Show iconVisit enough trade shows and it is easy to become blasé about close encounters with truly impressive and groundbreaking kit. Like a good number of you reading this, I have.

And as a journalist, my show goals are fundamentally different from those of a manufacturer or potential buyer. The truth is, a troubled trade show can make much better reading than a happy one. Both ways, a wake-up call is a sound thing.

PianoIt’s a little-discussed fact that the tempo of classical music compositions slowed in direct response to the ability to build larger performance spaces. As building techniques allowed larger halls to be constructed, their reverberation times forced composers to downshift tempo in order to retain musical intelligibility.

We have learned much about acoustics since, but we are in danger of losing this and other lessons...

MonkeyI’d come to talk audio but, right now, I’m getting a lesson in cinema projection. I’d expected to be discussing cinema mixing, surround sound and room acoustics but audio is not alone in its level problems.

Between sound and vision, cinema is looking anything but the high-gloss, high-value experience promised by high-grossing Hollywood blockbusters. It’s not looking – or sounding – good…

InvaderIf you still regard games consoles as child’s play and their sound requirements as trivial, it is time to think again. And if you are involved in the composing, recording or postproduction markets, it is past time to think again.

Games are not only growing in their sound sophistication, they represent a growing and challenging opportunity, where new frontiers are being pioneered.

cloud2_icon‘Is the cloud mature? It’s been around for so long – way before people started calling it the cloud. I, personally, can’t wait for people to stop calling it the cloud.’

And there we were, ready to get excited about yet another 21st century technical revolution. So much for this ‘cloud’ thing that’s all lined up to change the way we work and play… 

Free PressI used to drink in a pub in Cambridge called the Free Press. I liked it.

In trade publishing, an ‘ad rich’ environment equates to a more free editorial agenda than an impoverished one. When ads are scarce, magazines may be afraid to publish critical or conflicting stories – from editorial comment and product reviews to advertisers’ competitors’ press releases – for fear of losing essential revenue. The question here is: who needs who the most?

Studer A800‘It was one of the greatest experiences of my life – we’d throw little vocal challenges at each other, and this game of one-upmanship resulted in some beautiful vocal renditions. We are really proud of the results. I wish people could see how much fun we had.’

You couldn’t ask for a better commendation for live studio recording. But how many of today’s recording studios are able to support a live session?

GeniusHired by Lord Doberman, the richest man in the world, Anode Enzyme moves into Mollusc Hall as resident genius. Here he discovers the formula for worldly success – mediocrity.

If it was meant to be an entertaining contention when cartoonist John Glashan penned it in his Genius cartoon strip in the late 1970s, it has become a truism for the majority of today’s music charts.

ChainI owe a debt to conversations I have had with recording studio designers.

Their work requires them to be expert in an unusually wide number of fields – from the obvious areas of acoustics and equipment, to interior design and psychology. Add music biz anecdotes, and many would make great after-dinner speakers. It was a studio designer who put me wise to the problem of a ‘good enough’ audio chain.

Ideas PoliceIt was all so good... then suddenly it became a first class, impedence matched, wi-fi enabled, 192kHz nightmare.

I was on the verge of the idea that would become the talk of my generation. Then the shadowy figure of the Health N Safety Sheriff busted in and ruined everything. It’s all going horribly wrong (I think Jeremy Clarkson is in here somewhere) then an alarm rings...

fadersMixing anecdote with hard-won wisdom is something Robbie McGrath does as effortlessly as mixing the biggest bands of the past 40 years.

Today his audience is a group of students that he is encouraging to become the next generation of live sound engineers. But where McGrath is upfront about getting into the business by being in the right place at the right time, they don't yet realise how lucky they are...

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Fast-and-Wide.com An independent news site and blog for professional audio and related businesses, Fast-and-Wide.com provides a platform for discussion and information exchange in one of the world's fastest-moving technology-based industries.
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