Boston Section

The Chapter's November meeting once again took place within Parsons Audio's annual Expo. Several hundred members and other audio professionals visited exhibits from 40+ manufacturers. They also enjoyed a series of presentations, culminating with Tom Bates' fascinating show-and-tell about remote recording.

Among the presentations:

Jim Hilson of Dolby Labs, on the state of surround at Dolby. Recently returned from Sydney, where he helped NBC to produce the Olympics, Jim reported about the many fronts where Dolby surround technology is at work. His Expo presentation was attended by numerous broadcasters, post facilities, and studio engineers, who find themselves facing increasing numbers of surround projects.

Andy Munitz of Sony Professional Audio, on development of Sony's DRE-777 sampling reverb. Andy described the workings of the DRE, and the lengths that Sony went to in order to capture the real ambiences that the device makes available to its users. In addition to a number of the world's leading performance venues (symphony halls, etc.), it incorporates some remarkable ambiences recorded by Sony engineers in out-of-the-way places. One notable locale was deep within the stone walls of Paul Winter's favorite offshoot of the Grand Canyon!

David Moulton, on a new approach to loudspeaker and control room design. In the course of eighteen years of research and development, David has come up with a new loudspeaker design. Sausalito Audio Works, where David is Vice President, is presently turning the design into a complete range of consumer and professional loudspeakers for its first licensee, Bang & Olufsen. In his presentation he illustrated the science that underlies the speakers, beginning with fresh understandings of how we hear, and of how loudspeakers work in rooms. He went on to show related concepts that form the basis of inexpensive but effective control room designs. For anyone interested, his PowerPoint presentation for the Expo, 100+ slides in all, will soon be posted at the Parsons Audio web site.

Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering, on his experiences authoring and mastering in 5.1. Bob has presented at a number of Expos, keeping attendees informed about the pleasures and perils of his work. This time he gave a presentation that thoroughly illustrated the cutting-edge technology, processes, and work flow that Gateway utilizes while authoring and mastering DVD's and surround-encoded CD's. He also vividly described the issues that our industry faces as it ventures further into such projects. At this point, very few audio facilities are producing DVD's. The Expo audience for Bob was full of facility owners and engineers who know that such work is in their future. They came somewhat in the spirit of would-be settlers gathered at to hear a true pioneer report on what the realities are out that technological frontier. As always, Bob was generous in sharing the lessons that he and Gateway have learned.

Bobby Owsinski of Surround Associates, on the state of surround today. Another frontiersman in surround sound, Bobby reports on that subject (and others) for many trade magazines, including Surround Professional, PSN, Mix, and EQ. He has engineered and produced numerous surround projects for artists including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Iron Maiden, Eddie Money, Todd Rundgren, Firesign Theater, ELO, Pat Benatar, Shadowfax, Tangerine Dream, Tuck & Patti, and George Winston. At the Expo he relayed many insights that he has gained while in the studio ã practical tips that had attendees taking notes.

Karl Winkler of Neumann, on microphone technology and applications. Notwithstanding his employ by Neumann, Karl has over the years developed a presentation about microphones that is far more than a low-key sales pitch. Instead, it is a comprehensive study of traditional and cutting edge mic technology, and a thorough overview of how microphones are used today. Karl gives similar presentations around the country. They are useful to anyone who uses mics. Watch for an opportunity to experience it!

Curt Wittig, with his latest surround project. Curt Wittig, recent Grammy engineering nominee and past master of surround recording, brought the multitrack version of his new CD: a musical production of Dickens' Christmas Carol. He spelled out the issues he faced, the tools he used (Soundfield mics, multitrack recorder, workstation, and a notable contribution from Lexicon's new 960L), techniques applied, intricacies of the mix, etc. Judging from what we heard, the piece could become a Christmas classic.

Jeff Largent of National Boston Video Center, with surround projects. Jeff Largent is a sound designer with extensive experience (and two Oscars and five Emmy nominations) working in Hollywood for Sony Entertainment, Warner Bros., Columbia Studios, and others. At RumbleStrip, the audio division of National Boston, numerous surround projects have been coming his way. They include everything from broadcast spots and programming (for The Discovery Channel and others) to corporate pieces for which the client wanted to take advantage of the impact of surround. At the Expo he showed an assortment of videos and deconstructed the audio design work that he had done for them..

Tom Bates, on remote recording. The evening session, the crowning presentation for this year's Expo, was Tom Bates' concerning remote recording. He brought a wealth of examples from his long career. He began by showing several stunning pieces of soundtrack work. One was an expressionistic video recently produced in Germany using Native American music and performers. The next, the soundtrack that Tom engineered for Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata (with Placido Domingo and Teresa Stratas), sounded so good through our hall's Genelec 1037's that the audience would willingly have sat through the entire two-hour video. (It was one of his eight Grammy-winners.) Other examples included work he has done with Paul Winter, Pete Seeger, a variety of gospel and jazz artists, and a sublime chorus of Tibetan nuns whose convent sits atop a mountain in Nepal. When Tom contacted the nuns a few years back, preparatory to going to Nepal to do the recording, he asked them if they had electricity there. They didn't know; couldn't say one way or the other. (Such is the light that sunshine by day, and moonlight and candles by night, can cast upon the soul?) It turns out that they did, but he and his crew had to haul in a load of battery power, just in case. Hardships faced! All the examples that he played served the purpose of Tom's talk, which was to show challenges that he has met while recording all kinds of music, in all kinds of locations, in all kinds of circumstances. No written report can begin to do justice to the content of his presentations, much less to the skill, devotion to musical artistry, and dedication that he brings to his work. They were clearly on display, ennobling to all who attended.

-- Mark Parsons