Aug 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By George Petersen

The New York University educator, Grammy-winning engineer/producer and current AES president talks about the changing face of the organization and offers a preview of the fall New York convention.

It seems the AES has changed recently, with a new vitality, a new Website, a new spark.

The AES shield has a vacuum tube on the front, and we've always sought to honor the past while moving toward the future. Part of what myself and recent AES presidents have been hoping to achieve is bringing the AES forward and keeping it vital. Lately, the AES has been very active in social networking — Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — which goes hand in hand with the new AES Website design.

And the demographics have changed to a younger membership.

That's only natural. We've done a terrific job at bringing students up through the universities, but you have to realize that all the members of the society — even the most experienced — at some level are all students, which is why the technical programs in the conventions are so successful.

But besides university students, there's also been an influx of young people who are interested in audio because of low-cost recording gear.

That's certainly happened, particularly over the past 10 years. If people who are entering at that level are shown proper ways and can get good foundations and essentials, we can elevate the level of audio throughout the chain. There is also a fair amount of community and networking in the AES. It's a way for a lot of these young people to connect with their heroes and idols. The whole mentoring and apprenticeship model in the recording industry is not what it was, and I believe the AES serves a lot of that function today.

I sometimes feel like I'm the poster boy for AES networking. A lot of where I've gotten over the past 30 years has been through contacts at the AES. At New York University, a lot of my students graduate and leave for major areas where they don't have contacts. I recommend they get involved with the local AES chapter and attend the monthly meetings where they can meet the people who are involved in the industry.

There's been some criticism about the AES focusing on recording and ignoring other segments of audio, such as live sound.

Four years ago at AES, we started a live sound track to reach out to the live sound community and made a major push into the broadcasting area, even though we had been offering individual sessions on these topics for many years. We're trying to be aware and not ignore the various constituencies within audio, such as game audio.

And game audio has its own tools, language and mindset.

Absolutely! If we're trying to train students to enter the world of audio, we have to look at these areas because this is a big part of audio's future.

What are some new things planned for this year's AES?

We're planning a very specific area of gaming. Another thing we're looking at is IP and how things get into and out of the studio and in broadcasting. Other areas include mobile TV and production for mobile devices, and audio processes in the Internet stream.

Two years ago, in trying to select a keynote speaker, we had a lot of good suggestions, so we decided to have a keynote every day. It's been very successful, a way for people to take just an hour out and listen to some great topics.

Last year, David Giovannoni [of First Sounds] unveiled his findings on deciphering some phonautogram recordings made using a quill and smoke on glass plates in France about 1860 — 17 years before Edison. This year, he'll present these recordings — and perhaps some new ones, as well — for the first time on the East Coast in a lunchtime keynote.

Another event has the fellows who wrote the Recording the Beatles book, talking specifically about the Sgt. Pepper's project. This is also the 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue, and Ashley Kahn, author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, will discuss the album production.

Bob Hodas is doing a master class on room tuning. And several things celebrating 50 years of Motown with historical overviews are planned.

What makes the AES work?

The AES is a volunteer organization. It depends on the efforts and enthusiasm of a lot of people and we really want to support that. We constantly have to work to bring in new blood. About 10 years ago, someone asked me to be on a local section committee and wondered why I'd never done that before. I said, “Because nobody ever asked me.” So over the past 10 years, I've been going out and asking others to be a part of it. Those people have been very successful at giving back to the society, and we've had a good time doing it.