"It's gratifying to find so many young people eager to learn about what I've taken for granted over the last 35 years," Jones remarks. "With rising ticket prices, the mix engineer now has an incredible responsibility in the overall success of the touring industry. That's one reason I'm looking forward to doing more of these seminars."
Meyer Sound educational programs manager Gavin Canaan says that the seminar is the realisation of his long-standing desire to involve Jones in the company's seminar program. "The term 'voice of experience' applies to no one more than Buford Jones," says Canaan. "Our goal with the Meyer Sound seminars is to impart accurate, real-world professional information to the audio world. Having Buford give seminars on mixing brings a vital frame of reference and an incomparable body of mixing experience to our seminar series that we did not have before."
The Nashville seminar drew participants with backgrounds in audio spanning fixed installations, worship, touring and club sound. The Florida seminar had similar attendance, with the addition of representatives from Orlando's considerable corporate AV production community. Jones' casual approach set a mood that encouraged interaction and discussion, amongst participants. The course material covered subjects ranging from system tuning and mixing techniques to record producer involvement and surround sound mixing. Within these topics, Jones drew on his long experience to address issues often overlooked in technical discussions, such as communication and trust between the mix engineer and the artist, and negotiating the politics involved in any large-scale production. The wide-ranging discussions benefited immensely from Jones' use of examples from his real-world experiences.
To close the Nashville seminar, Jones played a recording of one of his concert board mixes through Studio C's installed system of 12 MICA compact high power curvilinear array loudspeakers and four 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers. "I didn't play that tape for the entertainment value," says Jones, "but rather to illustrate how listening critically to a reference of your own work helps you to create better mixes in the future."
(Chris Henry)
