Meeting Topic: AEA Ribbon Microphone Factory Tour
Moderator Name: Alyssandra Nighswonger
Speaker Name: Wes Dooley
Other business or activities at the meeting: tour
Meeting Location: AEA Factory, Pasadena, CA
The AEA tour was very interactive and informative, too. They showed us some CSI-type demos for cleaning up audio and video footage, including how unrealistic some of the techniques they use in shows like CSI are. Wes Dooley gave us a lecture on how ribbon mics work, and also a really interesting history lesson in the WWII tactics that NAZI Germany used, like how Hitler used the best tape recorder he could and then they would speed up the tape to make him sound better and play it over the radio as if it was live, even though it was pre-recorded, fooling the Allies on what town he was really in. They also showed us their small work space which had a collection of vintage RCAs and machines to test out mic specs.