing award-winning products and audio technologies for professionals and hobbyists alike. Used by millions of people in over 50 countries, iZotope products are a core component of GRAMMY-winning music studios, Oscar and Emmy-winning film and TV post production studios, and prominent radio studios, as well as basement and bedroom studios across the globe. Through a robust licensing program, iZotope also powers products made by industry partners such as Adobe, Avid, Microsoft, and Sony. iZotope was recently honored with an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development for its flagship audio repair suite, RX®.

IZotope Website

Crane Song is the the company of designer and engineer Dave Hill who crafts hardware and software with an exceptional attention to detail. Dave Hill's intimate knowledge of analog electronics, as well as decades of experience as a recording engineer have spawned a large range of very useful and musical products that deliver top-of-the-line quality throughout.

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Meet 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.

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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UVI is a Paris, France-based developer of premium virtual instruments, effects and software for professional audio production. Over the past two decades UVI has released an extensive catalo of instruments and applications, winning numerous industry awards and accolades. As a key technology partner UVI has worked with many companies to enable groundbreaking software instruments with the renowned UVI EngineTM. 

Spanning over 40 releases ranging from mobile to desktop, UVI products are used by many of today’s top composers, producers, sound designers and musicians, being heard on numerous hit-records, film and TV scores and games. UVI products are crafted to deliver the finest experience possible—offering a wealth of unique and inspiring instruments, the highest quality sound, innovative features, efficient and reliable performance and world-class user interfaces.

Leveraging a deep technology portfolio, extensive experience and a passion for sound, UVI continues to push forward creating new and imaginative tools that both enable and inspire.

http://www.uvi.net/ 

We are extending the Student Recording Competition deadline to one week from today Sunday September 4th! Go to http://www.aes.org/students/awards/recording/ for more information and to submit!

Like many other audio technology companies, Genelec’s roots are deeply seeded in the world of Broadcast. In 1976 YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company was building a new radio house in Pasila, Helsinki. Mr. Juhani Borenius asked his friends Ilpo Martikainen and Topi Partanen if they could build an active speaker. The first sample was produced two weeks later and within 2 years Genelec OY was founded and the S30, the first active speaker, was ready for market. Our current offering is the most complete in the market place: from the very compact 8010 to the massive 1036AWith leading technologies like Directivity Control Waveguide™, or DCW™ technology and Smart Active Monitor systems Genelec stays at the forefront of speaker technology and is proud to serve many of the worlds finest audio facilities.

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

I’m Indra, I come from Bali, Indonesia, but now currently studying my Master’s Degree in Time Dependent Media — Sound/Vision at HAW Hamburg (University of Applied Sciences Hamburg).

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

It started quite early when I still watched Japanese cartoons. I was totally in love with the soundtracks but at that time there wasn’t Internet available and I didn’t have access to the original recordings. So instead, I hooked up the RCA audio out connector from my TV to my family’s old cassette deck and started recording the intro/outro songs from those cartoons. That was technically my first recording in my life. Soon enough there was internet, Cool Edit, and I was totally trying the FFT Filters and stuff. Cool period in my life!

Tell us about the production of your submission. What is the story behind it? What was it inspired by? How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry?

It was quite interesting actually, because for this submission I didn’t plan it to be a submission, because it came up first from my professor. He said, “I got a big band album recording coming up, who wants to be in charge?” and I realized that was my chance. Five days of recording, months of editing and mixing, and in the middle of it my professor said it could actually be a good submission for the AES Student Recording Competition! And yes, that was my first entry.

What was your most significant/funny/inspiring experience as an audio engineer? 

I think recording this submission was. It was the first time in my life recording 18 musicians live in a studio with 26 track coming in, and it should be perfect sounding. That was a hell lot of stress, but I also learned a lot in this production, microphone techniques is very important and very crucial when you start putting 15 musicians in the same room and getting a lot of bleed. But in the end, it was a joy mixing it because it already sounded so good and all the hard work was paid off!

What was your biggest mistake in a production and what did you do to redeem the situation?

I was a n00b back then recording drums, and I did lots of mistakes recording it on my bachelor’s end thesis. It sounded so poor with phasing everywhere, and I was so not pleased with it when I tried to mix it a few weeks later, but I did realize that it was too late too fix and I couldn’t do the recording again because of time factor. In the end I tried to fix it in the mix, ended up making the drums sounding “usable” but very thin and shallow sounding. I can safely say that it was not rescued and it is “printed” forever in my first album.

What’s your advice for engineers who are just starting out?

Firstly, microphone is your eq. Don’t record if you’re not satisfied with what you hear and do not hesitate to make hundreds of small changes. I promise, it’s worth it! Secondly, mix with your stock DAW plugins. If you can do it well, so you can with paid and shiny plugins. Last but not least, it’s not Pro Tools or Nuendo or whatever defines your mix, it’s you. DAWs are just helper tools to achieve your goals. Look again on advice number two :)

What are your favorite pieces of equipment (microphones, outboard, plugins), and why?

I totally love the Neumann TLM 103. One of the quietest mics on earth, and sounds so beautiful. I don’t have any fave outboards because I don’t work a lot with it, but my fave plug-in is the DMG Equilibrium. One of the heavenliest EQ that I’ve ever heard in the digital domain.

What/who made you join the AES? 

My professor Thomas Görne and his AES Student Section Hamburg!

Tell us about your favourite experiences at the 140th AES Convention in Paris!

Getting to volunteer as TPVR team with the amazing people from France, getting to know Michael and Sue Williams, and Glenn Lorbecki personally, and of course winning the silver award on the AES Student Recording Competition!

What is your favourite frequency?

2,5 kHz and neighboring frequencies, the frequency area that our ears are most sensitive to.

What do you do when you’re not in the studio or doing anything music related?

I think I would be working/owning a specialty coffee shops, roasting and serving our own coffees and make the best coffee in the world! ;-)

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I’d see myself as a professional in the Sound Design/Engineering world, working on a lot of projects but at the same time teaching in my Uni in Indonesia to help Indonesia develop this area of expertise and helping them to compete in the big bad world.

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

I think AES is a really amazing community of sound experts to connect people to the bigger world and also learn a lot from the experts. The "big guns” who I normally only see in the internet were totally friendly and helpful, and not arrogant or unfriendly as I imagined before. Kudos to AES and AES Student Sections for always organizing the awesome Conventions! Special thanks to Michael and Sue Williams for the chance of volunteering, the juries of AES Student Recording Competition Category 2, Glenn Lorbecki, Prof. Thomas Görne from HAW Hamburg, and the HAW Hamburg Tonlabor.