I spent four days (5 Oct - 8 Oct) manning the Lundahl booth with Mirza Zametica, who is an engineering technician at the factory. You can see a picture of the booth with Mirza in charge.
Due to brisk attendance, I didn't get away much. But I did meet and talk to a few notables and saw some interesting things. The first to stop by was the famous guitarist Les Paul. He's a well-known gear guy, known to have contributed significantly to the invention of the electric guitar and multitrack recording. He was looking for a 1:32 low impedance step-up for a special guitar pick-up, so we talked about that. I also complimented him on the documentary I recently saw on PBS of his and his wife's (Mary Ford) long careers. It was a very positive picture of the music business and Les Paul's role therein. It was fun to meet and chat with a music business legend who is very much involved in the business at 80+.
The next day, Keith Johnson of Reference Recordings stopped by to inquire about a transformer for a project. I immediately complimented him on his status as the greatest living classical music recording engineer (my opinion; no joke) and we continued to talk for about 30 minutes about RR recordings and how they are made. It was a fascinating recapitulation of a talk he had given earlier in the day in the technical sessions. If you don't have any of the Minnesota Orchestra recordings he made when Eiji Oue was conducting, you are missing great music brilliantly recorded.
I also met and had a lively, enjoyable conversation with a well-known pro audio journalist who is also an ardent DIYer and recording engineer, Paul Stamler. He has published articles in AudioXpress and Audio Amateur magazines documenting some of his projects.
There was lots of cool equipment to ogle, but what caught my eye was the amazing variety of microphones that have invaded the AES show since I began attending. With inexpensive manufacturing in China finally reaching quality standards that are acceptable here, the market supply has exploded. Condensor mics, ribbon mics, and even new dynamic mics were all over the place. The best of them have really nice fit and finish and sound very nice. There is the whole spectrum of combinations of looks and sounds, though, not unlike the audiophile stuff coming from China. It's a tough time to be a mic seller.
It was still heartening to see high quality completely analog gear on display. ATR Magnetics had a big display booth showing their new analog tape. Mike Spitz and his crew have spent a ton of money and time becoming an analog tape manufacturer to fill a market void that resulted from the collapse of the three manufacturers who had sustained demand through the 90s and into the new century. He also had some great looking modified/restored professional analog tape machines and was playing a Tape Project (http://www.tapeproject.com/) tape on one of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't around when it was playing so I could hear it. There was also a solid state all discrete compressor/limiter piece that was built as well and looked as good as the best high end audio gear I've ever seen by a German company called Alysia (I think).
All-in-all it was a great meeting. It's fun seeing the "other side" of the gear business.
Kevin Carter
K&K Audio
www.kandkaudio.com
