The U of M section of AES had a great turnout for the annual AES Convention in New York this year on October 9-12. Rishi Daftuar placed first in the category of Stereo World/Folk and Chris Conover placed second in the category of Stereo Pop/Rock. More information about the competition results can be found here.
The annual PAT Department Barbeque on October 2nd was a resounding success thanks to the work of the AES section.
Leslie Ann Jones has been a recording and mixing engineer for over 30 years. Starting her career at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles in 1975, she moved to Northern California in 1978 to accept a staff position with David Rubinson and Fred Catero at the legendary Automatt Recording Studios. There she worked with such artists as Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Holly Near, Angela Bofill, and Narada Michael Walden, and started her film score mixing career with “Apocalypse Now”.
From 1987 to 1997 she was a staff engineer at Capitol Studios located in the historic Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood. She recorded projects with Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, Michelle Shocked, BeBe & CeCe Winans, and Marcus Miller, as well as the scores for several feature films and television shows. (more…)
The U of M Student Section of AES is hosting Benj Kanters of Hear Tomorrow to speak on noise and music-induced hearing loss. This workshop is a two-hour presentation, including images and animations reflecting the latest in hearing research. The workshop will discuss hearing physiology, hearing loss, and hearing conservation including discussion about technologies such as the latest developments in high-fidelity ear plugs and concert in-ear monitoring systems.
We are welcoming all who are interested to our last AES event of the year. We will meet in McIntosh Theatre where Meyer Sound will be giving a seminar on the fundamentals of system design.
The Fundamentals of System Design seminar encompasses a variety of topics in sound system applications. Practical information about AC power, grounding, hum, gain setting and polarity are presented in a real-world context to provide useful background. Theory and practice of line arrays are discussed, along with tools for system optimization, including equalization, delay, loudspeaker management systems and measurement with the SIM 3 audio analyzer system.
The seminar’s second day is dedicated to use of Meyer Sound MAPP Online acoustical prediction software as a primary tool in system design. After an extensive introduction to the program and its capabilities, attendees are walked through exercises in which they specify venues and design loudspeaker systems to cover them.
Finally, the seminar will discuss and demonstrate important concepts pertaining to the use of subwoofers and methods of deployment that obtain optimal coverage and directivity characteristics.
Dr. John Middlebrooks, Director, Central Systems Laboratory, Kresge Hearing Research Institute leads a guided tour of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute Central Systems Laboratory.
The Central Systems Laboratory conducts research examining the brain mechanisms of hearing, particularly issues related to stimulus coding in the auditory cortex. Some of its current projects center around spatial hearing and auditory prosthesis, including extensive research in cochlear implants. The Laboratory facilities consist of a double-walled anechoic chamber used for human psychophysical studies, a second chamber for animal physiological studies of spatial hearing experiments, and a double-walled chamber used for cochlear implant studies.
Daniela will give an overview of audio signal processing on the SigmaDSP IC chip from Analog Devices. The talk will focus on effects processing and how the IC is programmed. Demonstrations will be included in this discussion.
Daniela Marquez graduated from the University of Michigan in 2006 with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Sound Engineering (PAT-D). Currently she works at Analog Devices Inc. as a Software Systems Engineer in the Digital Audio Group. Daniela has been working on algorithm development for the audio processing IC: SigmaDSP. Her current projects include Automatic Room Equalization and Effects Processing.
The discussion is about what is involved with system design and implementation for the national tour of musical theatre production Pippin, including building the system from the ground up, signal flow, microphone choice and placement, power distribution and grounding issues. There is a matinee and evening performance of Pippin that day if you would like to see and hear the sound system during the performance. (more…)
The goal of PTF is nothing less than a full set of objective measurements of an audio system that correlate with perceived performance. Rather than attempting to map conventional measurements to perception, PTF uses all-new stimulus, reception and analysis techniques. PTF is organized into test modules that are selected from a Virtual Instrument (VI) computer interface. Each module tests an aspect of audio performance that corresponds to human assessment: Tonal Balance, Imaging, Maximum Loudness and Distortion. Each stimulus signal is generated by the VI and converted to an electrical signal by the hardware. The signal is sent to the system under test and received by the PTF microphone array. (more…)