NEW YORK — The AES Convention (www.aes.org), set to take place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center from October 20-23, will host a historical event program highlighting pro audio milestones and accomplishments of past pro audio masters.
One of these sessions is titled, “Leopold Stokowski and The History of Analog Recording.” Stokowski was prolific recording artist from 1917 until 1977, which spans virtually the entire period of analog music recording. His passion for the art and technology of recording inspired a constant dialogue with engineers and researchers that led to developing new techniques and technology.
The session will be presented by former AES New York section chairman Robert Auld, and will feature rare recordings, still photos and film clips drawn from Stokowski’s archives. Highlights include his pioneering work with multi-channel sound recording; his collaboration with Bell Labs starting in 1932; his work with Walt Disney for the film Fantasia; and his encouragement of quadraphonic sound recording in the 1970s.
The “Classical Recording In America – From One Microphone To 24 Tracks” session will be presented by Thomas Fine and will explore the history of recording techniques and equipment starting from the 1954 heyday of monophonic full-range high fidelity. Fine specializes in transferring magnetic and grooved-disc media to high resolution digital formats and is an avid collector of music recordings.
And the “Audio Archiving and Preservation 101 – Two Important Broadcast Collections” session will be presented by James Sam, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University. The audio preservation program at the Hoover Institution Archives of Stanford University is a real-world implementation of archival best practices. Sam will discuss preservation methods used.