Links of interest

Here is an assorted collection links.

Professional Links

The Audio Engineering Society is the leading organization for engineers interested in all facets of audio. The Chicago Section (of which I am the chair) is among the most active sections in the United States, with meetings every month from September to May. Meeting topics range from non-technical surveys of the industry to rigorous technical workshops. Chicago members vary from recording and broadcast engineers; acousticians; and systems designers.

The Engineering and Recording Society (EARS) of Chicago is specifically for Chicago's recording engineers. As I understand it, EARS started when local engineers were disgusted at the lack of technical recognition by the Recording Academy, otherwise know as the host of the GRAMMYs. Since then, it has grown to represent Chicago's best recording engineers, some of whome have won GRAMMYs.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers are the guys who keep your favorite radio and television stations on-the-air. This is a talent group of people who know the ins-and-outs of broadcast consoles, transmitters, and everything. I am the webmaster of the Chicago chatper's website.

Personal Links

I ride my bike a lot. Thanks to the efforts of the Chicago Bicycle Federation, the City of Chicago is very-bike friendly...so friendly, that they have no problem with hundreds of cyclist riding through the city on a busy Friday afternoon. Oh, and if you need bike service, see the guys at Rapid Transit Cycles in Bucktown/Wicker Park. They do a great job.

Gear

I prefer Macs. 'Nuff said.

My preferred earphones are the Etymotic ER-4S', or ER-4Ps when I using a portable player. They're designed by people who really understand how human hearing works. Nice, flat frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz with -/+ 2 dB of variation as measured in the ear. Ignore the fact that it doesn't go much above 15 kHz; there's not that much there, anyway. Focus on the fact that it's -/+ 2 dB of variation, goes down to 20 Hz with no problem, and offers 22 dB of attentuation of external sounds. No headphone or earphone can match this performance.