March Meeting Notice

March 2003 Meeting Notice

This meeting will discuss the problems and techniques used in the creation of audio for video games.  In addition, there will be a tour of the Electronic Arts facility.

Mr. Allen began performing as a professional musician at a very early age. Some of the more famous bands with whom he worked were Glenn Miller (Tex Beneke), Sauter Finnegan, Bobby Sherwood and Skitch Henderson. He backed up artists such as Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Frankie Laine.
    As a recording studio musician, he performed on sessions with Stevie Wonder, Andy Williams, The Chicago Symphony Strings, The Platters plus many more. he then decided to became a recording engineer. He engineered sessions for Ramsey Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Steve Allen, Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton among others.
    In the early seventies he became President of Universal Recording, one of the largest studios in the United States where he served for 17 years.  While at the helm of Universal it was nominated three times for the TEC award. Universal won several Clio's and also had numerous nominations for Emmy's & Grammy's.  Universal was responsible for recording Metallica, Police, Prince, Aerosmith, "Back Draft" (which won an Oscar for sound), "Top Gun", and "The Blues Brothers Film” among hundreds of other artists and feature films. In addition, Universal and he were instrumental in developing many of the systems used today in modern postproduction. Universal was the first studio in the U.S to use digital technology and Digital Workstations in the creation of television programming and commercials. Universal was one of the first studios to offer video sweetening in 1971, some years before time code.
    After selling Universal, he joined Electronic Arts in 1993, and served as the Director of Audio Production.  In 1994 he was promoted to be Director of the Video Operation in addition to his audio duties. He has since taken over the directorship of the Customer Support Department, the EARS Testing Department, QA, Archive as well as being in charge of the localization for all Redwood Shores including EAD products. During 1999 he was promoted to Vice President. 
    In addition, he designed and built the audio studio used by Oprah Winfrey in the broadcast of her daily syndicated show. He has also served as the Sound Designer on the Recording Academy's Annual "Grammy Award's Show" for the last twenty years.
    Mr. Allen is an active member of the Audio Engineering Society. he was Chairman of the Technical Education Committee for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and presently serves on their Archive and Preservation committee. he is the former Chairman of the Society of Professional Audio Services. he has lectured at De Paul University, Vanderbilt, New York City University, University of Colorado, Dartmouth and the University of California. he has had numerous technical articles published in trade magazines. he has also acted as a consultant to Ernst & Young relative to mergers and acquisitions for their show business clients.

 

Directions

Click here for a map to Electronic Arts

Address:
Electronic Arts
250 Shoreline Drive
Redwood City, CA  94065