By ALLISON JONES
Conributing Writer
This past Friday, MISA took a trip to New York City for the Audio Engineering Society’s 147th Pro Audio Convention. We woke up early to meet outside of the Hearst building promptly at 6:45 a.m. to wait for the bus to arrive. We all got on the bus and left a little after 7:00 a.m. It was around a three hour trip involving “Pirates of the Carribean,” laughing, and a lot of sleeping. We arrived at the Javits Convention Center a little after 10:30 a.m. and the exploration began.
We entered a line to pick up our passes and got to enter the convention. It was a massive room filled with people, microphones, and other amazing equipment used in audio engineering. There was a station that had an Emmy award displayed and another that had a Grammy and a guitar signed by phenomenal musicians including B.B. King. There were some stations that had the technology behind how microphones worked and had equipment broken down to see how it all really works.
Students were able to walk around and meet people from all over and talk about the new technology and maybe network and get connections for some of our music industry internships. There were talks from people who have worked on albums from artists of all different genres, and showed their techniques and gave the audience tips on music production. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus was there and the public could go in and get a tour of it. The Educational Tour Bus travels around the U.S. and some parts of Europe going to different schools. It gives the opportunity to students in middle school through high school to write, record and produce a song in a studio held on the bus. After the song is done, they get to create a music video that is posted on their YouTube channel. The purpose of this charity is to teach students more in the field of music technology and give them more experience. At every station there was some sort of new technology or a new idea for music technology. There were stations dedicated to sound proofing, and there were others that were magazine companies that interviewed music industry professionals from all different areas.
After my friends and I were finished exploring the conference we decided to walk around NYC for a little bit. We went to the Chelsea Market and got lunch, and walked around a little more until we decided to sit down for awhile for a break just talking and laughing. For the last hour we had to walk around, we went to the mall near the conference center and walked around a little more, going into all the different shops. Once it was about 6 p.m. we started to walk back to the Javits Convention Center to get back on the bus for 6:30 p.m. and drive back. On the three hour ride back we watched “Iron Man,” talked, and slept. Everyone was exhausted and was ready to get back to their dorms.
This was my first time going to the AES conference in New York City, and I will definitely go again. It is for all students here at The College of Saint Rose whether or not you are a music major, and I would definitely recommend going one year. I am looking forward to next year when I have more knowledge on music technology and engineering to be able to ask questions to improve my ability more. It was an experience I’m glad I got to have during my time here at Saint Rose.
