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Meetings and other Notices
   

February 2012 Meeting
Date: Saturday February 4, 2012

Place: The First Baptist Church in America, 75 North Main Street, Providence, 02903, at the foot of College Hill between Waterman and Angell Streets, near the RIPTA bus tunnel. DOORS OPEN 10AM

Featured Guest: John Marks, Senior Contributing Editor to Stereophile Magazine & award winning CD producer, johnmarks@jmrcds.com

Topic: A one hour workshop on the theory and practice of making natural-sounding stereo recordings of organs.

John Marks is pleased to present an informative workshop on the theory and practice of making natural-sounding stereo recordings of organs. This workshop is a joint meeting of the Connecticut Audio Society and the Boston Audio Society, but will be open to the public ($2 freewill offering to defray the Church’s operating expenses requested). The workshop will take place in the acoustically splendid Auditorium of the Church’s Meeting House, a National Register of Historic Places landmark that was built between 1774 and 1775.

The program will consist of a five-minute overview of the history of the Church and of its Third Meeting House; a fifteen-minute lecture on the operational physics and applications theory of stereo microphones and techniques, and musical examples played on the Church’s Foley-Baker organ by Minister of Music Stephen T. Martorella in real time or the organ’s MIDI Controller play back. Likely pieces include: Parry’s Jerusalem, Olsson’s Jul, and RVW’s Bryn Calfaria.

People with portable (preferably battery-powered) recording setups are invited to bring them and use them, with the usual pedestrian cautions in mind. Recordists - please arrive at 10:00 AM. The lecture and demonstrations will start at 11:00 AM.

 

Webmaster's note: The story of the organ is HERE.

 

Google map HERE (opens in another window)

Directions from 95 North & South:
(Driving distance 41 mi, one hour) Take 95 North or South to exit 22C-B-A Downtown, keep left to stay on ramp. At the end of the exit ramp you will be between the Providence Place Mall and the Westin Hotel. Go straight across on Memorial Blvd. The Church steeple will be directly in front of you. Go to the third light and turn left over the Washington Street Bridge one block to the next light on North Main Street. The Church will be directly in front of you.

Parking at meters:
You will be able to park on Both sides of Waterman Street; but not in front of the Church. There is a parking lot on the corner of Thomas and North Main Streets.


 
Below, other meetings and notices which may be of interest to BAS members

WEBMASTER'S NOTE: The FCC has mandated that OPERATION OF WIRELESS MICROPHONES IN THE 700 MHZ BAND IS PROHIBITED AFTER JUNE 12, 2010. Inasmuch as there is a LOT of misinformation about this, the ONLY correct and relevant page is here:
www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones  
There is also a page with full lists of products affected and a comprehensive list of manufacturers.
Foster's Test Bench !
by Alvin Foster !    Click the logo: —>
The rapidly-becoming-famous BAS Headphone Test Article is now available in the BASS VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4, on Page 17, available HERE   PDF 3mb
Visit our PODCAST PAGE for:
The LIVE video podcast of our meetings,
Archived video of past meetings (only one so far!),
and Audio Podcast interviews by Alvin Foster
There is a supplemental and further explanation addendum paper to the E. Brad Meyer / David Moran paper published in the September, 2007 issue of the AES Journal. That page, which documents the experimental protocol and audio systems/source material is here:
www.bostonaudiosociety.org/explanation.htm   
There is a Power Point Presentation of the lecture given by Dr. Barry Blesser at the March 2007 Meeting. The Meeting page synopsis is HERE; the Power Point Presentation (as a web page) is HERE

Some earlier BASS issues, previously available only directly by mail, are now available online, on the BAS SPEAKER page, HERE

Show your appreciation for the immense amount of dedicated work that went into both the original writing, gathering, editing and printing, PLUS the more recent scanning and conversion to PDF format, by joining the Society, HERE !


A L L   O F F S I T E   L I N K S   O P E N   I N T O   A   N E W   W I N D O W

- AND FOR CONVENIENCE -

AES Future Meetings
www.bostonaes.org

Acoustical Society of America
www.gbcasa.org
SMPTE New England
www.smpte-ne.org

The BAS Message
February 2012

1.  V33n4 of the BAS Speaker has been published. It features a writeup of the meeting at David Moulton's house, discussing eq for mastering, written by John S. Allen. Also extended reminiscences of Edgar Villchur and Daniel von Recklinghausen; Reports on CEDIA 2011 by David Weinberg and Jim Buchanan; and AES 2011 by David Weinberg and Alvin Foster. 33 pp

2.  I recently watched "Tree of Life." At the beginning there it says "For maximum enjoyment of this movie the producers [6 of them!] recommend that you play it loud." So I turned up the volume and started the movie. At the first voiceover I jumped for the volume control as it was too loud and almost unintelligible. Once the volume was lowered I sat back and enjoyed the movie*. It is nominally about a boy growing up in Texas, but is really about images and sounds. (A movie theater in CT posted a sign warning that there would be no refunds for those seeing this movie). A plus is the almost continuous classical music soundtrack, mostly familiar, but some not.

* Explanation: If a director decides to have a program with wide dynamic range, from very soft to loud, then of necessity the average level is lower than that of a compressed program. Thus the admonition to play it loud since most people probably play everything at the same level. However the dialogue level was raised, forcing me to reduce the volume, thereby partly subverting what they were trying to achieve. Still a commendable effort.

email me here

There is a posting of an ABX article, The Digital Challenge by Stanley P. Lipshitz HERE


Webmaster's Corner:
Once again, for 2012, here's a very useful calendar of audio/related events, with kudos to any and all who put this list together: www.stiernberg.com/events.html

Barry

 

The Boston Audio Society
PO BOX 260211
Boston MA 02126


updated 1/29/12