The Audio Engineering Society has announced the schedule of Technical Tours for the upcoming 142nd AES Berlin International Convention, taking place May 20 – 23, 2017 at the Hotel Maritim Berlin, Stauffenbergstrasse. Offering the chance for AES All Access attendees to take exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of some of the most advanced and prestigious audio production and product development facilities that Berlin has to offer, the expansive technical tour program for Berlin was organized by Technical Tours co-chairs André Maletz and Dominik Trampf. AES Convention Technical Tours typically sell out fast; onsite ticket sales at the Convention will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning on Friday, May 19.
“Berlin has a rich heritage and culture,” says Maletz. “Its contributions to the advancement of artist expression and audio technologies and practices are visible in the vivid cultural scene and the relevance of its TV and Music studios, the renowned audio industry and a big variety of educational and professional organizations. Our tour program during AES Berlin will give our participants the opportunity to meet some of Berlins’ leading and inspiring audio professionals.”
On Saturday, May 20, two tours will kick off the AES Convention. The first to the Museum of Communications, Berlin, which houses a permanent exhibition offering vivid insight into the origins, development and future of the information age, while a revolving series of temporary exhibitions showcases the many different aspects of communication. The second tour offers the option of visiting Emil Berliner Studios, named after the German-born inventor of the gramophone and the gramophone record. This highly-renowned studio boasts one of the rare few facilities in the world that offer direct to disc recordings, where the entire signal path from microphone to the cutting needle is completely analog for a purely vinyl production, or for a pristine analog path for digital capture and distribution.
Sunday of the Convention offers three tours, beginning with Meistersaal/Hansastudio, where David Bowie, Depeche Mode, and others recorded and mixed some of their biggest records, located in the world famous Köthener Straße in Kreuzberg district, which still thrives as a bustling creative center for production. Next is a tour to HEDD Audio (Heinz Electrodynamic Designs), which manufactures state-of-the-art analog studio monitors for music production, broadcast and installation. Klaus Heinz, founder, managing director and longtime developer will explain his technical design philosophies. The final Sunday tour will visit Berlin’s nHow Studio, which houses two control rooms, a recording booth, and a large lounge with a view out over the Spree River to end the day.
Day Three of the Convention begins with a tour of Tegeler Audio Manufaktur, where longtime developer Michael Krusch designs, produces, and tests high-end recording studio equipment. The second tour of the day will take attendees to StageTec (Stage Tec Entwicklungsgesellschaft für professionelle Audiotechnik GmbH) of Berlin, which has specialized in the design and manufacture of digital audio technology for over 20 years. The final tour of the day will visit Riverside Studios, a unique collective of renowned artists and professionals located in Berlin’s Media Spree, which spans over 1200 square-meters with 20 state-of-the-art studios and offers services including recording, mixing, mastering, advertising and game scores, songwriting camps, seminars, master classes, and artist consultancy.
The final day of the AES Berlin Convention will include four tours to several unique Berlin locations. First tour will be to U-He, where Urs Heckmann and his small team develop globally known and adopted synthesizer and effect plugins, including, notably, a joint project with Hans Zimmer used for the The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises Batman film scores. Attendees will also have a chance to tour the SAE Institute Berlin educational facility, featuring recording/mixing studios, movie suites, workstations, and more, with all courses offered in both German and English. Another tour will lead to Technische Universität Berlin, Electronic Studio, which focuses on production and presentation of electroacoustic music, and houses a rare 12-channel playback-system, as well as another room with eight-channel systems and wave-field synthesis. The final tour of the convention will take a trip to Funkhaus Studios, which was originally conceived as a recording space for live radio productions, offering a set of rooms with completely different acoustic properties, fanning around the control room, including a large hall with an imposing flight of stairs, a wooden room with seven-meter ceilings conceived for voice recording, the anechoic room, two rooms with variable acoustics, a natural echo chamber, corridors and a phone booth with specific acoustics, and many Foley production tools and accessories – another truly unique Technical Tour experience.
Complete AES Berlin Convention Technical Tour information and schedules are available here .
