Archive for category: Audio Technology

When students from American University’s chapter of the Audio Engineering Society met up to discuss their audio production heroes, a common theme emerged. It wasn’t as much about a certain technology or a ground-breaking technique. The students expressed appreciation for certain engineers who’ve managed to infuse their unique personalities and talents into every work they’ve helped create.

From the perspective of audio technology students, here are seven sound engineers and industry influencers you should know:

 

1. Bob Katz
   When an engineering stalwart like Bob Katz writes a textbook, students pay close attention. That’s not only because he’s won multiple Grammys and worked with many exceptional musicians, but also because he cares enough to pay it forward. In his book Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, Katz breaks down an extremely complex topic into concepts that can be understood, appreciated, and implemented. As far as our students are concerned, the music industry should be thanking him for decades to come.

 

2. Geoffrey Emerick
   For audio technology students, longtime Beatles engineer Geoffrey Emerick is an obvious role model, as he’s done so many things they aspire to do. From boldly trying inventive production techniques and working with ground-breaking artists—Supertramp, Jeff Beck, and Elvis Costello, to name a few—to advancing quickly in the profession at an uncommonly young age, Emerick represents everything that’s possible.
   Thanks to sound professionals such as Emerick, today student audio engineers are able to pursue fulfilling careers that focus on the art and science of audio engineering.

 

3. Kendrick Lamar
   It’s hard to put one overarching label on Kendrick Lamar. He’s a rapper, producer, activist, and visionary, to name a few. He has proved he can grab the spotlight with highly engineered album such as “To Pimp a Butterfly” or raw efforts such as the recently released Either way, audio technology students are always left anxiously awaiting his next move.

 

4. Leslie Ann Jones
   Usually the rock stars reside in front of the mic, but our audio technology students think recording and mixing engineer Leslie Ann Jones rocks pretty hard from behind the glass. Of course, the fact that she works at legendary Skywalker Sound makes here the envy of many. But more than that, students envy her more than 30 years of diverse opportunities to record scores, mix film and video elements, and produce albums. With her experience, talent, and lineage (her father, Spike Jones, is a music icon), Jones is a quintessential bridge from audio engineering’s past to its future.

 

5. Zaytoven
   DJ and record producer Zaytoven is part of a long line of audio professionals who weave a particular style into the fabric of music history as a whole. Fifty years from now, Zaytoven’s contributions to the industry through his award-winning trap music and mixtapes will serve as vital connective tissue in the constantly evolving story of sound production.

 

6. Tony Visconti
   If part of the fun of audio production is shaping art across a wide spectrum of genres, then Tony Visconti had an absolute blast. Working with artists such as David Bowie and T. Rex, Visconti built a decades-long career atop creativity and experimentation. The result was some of the most memorable music ever created.

 

7. Nigel Godrich
   Best known for his critically acclaimed work with Radiohead, producer Nigel Godrich’s rise to the top of the music industry followed a formula that appeals to many audio technology students:

• Receive hands-on training from experienced professionals in a university setting.
• Begin working at the industry’s entry level, if necessary—working extremely hard.
• Stay true to one’s convictions and passions.
• Discover opportunities to work with talented artists to combine the art and science of audio production.

 

All of these people give audio technology students examples of what’s possible. Our students look forward to forging their own unique paths in the near future.

 

Ready to take your first step toward a career as a sound engineer? Check out American University’s Audio Technology Program.

By Matt Twiford

 Classrooms and homework assignments are just a couple aspects of a comprehensive education experience. For those of us who study and/or teach in American University’s Audio Technology Program, immersing ourselves in the rich culture of Washington, DC, adds color and shape to our professional development.

This past December, the AU Audio Technology Program partnered with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra to capture their “Winter Soundscapes” performance at Strathmore. As an adjunct professor and a master’s student in the Audio Technology Program at AU,  I was lucky enough to enjoy and learn from the experience.

The Music Center at Strathmore is a 1,976-seat concert hall located just north of DC in Bethesda, Maryland. The venue presents more than 150 performances a year and is home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, and the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras.

The “Winter Soundscapes” event and experience were a great success. We captured the symphony, chamber ensemble, and philharmonic orchestras without a hiccup. As an audio professional, it was a pleasure to work at a world-class facility such as the Strathmore. The acoustics of the concert hall are perfectly tuned, so even the quietest passages of the performance could be heard throughout the audience.

My studies and work in the graduate program at American University prepared me for this opportunity in many ways. For instance, having access to an endless gear selection allowed me to test many different microphones and microphone techniques on a variety of instruments.

Critical listening–a huge component of our graduate curriculum at AU–proved extremely valuable during my time at Strathmore. My knowledge of how simply moving microphones can affect the balance of a recording was important in preparation for the event.

The most enjoyable part of the experience, though, was the actual performance. I’d never attended an orchestral performance—neither as an engineer or patron. Once the main prep work was complete and the music began, I could actually relax for a moment. I could focus and reflect on what both the process and the product mean to audio enthusiasts like me.

Seeing the byproduct of incredible musicians mixed with expert audio engineering was an experience I’ll never forget. It’s why you study audio technology in the first place. It was quite a sight—and sound.

About Matt:

Matt Twiford is a graduate student and adjunct professor living in Washington, DC. He will graduate with a master’s degree in audio technology from American University in May and he has a bachelor’s degree in music production from Full Sail University. Matt plays guitar, writes music, and freelance engineers in his free time.

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Washington DC provides countless opportunities for American University students. Learn about achieving a master’s degree in audio technology from AU.

Whether you love it or hate it, the pervasive presence of music streaming is completely changing the music industry.

Besides giving audio technology professionals something juicy to discuss at the water cooler, online music streaming is the latest industry-shifting phenomenon—not unlike payola in the 1960s, MTV in the 1980s, and Napster at the turn of the 21st century.

Streaming music increased 93 percent in 2015, with 317 billion total streams, according to Variety. The streaming debate, which won’t likely dissipate anytime soon, has several layers:

 

The Benefits of Music Streaming

To many in the general listening public, music streaming seems like a wonderful no-brainer. “A la cart music, on the go? Whenever I want it? What’s the downside?”

Music streaming—both free and fee-based streaming—gives our constantly on-the-go society opportunities to listen to the music they want in a highly portable, richly customized fashion.

Perhaps most importantly, online music streaming is free in many cases, with the only “catch” being brief ads that listeners must listen to every so often. Some streaming platforms charge a small fee for the ability to bypass those ads.

 

Does Streaming Devalue Art?

For many artists, audio engineers, and other music professionals, the streaming debate centers on the economics of the music industry.

When megastar Taylor Swift began publicly pointing out the potential drawbacks of music streaming—especially in a July 2014 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal—one of her biggest concerns was that streaming services would devalue the art of music.

“It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is,” Swift wrote. “I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”

Swift actually pulled her music off the popular streaming site Spotify and later refused to allow her album 1989 on Apple Music because of a 3-month free trial for consumers, during which Apple was not going to pay artists royalties. The company eventually relented and agreed to pay.

Streaming is a complex issue, though. Some music industry professionals, such as DJ and producer Armin Van Buuren, trumpet the benefits of streaming—especially for enabling people to listen to the music they love wherever and whenever.

Van Buuren, who has more than 1.4 million followers on Spotify, points out that free streaming doesn’t mean artists don’t get paid. It’s just that their pay comes from advertising rather than more traditional sources.

Others see the streaming model as a worrisome breeding ground for deeper inequity between big names and lesser-known acts.

 

Streaming Companies Move Toward Paid Subscriptions

As is the case with virtually anything valuable that starts out free, music streaming appears headed toward services available only with paid premiums, such as Apple Music.

Even platforms such as Spotify, which is well-known for its free tier, are developing ways to make more money—and to pacify artists. Spotify reportedly may allow artists to temporarily keep new releases off its free tier.

As music streaming companies evolve and expand, they undoubtedly will experience more victories like the one they struck in December, when the Beatles allowed their catalog—13 albums and 4 compilations—to be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, Deezer, Microsoft Groove, Napster/Rhapsody, and Slacker Radio.

 

Effects of Streaming on the Listening Experience

Streaming presents other hot-button debates for audio technology professionals, who are always considering the quality of what’s entering consumers’ ears. Highly compressed, lossy files that take up less space—great for streaming—take away from the original composition.

Listeners who understand the problem can maximize the quality of their streaming experience by researching the specs of the available streaming services and changing player preferences. Unfortunately, only a fraction of streamers will put in this work or even recognize that they can. Additionally, there’s the challenge of cellular data costs.

Companies already are making progress toward improving the quality of streamed music. For now, sound gurus will go back and forth about what’s more important, music availability, or sound purity.

 

Options in the Music Industry

When Adele’s latest offering—a wildly emotive collection of rangy love-related songs—was released November 20, people wondered what she was thinking. Her decision to keep the new album off streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and more was a slap in the face to conventional Internet-era wisdom.

Everyone from music industry tycoons to audio technology MA students wondered whether forcing consumers to buy a hard-copy album instead of streaming would work. It did. While critics of all ages and backgrounds complained about the streaming void, 25 destroyed the all-time first-week sales record, and sales have continued to thrive.

 

To help boost the album, Adele and her label used other digital-age techniques to boost awareness. The music video version of Adele’s fantastically popular song Hello is approaching 1 billion views in YouTube. Also, Adele’s live version of Hello from late-night TV has been viewed by nearly 27 million people on YouTube.

 

The Future of Music Streaming

No one knows how streaming-related questions about the pay model, sound quality, and more will be answered in the years to come, but that’s part of the fun of the music industry. Constant changes to how, where, and when people listen to the gorgeous music that artists create and audio technology professionals produce are exciting, scary, and everything in between.

For the professors and master’s students in the Audio Technology Program at American University, the art and science of sound represents our careers and our joy—whether it’s heard via free streaming, CDs, or any other medium.

 

Those interested in advancing a career in the music industry can click to learn how to achieve a master’s degree in audio technology from American University.

In the audio technology industry, degrees, internships, and key connections are valuable tools. However, one key factor makes it all matter: passion.

With real passion for sound—and a work ethic to match—talented individuals from any background can find success in the world of audio technology.

American University adjunct professor Maurizio Sera, a multi-platinum award-winning audio engineer, is living, breathing, headphone-wearing proof that when passion, work ethic, and opportunity collide, great things can happen.

Maurizio, known as IRKO in the music industry, has helped shape the music of high-profile artists Jay-Z, Kanye West, Diddy, Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, and many more. However, like most audio engineers, his journey wasn’t as glamorous as the list of people he’s worked with. It was dotted with hard work, networking, and a love of music.

“I get paid for my sessions, and that’s fine, but part of my payment is twisting an instrument, knowing that what I heard first in my head will be heard by millions of people,” he said. That passion simmered and grew through a long but rewarding process.

Maurizio was born and raised in Venice, Italy, where he entered college to study computer science. It didn’t take long for him to discover his calling was elsewhere. He dropped out to instead enter a three-year audio engineering program—which he completed in nine months.

Obviously, Maurizio had found his niche.

During his tenure in higher education, he interned with one of his instructors before building a studio in his father’s garage, just outside Venice. He honed his craft in that studio for five years.

Maurizio’s business blossomed and eventually led to a successful partnership with one of his former teachers. And the two of them spent a couple of years creating and equipping the largest studio in northeast Italy.

When he later set off for New York to garner insight on how to take his business to the next level, Maurizio reconnected with an old acquaintance to do some work—including production of a Jay-Z record that ended up going double platinum.

Maurizio’s globe-crossing career took off after that, and eventually so did his desire to help aspiring audio engineers from various backgrounds blaze their own professional trails.

“I was thinking, ‘I have a unique experience that has led me here. Maybe I should start to share it with others,’” Maurizio said.

After being invited to a small community college to teach and share his story, Maurizio has made a point to schedule workshops and classes all over the world. Eventually he plans to expand his workshop series and begin promoting it online.

At American University, Maurizio has been working with the Audio Technology Program to drop real-world knowledge on students. His first class, called “Speakeasy,” was focused on hip-hop mixing. His second class was an inventive model: For three weekends, 10 students worked with a guest producer to take a beat with a sample in it and replace that sample with a different style of music.

Overall, Maurizio wants to help prospective engineers better understand everything from mixing to how royalties work. For students, his central advice is simple yet potent: Take full advantage of the opportunities provided by a program such as the master’s in audio technology at American University. You have the chances to “mess up” and experiment before entering the industry.

“If you don’t know your keyboard well, practice here so you are more efficient when you get out in the real world,” he said. “Then you won’t be going through that phase of ‘practice’ once you leave, because you already messed up all you could in safe environment.”

If you are interested in a career as an audio engineer, click to learn how to achieve a master’s degree in audio technology from American University.

Written by Michael Harvey, Instructor in the Department of Performing Arts

The 139th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention was hosted last week in New York City. I had the opportunity to attend with a few of our graduate students. It was a pretty cool experience.

When talking to students about the AES Convention, I often hear the question: What’s it like?

Well, there’s enough gear there to excite or cure your G.A.S., (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). There’s also plenty of timely, obscure, and/or fascinating information to feed your head in all-access pass presentations, and enough after parties to make you feel like a rock star.

For me, AES is all about connection. I had the chance to meet and interact with people from all walks of the professional audio industry. There were vets there to hawk their latest memoir and newbies dreaming of making their magic connection. There were hot producers and engineers at the height of their game, surfing the buzz, and equipment providers out to show why you need to own their latest must-have box, microphone, or plug-in.

 

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Talking with Peter Reardon, the nattily dressed head of Shadow Hills, whose gear defines G.A.S., but whose story is even more compelling.
• Listening to a presentation on early British Recording studios chaired by Howard Massey, who besides being a model for audio-guy-turned-journalist is a super nice guy.
• Meeting one of my recording hero producer/engineers Tony Visconti, who was sitting on Howard’s panel, and besides having a career that stretches from early Bowie to right now, is actively doing live gigs as a player!
• Having dinner after a long day of conventioneering with graduate students and listening to their takes on the day.
• Taking a subway ride to the Village with some of my undergraduate seniors and listening to and talking about music late into the night, I heard so much new and compelling music!
• Talking to reps from SSL, Waves, Eventide, Slate, Telefunken, and Soundtoys, and getting a glimpse of each company’s differing cultures.
• Connecting with American University alum, Rob Christiansen (audio technology ’93), who is currently working in Public Radio in New York and starting a conversation about a potential student internship path in NYC!

 

If you take the time to ask, each individual’s path to the AES Convention is an interesting story of his or her dreams, detours, failures, and successes. As an educator whose students are knocking on the doors of the industry, this is an eye opener for me: sometimes what looks like genius from afar is a combination of hard work and strong mentorship.

Walking back from the Village to my hotel south of Broadway, I passed revelers in Halloween costumes, fans in Mets jerseys, and cops on street corners. Breathing in the cool air of a late October evening in Manhattan, I thought back on my own journey in the audio and music world from gigging musician to audio educator.

At 2 a.m. when I should have been dead tired, I was exhilarated—ready to make new connections, explore new software, read a few more books. And stop at that awesome diner on the corner before turning in.

 

Interested in connecting with mentors and networking at events like the AES Convention? Learn more about the master’s degree in audio technology at American.

About the Author

Mike Harvey is a highly respected music recorder, mixer, and producer with over 25 years of music industry experience. He has taught in the Audio Technology Program at AU since the fall of 2007.

 

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When choosing a grad program, people like options. Diversity is expected and flexibility is coveted.

That’s because a degree isn’t just a piece of paper or box checked on a job application. When done properly, a master’s program is a multi-faceted opportunity to explore the areas that interest you most—whatever those might be.

“Whatever those might be” is a major part of the process. No two students seeking a master’s in audio technology at American University have quite the same experience—and that’s good. The MA in audio technology program affords the freedom to customize your degree based on your unique combination of interests, experiences, talents, and passion.

 

Music Recording and Production

Matt, one of our MA students concentrating in music recording and production, first became interested in audio technology during his teenage years, while “playing in a band and constantly discovering new music,” he said.

Matt has built upon that foundation of passion during college, embracing certain work that he has found particularly helpful—including technical ear training, the fundamentals of digital audio, and advanced recording techniques. His favorite project was a weekend mixing class focusing on hip-hop and electronic music production.

His journey through the MA in audio technology program at American has helped Matt realize what he really wants to do after graduation: to teach undergrad students who are looking for the best way to use put their talents to good use. He’ll also continue working as a freelance engineer.

 

Mixing and Programming

Martin is another one of our students who found his future within the confines of his band. While recording an album, he was drawn to “the world of possibilities you have when you start mixing a record.”

He earned a marketing degree and studied audio technology in his homeland of Argentina before coming to the US for graduate studies in Washington, DC. He teaches courses at AU while working through his own student course load.

The work means something different to each person. For Martin, learning how to program in C and mix for movies was important. Now he’s working to develop a series of plugins programmed in C++.

After earning his MA degree, Martin looks forward to programming and eventually selling his own apps.

 

Each Student’s Average Day is Different

There’s no such thing as an “average day in the life” of an audio technology graduate student. That’s because every student has a unique background, personality, set of circumstances, and future.

We’ve got music fanatics. Film buffs. Single students. Those with children. People obsessed with software. Students who want to use their talents to improve the communities around them. Eager entrepreneurs. Budding teachers.

Some of our students are looking to bring their refined audio technology skills back to their home countries. Others view LA or New York as their professional destination.

The people involved widely vary, but the program at their fingerprints is steady and easy to understand. American University’s MA in audio technology program has nationally recognized faculty with lots of experience in the industry. The setting is a big city where the music scene is robust and internship and job opportunities—spots such as NPR, BBC, Discovery Communications and SiriusXM—abound. Further, the on-campus recording studios are state-of-the-art.

We’d tell you the average “day in the life” of an American University MA in audio technology student is fantastic, but we can’t. You see, there is no such thing as an average “day in the life” of an AU student.

Life is diverse—and so are the careers that lie ahead.

 

Discover Diverse Talents and Goals at American University

If you are interested in determining the best audio technology career for you, learn more about the audio technology program at American University.