TEC Awards at 2016 NAMM
January 2016 – At the 2016 NAMM show in Anaheim, the held the 2016 TEC awards to celebrate the technological excellence in the industry. In addition to the technology awards, several lifetime achievements were recognize and inducted to the Hall of Fame and received the Les Paul Award on the the anniversary of what would be his 100th birthday. The awards cover a large range of technology for the capture and performance of music and includes hardware, software, studios and the creative talent behind using the equipment.
The evening was hosted once again by comedian Sinbad and included presenters Joe Walsh, Nathan East, Peter Asher, Ed and Rose Cherney, Sylvia Massy, Jimmy Douglass, and BT. The highest honor of the evening – the Les Paul Award, recognizing individuals and institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology – was given to Don Was. Don is one of the industries music’s most significant artists and executives. Mr. Was not only thanked many of the people that help him along the way, but celebrated with the crowd by having a live music performance with the house band led by Larry Baptist and included his former Was (Not Was) band performing Don’s ‘80s hit “Walk the Dinosaur.”
The award ceremony included two inductions to the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame : Jeff “Skunk” Baxter along with Record Plant’s Chris Stone and the late Gary Kellgren. As part of his celebration for the induction, Baxter, a founding member of Steely Dan, took to the stage for a set that included the group’s famous track “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” with long time friend Nathan East.
The winners of awards and their categories follows:
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
AMPLIFICATION HARDWARE – STUDIO & SOUND REINFORCEMENT
Antelope Audio / Satori Monitoring Controller
ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT
Rupert Neve Designs / RNDI: Active Transformer Direct Interface
AUDIO APPS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS
PreSonus / Notion 2 for iOS
COMPUTER AUDIO HARDWARE
Universal Audio / Apollo 8p Thunderbolt 2 Audio Interface
HARDWARE / PERIPHERALS FOR SMARTPHONES & TABLETS
Shure / MOTIV MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Mic
HEADPHONE / EARPIECE TECHNOLOGY
Audio-Technica Corporation / ATH-R70x Pro
LARGE FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY
Solid State Logic / XL DESK
MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIERS
Manley Labs / Manley FORCE
MICROPHONES – RECORDING
Neumann / U47 FET
MICROPHONES – SOUND REINFORCEMENT
Shure / 5575LE Unidyne 75th Anniversary Vocal Microphone
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AMPLIFICATION & EFFECTS
Eventide / H9 MAX
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT HARDWARE
Moog Music / Modular Recreation
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SOFTWARE
iZotope / Iris 2
RECORDING DEVICES
Zoom/F8 MultiTrack Field Recorder
SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE
Tube-Tech / HLT 2A Equalizer
SIGNAL PROCESSING HARDWARE (500 SERIES MODULES)
Solid State Logic / 500-Format LMC+
SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE (DYNAMICS/EQ/UTILITIES)
iZotope / RX 4 Complete Audio Repair & Enhancement
SIGNAL PROCESSING SOFTWARE (EFFECTS)
AMS Neve / AMS RMX16 Digital Reverb Plug-In For UAD-2 Platform
SMALL FORMAT CONSOLE TECHNOLOGY
Avid / Pro Tools I S3
SOUND REINFORCEMENT LOUDSPEAKERS
Meyer Sound / LEOPARD
STUDIO MONITORS
Genelec / 8351A SAM
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Sennheiser / Evolution Wireless D1
WORKSTATION TECHNOLOGY
Avid / Pro Tools 12
CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT
FILM SOUND PRODUCTION
Birdman
INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT SOUND PRODUCTION
Batman: Arkham Knight
RECORD PRODUCTION / ALBUM
Before This World by James Taylor
RECORD PRODUCTION / SINGLE OR TRACK
Dreams by Beck
REMOTE PRODUCTION / RECORDING OR BROADCAST
Foo Fighters Sonic Highways
STUDIO DESIGN PROJECT
Paul Epworth’s The Church Studios, London, UK
TELEVISION SOUND PRODUCTION
Game of Thrones
TOUR / EVENT SOUND PRODUCTION
Sonic Highways World Tour, Foo Fighters
