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REPORT on the 2001
PARSONS Expo
summary
The invitation to the 2001 Parsons Expo (see below) outlines the occasion: the equipment exhibits and listening/learning sessions. This year's, on November 14, was an extraordinary success. In recent years, attendance has been high. This year's was almost twice that norm -- about 400 people, we figure. The presentations each drew 75-100 people, and the exhibits were busy from the first minute to the last.
Describing the event, a word often used by attendees was "community". Customers, exhibitors, and presenters have become familiar each other over the years. A real sense of community has arisen. The manufacturers' specialists and representatives, for instance, have become increasingly familiar with customers' realities. That helps them to be valuable consultants to the many facilities that trek each year to the Expo. Attendees also enjoy advancing their friendships with each other—swapping tales, experience, and insights.
As our pre-Expo hype says, the event truly is enjoyable and valuable to those who come. It has become a primary annual gathering of the New England professional audio community. If you missed this year's, we hope that you will attend the next. It will be held Wednesday, November 13, 2002, from noon until 9pm. Is it too early to mark your calendar?
presentations
As usual, unfortunately, we couldn't transcribe the listening/learning sessions. We lack the manpower and time; the Expo is one of those "You had to be there" events. BUT, we do have David Moulton's PowerPoint slide show for the day's principal presentation, his vibrant talk on The Loudspeaker As Musical Instrument. We have rendered it as text elsewhere on this site. CLICK HERE. David is the noted author, Grammy-nominated engineer, composer, and loudspeaker designer. Also, stand by for more on the topic later from David :
- his sound sculpture installation in Newton (MA) at the end of January 2002. If you are on our e-mailing list, we will notify you well ahead of time. (Like to subscribe to that list?)
- loudspeakers for which he is a principal designer: museum-grade speakers from Sausalito Audio Works, and studio monitor speakers. As they become available, we will advise you via e-mail.
We also have a link to Micheal Bierylo's excellent presentation on Better Living Through Software Synthesis: CLICK HERE. Michael is on the Berklee faculty, the owner of Virtual Planet studio, and a recording artist with the band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
record trek to Expo
The journey that Tom Bates (engineer, producer, and frequent Expo presenter) made in order to get to this year's Expo is worth describing.
Tom takes pride in not having missed any of the eleven Expos. To get to this year's, he had to hurry back from a recording project in Kathmandu, Nepal. En route, he encountered some interesting difficulties.
First was a suicide hijacker scare that originated in Pakistan. He found out about it when he arrived at the Kathmandu airport the morning of his flight to Singapore. The hijacking was supposed to occur on one of the three international flights leaving the airport that day, to end with a fiery crash into some unknown target in India. While going through long security delays that morning, Tom figured his odds of surviving his flight at one-in-three. Maybe, for instance, the flight would end in an unscheduled, high-speed stop in the Taj Mahal, whose famously long reverb time would finally meet its end.
Finally, the plane took off. The flight transpired without event, aside from unusual alertness on the part of everyone aboard. It's hard to doze off when you know you might sleep through a hijacking that is sure to end in your crunchy demise.
Arriving in Singapore, the passengers found intense security applied to everyone. In the confusion, Tom lost all of his remaining air tickets. He dropped them on the floor somewhere the other side of the security fence, he figured. The security guards refused to let him back to look. After much desperate effort, he prevailed upon one of the guards to go look for him. Miraculously, the tickets were there, still on the floor -- quite a relief for Tom.
He took off for New York. Many hours later, mid-morning our time (jet lag, anyone?), his plane arrived over New York. There, passengers and crew discovered that the recent plane crash in Queens had occurred just minutes before. All the NY airports were closed indefinitely. His flight had to detour. The detour was to Boston, it turned out, which was his final destination, but the officials wouldn't let anyone debark. There they sat in the plane for 4-1/2 hours. Then the NY airports re-opened, and the plane flew to NY, connecting Tom with a domestic flight to Boston. When he finally arrived home in Boston, wrung out by all of the above, it was the day before the Expo. The journey had taken 36 hours. At the Expo, he looked a bit weary, but reportedly had a fine time.
INVITATION to the 2001
PARSONS Expo
- 11th annual conference/exposition
- Wednesday, November 14, noon - 9pm
- at the Wellesley Community Center, 219 Washington St., Wellesley Hills, Rte. 16 at Rte. 9 (first building to the north)
- The Expo is free of charge, courtesy of the exhibitors and Parsons Audio.
- No reservations or RSVP's are needed, but some presentations are likely to fill up.
- directions. The Community Ctr. driveway is across from where the Route 9 West exit ramp meets Route 16. From most directions, easiest access to Route 9 West is via Rte. 128/95. Take 128/95's Exit 20B, Rte. 9 West. It's a few miles south of the Mass Pike. The Community Center's phone # is (781)235-4172. The PDF version of this invitation includes this map. We'll be glad to send you one -- click here. Or print this page.
- parking. There's plenty of parking around the building and the church next door.
- mass transit. The Wellesley Hills rail stop is a ten minute walk up Route 16.
- food & drink. The Community Center is located a block away from the heart of Wellesley Hills, where you can find food, snacks, and drinks at a variety of restaurants, cafes, takeouts, and stores. Attendees of the Expo's evening session will find free pizza and soft drinks available from 6pm, courtesy of AES/Boston and Parsons Audio.
- Need lodging? Lodging is available nearby, everything from country inns to generic hotels: The Wellesley Inn in Wellesley (colonial style, reasonably priced), a few miles up route 16; Newton Holiday Inn; Newton-Wellesley Marriott; Sheraton Needham; Sheraton Newton, etc. Ask us for recommendations.
You're invited!
As usual there will be much at the Expo for you to enjoy, and much that will help your work. As one regular attendee has written, "The Expo's atmosphere is welcoming, the people friendly, the hype minimal, the exhibits comprehensive, and the presentations excellent." We hope that you will clear your schedule and mark your calendar!
At the Expo
- exhibits by leading manufacturers, with their product specialists, from noon until 6pm. Great opportunities to:
- see equipment, including the latest and greatest, in a friendly and unhurried atmosphere
- learn from manufacturers' product specialists
- listening/learning sessions, through the afternoon, until 6pm
- learn from skilled users, who will make presentations based on their work
- evening presentation: David Moulton on The Loudspeaker As Musical Instrument.
- The Expo is also a fine place, and rare opportunity, to meet and schmooze with your peers. Network with new acquaintances and old. The fun factor is high!
exhibits by leading manufacturers, with their product specialists, from noon until 6pm
Product specialists from more than forty manufacturers (see partial list below) will show their products and technologies, and will be available to discuss your needs with you. As usual, the Expo will give you the year's best opportunity to see the equipment, to gather information, and to seek the recommendations and guidance of experts, in a friendly and unhurried atmosphere. This year, you'll be able to learn about consoles, recorders, workstations, misc. software, signal processors, drives, fiber networks for DAWs, converters, mics, speakers, wiring, etc. All of the exhibitors have significant product news.
All exhibits will be downstairs in Babson Hall, except for Digidesign (upstairs in the Hoffman Room) and Lexicon (upstairs in the Garden Room). For a number of reasons, several of the manufacturers will not have exhibits at the AES Convention in New York a few weeks later. They include Digidesign, EAW, Lexicon, Mackie, Tascam, and Yamaha.
Expo exhibitors will include:
- Digidesign *
- http://www.digidesign.com
Glyph Technologies
- http://www.glyphtechnologies.com
- Kurzweil
- http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com
- Lexicon *
- http://www.Lexicon.com
Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU)
- http://www.motu.com
- Neumann
- http://www.neumannusa.com
Redco Audio
- http://www.redco.com
SADiE
- http://www.SADiE.com
Schoeps
- http://www.schoeps.de
- Sony
- http://www.sony.com/proaudio/
Tascam*
- http://www.tascam.com/
Yamaha*
- http://www.yamaha.com
Audio Pros
- representing Event, KRK, Metric Halo, Rode, Emagic
- Bay Roads Marketing
- representing Sony, t.c. electronics, HHB, Hafler, Genex, Philips, Dynaudio.
Chris Ross Associates
- representing Audix, Studiomaster, Stewart, Blue Sky, Hosa, etc.
The Henderson Company
- representing Genelec, Lexicon*, Denon, Drawmer, Soundfield, Brauner, Furman
- New England Technical Associates
- representing EAW*, Sennheiser, Crest, Aphex, Joe meek, Studio Projects
On the Road Marketing
- representing Mackie*, Tannoy, DPA, PreSonus, Symetrix, Raxxess, Auralex
- Soul Tech Marketing
- representing Waves, BIAS, Serato
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- or, in alphabetical order:
- ART
Ashly
Audio-technica
Auralex
- BIAS
Brauner
- Denon
Digidesign*
- DPA
Dynaudio
Drawmer
Emagic
- Event
- EAW*
Furman
Genex
Glyph Technologies
- Hafler
HHB
- Joe meek
- Kurzweil
- Lexicon*
- Mackie*
Metric Halo
Neumann
- Presonus
QSC
Raxxess
Redco Audio
- Rode
Sabine
SADiE
- Sennheiser
Serato
- Sony
- Soundfield
- Studio Projects
- Symetrix
Tannoy
Tascam*
- t.c. electronics
Yamaha*
- Waves
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- *These manufacturers will not have exhibits at the AES Convention in NYC.
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- For links to manufacturers' web sites, go to links at the Parsons site — http://www.paudio.co.
listening/learning sessions
These sessions are always a highlight of the Expos. There's nothing like learning in person from accomplished professionals. Sound systems (in surround) courtesy of Genelec. All sessions take place upstairs, in Henderson Hall.
1pm — SADiE
2pm — Surround Recording Technique, with David Griesinger
3pm — Music Production for Picture & CD, with Michael Whalen
4pm — Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU)
5pm — Better Living Through Software Synthesis, with Michael Bierylo
- 7pm — The Loudspeaker As Musical Instrument, with David Moulton.
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session details
- • 1pm — SADiE. The renowned manufacturer discusses PC-based workstations for CD pre-mastering, multimedia and radio production, TV and film post, etc. New: a DSD Mastering Editor, and DVD-A authoring system.
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- • 2pm — Surround Recording Technique, with David Griesinger (Chief Scientist, Lexicon). In addition to his presentation about surround recording technique, David will discuss latest developments in surround decoding.
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- • 3pm — Music Production for Picture & CD, with Michael Whalen (Assoc. Prof. of Film Scoring at Berklee; Emmy-award winning composer for CBS, Disney, Natl. Geographic, etc.; recording artist). A thorough look at scoring music for TV & film: collaboration, music spotting, creative choices, technology, live players, mixing, etc. And at music production for CD’s: developing material, markets, mixing, MP3s, your own label, outside labels, etc.
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- • 4pm — Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU). Presentation by MOTU, with an open discussion of MIDI hardware and software. Topics may include MIDI sequencers w/digital audio, audio interfaces, synchronizers, notation, editor/librarians, etc. With a special focus on working in Surround.
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- • 5pm — Better Living Through Software Synthesis, with Michael Bierylo (Berklee faculty, Virtual Planet studio, recording artist w/Birdsongs of the Mesozoic). Thanks to dramatic advances in desktop processing, musicians, producers and engineers are making increasing use of a new crop of plug-ins and softsynths. Michael is an expert user. He will discuss what’s out there, and show how to use it.
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- • 6pm — food & social hour for evening attendees. Free pizza, soft drinks, and cookies, courtesy of Parsons Audio, AES/Boston, and the Expo exhibitors.
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- • 7pm — The Loudspeaker As Musical Instrument, with David Moulton. The evening presentation. See immediately below.
evening presentation
David Moulton on The Loudspeaker As Musical Instrument
7-9:00pm in Henderson Hall (food from 6pm)
David Moulton is a noted author, Grammy-nominated engineer, composer, and loudspeaker designer. He has long been a generous participant in the Expo. Tonight's topic lies near the heart of his work. We know that loudspeakers are used to reproduce music, but what about producing it? Is a loudspeaker a musical instrument? Dave will make the case that “the loudspeaker is the most important musical instrument of the 20th Century, maybe ever.” He will briefly discuss the history of loudspeakers and musical instruments. He will consider loudspeakers vis-à-vis other musical instruments, and discuss how our recording practices have led us to a specialized “audio style.” Finally, Dave will share some of his adventures in speaker development, including his current work for Sausalito Audio Works and others, as well as illustrate the potential for a “true” loudspeaker music style.
As usual, our evening event also serves as the November meeting of the Boston Chapter of AES.
If you are new to the Expo...
Several hundred people attend the Expo each year. Some of their remarks about it: "The Expo's atmosphere is welcoming, the people friendly, the hype minimal, the exhibits comprehensive, and the presentations excellent. ...Parsons Audio really gives back to the audio community. ...Parsons Audio's commitment to imparting knowledge in a field of increasing complexity is a Godsend to us. They are more than a dealer of high end professional audio equipment; they are an integral part of the Pro Audio community. ......The Expo is stunningly superb, celebrated in our community, allowing for professional growth and rewarding interaction with our colleagues.”
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Copyright 2001, Parsons Audio. We welcome your questions, comments, and contributions >>> Webmeister@paudio.com.
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