California Soundscapes with Dan Dugan
2025-08-12 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
California Soundscapes – Recording Natural Environments with Dan Dugan
The San Francisco Audio Engineering Society, the Nature Sounds Society, and Meyer Sound will present a special presentation of California Soundscapes, a lecture/demonstration about recording natural environments in immersive formats.
This presentation will emphasize the technical aspects of Dan Dugan’s work including “heavy” systems, which use professional mics and cables, and “light” systems, designed to be backpacked. The differences between one-point mikes vs. near- and wide-spaced mikes will be demonstrated, and a current controversy about height mikes will be briefly discussed. There will be immersive playback of recordings from regions of California ranging over the coastal zone, the Valley, the deserts, and the Sierras.
Doors at 6:00 pm. Light refreshments and networking.
Presentation: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, followed by Q&A
Space is extremely limited. Ticket information is being sent directly to our AES SF email list members.

Dan Dugan
Dan Dugan has always been fascinated by combinations of art and technology. As a child, when he was taken to the theater he always wanted to go backstage to see the light board. In his teens he built a huge model circus and two small pipe organs. He was very active in music, singing bass in the church choir, the San Diego Bach Chorus, Roger Wagner’s summer workshops, and in madrigal groups performing on the green at the Shakespeare Festival. In college he dropped out of a four-year scholarship to work full-time in the theater doing lighting, which became his first career. He did lighting designs for the San Diego National Shakespeare Festival, the San Diego Opera, and the San Francisco Actors’ Workshop.
At age 24 Dan switched to doing theater sound, working for the San Diego National Shakespeare Festival and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. The title “Sound Designer” was created in 1968 to describe what Dan was doing. He provided sound services for many seasons of the Mondavi Jazz Festival, and engineered several independent record albums, including Kate Wolf’s first two albums, which are still in print.
Dan is well-known in audio engineering as the inventor of the automatic microphone mixer. His patented equipment is used in thousands of churches, courtrooms including the trial of Saddam Hussein, and on television shows including the PBS NewsHour, Washington Week, presidential debates, and ESPN sports commentary. Currently he works in his laboratory in San Francisco designing new versions of his inventions and editing his surround-sound nature recordings.

San Francisco Studio Crawl 2025 & Mixer
2025-09-26 12:00 - 22:00
We are back–ten years after we began–with another studio crawl in San Francisco. Join us for the largest audio engineering gathering in Northern California, on Friday, September 26th, from noon to 10pm. Tickets are available now at https://StudioCrawl2025.eventbrite.com
It’s like a pub crawl, open-house, and house party all rolled into one day. Tickets will be required and space is limited. To attend and get the latest updates and info which you’ll need to participate, book early. The map will be sent to registered participants the night before the crawl.
Brooklyn Basin Studios
Dreamrack Studios
Fogel Sound Studios
GetReel Productions
Handsome Sound
Hobie’s Corner
Hyde Street Studios-Studio A
J Moe Soundcrafting
Light Rail Studios
Mothership Studios
One Union Recording Studios
Outpost Studio SF
ShutterMindz Studio
Sonic Roots Studio
The Beat Barn
Wally’s HydeOut
Women’s Audio Mission
Due to the nature of the business, there could be changes among studio availability which we will update on this list.
Open Studios
12:00pm to 5:00pm:
You can get an inside look at many of the recording and post-production studios and rehearsal spaces in San Francisco. Be sure to pick up a raffle ticket at each stop, for a chance to win our raffle prizes at the mixer. The more studios you visit, the more chances to win lots of great gear, software and swag from our sponsors.
AES San Francisco will provide a list and details of participating facilities to registered participants in a password protected interactive map the evening before, and you’ll be responsible for your own for transportation. There is no shuttle. If you’re car-challenged, many of the studios can be reached by BART, bus or bike.
The Big Audio Mixer and Raffle
5:00pm to 10:00pm:
Hyde Street Studios
Studio Crawl attendees are invited to mingle with hundreds of local Bay Area professional audio people, maybe win some prizes from our raffle drawing. We’re still lining up prizes. Refreshments and beverages are included.
Note: It’s very important that you register with the correct email address, because all of the details you need to participate will be emailed to registered participants, including the password protected map and addresses of participating the studios.
Only registered ticket holders can attend these studio tours and the mixer event. All of the details needed to participate will be sent by email to registered attendees.

Spatial Composition - The New Frontier – at Dolby Headquarters
2025-10-09 17:00 - 20:00 | Dolby Headquarters, 1275 Market Street, San Francisco, 94103, United States
Join the AES & Recording Academy members as we explore SPACE as compositional element – and its effects on audio production – at Dolby HQ.

Composers have been using melody, rhythm, and harmony for thousands of years. Musique concrète expanded the use of timbre 75 years ago. Are we at the verge of another musical disruption? What if, using space as a compositional tool, songwriters, composers, and producers not only mixed but composed in immersive systems? Can SPACE become a new element of music?

The AES and the Recording Academy invite you to a member-exclusive event: a research presentation about the use of space in music composition and production, by composer Julius Dobos and producer BZ Lewis.
Audio engineers, producers, composers, songwriters and music creators of all disciplines are invited to explore SPACE as an element of music composition, experience demonstrations of new, spatially-composed music and immersive mixes in the Dolby Cinema, and hear about updates on the Dolby Atmos ecosystem.

Do spatial decisions made during composition have an effect on musical content?
Do listeners respond differently to spatially-composed music vs the spatial mixes of traditionally composed music?
How to approach writing in an immersive environment that can yield conceptually solid musical content?
How music created in Dolby Atmos (vs music mixed in Dolby Atmos) may affect the roles and responsibilities of artists and audio engineers?

Guests will hear Dolby’s latest updates to the Dolby Atmos music ecosystem, experience Dolby Atmos enabled car demos, and experience new, spatially-composed music & immersive mixes in the Dolby Cinema.

Space is limited: tickets will be required. Ticket information is being sent directly to our AES SF email list members.This ticket is for AESSF members only (your AES member number is your exclusive access code to register with). Space is limited, so please plan to attend if you RSVP.

Get Tickets

Speaker Bios

Julius Dobos is an award-winning, platinum-album European-American composer, sound synthesist, music director and mastering engineer. He is best known for his 11 electronic- and electro-orchestral albums, music produced for film, television, installations, major events and international brands. His composition credits span over 30 years and include You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, The Zookeeper, the DragonBall Z series, NCIS, to name a few. His production work includes Grammy®-awarded artists Martha Sebestyen, Erykah Badu and a colorful list of music & audio projects.
Under the pseudonym forgotten future, Dobos crafts one-of-a-kind, dynamic electronic music with a distinct style and sonic character. His live music performances have attracted audiences worldwide. His 2019 Los Angeles Human Intelligence Control show featured a novel musical experience through digitally-tracked interaction with the audience.
Dobos is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the University of Silicon Valley, a published author and speaker on electronic music and production culture, a long-time synthesizer- and audio technology beta-tester. He is a BMI and Artisjus writer, publisher, and the Vice Chair of the Audio Engineering Society San Francisco section.

BZ Lewis is a producer/engineer, working in Stereo and Dolby Atmos. He’s been in the biz for 30+ years, earning six Emmy Awards and a multitude of other recognitions and awards along the way via his recording studio, Studio 132. His favorite thing is using immersive audio to help tell the story of the artists he works with.
His work includes projects with Intel, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Ridley Scott; TV shows include The World Poker Tour, People Magazine investigates, Dateline, too many MTV credits to mention; and his band production credits encompass such artists as Roberta Flack, Blame Sally, Ann Moss, Victor Krummenacher, Kitka, Swordtongue, Magilo, Samri, Monica Pasqual, and Chelsea.
BZ Lewis is a voting member of the Grammys, a BMI member writer and publisher, chair of the Audio Engineering Society’s San Francisco chapter, and is currently enjoying publishing deals with Media Creature Music, Iron Mike Publishing, and BOK music in L.A.

Silicon Valley Video Summit Call For Contributions
2025-10-31
The AES SF Section has been asked to help curate a half-day audio track for Silicon Valley Video Summit (SVVS) 2026. This includes quick, 30 minute presentations or panels discussing audio topics closely-related to the video world. Some sample 2025 topics can be found here. However, the door is wide open for topics appropriate to an A/V audience heavily weighted to video including AoIP and VoIP (audio-over-IP or voice-over-IP, aka MoIP for media-over-IP).
If you (know anyone who) might be interested in presenting/curating a panel for SVVS 2026, please complete this G Form to submit your proposal by October 31st. You can see the panels in 2025 had almost no repeat presenters and the topics were wide ranging. However, for the audio track, there could be closely related topics which some presenters could also speak to (e.g., multichannel audio for livestreaming -plus- spatialization or up-mixing of audio for live streaming).
All presentations will be reviewed, however, with only four, 30 minute slots, we might not be able to accommodate all submissions. If you are unsure if your session proposal meets the format for the Silicon Valley Video Summit, please submit it anyway. Our local AES San Francisco section may suggest submitting your proposal for another venue and time later in 2026.
Click here for statistics about attendees, presenters and sponsors from 2025.
Any questions can be directed to info@AESSF.org.
Thank you for being a part of our AES San Francisco community!

Annual Meeting and Solstice Party
2025-12-21 18:00 - 21:00 | 25th Street Recording, Oakland, CA, 94612
AES members are invited to AES SF Annual Meeting and Solstice Party at 25th Street Studios on Sunday, December 21, starting at 6 pm.
During our Annual Meeting, we’ll introduce our new committee members, celebrate our 2025 accomplishments, and share exciting plans for 2026. Following the meeting, join us for drinks, snacks, and Solstice cheers!
Agenda:

6:00 PM — Doors
6:30 PM — AES SF Annual Meeting
7:00 PM — Solstice Party

RSVP Required: Please register using your AES membership to reveal the RSVP form. You are welcome to invite a guest.

RSVP Now

Silicon Valley Video Summit 2026
2026-01-27 09:00 - 18:30 | Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA, 94043, United States
AES SF has partnered with Silicon Valley Video Summit to bring you a half day of audio for video workshops on Tuesday, January 27, 2026. And the best part? The show is free for AES members! Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your skills and knowledge.

Register Now

AES Sessions

Time
Room
Description

9:45 am
Boole
AES: Higher Order Audio Capture
Discussion around solutions for live-event multi-channel audio capture (sporting, concerts, etc.) Detailed discussion on multi-channel audio capture with feeds sent in real-time to broadcast mixers who can then make decisions on creating the listening environment to match the visual experience. David will discuss multiple, currently available, product solutions to facilitate the audio capture. This session is ideal for audio professionals providing real-time mix engineering along with capture for later post-production purposes.
Moderator: BT Gibbs, Skyline Entertainment and Publishing and Tool Shed Studios
Panelist: David Bowles, Swineshead Productions, LLC

10:15 am
Boole
AES: Eclipsa Audio Format for Streaming and Sound Design
Eclipsa Audio is a new open source spatial audio format based on the IAMF (Immersive Audio Model and Formats) specification, available under a royalty-free license from the Alliance for Open Media. Eclipsa Audio is designed to enable high-quality, immersive audio experiences across various devices and platforms, including streaming, gaming, and virtual reality. The IAMF specification is codec-agnostic and allows for flexible rendering and mixing, making it adaptable to different playback environments.Eclipsa Audio streaming and upload support has launched on YouTube. Join this tutorial session to learn more about the IAMF specification and to listen to creators talk about how to do sound design for Eclipsa Audio format. Learn about sound design differences and similarities for factual, animation & high end narrative content.
Moderator: BT Gibbs, Skyline Entertainment and Publishing and Tool Shed Studios
Panelist: Jan Skoglund, Google

10:45 am
Exhibits
Networking Break

11:30 am
Boole
AES: Cleaner Audio, Faster Decisions: Real-Time Separation for Modern Broadcast Workflows
AudioShake, the leading audio isolation and separation tool for media and entertainment, today announced the launch of its first streaming-capable SDKs designed specifically for real-time music detection and copyright-safe audio cleanup. The SDK enables broadcasters, sports leagues, and media creators to automatically detect and remove copyrighted music from live and post-production content—helping them avoid takedowns, fines, muted audio, and distribution delays.
Moderator: BT Gibbs, Skyline Entertainment and Publishing and Tool Shed Studios
Panelist: Jessica Powell, AudioShake

12:00 pm
Boole
AES: Architecting Next-Generation Immersive Audio: Advanced Spatial Audio Formats and Codecs
The rapid evolution of immersive experiences, particularly in Extended Reality (XR) applications like Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Augmented Reality (AR), presents significant challenges for delivering compelling and perceptually accurate spatial audio. Traditional audio formats and rendering techniques fall short of meeting the requirements of these environments, leading to a need for novel approaches to audio representation, encoding, and delivery. Using the Apple Spatial Audio Format (ASAF) and its underlying Apple Positional Audio Codec (APAC) as a case study, we will examine how a unified framework can natively support a diverse array of immersive audio representations, including object-based audio, High Order Ambisonics (HOA), channel-based audio, and binaural rendering.
Moderator: BT Gibbs, Skyline Entertainment and Publishing and Tool Shed Studios
Panelist: Deep Sen, Apple

12:30 pm
Boole
AES Sessions: All Speaker Q&A
Presenters from the previous sessions will participate in a Q&A session moderated by Brian Gibbs and Jean‑Marc Jot.
Moderators:
BT Gibbs, Skyline Entertainment and Publishing and Tool Shed Studios; Jean‑Marc Jot, Virtuel Works

AES Presenters

David Bowles
David v.R Bowles formed Swineshead Productions, LLC as a classical recording production company in 1995. His recordings have been GRAMMY- and JUNOnominated and crucially acclaimed worldwide. All releases are available as high-resolution paid downloads. Those in Dolby Atmos streaming audio format can be found on Avie, Delos and Navona Records. In collaboration with New York University’s Music Technology programme at Steinhardt School of Music, Mr. Bowles researches and teaches 3D audio recording for their Tonmeister Seminar. He has sat on panels at several AES conventions (with colleagues from NYU, Dolby, Huddersfield University and Sennheiser), and presented his papers on 3D height gathering at AES conferences in New York, San Francisco, São Paulo and Warsaw.Mr. Bowles is also a guest lecturer at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and Peabody Recording Arts and Sciences (John Hopkins University). He was Visiting Professor of Recording Arts at Indiana University’s Jacobs School. Mr. Bowles is a member of the AES (Audio Engineering Society): he’s served twice on the Board of Governors, and is Western Regional VP (United States and Canada, 2023-26). He is also a voting member of NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) and active in their Producers & Engineers Wing.

Jan Skoglund
Jan Skoglund leads a team at Google in San Francisco, CA, developing speech and audio signal processing components for capture, real-time communication, storage, and rendering. These components have been deployed in Google software products such as Meet and hardware products such as Chromebooks. After receiving his Ph.D. degree at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, 1998, he worked on low bit rate speech coding at AT &T Labs-Research, Florham Park, NJ. He was with Global IP Solutions (GIPS), San Francisco, CA, from 2000 to 2011 working on speech and audio processing, such as compression, enhancement, and echo cancellation, tailored for packet-switched networks. GIPS’ audio and video technology was found in many deployments by, e.g., IBM, Google, Yahoo, WebEx, Skype, and Samsung, and was open-sourced as WebRTC after a 2011 acquisition by Google. Since then he has been a part of Chrome at Google. Jan is the vice chair of AES Technical Committee on Coding of Audio Signals.

Jessica Powell
Jessica Powell is the CEO and co-founder of AudioShake, a sound-splitting AI technology that makes audio more editable, accessible, and useful, powering new creative use and monetization across broadcast, film, TV, and music. Powell spent over a decade at Google, where she sat on the company’s management team. She is also an award-winning author whose work has been published in the New York Times, TIME, WIRED, and elsewhere.

Deep Sen
Proven industry leader with senior management positions at Apple & Qualcomm with stints in Academia and a Bell Labs alumni. Technical leadership and direction in Audio Signal Processing, Immersive Media, Broadcasting, Codecs, Machine Learning, Hearing Aids and Cochlear Prosthetics. Multiple publications & granted patents.

Brian Gibbs
Brian (Bt) “Gibbs”, principal at Skyline Entertainment and Publishing (www.SkylineEP.com) and Tool Shed Studios is a producer and engineer whose credits include assistant engineer on the 2015 GRAMMY winning album “Realidades” (Los Tigres del Norte). The studio, located in Morgan Hill California produces over 50 record credits annually. Committed to helping our SF Chapter make a difference for music creators.Gibbs a graduate of Berklee College of Music B.M. (Jazz Composition) is engaged in a number of organizational, networking and educational initiatives.

Jean-Marc Jot
Globally recognized audio technology innovator in consumer electronics and pro markets, currently focusing more particularly on immersive audio, hearing personalization and music technology innovation. I founded Virtuel Works to help accelerate the development and deployment of audio, voice and music computing technologies that will power immersive experiences. Previously, I initiated and drove the development of novel sound processing technologies, platforms and standards for virtual and augmented reality, gaming, broadcast, cinema, and music creation – with Magic Leap, Creative Labs, DTS / Xperi, and iZotope / Native Instruments. Before relocating to California in the late 90s, I conducted research at IRCAM in Paris, where I created the Spat software library for immersive music creation and performance. Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, regular speaker in industry and academic events. Authored numerous publications and patents on digital audio signal processing.

Meta's Immersive Studios Tour
2026-02-18 18:00 - 21:00
AES San Francisco members are invited to an exclusive tour of Meta’s Creative Audio Studios for an exclusive tour of the state-of-the-art immersive studios operated by the Meta Creative Audio – Studio Production Team.
We’ll explore a range of world-class facilities, including:

A spacious 9.1.6 immersive audio room
Dedicated 7.1.4 rooms
Multiple 5.1 suites
A professional foley stage
A large music studio

During the tour, you’ll learn about Meta’s work in immersive audio—what drives their innovation, how they’re pushing boundaries, and the impact of some of their projects. Experience a selection of music created by the team, and get a glimpse of where their work is headed next.
Light hors d’oeuvres and non-alcoholic refreshments will be provided.

Sony Playstation
2026-03-31 18:00 - 21:00
AES San Francisco members are invited to an exclusive tour of Sony PlayStation’s Creative Arts Music & Sound Studios for a one-of-a-kind open house event and exclusive tour of PlayStation Studios’ state-of-the-art facilities, hosted by AES SF chapter member Anthony Caruso and the PlayStation Studios Music Team.
The team will present their production pipeline for interactive music, with live Wwise demos showing how their workflow translates to the in-game experience. You’ll also hear about their work across game IP extensions—including TV, film, live concerts, and GRAMMY®-nominated soundtracks like Helldivers II, God of War: Ragnarok, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Following the presentation, you’ll tour Studio A’s control room for an interactive music demo and explore the rest of the Music & Sound department.
Light hors d’oeuvres and non-alcoholic refreshments will be provided.
Schedule:
Doors: 6:00 PM Networking and refreshments
Presentation: 7:00-8:00 PM
Q&A: 8:00-9:00 PM
This is an exclusive event for AES Members. It’s free, but you need to RSVP using your member number in the promo field to book your spot for this special event. (Invitations will be sent to AES San Francisco members in March.)

Physical Modeling Synthesis History, Applications and the Future
2026-05-18 18:00 - 21:00 | CCRMA | Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, 660 Lomita Drive, The Knoll, Room 217, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
Join AES San Francisco for a presentation on Physical Modeling Synthesis History, Applications and the Future, with Gregory Pat Scandalis, Dr. Julius O Smith III, Nick Porcaro and Jordan Rudess at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
Schedule:
6:00 pm doors, networking & refreshments
7:00-9:00 pm presentation
The story of physical modeling spans nearly a thousand years—from early explorations of acoustics to today’s cutting-edge synthesis technologies. We now live in a time when anyone can perform like Jimi Hendrix with just small device in the palm of their hands. It’s a fun and deeply technical topic, drawing on many fields, including physics, acoustics, digital signal processing and music.
This tutorial will explore:

A historical overview of physical modeling synthesis, illustrated with compelling audio examples.
The critical role of MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) in unlocking the expressive potential of physical models.
Practical applications for composers and orchestrators using physical modeling instruments.
Future Applications of Physical Modeling including MIDI 2, the MIDI 2 Orchestral Articulation Profile, and AI Virtual Performers controlling Physical Models.

Bios:

Pat Scandalis
Julius Smith
Jordan Rudess
Nick Porcaro

Light hors d’oeuvres and non-alcoholic refreshments will be provided.
This event requires advance sign-up.
Get Tickets

Radio Repair Event at the CHRS Vintage Radio Museum
2026-06-06 14:00 - 17:00 | CHRS Vintage Radio Museum, 2152 Central Avenue, Alameda, CA, 94501, United States
The San Francisco Audio Engineering Society will be teaming up with the California Historic Radio Society for a fix-it even on their vintage radios. Together we’ll be trouble-shooting and fixing radios in the CHRS Vintage Radio Museum.

This event requires tickets. Reservation information will be sent to AES San Francisco members this spring.

Studio Crawl & Mixer 2026 - East Bay
2026-09-25 12:00 - 22:00
We’re bringing back our East Bay studio crawl on Friday, September 25th, with a mix of returning studios and some new additions. This is a one-day opportunity to visit some of the top audio facilities in the Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley & Richmond area, followed by an audio-industry mixer at 25th Street Recording in Oakland.
Schedule
12:00 pm to 5:00 pm: Open Studios
You can get an inside look at many of the rehearsal, recording and post-production studios in the East Bay. Be sure to pick up a raffle ticket at each stop, for a chance to win our raffle prizes at the mixer. The more studios you visit, the more chances to win.
AES San Francisco will provide details for finding participating facilities to registered participants, and you’ll be responsible for your own for transportation. There is no shuttle. If you’re car-challenged, many of the studios can be reached by BART, bus or bike.
5:00 pm to 10:00 pm:
Audio mixer and raffle at 25th Street Recording.
Mingle with other local Bay Area professional audio people and maybe win some prizes from the raffle drawing. AES will be providing refreshments for attendees at the mixer.
Participating Studios in 2026 include:

25th Street Recording
Studio 132

More studios to be added. Tickets will be available this summer.
