Nashville Recording Workshop Makes History

Ricky Skaggs’ keynote address. (Photo by Harry Butler)

Nashville, TN (April 2, 2009)–The AES Nashville Section, in conjunction with the international AES organization, held a two-day conference and gear expo on February 20-21, 2009, at Nashville’s Musician’s Hall of Fame and Museum.

The successful inaugural event focused on recording musicians, songwriters recording demos, and recording engineers working in personal production spaces. The 341 attendees came from 28 states in the U.S., Costa Rica, Canada, the U.K., and Germany.

Thirteen-time Grammy Award winning artist, label and studio owner, Ricky Skaggs gave the keynote address, reminding the audience that “it all comes back to the music.” Skaggs also set the stage for the parade of engineers, producers and other high-profile industry professionals serving as presenters, panelists and moderators for the various workshops. This group included Rich Adler, Tim Akers, Jeff Balding, Ben Blue, David Davidson, Tony Darren, Tommy Dorsey, and Casey Wood. Traveling to contribute to the conference were New York-based mastering engineer Alan Silverman, giving a Mastering 101 workshop, and California-based engineers Tony Shepperd and Jeff Markham, offering a Pro Tools 101 workshop.  A sizeable student contingent (many from local schools as volunteer workers) was also in attendance.

The conference was designed to give the recording and songwriting community access to the experience and knowledge of the AES and its affiliates, and to provide real-world insights into technology and techniques that can help attendees achieve professional results, even on shoestring budgets.

Exhibitors partake in networking opportunities at the first Nashville Recording Workshop + Expo. (Photo by Harry Butler)

Beyond workshops, attendees could also browse the offerings of the sold-out Expo portion of the conference, with gear, products and services demonstrated by ADK, AEA, Prodigy Engineering, Purple Audio, Quest Marketing, Raxxess, RMGI, Robert Wolf, Royer Labs, Rupert Neve Designs, Solid State Logic, Sonicraft A2DX Lab, Sony Pro Audio, Source Elements, Steinberg, Tannoy, TC Electronic, Genelec, The Recording Academy P&E Wing, Sennheiser USA and, the reception sponsor, Sweetwater Sound. AES President Jim Anderson and Executive Director Roger Furness were among the VIP guests.

“Whether a musician recording performances, a songwriter laying down demos or a professional engineer creating in his or her own production space, NRW+E provided insights and essential information geared toward boosting the careers of attendees,” said Nashville Section chair Mike Porter. “In addition to exhibits and product demos from leading manufacturers, workshops, and roundtable discussions, NRW+E provided attendees with an outstanding networking opportunity. Essentially, we introduced a mini-AES Convention targeted to a specific audience. We are looking forward to making this an annual event in Nashville.”

Nashville Recording Workshop + Expo
www.nashvillerecordingworkshop.com

Audio Engineering Society
www.aes.org