AES Student Blog

Meet long-time mastering engineer and audio design consultant Dave Collins, who will be judging submissions for the Student Design Competition. Another great reason to enter!

Dave Collins

Dave Collins has been a mastering engineer for more than 20 years.  In 1989 he joined A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood California where he became chief engineer of the mastering department. In 2004, Dave opened his own studio, Dave Collins Mastering Inc, and has since worked on albums by Black Sabbath, Madonna, Linkin Park, Bruce Springsteen, and more.

A long-time lover of music and Hi-Fi, Collins has also been involved with the design, modification, and manufacture of professional audio products as well as serving as a consultant to industry.

Collins is married to EveAnna Manley of Manley Laboratories.  They reside in Altadena California with their two dogs in a 100 year old craftsman house that will someday be fully restored. Someday.

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

GLENN LORBECKI

CAT2 - TRADITIONAL STUDIO RECORDING

Recently numbered among the top 50 most influential forces in Seattle music by Seattle Sound Magazine, producer/engineer/musician and business owner Glenn Lorbecki began his recording career in the Midwest working with such diverse artists as the Violent Femmes, John Mellencamp, Stanley Clarke and the Rolling Stones. He went on to Platinum and Grammy® nominated projects, recording with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny G, as well as screen projects like the Emmy-winning Northern Exposure, Cliffhanger, and HBO’s Golden Globe-winning John Adams.

Glenn owns a recording/video post-production and new media company, Glenn Sound Inc., whose collaborations with MTV, Clear Channel, CBS, PBS, ABC, etc. have yielded numerous features, live-in-the-studio recordings, film scores, and game soundtracks. Among the artists Glenn Sound has hosted are Tori Amos, the White Stripes, Garbage, Dave Matthews, Bad Religion, Regina Spektor, Green Day, Weezer and Coldplay. Lorbecki’s work can also be seen/heard on exhibit at the Grammy® Museum in Los Angeles.

Glenn Lorbecki is a volunteer leader with the Recording Academy (GRAMMY Awards®), currently serving as national Secretary/Treasurer of the board of Trustees, and has presented the Technical Grammy award during the Special Merit Award ceremonies on numerous occasions.  

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

ULRIKE SCHWARZ

CAT 1 - TRADITIONAL ACOUSTIC RECORDING

Ulrike Schwarz is Diplom-Tonmeisterin and recording engineer specialising in classical music and jazz.  She graduated from the University of Arts in Berlin. Furthermore, Ulrike studied multichannel recording formats from 5.10 to 22.2 with Akira Fukada and Kimio Hamaskaki in NHK and NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories in Tokyo.

As an AES Member, Ulrike Schwarz is a frequent lecturer at AES events. Her last appearance was in 2010 during the AES Conference on Spatial Sound (Tokyo, Japan) with a presentation of „Paradies und die Peri“ performed by BRSO and Simon Rattle in 9.0, 3-D sound. She has been an AES Governor 2004-2006."

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

BRANDIE LANE

CAT 2 - TRADITIONAL STUDIO RECORDING

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

MARTHA

DE FRANCISCO

CAT1 - TRADITIONAL ACOUSTIC RECORDING

Martha de Francisco is a record producer and recording engineer who specializes in classical music. She is a professor for Sound Recording at McGill University in Montreal.

An internationally acknowledged leader in the field of sound recording and record production, de Francisco has recorded with some of the greatest classical musicians of our time for the most prestigious record labels and in the best concert halls. She has credits on over 300 recordings, mostly for worldwide release.

De Francisco has been entrusted with the recording legacy of world-class soloists and orchestras from Alfred Brendel to the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has worked with such artists as Jessye Norman, Claudio Arrau, Simon Rattle, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists, the Monteverdi Choir, Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded in a variety of venues throughout the world, including the Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Moscow Conservatoire, Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

De Francisco is a frequent lecturer at international professional conferences as well as a guest lecturer at leading schools for higher education in Audio in locations as varied as Banff, Moscow, Düsseldorf, Bogotá, and New York. 

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

DAVID BOWLES

CAT 1 - TRADITIONAL ACOUSTIC RECORDING

David Bowles’ recordings have been GRAMMY-nominated (Classical - Best Orchestral Performance) and won the “Classical Orchestral Album” prize from Just Plain Folks Awards. Other Bowles-produced and engineered releases have been named “Record of the Month - Editor's Choice” from Gramophone Magazine and Opera News; also “Record of the Year” from the New York Times, the New Yorker, Miami Clásica and Classical Candour. He has worked with Nicolas McGegan/Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg/New Century Chamber Orchestra, Chanticleer, flutist Carol Wincenc, and composers Yehudi Wyner, William Bolcom and Jake Heggie.

Mr. Bowles is a member of the AES (Audio Engineering Society): he was on the Board of Governors and served on convention committees between 2008 and 2012. He alternated between chair and co-chair of the San Francisco section of the AES between 2005 and 2010. He is also a voting member of NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) and SPARS (Society of Professional Audio Recording Services).

As an educator, Mr. Bowles has been Visiting Professor of Recording Arts at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. He has been guest lecturer at New York University’s Tonmeister Seminar (Steinhardt School of Music), at the Banff Centre and at The Peabody Institute.

Student Design Competition Judge John La Grou knows it all. From analog preamplifiers to power electronics to digital 1s and 0s, this man knows his stuff. Submit your project and have it critiqued by an exceptional engineer!

John La Grou

John La Grou is an inventor, audio designer, entrepreneur, and community activist. While best known in the audio industry for his company Millennia Media, a leading manufacturer of high performance audio equipment, John has also worked to advance technology in the fields of consumer computing and smart power. He is founder of the POW-r Consortium, the world's leading digital audio bit-length reduction algorithms, and holds patents for SafePlug, a series of microprocessor-driven power outlet systems that allow for smart monitoring management. La Grou gives back to his community through his service on a number of corporate, university, and philanthropic boards, and is a life member of the AES, IEEE, and National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Participants for the Student Recording Competition get their work reviewed and scored by one amazing group of well-known recording professionals, a.k.a. Judges. Here they are, one by one.

PROF. JIM ANDERSON

CAT 2 - TRADITIONAL STUDIO RECORDING

President of the AES, 2008-2009, Jim is an internationally recognized recording engineer and producer of acoustic music. He is the recipient of numerous awards and nominations. His recordings have received nine Grammy awards and 25 Grammy nominations; radio productions have received two George Foster Peabody Awards and there have been two Emmy nominations for television programs. He is also a professor in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at NYU and was the Chair of the department for four years.

The deadline for the Student Design Competition is quickly approaching! Don't miss this great opportunity to get noticed by the best in the business!

View to complete rules here to learn how to enter.

One of our main educational events at any AES show is the Student Recording Competition, where students present their current work as future professional engineers of music and sound design.

We’ve heard former participants and attendees’ comments and have tweaked the rules and guidelines a bit. Find the current policies here.

As usual there is a tremendous group of Judges for each category.  Even if you're not a participating finalist, you'll still want to hear what they have to say. The full line up which includes some of the best ears in the industry will be unveiled soon.  Sponsors are lining up to award some really awesome prizes for the winners.

Feeling unsure about how to prepare written documentation about your recording? We have uploaded into our AES SDA blog some mind-bending material from past SRC winners just to give you an impression of how you should present yours (it’s not a template so you shouldn’t copy it really, just draw some inspiration from it). Find them in the Blog.

AES 133rd Student Recording Competition deadline is October 1st, 2012.

SIGN UP for the COMPETITION here (but register to the Convention first!!!)