A panel of leading experts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) discuss its impact in audio engineering applications.

The question on almost all audio engineering graduates' minds: how to get a job in the audio industry? The panelists will explain good strategies for getting a start, and tips for how to stand out in the crowd.

The AES Technical Council has identified that the community of audio engineers working with Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is underrepresented in the technical committees. The newly formed AES Technical Committee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (TC-MLAI) intends to answer this need.

The TC-MLAI focuses on applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in audio, with discussions on topics such as: best practices, data, licensing, social and cultural aspects, technical innovations, and ethics. The goal of the committee is to drive discussion and exchange information by organizing workshops, symposia, tutorials, and technical documents. It will also act as a point of contact and a bridge to other AES technical committees, the AES community at large, and other organizations involved in ML and AI for audio.
In this workshop, we will present the committee’s mission, values, agenda, and avenues for membership and participation. We will highlight exciting developments and trends as they relate to audio, while at the same time acknowledging topics of controversy, such as data bias, privacy concerns, and when it is appropriate to call an audio technology “artificially intelligent.”

The workshop will be composed of four parts: introducing the technical committee, including its mission, values, and membership; providing a brief overview of the state of ML and AI in audio; facilitating a panel discussion about what ML and AI mean in the context of audio engineering; and hosting an open Q&A session with workshop attendees.

Willem Twee studios is a public studio focusing on electronic and electro-acoustic music. With a unique collection of electronic instruments from the early ’50’s till the ’80’s in three studio spaces and an concert hall in a former synagogue Willem Twee studios has grown into an internationally respected and leading institute for education, production and presentation of electronic music.

The Concertgebouw is one of the famous big concert halls of Europe. It was constructed in the late 19th century and houses the renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra. The hall is praised for its beautiful acoustics and many famous albums have been recorded here since the early days of music recording. Nowadays, the company Polyhymnia manages the recording facilities. They built a complex but flexible infrastructure to carry out all the productions that take place in the building. Boy Griffioen, engineer at Polyhymnia will give you a behind the scene look during a live broadcast.

What is the 360 Ecosystem: Producers, beat makers, programmers can now begin to imagine the delivery/distribution/presentation of their works at even earlier stages of creation. We’ll discuss how artists, arrangers, composers & songwriters fit into this Ecosystem so they might present their music in a new way to their fans (consumers). Ecosystem Idea: Artist; Producer; Mixing Engineer & Immersive Engineer -then- Producer; Artist; Fans (Consumers through Immersive Playback). How: Taking close microphone/console audio of a stereo 2-mix and reimagining into Dolby Atmos (Avid Play for Distribution) or Sony RA360 (Orchard for Distribution). Potential future state: using spatial microphones early in the production/writing process to capture the true sonics of what an artist, arranger, composer or songwriter hears in their mind as the musical work develops. Why: Consumers probably already have the technology in their pocket without knowing it’s even available to them. Fans can access playback options through streaming services, using speakers/sound bars/headphones (i.e., AirPod Pro2 & AirPod MAX which are now Atmos enabled). Will artists, arrangers, composers & songwriters start to change their thought processes/workflow in the earliest writing stages with the idea of immersing their listeners at inception. What consumers choose for playback (e.g., speaker(s) vs headphones/binaural) can have impact genre to genre. Every musical style should have access to present their music in these cutting edge formats. Presentation of the 360 Ecosystem will use a musical work from legendary artist & producer Hank Shocklee to reimagine an original stereo 2-mix into both the Dolby Atmos and Sony RA360 formats.

Over the last year we’ve seen a huge paradigm shift in how listeners consume content. While many media channels have taken a hit during COVID and will have to continue refocusing their digital efforts, the future of the Podcast looks bright. Creators are adapting to new and updated tools, and listeners are hungrier than ever for fresh content.

In this tutorial, we’ll uncover how daily and weekly podcasts, reaching millions of listeners, are being created at some of the top media outlets. Guests will include producers and editors from shows at NPR, Campside Media and VICE.

We’ll also break down the gear being used including remote recording solutions, editing tools, publishing and collaboration platforms.*

The first Tonmeister program was founded in 1949 at the Detmold Hochschule für Muisik. The unique concept of education in music combined with audio recording continues to this day, in Detmold and at schools and universities around the world. How has the tonmeister maintained its tradition and how has the concept changed with continuing evolutions in technology and music itself? In “From Tonmeister to Today,” eight prominent international audio educators speak with Tonmeister Ulrike Schwarz and discuss their individual programs. A brief Q and A will follow the video.

Ideally an orchestral score should be performed/recorded by an orchestra of musicians playing together. However, due to limitations on budget, time and perhaps global pandemic conditions, this is sometimes not possible.

The author has worked since the 90s with orchestras of sampled instruments, and has followed and lived through all of the technological changes affecting sampling, sample playback and advances in computer and musical instrument technology. Where the ultimate deliverable is a sampled orchestra performance, he has always prioritised realism in the performance.

This tutorial will showcase his work through the years, with audio examples to explain how advances in technology have translated into improvements in realism.

Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) is a spatial audio rendering technique that places virtual sound sources in real space. Using high density arrays consisting of approximately 200-600 discrete loudspeakers, it is possible to place sound sources accurately in physical space in front of the speakers -- in short, create sound holograms or "holophones." While this technology has long been thought of as logistically impossible, there have been a number of systems created in the last few years with the rise of audio-over-IP. This panel discussion focuses on composers and other creators in the performing arts who have been leading the way in how to use this new spatial audio technology for artistic expression. The conversation will begin with a brief introduction about the technology, but focus mainly on how artists are using it and why “sound holograms” have caused a fundamental shift in how they think about making artistic work with spatial audio. In the past, everyone in a listening experience hears everything at the same time. Now there can be individual sonic experiences in a live event without headphones. The technology is incredibly flexible and there is enormous room for creativity. The panelists include composers, sound designers, and a choreographer who have worked closely with WFS. The three projects discussed focus on how the artists are using the technology differently. One is a concert with a roaming audience who walk inside of the sound sources (accompanied by beams of light). One is a seated audience hearing sounds whisper in their ears and moving through them. And the other is a dance in which the sound of the dancer’s movement is separated from his body like a ghost, in a conceptual piece about gravity.