3rd Annual Members Showcase – 2016

Members’ Showcase 2016 Presentations

Reviews by Karl Machat, Pictures by Karl Machat and Jeff Bamford.

Denis Tremblay, Custom Guitar and Amp Design and Build

One of Denis’ passions is guitars. He showed one he built from various pieces he purchased. The Telecaster type body blank was contoured and given a paint job without a polish simply because he liked the look without it. He demonstrated through a “Bernie” amp which was built around Bell & Howell film projector sound amplifiers. The tone control is a Baxandall bass and treble control on a single shaft making it actually a tilt control. Some of the mods were: removing the pentode input stage; adding a ‘proper’ spring reverb; and adding a tremolo. Everything was genuine 1958 technology. He had an assistant demonstrate the guitar/amp combo while Denis could discuss the various aspects more easily.s.

Buck Moore: “The D-Curve – The Anchor Element and Fishing the Human Voice Out of a Mix”.

This is an EQ preset Mr. Moore developed for voice over the years (and after over 4000 shows) providing AV services for filmmakers and live events. The main aspect involves a 5 dB cut between 320 and 450 Hz with a not-too-wide bandwidth. It assumes the microphone is flat from 100 to 1k Hz. From there Mr. Moore will make adjustments adapting for the mic and venue.

He demonstrated the curve with some playback samples: without the D-Curve, with the D-Curve, D-Curve with compression, and finally D-Curve with compression and make up gain. His goal is to make things cut through a little better by providing vocal clarity

Earl McCluskie and Alan Hardiman: 3D Immersive Live Concert Audio and Video

Earl McCluskie and Alan Hardiman described a multimedia application where source-oriented reinforcement and sound design are combined with video projection mapping and lighting to create a dynamic 3-D immersive live concert experience for the audience.

Artur Ayvazov, R2R Audio

Artur Ayvazov discussed his company R2R Audio. They utilize a “different approach to research, development and design of acoustic systems”. Their two fundamental principles are: musical and vocal signals have nothing in common with a stationary sine wave signal; and impulse signals and a speaker’s acoustic impulse response are the signals that should be used for measurements. One of their main products is a line of single, real, full-range loudspeakers.

Ginn Anazawa

Ginn Anazawa’s presentation was titled “Electrical performance of headsets designed specifically for cellular phones and other portable devices”. He discussed EMI and crosstalk, transducer types, shielding, headset cable arrangement and different design solutions. He also went over measurement procedures and showed typical test results for different designs.

Dave Dusman, recording project

Dave Dusman is a classical recording engineer from Buffalo and his talk was titled “Classical Guitar: A Recording Session in High Resolution”. He played samples allowing us to hear the various mic pairs and make comparisons, and followed that with a simple down-mix version.

When: Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Time: 7:00pm
Where:
Ryerson University, Room RCC361
80 Gould Street, Toronto, ON

Corner of Gould and Church, east of Yonge St (Dundas Subway)

About the Event

On February 23, 2016, the Toronto section of the Audio Engineering Society held its 3rd annual Members Showcase of Gadgets and Projects night. Toronto AES members showcased projects, hardware and work they have developed and created. In the AES spirit of sharing knowledge, we honoured and appreciated some of the work that our fellow engineers do on a daily basis and as hobby projects.

If you have a project or personal work you would like present to the membership, now is your chance. For example, if you have a piece of gear you’ve built, or helped create, or a recording project that you’d like to share insight into, we’d like to see and hear it. All presentations should be limited to 10 minutes and can have an audio/visual component if necessary for the presentation.

This promises to be a great night to find out more about the work your fellow AES brothers and sisters do.

Please submit your proposal to Rob DiVito before February 1, 2016 for consideration.