AES 2010

Bjorgvin, Chase and I stormed San Fran for the AES 2010 convention. Our first stop was the Focal unveiling of the SM9 studio monitor at Broken Radio studios. Two Speakers in one; a 2-way band limited speaker inside of a 3-way full 40kHz bandwidth studio monitor, including a sub. When you flip the switch, the same tweeter and midrange are used so your imaging does not change. Once the unveiling was over, we moved down the hall to Romanowski’s mastering room for a listen with Fab Dupont. We not only heard the new SM9’s but got a glimpse of PT 9 a few days before it was released. In the background was a pair of Focal Grand Utopia’s, a $190K pair of speakers. Next up was a day at the trade show checking out the shocking difference in an A/B comparison with Vovox cables and a full dissertation by Jerg, the owner of Vovox. Then we took a tour of Studio Trilogy, a newly made public studio that was designed by John Stork. Later that night we hit a party there with Chris Lord Alge. We then took a stroll down to “the tenderloin” for a party at Hyde Street Studios. I watched a clinic being put on by Joe Chiccarelli mixing a song on an old Neve while using Mercury outboard gear to sweeten. Sure, we even did the trolley down to Bistro Boudin for their famous bread and meals. Very good. We also attended a two-day panel with Bobby Owsinski about the music industry, and a mastering panel with Doug Sax doing A/B comparisons of real mixes showing how compression destroys mixes. (We keep telling you, but no one listens! Pun intended.) And then the final show-stopper: the SSL Nucleus controller, mic pre, interface and monitor controller all-in-one. Sweet!

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