Technical & Creative Excellence Winners Announced at The 34th Annual NAMM TEC Awards

Presenters Included Herbie Hancock, Steve Lukather, Leslie Ann Jones, Rafa Sardina at Show Hosted by Comedian Demetri Martin

Winners in 23 technical and eight creative excellence categories were announced at the 34th Annual NAMM TEC AWARDS, Saturday, January 26, from the global NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. Presented by The NAMM Foundation and held annually, the event recognizes the exemplary achievements and innovations behind the sound of recordings, live performances, films, television, video games and multi-media. Comedian Demetri Martin returned as host.

Several companies scored dual wins for Outstanding Technical Achievement: Universal Audio picked up two awards for their OX Amp Top Box under the category of Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects, while their Arrow audio interface won for Computer Audio Hardware. JBL also celebrated dual wins for their 3 Series MkII under the Studio Monitors category, and in Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers for the company’s VTX A12W Line Array Loudspeaker.

Additional Outstanding Technical Achievement awards were given in honor of companies who excelled in DJ Production Technology, Hardware/Software, Wireless Technology, Microphones Recording, and more.

Ceatives behind Game of Thrones continued their encore appearances on the NAMM TEC stage year-after-year, this time under the best in Sound in Television Production winner’s spot, as a part of the projects chosen for Outstanding Creative Achievement. The 60th Annual GRAMMY® Awards (CBS Television Network), picked up another win for Remote Production/Recording or Broadcasting, after sweeping the same category the prior year.

Proving the NAMM TEC Awards is one of the best nights in music, songwriter Steve Lukather was on hand to introduce GRAMMY award-winning guitarist, singer-songwriter Peter Frampton as the newest recipient of the Les Paul Innovation Award. After rocking the hall with several classics that included “I Want You to Love Me,” and “Four Day Creep,” dedicated to the late Chris Cornell, Frampton remarked, “Les Paul was the Godfather of modern recording, the most innovative of guitar players, and the creator of what we do. It’s a debt we all owe him. Whatever I’ve done to win this amazing recognition started with Les – Les showed us that innovation isn’t about high tech or money – it’s about ideas and using the tools at your disposal to make music in ways it’s never been made before.” The award has been presented annually to remarkably-distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry, such as Jackson Browne, Joe Perry, Todd Rundgren, Pete Townshend, Lindsey Buckingham and beyond. Read more about The Les Paul Foundation by visiting https://www.lespaulfoundation.org/.

Skywalker Sound’s accomplished engineer, producer and director of music and scoring, Leslie Ann Jones, was inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame and earlier in the evening, presented a TEC Award for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Jones was introduced by jazz great Herbie Hancock, and is now among the coveted few inductees fit for the honor, which recognizes pioneers of audio technology, as well as the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians. Rose Mann Cherney, Skunk Baxter, Hal Blaine, Jack Douglas, Nathan East, Geoff Emerick and others have also been honored in recent years.

The NAMM TEC Awards were held during The NAMM Show, the global crossroads of the music products, pro audio and sound, and event technology industries. In total, winners in the 23 categories were selected from hundreds of product and project nominees. The final winners were chosen by a group of experts from all facets of the pro audio and sound production industries.

Title sponsors for the show included The Les Paul Foundation, D'Angelico New York, as well as many additional friends and long-time industry advocates. A full list of sponsors can be found here. Many of the evening’s winning products and technologies are available at music and pro audio retailers worldwide both online and in stores.

A complete list of Technical and Creative Achievement winners can be found below and here.

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Amplification Hardware/Studio & Sound Reinforcement
Grace Design - m908 Surround Monitor Controller

Audio Apps & Hardware/Peripherals for Smartphones & Tablets
Yamaha - CL/QL StageMix v.7

Audio Education Technology
Produce Like A Pro - Produce Like A Pro

Computer Audio Hardware
Universal Audio - Arrow

DJ Production Technology (Hardware/Software)
Pioneer DJ - DDJ-1000 Controller

Headphone/Earpiece Technology
Audio-Technica - ATH-M60x

Large Format Console Technology
Solid State Logic - SSL Live L100

Microphone Preamplifiers
Rupert Neve Designs - RMP-D8

Microphones – Recording
Neumann - U 67

Microphones – Sound Reinforcement
Sennheiser - HSP Essential Omni

Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects
Universal Audio - OX Amp Top Box

Musical Instrument Hardware
Dave Smith Instruments - Sequential Prophet X

Musical Instrument Software
EastWest Sounds - Hollywood Choirs

Production Essentials
PreSonus - FaderPort 16

Signal Processing Hardware
Eventide - H9000

Signal Processing Hardware (500 Series Modules)
API - 529 Stereo Compressor

Signal Processing Software (Dynamics/EQ /Utilities)
iZotope - Ozone 8 Mastering Suite

Signal Processing Software (Effects)
Soundtoys - Little Plate Plug-In

Small Format Console Technology
Allen & Heath - SQ Series Mixers

Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers
JBL - VTX A12W

Studio Monitors
JBL - 3 Series MkII

Wireless Technology
Sennheiser - evolution wireless G4

Workstation Technology/Recording Devices
Avid - Pro Tools Ultimate

CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT

Film Sound Production
Black Panther (Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Interactive Entertainment Sound Production
Star Wars Battlefront II (DICE / Electronic Arts)

Record Production/Album
Colors, Beck (Capitol)

Record Production/Single or Track
“This Is America,” Childish Gambino (mcDJ / RCA)

Remote Production/Recording or Broadcasting
60th Annual GRAMMY Awards (CBS Television Network)

Studio Design Project
Sound on Sound Studios, Montclair, NJ (David Amlen)

Television Sound Production
Game of Thrones (HBO / Warner Bros. Television)

Tour Event Sound Production
Man of the Woods Tour, Justin Timberlake (Clair Global)

High-resolution images for editorial use are available here – https://assignments.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/gyipa_public?nav=pr637196769 - Please photo credit all Getty images for NAMM.’

For more information about NAMM TEC Awards, visit www.tecawards.org. For more information about The Les Paul Foundation, visit https://www.lespaulfoundation.org.

About The NAMM Foundation
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission of advancing active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs from the international music products industry.

About the NAMM TEC Awards
Presented annually by the NAMM Foundation during The NAMM Show, The NAMM TEC Awards recognizes the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, live performances, films, television, video games and other media in 23 Technical and 8 Creative Achievement Categories. The Les Paul Innovation Award is given at the event in tribute to musical artists and others whose work has exemplified the creative application of audio technology. Through its Hall of Fame, The TEC Awards also honors the pioneers of audio technology and the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians. The NAMM Foundation’s TECnology Hall of Fame celebrates innovations and groundbreaking technical achievements of the past. For more information, visit www.tecawards.org