Even a cursory reading of the academic literature suggests that all that matters in audio has already been investigated and ranked in importance. But John Atkinson's 40-year career of performing music, engineering and producing recordings, reviewing audio components, and editing audio magazines has led him to believe that some things might be taken too much for granted, while other things have been ignored or misunderstood. The title of Atkinson's lecture, "Where Did the Negative Frequencies Go?", is a metaphor: all real numbers have two roots, yet we routinely discard the negative root on the grounds that it has no significance in reality. Perhaps some of things we discard as audio engineers bear further examination when it comes to the perception of music, says Atkinson, adding that his lecture will offer no real answers but perhaps will allow some interesting questions to develop.
We believe the lecture is being video'd, so for those who can't make it in person, it should be available on-line after the Convention.
JA will also be a panelist in a workshop Saturday October 22 at 11am on "The Loudness Wars," chaired by Thomas Lund of TC Electronic, the Danish company that recently introduced a loudness monitoring meter that conforms to ITU Recommendation 128 (R128) from the European Broadcast Union. Other panelists include legendary mastering engineer Bob Ludwig; Bob Katz, whose book on mastering did so much to bring attention to this seemingly ubiquitous problem; and Dr. Susan Rogers, of Berklee College of Music.
