31st Annual NAMM TEC Awards

Winners in 31 technical and creative achievement categories were announced at the 31st Annual NAMM TEC AWARDS held on January 23 in Anaheim, California.

The annual event celebrates the best in professional audio and sound production and is held during the NAMM Show, the world’s leading global music industry trade event drawing nearly 100,000 decision-makers and musicians to the Anaheim Convention Center.

“This gathering of the music technology and pro audio world at NAMM helps to complete the full spectrum of music making tribes at the NAMM Show,” said Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM. “The NAMM TEC Awards are the opportunity to recognize the inventors, creatives, musicians and brands who are fueling the next wave of innovation behind how the world experiences music and sound.”

Comedian Sinbad brought the laughs as the jubilant host of the award show. Four companies, Avid, iZotope, Shure, and Solid State Logic, won multiple awards in the Technical Achievement category each taking home two TEC Awards. Creative Achievement top honors were spread across various platforms including television, film, touring and more. Creative winners included everything from the sound production team behind HBO’s popular Game of Thrones series to the producers of James Taylor’s latest album Before This World. Projects tied to the Foo Fighters’ eighth album Sonic Highways were also awarded double honors for event sound and remote production (recording).

Don Was, one of music’s most significant artists and executives, received the evening’s highest honor, the Les Paul award. Mr. Was ended the night and his own celebration with a live music performance that included his former Was (Not Was) band’s catchy ‘80s hit “Walk the Dinosaur.” The Les Paul award recognizes individuals and institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology.

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter along with Record Plant’s Chris Stone and the late Gary Kellgren became the newest inductees to the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame. Baxter, a founding member of Steely Dan, took to the stage for a set that included the group’s famous track “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”

A complete list of winners can be found here and below:

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

AMPLIFICATION HARDWARE – STUDIO & SOUND REINFORCEMENT

Antelope Audio / Satori Monitoring Controller

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT

Rupert Neve Designs / RNDI: Active Transformer Direct Interface

AUDIO APPS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS

PreSonus / Notion 2 for iOS

COMPUTER AUDIO HARDWARE

Universal Audio / Apollo 8p Thunderbolt 2 Audio Interface

HARDWARE / PERIPHERALS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS

Shure / MOTIV MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Mic

HEADPHONE / EARPIECE TECHNOLOGY

Audio-Technica Corporation / ATH-R70x Pro

LARGE FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY

Solid State Logic / XL DESK

MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIERS

Manley Labs / Manley FORCE

MICROPHONES – RECORDING

Neumann / U47 FET

MICROPHONES – SOUND REINFORCEMENT

Shure / 5575LE Unidyne 75^th Anniversary Vocal Microphone

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AMPLIFICATION & EFFECTS

Eventide / H9 MAX

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT HARDWARE

Moog Music / Modular Recreation

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SOFTWARE

iZotope / Iris 2

RECORDING DEVICES

Zoom/F8 MultiTrack Field Recorder

SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE

Tube-Tech / HLT 2A Equalizer

SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE (500 SERIES MODULES)

Solid State Logic / 500-Format LMC+

SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE (DYNAMICS/EQ/UTILITIES)

iZotope / RX 4 Complete Audio Repair & Enhancement

SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE (EFFECTS)

AMS Neve / AMS RMX16 Digital Reverb Plug-In For UAD-2 Platform

SMALL FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY

Avid / Pro Tools I S3

SOUND REINFORCEMENT LOUDSPEAKERS

Meyer Sound / LEOPARD

STUDIO MONITORS

Genelec / 8351A SAM

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

Sennheiser / Evolution Wireless D1

WORKSTATION TECHNOLOGY

Avid / Pro Tools 12

CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT

FILM SOUND PRODUCTION

Birdman

INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT SOUND PRODUCTION

Batman: Arkham Knight

RECORD PRODUCTION / ALBUM

Before This World by James Taylor

RECORD PRODUCTION / SINGLE OR TRACK

Dreams by Beck

REMOTE PRODUCTION / RECORDING OR BROADCAST

Foo Fighters Sonic Highways

STUDIO DESIGN PROJECT

Paul Epworth’s The Church Studios, London, UK

TELEVISION SOUND PRODUCTION

Game of Thrones

TOUR / EVENT SOUND PRODUCTION

Sonic Highways World Tour, Foo Fighters

In total, winners in more 31 categories were selected from 180 nominees by voters from major pro audio publications including Mix, Pro Sound News, Pro Audio Review, Sound & Video Contractor, and Electronic Musician magazines, as well as members of the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, Game Audio Network Guild and select NAMM members.

The NAMM Tec Awards sponsors are HARMAN International Industries, Inc., the Les Paul Foundation, D’Angelico and Sennheiser. Many of tonight’s winning products and technologies are available at music and pro audio retailers worldwide both online and in stores.

For more information, visit www.tecawards.org.

Photo: Guitarist Jeff Baxter speaks on stage during the 31st Annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards at the Anaheim Hilton on January 23, 2016 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM)