Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
72 S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y on the newly designed driver meant to reproduce super low frequencies (down to 5 Hz according to spec) to present immersive audio more accurately. While I was speaking with Andy, it was announced that music production icon David Leonard (search his name and see his credits) was taking attendees over to Digital Audio Post on 16th Avenue South, where the VME team from Sony was creating individual profiles for guests. Five of us drove the short distance in David's SUV, chatting about mixing immersive content over headphones. David was there as he uses Sony's VME system and is extremely pleased with the translation to speakers. Once we arrived at Digital Audio Post, I was the first to sit in the chair to capture my 9.1.4 profile of the room. I have another profile from when Sony's Director of Professional Solutions Hiroyuki Komuro and his team came to MTSU in the fall to shoot profiles of students and faculty. I told him about the article on VME from our spring issue and he was very excited to read it. After some sweeps, they used a race scene from the movie Gran Torino, allowing us to listen over headphones and then speakers for a realistic A/B of the system. I started and stopped many times with the only thing that really stuck out being the inability to "feel" the low end when listening on headphones. The frequencies certainly seemed to be playing, but the interaction of air in a room and the body—especially the air reproduced from very low frequencies—is something that would need assistance. While I'm aware of "seat cushions" that can vibrate when triggered by low frequencies (such as the ButtKicker LFE), my recently graduated graduate student, Franco Galetto (shown in the picture), told me about a vest that does something similar from a company called Woojer. Regardless, the reproduction was very convincing. Something funny happened when Franco's girlfriend—who is not versed in audio but is aware given Franco's studies— had her profile taken. The amazement and "What in the world?" reaction of her face was similar to a kid who just saw an unbelievable magic trick. After realizing that she really was listening on headphones, she asked Hiroyuki, "How do you guys do that?" The day just flew by, and I missed a number of other demos I had hoped to see, but one panel I didn't want to miss was the day's closing discussion titled "Rethinking Space." Featuring mixers Nick Mac (Post Malone, Maroon 5), Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, The White Stripes), and Richard Chycki (lots of Rush), it also featured my former student Bryce Roberts (Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson) as the "young" engineer (even Engineer Franco Galetto testing his Sony VME profile. Map of the five studios participating in the evening's studio crawl.