NIGHTLIGHT: THE RECORDING ACADEMY® PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING® IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DEG AND CEA PRESENT A HIGH-RESOLUTION AUDIO EXPERIENCE EVENT IN NEW YORK THAT WAS EXCELLENCE TO OUR EARS Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Participated in the Inaugural Listening Event Held at Jungle City Studios on June 24, 2014 Whom You Know is Thrilled to Kick Off Coverage of THE RECORDING ACADEMY®
Welcome to the sound of excellence! Sound is a topic that is best left to the experts, and by experts we mean GRAMMY winners- and we could not be more thrilled to inaugurate coverage of The Recording Academy® with their P&E Wing. Their illustrious work was literally music to our ears. Though you know the artists responsible for winning GRAMMY after GRAMMY, you may not know the unsung heroes behind the music, and you need to know them because what you listen to would not be possible without their dedicated, imaginative, knowledgeable and successful expertise. We are pleased to now know them! Three-time GRAMMY winner Chuck Ainlay; six-time GRAMMY winner Frank Filipetti; seven-time GRAMMY winner Bob Ludwig; GRAMMY-nominated composer, engineer and producer David Chesky; Producers & Engineers Wing Senior Executive Director Maureen Droney and members of The Recording Academy® P&E Wing, along with producers and other prominent music industry figures were among the talented and accomplished personalities Whom You Know was delighted to meet on June 24, 2014 in the state-of-the art Jungle City Studios control room of Manhattan. Consumers everywhere, note that now is the most exciting time in history to listen to top quality music, as the distinction between the technology that professionals have access to and the technology that consumers have access to is now becoming one and the same. Whom You Know looks forward to reviewing products to keep you apprised of this groundbreaking progress, and though we've had great listening experiences before in life, nothing tops this one.
The Producers & Engineers Wing in conjunction with The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) presented a high-resolution listening event to celebrate the recent industry agreement for a formal definition for high-resolution audio. The audio masters shared their work experience and played audio master selections from artists Miranda Lambert, Mark Knopfler, Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder, among others.
Maureen Droney of The Recording Academy
The superlative six speakers included:
The superlative six speakers included:
Kevin Reeves and Chuck Ainlay
Kevin Reeves is a GRAMMY-nominated audio engineer who began his career at Hollywood’s world renowned Capitol Records Studios. In 1997, Kevin joined the Universal Music Group, and in 2011 he was added to the mastering staff at Sterling Sound in New York. Currently the senior director of studio operations at UMG's Republic Studios in Manhattan, Kevin has more than 1,000 album mixing and mastering credits, and specializes in analog tape transfers, archiving and preservation.
Chuck Ainlay
is a multiple GRAMMY and Academy of Country Music award-winning producer/engineer who’s recorded and mixed more than 300 albums, including with country music artists such as George Strait, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris and the Dixie Chicks. Chuck has also worked with such mainstream pop artists as Dire Straits, (including the entire solo career of Mark Knopfler) Peter Frampton, Lionel Richie and Sheryl Crow. One of Nashville’s digital pioneers, Chuck has recorded and mixed in Hi Resolution audio for many years,
Bob Ludwig
Bob Ludwig is president of Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. He is a seven-time GRAMMY- and two-time Latin GRAMMY-winning mastering engineer with degrees in music education, trumpet and music literature from the Eastman School of Music. A Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, he was the first person to be honored with the Les Paul Award for "consistently outstanding achievements in the professional audio industry." He has an unprecedented 15 TEC Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement, Mastering Engineer. His recent mastering projects include the number one Jack White album Lazaretto and this year's biggest album, Frozen.
Frank Filipetti
Six-time GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer/mixer Frank Filipetti has produced, recorded or mixed albums for Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, George Michael, Foreigner, Kiss, 10,000 Maniacs, Korn, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Frank Zappa, Ray Charles, and James Taylor—whose elegant Hourglass album earned him two GRAMMY Awards for Best Engineered Album and Best Pop Album. Frank has also recorded and/or mixed GRAMMY-winning Broadway musicals Passion, Annie Get Your Gun, Spamalot, Wicked, and The Book of Mormon, as well as Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida and “Andrea Bocelli One Night in Central Park.” He is currently working on Frank Zappa’s composition 200 Motels which was recently recorded at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. Now that we've done our research we see he is from Bristol, Connecticut which is where the Deegans settled when they came to the USA from Ireland...
David Chesky
Composer, pianist, and producer David Chesky is recognized as the first person to create 128x oversampled CDs and 96/24 DVD audio recordings. More generally, the recordings on Chesky Records are widely acclaimed for extreme attention to detail, with simple recording techniques and relatively few microphones. His recording process focuses on pairing those simple techniques with the most sophisticated recording equipment available, like microphones that use binaural heads. He is also a pioneer in the field of Hi Resolution downloads, and, with his brother Norman, is the creator of HDtracks.
Mark Waldrep
Mark Waldrep is an engineer, producer, studio and record label owner, and a professor at California State University. In 2000, he launched AIX Records, one of the first Hi Res labels, which now boasts one of the largest native HD audio collections in the world. AIX has won prestigious awards for audio quality including the Demmy award from the CEA for Best Hi-Res Track. Mark's recent efforts include iTrax.com, one of the first Hi Res download sites, and RealHD-Audio.com, a daily blog about the world of Hi-Res audio. Production clients range from well-known orchestras, to the Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Tool and 311.
The event also featured high-resolution audio player demonstrations from manufacturers Astell & Kern, dCS Ltd., Onkyo USA, and Sony Electronics. Hi-res digital music retailers Acoustic Sounds and HD Tracks presented the latest in master-quality recordings available to the public.
Peter Chaikin, Sr. Manager of Recording and Broadcast, JBL Professional
He's responsible for the speakers! He's standing next to one...
He's responsible for the speakers! He's standing next to one...
We were delighted to meet Motoyuki "Yuki" Sugiura, Senior Acoustic Evangelist Home Audio and Video of Sony.
David J. M. Stven and John Quick of dCS - Data Conversion Systems Limited showed us their amazing sound!
Thank you Louis! Up with Annie Lennox.
These hip Grammy-winning speakers shared their most educated opinions, and they elucidated and educated the guests on today's technology and high resolution's ultimate progress, as evidenced by the music mentioned above that graced our ears. The music was so superior, it was difficult not to sing or dance during the presentations!
This conference of high profile sound engineers and mixers quite literally rocked our world. Louis Vuitton wallpaper on the walls mirrored the quality of the sound presented to our ears at Jungle City Studios by these masters of the audio universe.
Topics covered included the benefits of high-resolution audio, the need to demonstrate hi-res audio in the retail market, the various options for delivering hi-res files to consumers, and the best ways to reach all music enthusiasts.
Decades of experience in the industry gave way to interesting commentary of “I hate analog”, “Individual personalized filters” and personal preferences for mike-ing, mastering, and delivering sound to the consumer. In the end, it’s all about letting us, the music-starved public, hear what THEY hear in the studios which is like caviar to the common person's tuna in a can. Pass the caviar please! The musicians that you may consider to be the masters of music are truly enhanced by these highly accomplished sound makers, the real masters of music. Technologically speaking, the time is now in the world of sound/music/performance where the consumer can ask, and it shall be delivered. Hi-res gives you that intimacy and that backstage feeling of actually being there even when you're not.
Walk into one room at Jungle City, and hear Elvis in rehearsal, as he slaps his guitar to keep pace. While in the Penthouse overlooking glorious vistas of NYC, you are steeped in tales brought forth by masters of the industry. Mark Waldrep, with a slice of his life, and his world of AIX records, treating us to a medley that included tracks by Mel Torme’s son and Willie Nelson's Rainbow Connection. When listening to this magic, it’s as if you are standing next to, behind, in front of, but better, because that emotion that music brings is sweeping you away every second. Bob Ludwig, explaining why CDs are so much better now because they don’t work in the old 16 BT mode, but in hi-res. Frank Filipetti, who worked with Streisand, James Taylor, Billy Joel filling the air with strains from his recording of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels. This is a world where the backstage groupie is tech savvy, and the rockstars are the engineers, the mixers, the crew. Although putting these guys into a room together might produce some serious duking out, they all concur on one vital fact: there has never been a time when the consumer had the ability to hear music like this. Like they do. It’s never happened before, and now we have the technology.
And it might be just a phone away. David Chesky says it is so. No more inferiority in listening for the consumer. Whether you are the one with the big woofer and speaker system in your music room at home, or your android in the hammock on the beach, technology has reached the apex of perfection when it comes to sound delivery systems. The next sound you hear will be….magnificent. Get ready. Hi-res will blow you away.
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @TheGRAMMYs on Twitter, like "The GRAMMYs" on Facebook, and join The GRAMMYs' social communities onFoursquare, GetGlue, Google +, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and YouTube.
