Last Friday and Saturday, October 19th and 20th, our Sound Thinking cohort attended the Audio Engineering Society (AES) 145th International Pro Audio Convention at the Jacob Javits Center!
AES is the premier event for Broadcast and Streaming, Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality, Live Sound, Studio Recording, Home Recording, Music Production, Game Audio, Sound for Picture or Product Development, and much more. It’s like an audio-engineering playground, with hands-on technology at your fingertips, and icons in engineering and music at your disposal! We’re talking the best of the best—the legendary Stevie Wonder even made a guest appearance!
Thanks to the folks at AES, and particularly Lori Jackson, their Membership Director, Sound Thinking NYC was gifted with free Exhibits-Plus badges! The group participated in a number of special exhibits at AES, including the: Broadway Sound Expo, Project Studio Expo, and Live Sound Expo! They explored informational panels: Know It Before You Track It – Guitar Literacy for Recording Engineers; The Special Sauce for Mixing a Hit Record; Mix-Masters: The Art of Mastering, as well as Platinum Mastering – Past, Present Future: Changes in Audio Mastering Technology/Aesthetics, to name a few.
Sound Thinking also had a table in the Education and Career Fair at AES on the Friday of the convention. We shared our Sound Thinking mission as part of their initiative to connect learning institutions from around the world with a massive audio, sound and music community of students, enthusiasts and professionals!
Check out a few of our cohort-member highlights from the AES convention!
“I really like the microphone section because I got to hear and experience different sounds they have and they’re each made for a specific time.” – Joanna S.
“I just liked having conversations with different kinds of people… Because it’s cool to see different peoples’ perspectives. And this is an audio convention, but they’re all coming with so many different backgrounds in audio. I think that’s cool.” – Taysia F.
“Bianca likes… The networking as well, as Taysia said. Being 17 right now, a senior in high school, and having so many connections through Sound Thinking and all the things I was able to do outside because of Sound Thinking, makes me feel in a secure place. But also going out of my comfort zone is a really great thing.” – Bianca P.
“I liked walking around and exploring… The whole new experience of being around people that have the common theme of loving music.” – Annalise J.
“I liked the soundboards and just playing with them. I was getting a feel of how it was.” – Simone F.
“I liked that I was able to get a hands-on experience with the Cloudlifter Zi… And then I won the Cloudlifter Zi.” – Sharon A.
“What I really enjoyed from this convention is, first of all, the mixing boards. I never really knew there were different types. I knew there was for live sound, studio, but I never knew it was for TV shows and all. It really mesmerized me just walking through the exhibition, looking at all the different mixing boards. And having the experience from the Platinum Sound studio, and gaining a hands-on experience of being the audio engineer… That just really puts my interest in learning more about it, at a higher level…” – Angie R.
“I think I really enjoyed the aspect of just being able to hear people’s backgrounds. We met a really nice man. I don’t remember his name. I didn’t catch it. But he was at the Soundable booth. He was so inspired by women all his life, and so he was really appreciative that we were here and that we were actually taking charge to network and get out of our comfort zones, and being so young. And he really encouraged me and inspired me to continue.” – Celines H.
Ah-Keisha McCants
Project Director
Sound Thinking NYC
CUNY Creative Arts Team 