One of the biggest events of NAMM this year had to be the 30th annual TEC Awards, where recording, audio and music industry professionals honor excellence in sound technology and creativity. The professional audio and music production industry’s most prestigious awards celebrate excellence in 30 creative and technical achievement categories. The awards are held annually during the NAMM Show, the world’s leading global music industry trade event, which draws more than 95,000 members of the music products industry to Anaheim.
“The people and products that were nominated at this year’s TEC Awards, especially on this milestone 30th anniversary, deserve our respect and admiration,” said Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM. “And those select few who have gone home with a coveted TEC Award have set a high bar for the industry. These are the tools and sounds that will shape the music we will be listening to for years to come.”
Hosted by comedian Sinbad, who displayed such an insight insight into the music products industry that he must have had some dodgy experience with bands in the past. Presenters for the evening included: Michael Braunstein (Executive Director, Les Paul Foundation), Don Was (Musician/Record Producer), Harry Shearer (Musician/Actor), Bernie Williams (New York Yankee/Guitarist), Orianthi (Singer-Songwriter), Corey Feldman (Actor), CJ Vanston (Film Composer), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (Guitarist), Bob James (Jazz Pianist), Amy Burr (Studio Manager), Lenise Bent (Producer and Engineer), Young Guru (Audio Engineer/Record Producer), Dave Reitzas (Mixer/Recording Engineer), Brett Leonard (Director/Producer), Frank Serafine (Sound Effects Designer/Composer), Jack Douglas (Record Producer) and Al Schmitt (Recording Engineer/Record Producer).
The major part of the night however, was the induction into the Hall of Fame of iconic music engineer Ed Cherney (who dedicated his honour to ‘Every engineer’) and bass great Nathan East. Once done with his humble acceptance speech, East then donned his bass and ‘played for his supper’.
Iconic guitarist Slash received the evening’s highest honor, the Les Paul Award, named for the revolutionary inventor and esteemed musician. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology. A tribute band in Slash’s honor included Orianthi, Don Was, Alex Acuna and Kenny Aranoff.
And the winners were:
CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT
RECORD PRODUCTION / SINGLE OR TRACK
“Happy,” Pharrell Williams
RECORD PRODUCTION / ALBUM
Lazaretto, Jack White
TOUR / EVENT SOUND PRODUCTION
Sting & Paul Simon: On Stage Tour
REMOTE PRODUCTION / RECORDING OR BROADCAST
56th Annual GRAMMY Awards
FILM SOUND PRODUCTION
Gravity
TELEVISION SOUND PRODUCTION
Game of Thrones
INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT SOUND PRODUCTION
Call of Duty: Ghosts
STUDIO DESIGN PROJECT
Berklee College of Music, 160 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT
API 505 DI 500-Series DI Module
AUDIO APPS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS
PreSonus Capture for iPad
HARDWARE / PERIPHERALS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS
Apogee MiC 96k
MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIERS
Rupert Neve Designs Shelford 5052
STUDIO MONITORS
Genelec 8010
RECORDING DEVICES
Zoom H5 Handy Recorder
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AMPLIFICATION & EFFECTS
Line 6 POD HD Pro X
AMPLIFICATION HARDWARE – STUDIO & SOUND REINFORCEMENT
Grace Design m920 Monitoring System
COMPUTER AUDIO HARDWARE
Universal Audio Apollo Twin
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT HARDWARE
Nord Lead A1
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SOFTWARE
Native Instruments Razor 1.5
SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE
Dangerous Music The Dangerous Compressor
SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE (500-Series modules)
Rupert Neve Designs 551 EQ
SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE
iZotope RX3 Audio Repair Suite
SOUND REINFORCEMENT LOUDSPEAKERS
Meyer Sound LYON
MICROPHONES – SOUND REINFORCEMENT
DPA Microphones d:screet Necklace
MICROPHONES – RECORDING
Neumann TLM 107
HEADPHONE / EARPIECE TECHNOLOGY
AKG K812 Headphones
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Shure GLXD6 Guitar Pedal Receiver with Tuner
WORKSTATION TECHNOLOGY
Steinberg Cubase 7.5
SMALL FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY
Solid State Logic Matrix 2
LARGE FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY
API “The Box”
For more information, visit www.tecawards.org.