FEATURES
Learning at the Live House
Tom Kenny. At 6 p.m. on September 28, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Steve Vai took the stage and officially opened Live House, Musicians Institute’s new state-of-the-art, future-proof venue at Sunset and Highland, right in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world.
Mix Sound for Film & Television 2018 Wrap-Up
More than 550 editors, re-recording mixers, sound designers, composers, chief engineers, facility owners, educators and technologists from across the country visited Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, Calif., on Saturday, October 13, for the fifth annual Mix Presents Sound for Film & Television.
Hunting for Tom Petty’s American Treasure
Barbara Schultz. “We lost our guy. We lost our captain, but we’re soldiering on,” says engineer/producer Ryan Ulyate, who has been recording and mixing Tom Petty’s music since 2004. “I’m so lucky to be part of this. My job is joyful, because most every time I push up a fader, I smile.”
MUSIC
Danny Wallin: Six Decades of Classic Film Tracks
Kevin Pergantis. Now retired, following one of the longest and most successful careers of anyone, anywhere, in audio engineering, Dan Wallin, or Danny, as his neighbors and friends call him, sits with his hair pulled back in a salt-and-pepper ponytail. A breeze carries through the house, the sound of the ocean a constant presence no more than 20 feet away from the back door of his Hawaiian home. It’s been six years since he stepped away from Hollywood, and Wallin now enjoys his days with his wife, Gay, and their two dogs. Life is good, indeed.
Greta Van Fleet Just Love to Play
Lily Moayeri. In the year and a half since the youthful Greta Van Fleet released its first single, the wailing “Highway Tune,” whose driving blues rock brought unavoidable Led Zeppelin comparisons, the group’s profile growth, and with it, fanbase, has been astronomical.
LIVE
Tour Profile: Journey/Def Leppard. Go Big or Stay Back!
Tom Kenny. There was a bit of-old-school 1970s-’80s live magic and vibe on the road this past summer as the seemingly unlikely pairing of Def Leppard and Journey co-headlined stadiums and arena across North America, sometimes joined by friends Peter Frampton, the Pretenders, Cheap Trick or Foreigner, wrapping up 60 shows in early October, selling more than a million tickets and grossing just over $100 million.
TECHNOLOGY
Digital Audio Workstations 2018
Digital audio workstations, the centerpiece of most modern production studios, are maturing, and as such, the days of groundbreaking, earth-shattering improvements may be on the wane. Software is again leading hardware. Still, there have been plenty of improvements and new features added over the past 12 months, along with a move toward specialized markets, such as integrated live sound recording and new tools for VR.
New Products for November 2018: Focus on AES New York
New studio and live sound products from Solid State Logic, Audio Engineering Associates, NUGEN Audio, Luke Audio, Mackie, Roswell Pro Audio, Line 6, Avid, QSC and Powersoft.
Review: JBL Professional 308P MkII
Mike Levine. JBL’s 3 Series MkII is the next generation of the studio monitor line introduced in 2014. The new monitors follow in the footsteps of the originals, offering high-quality sound using the company’s latest technology, and offered at extremely reasonable price points.
Review: APS Germano Acoustics AEON 2
Steve La Cerra. A joint development effort from APS and TEC Award-winning studio designer Troy Germano, the AEON 2 is a biamped two-way system employing a 7-inch bass/mid driver and a 3/4-inch fabric-dome tweeter. Each AEON 2 utilizes a pair of class AB amplifiers, one producing 200 watts for the LF driver, the other generating 100 watts for the HF driver. Frequency response is stated as 38 Hz to 33 kHz ±2 dB, and the speaker is capable of delivering peaks up to 112 dB SPL. The AEON 2 is intended for vertical placement in the near-field.
SPECIAL SECTION: AUDIO EDUCATION
Networked Audio Education
Think about a typical large public university. There are stadiums, arenas, theaters, performance halls, recital halls, lecture halls, video production studios, editing suites, recording studios, music labs, radio stations, HD broadcast facilities, conference rooms and dozens of other spaces that need to pass audio. And there are students who need to learn about the state-of-the-art in production. It’s a perfect match, a test bed for audio-video connectivity.
New Education Initiative from Producers & Engineers Wing
The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing has announced an education initiative focused on best technical practices for music recording. Based on the P&E Wing’s published set of guidelines and recommendations for the production and delivery of recorded music projects, the initiative launched in Los Angeles in June 2018 with local recording education programs and is now gearing up to expand nationwide with updated versions of the recommendations in partnership with the Recording Academy’s 11 other chapters and their Producers & Engineers Wing committees.
Berklee Announces Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
Berklee College of Music has launched the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which will focus on equity in the jazz field and on the role that jazz can play in the larger struggle for gender justice. The institute will celebrate the contributions women have played in the development of the art form, and frame more equitable conditions for all pursuing careers in jazz in an effort to work toward a necessary and lasting cultural shift in the field.
Rensselaer Hires WSDG for a Fully Immersive Integrated Media Complex
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has commissioned Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) to design and oversee the construction of a fully immersive audio/video/3D production, mixing and editing complex for their Troy, NY, campus. The primary mission for this addition to Rensselaer’s Media Arts, Science & Technology Department is to advance the creation, performance and production of 3D immersive audio and video content.
Full Sail University Goes All-In on Esports
Full Sail University has unveiled plans to build a state-of-the-art esports arena in support of Armada, the university’s collegiate-level varsity esports team, as well as other professional industry esports initiatives. The 11,200+-square-foot facility will be the largest esports arena to date on any college or university campus in the United States.
Drexel University Unveils WSDG-Designed Teaching Studios
In the spring of 2017, after a $4.5 million fundraising campaign, Drexel University engaged Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) to design its 21st-century audio production and education complex, which it unveiled earlier this year.
University of Saint Francis’ Music Department Teams with DPA for its Performance Season
Since its inception, the University of Saint Francis’ Music Department has prepared students for a professional career in the performing arts. As USF Music Department program director, chair and tonmeister, Miles Fulwider is passionate about music and giving his students the education and tools necessary to succeed. As USF’s 2018 performance season finished, Fulwider once again relied heavily on DPA Microphones for all of the department’s concerts and recordings.
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor: The Wide, Wide World of Audio Education
Tom Kenny. I was introduced to a couple of remarkably disparate yet somehow similar experiences in audio education on the path to this month’s issue. In their own way, each epitomized the importance, and the variety, of audio education today, as the industry settles down from the explosive growth and, some would call it mayhem, of the go-go, for-profit expansion of the past decade.
News: Hal Leonard Audio Master Class: L.A. Edition
Music fans in the greater Los Angeles area were recently treated to two intimate events as a part of the Hal Leonard Master Class series, featuring legendary engineers Bob Clearmountain and Dave Pensado, with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
News: AES 2018: The People and the Presentations
A lot of ink will be printed and tweets will be sent over the coming weeks on the new technologies and product announcements coming out of the October AES Show, held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York October 17-20.
Back Page Blog: November 2018
Mike Levine and Steve La Cerra. To Click, or Not to Click? And Why the Toll Booth?
