AES Copenhagen 2026 Farvel

AES in Copenhagen could have been worse, as we say in the part of Denmark I come from. The sold-out, three day convention offered a global presenter line-up, 7 parallel tracks, and a mix of fine masterclasses, workshops, tutorials and papers.

Kseniya Kawko’s 3D Masterclass, including high resolution live recordings.

Two excellent listening rooms were always full, one used for 3D recordings, the other for stereo and student critiques. Facilitation of relevant listening together, I think has become the single most important reason for us to meet physically, even a deciding point of AES conventions, and of Europe’s flagship pro audio event, Tonmeistertagung.

The 3D room in Copenhagen had 7.1.4 monitoring based on Genelec 8381A, 8351B and 7382A in an ITU-R BS.2051, Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D compatible configuration. As a rarity outside actual studios, the room followed ITU-R BS.1116 recommendations, considering both time and frequency domain criteria. In some masterclasses, measurements and test signals were used to demonstrate just how important such neutrality is for fully understanding a recording, and, for instance, the spacing between microphones when capturing a performance or sounds of nature.

Every time I forgot to mention the front 8341s were only used as luxury PA for the microphones in the 3D room, Anders stood up to explain it.

For most, the stereo room at AES was also a first chance to hear the fine, new Genelec 8380A main coaxial monitors, with or without stereo bass management and 7380A subwoofers.

The stereo room hosted student Mix Critiques and papers or workshops requiring reference stereo playback.

Use of Headphones in Monitoring

Besides from the Copenhagen convention offering stellar and unique 3D content presented by some of the world’s finest recording artists, in a quality not yet available to the public; several papers, workshops and tutorials revolved around monitoring in-room vs listening via headphones.

Key table from the Use of Headphones workshop, comparing stereo reproduction via Main Monitors, Nearfields, Headphones and Home Stereo on select perceptual qualities.

The convention also gave an opportunity to evaluate various headphone rendering applications, including Genelec Aural ID, which provides stereo and 3D listening based on your own outer ear physiological features, but without adding any listening room distortion.

Qu Lu (Marketing & Communication Manager, Beijing Genelec Audio) and Darren Rose (R&D Project Manager, Genelec Oy) comparing listening to Genelec 8331 ultra-nearfields with listening to Aural ID and 8550 headphones.

Safe Listening

With clinical trials over the past 15 years clearly showing safe listening guidelines in pro audio were previously too lax, it was good to see AES Copenhagen taking the topic seriously. Not only in Dorte Hammershøi’s excellent Heyser lecture but also in various papers and tutorials.

Europe and WHO are frontrunners at getting updated information disseminated, and this convention was no exception. The 3D listening room actually included uninterrupted measurement of sound exposure (part of the GLM application), which each day stayed below 30%, relatively to the EU lower action potential and WHO maximum daily exposure.

Acknowledgements

…for enabling fine listening in Copenhagen go to AES facilities chair, Eddy Bøgh Brixen; and to Anders Nyman and Ossi Saarikko from Genelec, for installing and tirelessly piloting the two convention-making monitoring systems.

Concentrated listener in George Massenburg’s packed masterclass Saturday afternoon.

See the collection of photos below for more memorable moments from a truly enjoyable convention.

Florian Camerer playing remarkable 3D outdoor recordings made with his portable UFIX array
| George Massenburg. The reason many of us chose a life in pro audio. To know him is to love him.

Gianluca Grazioli’s informative talk and examples on active acoustics systems in recording studios | Jim and Ulrike Anderson treating attendees to an excellent selection of hi-res 3D recordings.

Jules Ryckebusch during sound check of his extraordinary 3D ocean and whale recordings.

Katia Sochaczewska and Hyunkook Lee playing ECHO project 3D recordings | Kimio Hamasaki playing hi-res 3D recordings from the magnificent Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.

Kseniya Kawko playing an excellent mix of live and studio recordings in her 3D Masterclass | Lasse Nipkow in “Creating Emotional Space with Layered Sounds in 3D Audio”.

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Li Dakang’s 3D Masterclass with fabulous Chinese recordings | Translation by Feng Hanying, Mariusz Szypura, Jacek Gawlowski et al. in the making of the Chopin Residue Project.

Mikolaj Tchórzewski in “Nexus Sonance”, based on 3D sonifying real-time satellite data | Morten Lindberg giving a 3D Masterclass for a packed room, listening slowly.

Richard King’s excellent 3D Masterclass also ran out of seats | Stefan Bock rounded off Thursday with a great sounding, 3D Masterclass-party.

Genelec's Solja Nieminen and Anne Martikainen | Thomas Lund, host of the 3D Masterclasses | Anders Nyman and Ossi Saarikko calmly piloting the 3D and stereo listening rooms.

Main image: The Genelec Team: Feng Hanying, Qu Lu, Solja Nieminen, Ossi Saarikko, Anders Nyman, Anne Martikainen, Darren Rose, Thomas Lund and Lars-Olof Janflod. Adriana Tovar took the picture, and Juha Holm was busy re-discovering his old campus.