June 25 – Music Award Show Audio

2024 Bulletin - June, Regular Meeting, Special Event

All award shows feature an audio component, but for music award shows, the quality of the audio can make or break the entire event. The largest Canadian music awards show, the Juno Awards, is a prime example of this. This year, the Juno Awards were held in Halifax. The production involved truckloads of PA systems, staging, broadcast, and recording equipment to ensure the event was televised seamlessly.

In our final presentation of the season, we invite you to join us as we explore the intricate processes behind creating such a flawless auditory experience. We will delve into the stage setups, the signal flows, and the hidden talents that work tirelessly to make an event like this possible. This presentation is a must-see for anyone interested in the magic behind the scenes of a major music awards show.

June 25th – 2024

Time: 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Where: University of Toronto
Edward Johnson Building
Boyd Neal room

About the Event

6:30 – 7:00 Food and networking.

7:15 – Presentation

9:30 – Building Closes

PRESENTERS:

Christopher Sampson

Chris is a highly skilled audio engineer with over 15 years of experience in the broadcast and music industries. Specializing in live immersive, 5.1, and stereo broadcast mixing, Chris has worked on diverse programming, including music, news, variety shows, and sports. His proficiency with digital consoles and extensive knowledge of audio standards such as AES67, SMPTE 2110, and AES70 make him a versatile and innovative audio professional.

Currently, as a freelance Production and Post Production Audio Mixer, Chris has played key roles in major projects like The Juno Awards and CBC’s Beijing Olympic broadcasts. His deep familiarity with Bell Media and CBC Studios’ audio infrastructure enables him to seamlessly integrate into any team, ensuring top-quality audio production. Chris is also proficient in various digital audio workstations, including ProTools, Pyramix, and Reaper.

Previously, Chris held full-time positions at Bell Media, where he was responsible for live-to-air and live-to-tape mixing, console configuration, troubleshooting, and operator training for high-profile productions like CTV National News and The Much Music Video Awards. He also excelled in post-sound surround mixing for acclaimed series such as Mighty Trains and TSN features.

Chris’s expertise extends to team management, budgeting, and scheduling, ensuring projects are completed on time and within scope. His volunteer work with the Ward Beck Preservation Society and the Audio Engineering Society’s Toronto chapter underscores his dedication to advancing audio engineering. Chris continues to drive innovation and excellence in every project he undertakes.

DOUG MCCLEMENT

AES Fellow

Doug was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario, and graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, where he majored in Marketing and Computer Science. He covered his tuition by playing in rock bands and working in a stereo store during his college years, while operating a four-track recording studio inhis parents’ basement.

After moving to Toronto and working for three years as a computer programmer at TD Bank, he opened Comfort Sound Studio, recording albums, demos, commercials and doing audio-post for television. Over the years, the studio expanded to 24 tracks, and became known for recording bands on location, especially live radio broadcasts. Eventually, a separate set of equipment was installed in a customized truck, and Doug began to concentrate its efforts in live multitrack recording for radio and television. Doug did hundreds of live fm broadcasts for CHUM-FM, Q107 and CFNY, then became the exclusive concert music engineer for the MuchMusic network for 16 years.

Doug eventually decided to sell the studio and go full time into location multititrack recording, as LiveWire Remote Recorders. LiveWire records concerts, awards shows and major events for television, as well as live radio broadcasts, live cd’s, webcasts and orchestral film soundtracks.

Doug has engineered over 4000 music remotes, and has received platinum CD’s for engineering albums by Blue Rodeo and Moxy Fruvous. He has been nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Sound in a TV Variety Special seventeen times, and won that award in 2003 and 2011 (and Canadian Screen Awards in 2014, 2017) for his mix of the Juno Awards and in 2022 for the “Oscar Peterson: Black + White” documentary.

Doug has recorded dozens of international artists, including U2, AC/DC, Celine Dion, Oscar Peterson, Ozzy Osbourne, Stevie Ray Vaughan, 50 Cent, The Rolling Stones, Melissa Etheridge, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, Leonard Cohen, Van Halen, Emmylou Harris, R.E.M, The Police, Neil Young, Ray Charles, Garth rooks, Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack, Annie Lennox, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Placido Domingo and Lenny Kravitz.
Doug has also mixed the half-time show at Grey Cup for the past 7 years for TSN,provided the music mix for Juno Awards for the past 23 years, 27 MuchMusic Video Awards, Canada’s Walk of Fame Gala since its inception, and the Stratford Festival for the past decade.

Doug has worked on the audio team for Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) at the past five Olympic Games in Sochi, Rio de Janeiro, Pyeonchang, Tokyo and Beijing. He is currently head of audio for Canada’s Got Talent. He has recorded concerts in all ten Canadian provinces, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Israel, Cyprus, Jamaica, and Kuwait, as well as over twenty-five states in the SA.

Doug was the Charter President of the Toronto Recording Association of Commercial Studios (TRACS), and has been an Audio Engineering Society (AES) member since 1974. He received an AES Fellowship Award in 2021.

He is also Chairman of the Producing and Engineering Program at The Harris Institute, a music industry vocational school based in downtown Toronto. He has been an instructor there since 1992, teaching courses in Studio Management, and Production/Engineering.