Raphaël Jecker - Of myths and maths & Sam Vafaei - Loudspeaker and headphones

Research Seminar presented by the McGill Audio Engineering Society and CIRMMT

ABSTRACT

Of Myths and Maths

Audio engineering is an art and also a craft. Engineers train their skills to become experts through years of practice and trial and error. However, the road to expert status is long and full of technical misunderstandings. These can become obstacles hindering solid application of the tools even in the long term, and although technical knowledge cannot replace experience, it can accelerate learning. We will therefore go through a selection of such misunderstandings and discuss their effects on Tonmeister daily work. Additionally, a short insight into the Tonmeister program at the Zurich University of the arts will be given.

Loudspeaker and headphones

Loudspeakers and headphones are key elements in music production and reproduction. However, their design is affected by a lack in industry standards and their performance is surrounded by myths and misconceptions. This has been the source of some confusion and inconsistency between the production and reproduction chains. In this talk the salient features in their design and a few myths and misconceptions in the performance are discussed. Also, practical tips for purchasing, calibrating, and using loudspeakers and headphones are provided for audio engineers.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Raphaël Jecker Raphaël Jecker

Raphaël Jecker studied electrical engineering and information technology at ETH Zurich. He wrote his MSc thesis 'Automatic Digital Model Creation of Analog Audio Units' in 2010 at Native Instruments in Berlin, after which he worked as a DSP and software developer for Studer/Soundcraft (Harman) in Regensdorf, Zurich. Since 2013 he has been teaching mathematics and digital audio at the FFTon School of Audio Engineering in Zurich (AES). In 2018 he completed his BA degree in Music/Tonmeister (pop/contemporary music) at the Zurich University of the Arts where he’s now a professor in the Tonmeister program, teaching courses on audio technology. Apart from this he works as a freelance sound engineer, musician and composer, and programmer.



Sam VafaeiSam Vafaei

Sam Vafaei holds a bachelor of music degree in composition from Dalhousie University. He graduated from McGill’s sound recording program in 2011 and has been the audio test engineer at rtings.com since 2015, where has developed test benches for objectively measuring the sound quality of headphones and soundbars. Throughout this process he has also reviewed more than 300 headphones and sounders.

 

 

 

 

 

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