The 139th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, held in New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center from October 29 through November 1, was definitely one for the record books, and certainly one of the more memorable shows in recent history.
This year’s AES happened to coincide with the Halloween weekend (pretty wild throughout the city), along with the K.C. Royals and New York Mets playing in the World Series, with the final three games happening concurrently at Citi Field in nearby Queens. It was definitely a wild ride.
Big Apple, Big Show
As a special nod to the AES on the opening night of the show, the Empire State Building was lit in blue and white in AES’s honor and to commemorate a significant innovation in broadcasting — the rooftop Alford FM antenna that was erected nearly 50 years ago to serve the area’s broadcast market.
It was definitely a good omen, as the exhibit floor, panels and technical sessions were packed all four days, with highlights including the Project Studio Expo, Live Sound Expo, Grammy SoundTables panel and more. Registration was impressive, at nearly 18,500. In fact, there was even a resurgence of interest in the show from the live sound community, with a strong turnout of companies showing new consoles and speaker systems for sound reinforcement applications.
“The 139th AES Convention was a success by every measure,” says AES executive director Bob Moses. “From the amazing content and packed audiences of the technical and special events program, to an exhibits floor that was crowded with attendees, energy and excitement were everywhere.”
Clearly, AES is well back on track to representing all segments of the audio community – both high-end and more affordable technologies – and in terms of cool new gear, there was plenty to see and hear. Here are some product highlights that caught our attention.
Gear, Gear, Gear
One strong sign of health in the industry was the preponderance of smaller companies, offering boutique (and often handcrafted) gear, ranging from equalizers, compressors and preamps to microphones and ancillary products. I would guess that half the 300 booths on the show floor were populated with every sort of analog processor imaginable, both in rack-mount and API 500-module formats. Even in this high-tech environment, the entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well at AES.
Of course if you were seeking a high-end performance console for live sound or broadcast you didn’t have to look far, with recent offerings from Avid (the now-shipping S6L), CADAC CDC-6, DiGiCo S21, Lawo mc²36, Solid State Logic L300, StageTec Crescendo and Yamaha Rivage PM10 – among others.
But it wasn’t all large-format mixers. Allen & Heath (allen-heath.com) was debuting its new Chrome Qu line of digital mixers – available in Chrome Qu-16, Qu-24 and Qu-32 versions, with a Chrome firmware update that adds major new features such as automatic mic mixing, spectrogram analysis and additional monitor mixes. These expand on existing Qu features such as touch screen and Qu-Pad Wi-Fi control, motorized faders, multitrack recording to USB and more.
Yamaha (yamahaproaudio.com) was spotlighting its TF Series digital consoles, which offer fast, accurate gain setup, single-step compression and EQ, touch screen or iPad control and mic-specific presets created with manufacturers such as Shure, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica. The TF5, TF3 and TF1 models in the series feature 33, 25, or 17 motorized faders and up to 34 x 34 channel recording/playback via USB 2.0.
Proving that smaller isn’t necessarily downscale, AMS-Neve (ams-neve.com) unveiled the BCM10/2 Mk2, an expanded remake of its highly revered Neve BCM10 compact mixer that’s been a favorite with discerning producers as a small “sidecar” used next to large studio boards. The BCM10/2 Mk2 features the legendary Neve 1073 preamp/EQs, 1272 summing mixers and ships in early 2016 in 10/16/24/32-channel versions. If you want one, you might check with your accountant first –prices for the 10-channel model start at $69,950.
Avid (avid.com) unveiled its Pro Tools | Dock, a portable desktop surface offering intelligent studio control. Working together with an iPad running the free Pro Tools | Control app, it gives users the access, integration, and precision they need to edit and mix projects faster. And it’s not just for Pro Tools software, as users can work with their favorite EUCON-enabled DAWs, such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro X or Cubase. And it’s expandable for more faders by adding an Avid Artist | Control surface. It ships in Q1 2016.
For a peek into what may be the look of future consoles, plug-in specialists Waves Audio (waves.com) was demoing its eMotion LV1, a 96 kHz software-based mixer, powered by low-latency Waves SoundGrid DSP servers. It offers up to 64 mono/stereo input channels, 32 stereo bus/return channels and is Mac- and Windows-compatible. It supports industry-standard control surfaces, so just pack a couple (or four) multi-touch screens and you have a monster console controller that fits in a large briefcase.
Speaking of Speakers
Most of the new studio monitors at AES seemed to fall into that “if you have to ask how much, then you probably can’t afford them” category of ultra-high performance but pricey. Among these were Genelec‘s (genelec.com) 1236A three-way, 3,200-watt, 400-pound and nearly four-foot tall monsters with double-18 woofers – sweet sounding, but probably not for the typical bedroom project studio.
Far more affordable were the new reissues of the classic Auratone 5C Sound Cubes (auratonesoundcubes.com), a single 4.5-inch driver design originally intended to offer a representation of how your mix sounded on AM radio or a mono TV set. These days, they’re probably better suited to recreating an iPad’s response, but as the old saying goes, if your mix sounds good on Auratones, it will sound great anywhere else. Street is $349/pair.
On the live speaker side, new line array rigs for touring and installs were shown by both Eastern Acoustic Works (eaw.com), with its Anna system, and Nexo‘s (nexo.sa.com) GEO M620. Both are pro systems well out of range of the gigging musician, but what really smoked me was hearing Yamaha‘s (yamahaproaudio.com) DXS18 – the company’s highest output subwoofer, with 1,020 watts of onboard amplification for 136 dB max SPL’s and extended LF response down to 32 Hz. This single-18 design sounded like a double-18 box and the bass was tight, well damped and sweet. Yow! MSRP is $1,949.
Just Plain Fun
Due out in January, Hal Leonard Books (halleonard.com) was previewing Recording Unhinged: Creative and Unconventional Music Recording Techniques, a book of insider approaches to the recording process by noted engineer/producer Sylvia Massy, who has worked with Tool, Prince, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, R.E.M., Oingo Boingo, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more. As a plus, the 328-page text has numerous illustrations by Massey, done in a fun Robert Crumb style. Keep this on your list.
DIY audio made a comeback with Jensen Transformers (jensen-transformers.com) JIK-DB1 Iso-Kit, a passive direct box in a fun, easy-to-assemble kit form. The kit includes everything needed to build the JIK-DB1, with Jensen transformer; a tough chassis; printed circuit board; ground lift/pad/polarity switches; ¼” and XLR connectors plus all necessary resistors and capacitors. Price is $125.
More to Come
There were other cool products at AES, and we will present these in future new product sections as well as on mmrmagazine.com, so stay tuned for more action. Meanwhile, the AES show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center next year from September 28 to October 1, 2016, so start making those travel plans now!
George Petersen is the editor of MMR’s sister publication, FRONT of HOUSE.
