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David M. Smith
In 1973 David M. Smith began his professional career at the famed A&R Studios in New York City where his technical prowess earned him the respect of owner/engineer Phil Ramone. He was chief technical engineer at A&R until 1982, and many landmark recordings were done there under his stewardship. In 1982 he went on to work for Editel as chief audio technician, where he designed and built New York's premier audio post facility ordering one of the first SSL6000 consoles and implementing Adams Smith Synchronizers for more precise audio/video synchronization.
Shortly after the acquisition of CBS Masterworks by Sony Music in 1989, Smith was hired to design and implement a state-of-the-art facility later named Sony Classical Productions Inc. SCPI was mandated to work with Sony's Pro Audio division to create new recordings using new technologies. The Pro Audio division quickly came to appreciate Smith's abilities and enlisted his services in the development of new technologies, including jitter suppression, word clocks and dithering. In 1994, Smith and Sony Music Studios were enlisted to beta test the earliest Direct-Stream-Digital (DSD) devices. Convinced of DSD's qualities, he became essential in translating its merits and benefits to Sony Music and the audio community at large. Sony and many other labels would go on to deliver their products in the DSD format via Super Audio CDs. Ultimately Smith was a pioneer in high-resolution audio. Many devices he built preceded their commercial counterparts by months or years.
From 1995 until his untimely death in 2006, Smith served as vice president of audio technical engineering at Sony Music Studios in New York where he oversaw and continually updated 24 multi-format rooms that encompass every facet of audio production. He installed a succession of "New York's first" consoles there and designed custom mixing and mastering consoles in both analog and digital configurations. He was frequently called on by the audio industry to consult on a myriad of formats and platforms and personally oversaw the transfer and digitizing of priceless master tapes sent from all over the world to his attention. A frequent presenter of papers to the Audio Engineering Society on vintage microphones and audio restoration, he also served on the AES Technical Council and as vice chairman of the Technical Committee on Studio Practices and Production. David Smith's lifelong passion and pursuit of superior audio reproduction as well as his free and humble sharing of knowledge makes him richly deserving of a Technical GRAMMY Award.
Yamaha Corporation
Founded in 1887, Yamaha Corporation, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of musical instruments, has been innovating professional audio technology for virtually as long as there has been a sound recording industry. In the 1970s, Yamaha began to develop digital signal processing (DSP) systems that helped form the basis for the emerging digital recording industry and for how sound, space and time could be manipulated. One of those early commercial achievements was the REV-1 digital reverb unit, introduced in 1984, which for the first time accurately recreated three-dimensional ambient effects. In 1986, the single-rack-space Yamaha SPX-90 brought even more processing power to more users at a lower cost and with a simpler interface.
The diversity of Yamaha's innovation is illustrated by the introduction, in 1987, of the trusted and ultimately ubiquitous NS-10 studio reference monitor in 1982. Acclaimed for its reality-based monitoring, the NS-10 evolved into an industry standard still embraced 20 years later by professional engineers, producers, recording studios and post facilities worldwide. Similarly, Yamaha transformed the realm of mixers with the debut of the 8-input DMP7, the first small mixer to incorporate memory settings. In 1994, the ProMix 01, an 18-input stereo mixer, brought full-featured performance to the small mixer category, with 3-band parametric EQ, built-in limiter/compressors and effect processors, snapshot recall, MIDI-based automation, and a 24-bit mix bus using 20-bit A/D D/A converters. The Yamaha 02R recording and mixing console soon followed and became the template for the next generation of digital music recording, with digital interface capability to all popular audio formats, built-in dynamics and effects on every input, and onboard automation.
With an ever-expanding line of even more powerful and sophisticated consoles and mixers, including the DM1000, DM2000, 01V96 and 02R96 systems, Yamaha continues to advance technology with powerful recording solutions. Yamaha has also helped redefine the arena of live performance, bringing new technology and power to live sound mix consoles, such as the landmark PM-1D console. In all aspects of how digital has revolutionized the way music is created, recorded, heard and performed, Yamaha has been at the forefront since day one.
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