AES Student Blog

Women's Audio Mission is a San Francisco-­based, non-­profit organization dedicated to the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts. In a field where women are chronically under­-represented (less than 5%), WAM seeks to "change the face of sound" by providing hands-­on training, experience, career counseling and job placement to women and girls in media technology for music, radio, film, television and the internet. WAM believes that women's mastery of music technology and inclusion in the production process will expand the vision and voice of media and popular culture. WAM trains over 1,200 women and girls a year in music production and the recording arts in the world's only professional recording studio built and run by women.

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PSPaudioware develops high quality audio effect and processor plug-ins. Their products garner rave reviews and endorsements from every corner of the music production, engineering, composition, and post-production worlds and become staples in professional and home studios worldwide. 

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Leading audio magazine Linear Audio is sponsoring the Student Competition once again! 

Linear Audio publishes technical articles about technology, developments and the state of the art in audio and perception from a technical perspective.

It is meant for anyone who is interested in technical audio developments or who wants to contribute. Being employed in audio engineering is not a requirement.

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

My name is Kseniya Degtyareva and I am from Belarus. I’ve just finished my bachelor degree at audio engineering at Belarusian State Academy of Art. Also I work as a sound engineer at Belarusian State Academic Musical Theatre. I had an idea to enter the master program at my university, but unfortunately I’ve missed exams due to business trip to China. But maybe it’s better, because current master program is focused more on arts than on my speciality. So I plan to wait a year and try to continue my education at master degree somewhere abroad. 

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

I went to music school to learn piano when I was five. More than other lessons I liked solfeggio. All my childhood I tried to make something creative, like making concerts for the parents with singing, dancing and playing instruments or writing songs on piano. All of this was naive, but I spent a lot of time for such things. When I finished school I had to make a decision about my further education. First I wanted to go to music college to study music theory. But then I decided that it is not perspective and chose linguistic college. Maybe it was my fault. During study at college I thought about what I want from my life and made some electronic music for indie games in my free time. After graduation I had an ability to enter the linguistics university directly to the 3rd year. It was my parent's’ dream, but not mine. After long searching I found an audio engineering specialty at academy of arts and passed exams. Every day during study I understood that it was absolutely right choice. I started searching for some additional education materials, tried to do extra projects with musicians. In a year audio became my passion. 

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

I learned about student recording competition last summer. I was so disappointed, because I’ve missed not only student competition, but the whole convention that took place nearby (138th AES convention was in Warsaw). It was impossible for me to visit the next convention in New York, so I had to wait a year to participate. That year during each recording session I thought about how it could fit the competition. I initiated some projects myself to gain more material to choose from. On February we’ve rented a studio with young jazz band to record their songs. It was a session in a hurry, guys had to go to jobs after recording. I’ve made a rough demo, but musicians were not satisfied with their playing, they asked me to record them later again. I had to leave Minsk for a month and came back in April. I tried to initiate a new recording session, but musicians didn’t have enough time for that. At the same time I had an access to digital mixing console and thought that it would be a good idea to work with some previously recorded material. There was one composition that I liked the most from that February jazz recording session and I started to mix it. To say true, almost till deadline I was not sure which track to submit for competition, as I had some not bad records suitable for the first category. But all of April I didn’t stop working with that jazz composition. Unfortunately, I have no mixing room which I can fully trust. That’s why I checked my mix wherever it was possible. While listening at new systems I found some errors and came for new mixing ideas.

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

A few years ago I had a live recording session in a church and I’ve forgot to take an extension cord with me, so I couldn’t connect laptop and an audio interface in the same place. I was lucky as there was a shop not so far from the church so I could buy a new one. If not, the concert would have gone without being recorded. That was a good lesson on how important in our profession to be focused and keep lots of things in mind. 

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

I think my biggest mistake as an audio engineer was when I made film production as a course work with the student-director. We finished production, but during exam he had some notes from professors, that the sense of the movie could be not fully understandable by viewers. So director decided to add some off-screen speech. The actress and academy studio time were absolutely busy and we had only ten minutes to make project, set the mic and record phrases. By default project settings sample rate was 44 kHz. So we started to record, and then I understood that the whole film was recorded at 48 kHz. Tried to be fast I forgot to check so important setting. Absolutely fault was to change sample rate at the middle of the session. So I lose quality of some important phrases and couldn't find tools to fix the problem to achieve a good result.

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

I would tell them to attend more professional events, to read literature to be up-to-date, to share experience with friends - sound engineers, not to be afraid of critics and practice a lot. 

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

Our academy doesn’t have plenty of equipment, there is no matched stereo pair, except AKG C414, which we are not allowed to take out. So I absolutely happy to have my own pairs of Rode NT5 and M5. I usually use NT5 as main stereo pair. M5 are good for many instruments, for example, to catch piano in stereo. I wish to have more channels, but now audio interface Tascam US-2000 allows me to be independent and make some records whenever I want. I like its separate knobs control for input signal, for sound from computer and for levels for headphones and monitors. 

What/who made you join to AES?

As I know, I am the first member of AES from Belarus. I just surfed the internet looking for competitions and events for student audio engineers. Finding AES website was like opening the new world. I regret that it happened last summer, not some years earlier. 

Tell us about your favorite experiences at the 140th AES convention in Paris!

It was not only my first recording competition, but my first convention. I really liked exhibition, before I never had an ability to try such great amount of top equipment. I was absolutely impressed by main speech, for me it was bright example of how presentation should be look like. During convention I knew a lot from speakers, it is pity that many interesting presentations were in the same time. I really thankful for ability to visit Conservatoire de Paris. It was very interesting to became familiar how the other students do they study and highly motivated me to try my best to do my master in a place like this. And I was absolutely happy to meet so many interesting people during convention. Now in my plans to realize trip to 141st convention in Los Angeles.

What is your favourite frequency?

I think it is 2 kHz, because I raise it and cut more often than others frequencies.

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

I read books, watch films, go to theaters or concerts. During trips to Europe I try to find interesting organ music concerts in churches, so the concert at convention was like extra gift for me. Also I like ballet and do some lessons for amateurs when I have a free time. 

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope I will have my own studio and ability to work with top musicians, enough knowledge and experience to share them with students at universities and with auditorium during presentations at special events. 

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

I am grateful to the AES community and to SDA, especially, for such a strong support for students. For me the recording competition was a good way to check myself and to become familiar with other works from universities all over the world. I’m happy to have such a high estimation from great professionals out of my industry. Now I feel like I have a lot of energy and ideas for new projects. 

To hear Ksenia's winning entry (Post Scriptum Jazz - The Thought of That Memorable Moment) visit her website

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where and what do you study? What audio field are you in? What initiated your passion for audio? When did it start?

I was born and grew up in Southern Germany in a little town (Ansbach, probably no one knows it). I studied jazz piano at Carl-Maria-von-Weber University in Dresden and am currently in the last semester in my studies as Tonmeister at the University of Arts in Berlin. I think I’m specialized in jazz and popular music but in general I’m interested in various kinds of music recording. 

I’m a musician myself and it's my passion to play piano and saxophone but I also want to have a global view of music and music production. 

With my piano trio Lammel | Lauer | Bornstein (lammel-lauer-bornstein.de ) we play what we call "contemporary acoustic music“. This year, we recorded our second album with producer Wolfgang Loos at Traumton Studios, Berlin. It will will be released in November at Traumton Records, you can watch our release video here :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNaymlsPRDM

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? 

I spent a great extended weekend at the recpublica studios in Poland last December with the band KITE (kitejazz.de) We were recording a complete album, it will be released this November @ UNIT Records. My submission I got Along without You very Well is part of the album. It´s a completely re-freshed version of that well known song as sung by Frank Sinatra for example. The version of KITE has a completely new, contemporary background in harmonies and other elements, the constant pattern of the upright bass, for example. The style is very smooth but indeed intense - what I really like. My approach when mixing this song was to bring back the clarity and pureness of a pop song to this contemporary jazz version and I spent a lot of time to find the perfect balance.

This submission was my second award at AES Recording Competition. Last year at Warsaw I took part with Tristan Kühn with What´s left by the piano trio Seng|Kühn|Jentzen.

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

I find it most inspiring to work with people with a mixed cultural and musical / artistic background. This inspiring context enables to embed various ideas and elements in one production. 

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

I really don't know what you mean! But if you update the whole audio project to your backup hard disk, you should keep an eye on which direction you transfer dates and not  replace the latest session with an old version. Otherwise you’ll have the chance to do the edits from one ore more days once again…

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

Always  pay attention to the kind of music and the artist. Use your technical and musical knowledge to support them. At the end of the day, it’s the music that matters, so use your various skills to support the idea of the production.

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

My chair - it is very important to be comfortable while working. A studio with sunlight is also very important (unfortunately I don’t have one...). Jokes apart, I really like the PSP Vintage Warmer, also when mixing classical music (thank you, I won one at the competition!) and the (original) Urei 1176 compressor. 

For most studio productions and live recordings I work with Magix´ Seqouia, I enjoy various opportunities when crossfading and cutting there. For popular music productions I usually work with Pro Tools. 

Talking about miking, I often have a basement stereo AB-system with two „real“ omni-pattern condensator microphones e.g. when recording drums as Overhead mics oder a Grand Piano. I like the balanced sound of this type of microphone and the authentic recording qualities of low frequencies. 

Can you name one or multiple of your favourite recordings or productions and tell us why  you like them/what you like about them?

I like productions that you can listen to casually and that have also depth and thousands details to explore. Good examples are the productions by Quincy Jones and the well known album by Daft Punk.

What/who made you join the AES? 

It’s pretty cool to have a worldwide audio connection for making experiences and  discussions. Meet and connect with people, who do same / similiar things, but might have different backgrounds and various views. Bringing that global pool of audio engineers together is an important point. Last year I was the first time at the AES convention at Warschau. Some colleagues from university prompted me to go there and I really don’t regret it :)

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

I had a lot of fun spending time in Paris with other audio engineers. People with a similar passion, perhaps different views - great discussions and not just about audio.

What is your favourite frequency?

I only have frequencies that I don’t like, for example around 500Hz (and 1000 Hz as harmonic) when you have a microphone system close to a grand piano.

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

I like to travel and meet friends. Nature is cool - and also the dust and flair of impressive cities.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Making interesting productions, playing my own music.

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

See you at next AES convention?!

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

Good afternoon, I am originally from Lithuania. I graduated my Bachelor’s degree in Kaunas University of Technology, in Music Technology program and this year I have finished my Master studies in Royal Danish Academy of Music as a tonmeister.

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

My passion for audio started about 10 years ago. I finished conservatory as a piano player and after that I considered what I must do next. I have decided that a musician’s career is not for me, but to say goodbye for music forever wasn’t my wish. So, I found myself in audio productions and music recordings.

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?

My production is recording of Chamber Orchestra and flute soloist. 

Soloist chosen transcriptions are very interesting compositions for the flute. The program was originally composed for violin. That makes a recording more interesting and individual. My goal was to discover this kind of transcription and present it to listener. 

In this recording I would like to show a virtuosity of flute soloist. Recording should present his talent. For this project is not enough just to document sound of the music. Soloist technique must be shown in best musical way. The listener could be tired to listen only an excellent technique, so the recording needs to present a musicality as well. 

We recorded this program in August 2015 and after it was a long editing and mixing process. But most important and interesting was a communication part of this project, before the project started, during recording sessions and after. The work with musicians has motivated myself and promoted to show the best results of work processes. It motivated me to accept a challenge and to improve skills during all production period. 

With this flute soloist it was my first recording, but with this Chamber Orchestra we already did few recordings before. 

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

This year I had a big pleasure to record a full production opera Giuseppe Verdi “Rigoletto” with wonderful soloist, conductor and musicians. For me it was very significant experience from audio, production and music sides.

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

There haven’t been any big mistakes so far. ?

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

I wish sound engineers to not forget that in our work we have much more psychology than technology.

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

I like Shoeps microphones very much, because of sound timbre and RME equipment, because it is always very stable and multifunctional. 

What/who made you join the AES? 

My friend. He was here several times and always told me how wonderful it is! 

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

My favorite experience was to participate in the competition and the lecture of Martin Schneider from Neumann was so exiting!

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

I like reading books, walking in a park, swimming in a lake.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Of course in sound producing sphere. I like my work very much and hope in 10 or 20 years I will still recording, producing and working with wonderful musicians. 

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

I would like to thank AES organization and all members for hard work and wonderful opportunity to enjoy an AES conventions every year. 

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

Hallo! I’m Jasper Ras from the Hague, The Netherlands! I study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague on the Art of Sound department (I’m probably done with the study when this interview is online).

It’s a cool study where the focus is a lot on the music and the technological side of engineering. One can choose to specialize in doing live sound, recording (jazz or classical) or producing (my fave). When doing the study you get main instrument lessons on conservatory level, solfeggi, music theory, etc. While also doing engineering, signal processing, music technology, ect, because I think it’s important to know and play music when working with audio. 

Other than producing for other bands, I play drums in a 60’s/70’s blues rock band called Thin Pillow, I do keys in a ska-punk band called De Skaggerz and I do drums and sampling in an electronic based duo band called TAKYON.

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

I guess it started when I got a crappy 20 euro keyboard for christmas when I was 7 or 8. After playing on that thing I got piano lessons, and drum lessons years later. I got a Boss BR-1600 digital multitrack recorder when I was around 13/14 years old where I did my very first productions. I got it to record my drumming and rehearsals for my bands, but I also used it to make productions for myself.

I guess listening to bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and The Who in my early days also helped me in developing an interest in producing.

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?

Ashes (the production) is part of an album I made with the Rotterdam based alternative pop band MAYÍN. The album is themed around the death of Misha's (the lead singer) mother, who died tragically a few years ago. She, and her band wrote a album-full of songs which I got to produce. Ashes is a song about the fear of also losing It's in the making since August 2015, and now (July) I've finished the mixes. It was actually the first time I ever was at a AES convention. I believe I am the first Dutch price winner ever at the competition, so I'm very honored to get this award.

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

At the first day at my internship-studio where I worked, I had to take over an job of my boss, to record demo's for a 15 year old girl. So I prepared like a good intern would do on his first day. But she was totally unprepared, had no singing experience at all and thought that studio's are places where teens can be transformed into instant superstars within a second. So after choosing an song (I just took an karaoke version of a Katy Perry track of the internet), I tried to record her singing but as soon as her first note hit, I knew it was gonna be a tough day for auto tune. After she came to the control room (and asked me if I already made a track with Justin Bieber) she also told me that she thought that renting studio's is for free. So that was the first time I had to kick someone out of the studio. I

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

One mistake I keep making, to overwork myself. Whenever I do a session I keep forgetting to drink water and to eat, which causes headache and lost of concentration. Taking breaks is important and will be more efficient in the long run than to keep on working. 

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

Simple: RTFM. You need to know how stuff works, before can benefit the most from it. 

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

Plug ins: Just to give a shout out to some dutch companies, I love the FabFilter and Audio Ease plug-ins a lot. I love to work with the weird IR's of Altiverb, like 30 feet oil tanks, or an tin can for doing creative production. I'm also a frequent user of the soundtoys plug ins.

Mics: Some of my fave mics are: SM(5)7 and SM58, Neumann TLM170, RE20, Sennheiser MD441, Schoeps MK21 and the Royer R121.

Outboard: LA-2A, Lexicon PCM70, Ensoniq DP/4, 1176LN

What/who made you join the AES? 

At our school, our head of department is very much into letting students join the AES, so I became a member to check it out.

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

The student recording competition was, of course, a big highlight. Talking with other people in the field on the convention floor and meeting new friends from all around the world was also very nice. I also loved walking through Paris, seeing the city and going into adventures. 

What is your favourite frequency?

808Hz

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

Enjoying life

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Making an living out of music, in some way or another. From September I'll start a studio in The Hague where I can work on stuff. Hopefully working more abroad would be amazing to do in 10 years.

Could you provide us with some closing comments?

Eet elke dag een appel, anders wordt je kaal.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where and what do you study? What audio field are you in?

Hi! I’m Lukas Lohner (24), audio-engineer student at the Institute for Music and Media (www.musikundmedien.net) at the Robert-Schumann Hochschule and University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, Germany. I’m originally from Karlsruhe, Germany, but moved to Düsseldorf five years ago to study audio and video engineering with a major in jazz piano. Since I’m in Düsseldorf I do various projects and try different things - I work as a recording/assistant engineer, play piano/keyboards in different bands, compose, mix, fiddle around. I’m not really set to one particular thing, but somehow it’s all about audio and music.

Tell us about your project and its development process. What was it inspired by?

My project was inspired by a ridiculous youtube video (I think it was some viral ad or so): A very ripped man triggers several instruments by electrodes, which are attached to his muscles. So for example, when he contracts the biceps, he plays a bass drum. Of course this was faked, but I thought: that idea has potential! I wanted to build an interface, which connects digital instruments and the real world in a closer and more intuitive way than the ‘usual’ tools like knobs and sliders. It was the first time I made such a comprehensive project become reality. From the idea to the final (working) prototype it was a long, exhausting way of trying different components (Arduino/Teensy, WiFi, Amps etc.), programming (signal processing, implementation…), learning the basics of EMG (Electromyography), designing circuits and cases and finally finding use for this thing! But now everything works and I can control effects (e.g. filter, delays…) while playing keyboards with an armband attached to my triceps. But the possibilities are much greater than just using it for fun. I could imagine a use in medical fields, for disabled people of music therapy, also for combining fitness programs with music or so.

I’m thinking about sharing this idea, the code and the experiences I gained during development with the online community. There is nothing online yet, but I will upload it soon. So stay tuned!

Was it your first entry?

Yes.

What are some recent favorite pieces of equipment and why?

The Wireless-Muscle-Controlled-OSC-Interface of course… Well. There is so much going on right now, it’s hard to tell, which is my favourite equipment. But I like the fact, that there are more and more powerful but affordable tools on the market like plug-ins, pro-audio equipment, microcontrollers, and other components. And also easy to learn programming languages like Arduino or Swift. Plus there is an online community for almost everything. I think that’s awesome and very important for newcomers.

What are some of your favorite recordings or productions?

Snarky Puppy (Family Dinner). But there are so many more!

What/who inspired you to join AES?

The competition, member benefits, the (student) community/network. Unfortunately I didn’t know very much about AES before AES140, if I would have known, I might have joined earlier. Now I’m looking forward to AES142 in Berlin!

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

It was super lovely to get to know all the other audio students from all over the world! And of course the croissants and the french bakery in the convention center!

What do you do in your free time?

I do stuff with my friends. Make music - check out one of my projects called “Rhythmussportgruppe” ;-)

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully doing the same as today - with more money. That would be fantastic!

Thank you, Lukas!

Calling all SDC Entrants - There has been an update to the SDC rules! 

Entrants are now required to submit a 4-8 page description of their work and use teh AES SDA template - Templates in both Latex and Word are provided.

If you have any questions - please email [email protected]

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Many thanks to MathWorks for sponsoring the student recording competition!

MathWorks is the leading developer of mathematical computing software. Engineers and scientists worldwide rely on its products to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development. MATLAB and Simulink enable the design and development of a wide range of advanced products. More than 5000 colleges and universities around the world use MATLAB and Simulink for teaching and research in a broad range of technical disciplines.

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