PRESTIGIOUS LES PAUL AWARD PRESENTED TO AEROSMITH’S JOE PERRY WHO JAMS LIVE WITH BANDMATES JOHNNY DEPP & ALICE COOPER
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM
AEROSMITH PRODUCER & ENGINEER JACK DOUGLAS INDUCTED INTO NAMM TEC HALL OF FAME
Presenters included Johnny Depp, Lita Ford, The Foo Fighters’ Rami Jaffee & Jessy Green, Om’Mas, Jerry Harrison, Geoff Emerick, Jeff Greenberg (Village Recorder), Eric Boulanger
Anaheim, Calif., (Jan. 21, 2017) – Winners in 31 technical and creative achievement categories were announced at the 32ndAnnual NAMM TEC AWARDS, presented annually by the NAMM Foundation and held January 21 in Anaheim, CA. The annual event celebrates the best in professional audio and sound production and is held during The NAMM Show, the world’s leading global music industry trade event. Comedian Sinbad returned to host for the third time.
Four companies – AVID, iZotope, Sennheiser and Solid State Logic – scored several Outstanding Technical Achievement awards, each taking home two statues each. AVID’s Pro Tools Dock and Pro Tools 12.3 picked up in Workstation Technology and Audio Apps & Hardware categories; iZotope in a new designation: Audio Education Technology, for the company’s Pro Audio Essentials and the Ozone 7 Advanced in the category of Signal Processing Software; Sennheiser in Wireless and Headphone/Earpiece Technology categories for the Wireless G3 A-1 Band and the HD 25 Plus and finally Solid State Logic for Large and Small Console Technology categories for the System T and the Sigma Delta. Outstanding Technical Achievement honors were chosen in 23 categories.
“Game of Thrones” returned for its second win in a year for Outstanding Creative Achievement in the Television Sound Production category. Following a posthumous recent birthday milestone, David Bowie’s Blackstar EP won in two categories – Record Production Album & Single respectively. Several Star Wars-themed projects beat out the competition as well: Star Wars: The Force Awakens from Lucasfilm won for Film Sound Production while Star Wars: Battlefront won for Interactive Entertainment Sound Production. Outstanding Creative Achievement honors were chosen in eight categories.
Joe Perry, one of music’s most significant artists and executives, received the evening’s highest honor, the Les Paul Award, presented to remarkably-distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry. Hollywood Vampires bandmate and actor Johnny Depp presented Perry with the award, then joined Perry, Brad Whitford, and Alice Cooper on stage for a live performance.
Perry dedicated the award to his manager Howard Kaufman, who recently passed away. News is forthcoming related to Perry’supcoming sixth solo album. Learn more here.
Keeping it in the family, famed Aerosmith engineer and producer Jack Douglas also became the newest inductee to the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame. Douglas engineered and produced many multi-platinum associated for many of Aerosmith’s most iconic releases and is affectionately dubbed “the sixth member” of the band.
A complete list of Technical and Creative Achievement winners can be found here and below:
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Amplification Hardware – Studio & Sound Reinforcement
Crown XLS DriveCore 2
Ancillary Equipment
Rupert Neve Designs RNHP: Precision Headphone Amplifier
Audio Apps & Hardware/Peripherals for Smartphones/Tablets
AVID Pro Tools | Dock
Audio Education Technology – (new category)
iZotope Pro Audio Essentials
Computer Audio Hardware
Universal Audio Apollo Twin USB Interface
DJ Production Technology – Hardware/Software – (new category)
Native Instruments TRAKTOR Kontrol S5
Headphone / Earpiece Technology
Sennheiser HD 25 Plus
Large Format Console Technology
Solid State Logic System T
Microphone Preamplifiers
AMS Neve 1073DPX
Microphones – Recording
Schoeps ORTF-3D
Microphones – Sound Reinforcement
Shure KSM8 Dualdyne
Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects
Softube Marshall JMP 2203
Musical Instrument Hardware
Moog Music Mother-32
Musical Instrument Software
Softube Marshall Bluesbreaker 1962
Signal Processing Hardware
Warm Audio WA-2A Tube Opto Compressor
Signal Processing Hardware (500 Series Modules)
API 512V
Signal Processing Software (Dynamics / EQ / Utilities)
iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced
Signal Processing Software (Effects)
Soundtoys 5
Small Format Console Technology
Solid State Logic Sigma Delta
Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers
Meyer Sound MJF-208 Stage Monitor
Studio Monitors
Genelec 8430A IP SAM
Wireless Technology
Sennheiser evolution Wireless G3 A-1 Band
Workstation Technology / Recording Devices
AVID Pro Tools 12.3
CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT
Film Sound Production
Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Interactive Entertainment Sound Production
DICE / Electronic Arts Star Wars: Battlefront
Record Production – Album
David Bowie Blackstar
Record Production – Single
David Bowie Blackstar
Remote Production – Recording or Broadcast
Studio Design Project
Walters-Storyk Design Group Boston Symphony Orchestra Control Room
Television Sound Production
HBO Game of Thrones
Tour/Event Sound Production
Sting and Peter Gabriel Rock Paper Scissors North American Tour
In total, winners were selected from 180 nominees. Title sponsors for the show included The Les Paul Foundation, Harman and Visit Anaheim. A full list of sponsors can be found here. Many of the evening’s winning products and technologies are available at music and pro audio retailers worldwide both online and in stores.Please photo credit all Getty images to ‘Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM.
For more information about NAMM TEC, visit www.tecawards.org. For more information about Tthe Les Paul Foundation, visithttps://www.lespaulfoundation.org.
CALIFORNIA ROCK NEWS 
Got something to say? Go for it!