AES Pacific Northwest Section Event – The Sound of Nature Is All Around; Nature is Immersive! with Dan Dugan
This is an online event.
After generations of being regarded mainly as postcard views, the U.S. national parks have begun to appreciate the value of their soundscapes. We will see how the Park Service records and analyzes soundscapes, and learn how wildlife is affected by human-made sounds.
Starting twenty years ago, Dan Dugan began to document sound environments in four-channel surround, using two Mini-Disc recorders synchronized in post-production.
Spurred on by the availability of multi-track recorders for both consumers and the film industry, more recordists are going immersive, but limited in number by the cost and the burden of transporting and setting up so many mikes.
We will listen to a tour of immersive soundscapes with multi-speaker playback.
The program will be encoded to binaural for streaming listeners.
Speaker:
Dan Dugan, Dan Dugan Sound Design
When Dan was a child, his parents took him to the theater and to concerts. He always wanted to go backstage to see the light board. In his teens he built a huge model circus and two small pipe organs. He was very active in music, singing bass in choruses, madrigal groups, and his church choir. Dan studied math and physics in college but dropped out to work full-time in the theater doing lighting. That became his first career. At age 24 Dan specialized in theater sound, working at the Old Globe in San Diego and ACT in San Francisco. The title “Sound Designer” was created in 1968 “to describe what Dan Dugan does.” He provided audio for eight seasons of the Mondavi Jazz Festival and engineered several independent record albums. Dan demonstrated the first effective automixer at the New York AES in 1974. Today his invention is everywhere: in conferences, talk shows, news panels, sports panels, and election debates. The Cinema Audio Society gave Dan their Outstanding Product Award. He has received an Engineering Emmy for his contribution to television. Dan does scientific research in the national parks, making longitudinal studies of soundscapes over time. He works in his laboratory in San Francisco, manufacturing his inventions and editing his immersive soundscape recordings. Dan is a Life Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society.
Time above listed in event local time.