The participants in WAM’s panel at the 133rd AES Convention, “Celebrating Women in Live Sound.” Pictured, from left: Jeri Palumbo, Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, Deanne Franklin, Karrie Keyes, Claudia Engelhart, and WAM founder Terri Winston
Women’s Audio Mission (WAM), a non-profit in San Francisco dedicated to the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts, wrapped up a successful 133rd AES Convention this fall, which resulted in new industry sponsorships with SoundToys, Radial Engineering, Pendulum Audio, Advanced Audio Microphones, Latch Lake, Metric Halo, Primacoustic and Sonic Studio.
Additionally, WAM’s 2013 program offerings include WAM’s Level Two Certificate Training, an eight-week course that begins on February 21, 2013, covering large format consoles, microphone placement techniques and signal processing, culminating in a full recording session in WAM’s studio.
At AES, WAM participated in two successful panels, including “Celebrating Women in Live Sound,” moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston, with panelists Claudia Engelhart, Deanne Franklin, Karrie Keyes, Jeri Palumbo, and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato. Winston also spoke in the audio education forum, “What Kind of Studios Are Built for Education?,” discussing WAM’s San Francisco based recording studio, which provides on-the-job training for members and offers affordable studio and recording services for artists from around the world.
WAM exhibited the latest additions to its SoundChannel.org online training curriculum in its AES convention booth, including “Audio Connections and Soldering,” which demonstrates how to solder, make cables and connections, and determine the best way to connect and interface with professional gear. Also new to the SoundChannel curriculum is the Digital Audio Module, which explores the world of digital recording, binary number systems and Boolean algebra, analog vs. digital, and more.
Additionally, WAM hosted the successful semi-annual WAM AES Happy Hour Party at 111 Minna Gallery. More than 460 people attended, including Grammy Award-Winning engineer/producer Ross Hogarth, Oscar Award-winning re-recording mixer Laura Hirschberg, and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. WAM recording artists The She’s, folk/rock duo The Bayonettes, and DJ Brown Amy provided the night’s entertainment.
“WAM couldn’t have asked for a better—or busier—year at AES,” says Winston. “A record number of people visited the booth and came to a fantastic WAM party, the Women in Live Concert Sound panel was exceptionally well received, and we are so fortunate to have gained more industry sponsor gear donations. We really felt the love and support for another year of championing women in this industry and look forward to incorporating the new partnerships we developed at AES into WAM’s 2013 programming.”
The following companies generously donated to Women’s Audio Mission during AES: Advanced Audio Microphones (CM-47), Pendulum Audio (OCL-500 Compressor), Latch Lake Music (MicKing Mic Stand), SoundToys (TDM and Native Bundles of all of SoundToys plug-ins), Sonic Studio (Sound Blade mastering software and their digital audio engine Amarra), Radial Engineering (Workhorse Powerhouse 10-space 500 Series rack), Primacoustic (VoxGuard and CrashGuards), Metric Halo (ULN-2 audio interface; SpectraFoo licenses) and Propellerhead (Reason Version 6.5).
The donated gear will be used at WAM’s recording studio, where the 2013 recording schedule is already taking shape, including a January session with Mariachi Femenil Orgullo Mexicano, an all-female mariachi ensemble from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Visit Women’s Audio Mission at www.womensaudiomission.org.
