NEW YORK CITY — The Audio Engineering Society (AES.org) has announced that Susan Rogers will deliver the keynote at its upcoming convention. Rogers, who is a multi-talented producer, engineer and researcher, will share insights on her latest explorations into audio cognition and perception. The keynote will be delivered Thursday, October 20th, at AES New York 2022, taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan.
Rogers’ presentation is titled “This Is What It Sounds Like: A New Model of Music Cognition,” and will give insight into a new model of music cognition that focusses on the “listener profile” – the constellation of individualized preferences mapped to an array of musical and aesthetic dimensions to create a better understanding of our own unique auditory experience.
“Before we become expert music makers, we must become expert listeners,” says Rogers. “Learning where the sweet spots reside on your unique ‘listener profile’ will deepen your relationship with the music you love.”
Rogers is a professor of cognitive neuroscience, with a doctoral degree in experimental psychology from McGill University. She is widely known for her work with Prince during the height of his career in the mid-1980s, along with a roster of artists, including David Byrne, Barenaked Ladies, Geggy Tah, Nil Lara, Robben Ford, Tricky, Michael Penn and Jeff Black. Her Keynote address will explore the ties between musical and aesthetic dimensions of our listening, as well as the science behind our musical preferences, and what that may be inferred about us as creators and consumers of audio.
Rogers’ impact on the industry continued through her professorship at Berklee College of Music, where she taught psychoacoustics and record production in the department of Music Production & Engineering. She became the first female recipient of the Music Producers Guild Award for Outstanding Contributions to U.K. Music in 2021. Most recently Rogers has coauthored a book with neuroscientist Ogi Ogas on her keynote topic: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You, slated for release in September 2022.