Creative and Technical Achievement Winners Announced at 32nd TEC Awards

PRESTIGIOUS LES PAUL AWARD PRESENTED TO AEROSMITH’S JOE PERRY WHO JAMS LIVE WITH BANDMATES

JOHNNY DEPP & ALICE COOPER

AEROSMITH PRODUCER & ENGINEER JACK DOUGLAS INDUCTED INTO

NAMM TEC HALL OF FAME

Comedian Sinbad returned as host

Presenters included Johnny Depp, Lita Ford, The Foo Fighters’ Rami Jaffee & Jessy Green, Om’Mas, Jerry Harrison, Geoff Emerick, Jeff Greenberg (Village Recorder), Eric Boulanger

Winners in 31 technical and creative achievement categories were announced at the 32nd Annual NAMM TEC AWARDS, presented annually by the NAMM Foundation and held January 21 in Anaheim, CA. The annual event celebrates the best in professional audio and sound production and is held during The NAMM Show, the world’s leading global music industry trade event. Comedian Sinbad returned to host for the third time.

Four companies – AVID, iZotope, Sennheiser and Solid State Logic – scored several Outstanding Technical Achievement awards, each taking home two statues each. AVID’s Pro Tools Dock and Pro Tools 12.3 picked up in Workstation Technology and Audio Apps & Hardware categories; iZotope in a new designation: Audio Education Technology, for the company’s Pro Audio Essentials and the Ozone 7 Advanced in the category of Signal Processing Software; Sennheiser in Wireless and Headphone/Earpiece Technology categories for the Wireless G3 A-1 Band and the HD 25 Plus and finally Solid State Logic for Large and Small Console Technology categories for the System T and the Sigma Delta. Outstanding Technical Achievement honors were chosen in 23 categories.

“Game of Thrones” returned for its second win in a year for Outstanding Creative Achievement in the Television Sound Production category. Following a posthumous recent birthday milestone, David Bowie’s Blackstar EP won in two categories – Record Production Album & Single respectively. Several Star Wars-themed projects beat out the competition as well: Star Wars: The Force Awakens from Lucasfilm won for Film Sound Production while Star Wars: Battlefront won for Interactive Entertainment Sound Production. Outstanding Creative Achievement honors were chosen in eight categories.

Joe Perry, one of music’s most significant artists and executives, received the evening’s highest honor, the Les Paul Award, presented to remarkably-distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry. Hollywood Vampires bandmate and actor Johnny Depp presented Perry with the award, then joined Perry, Brad Whitford, and Alice Cooper on stage for a live performance.

Perry dedicated the award to his manager Howard Kaufman, who recently passed away. News is forthcoming related to Perry’s upcoming sixth solo album. Learn more here.

Keeping it in the family, famed Aerosmith engineer and producer Jack Douglas also became the newest inductee to the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame. Douglas engineered and produced many multi-platinum associated for many of Aerosmith’s most iconic releases and is affectionately dubbed "the sixth member” of the band.

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

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Amplification Hardware - Studio & Sound Reinforcement

Crown XLS DriveCore 2

Ancillary Equipment

Rupert Neve Designs RNHP: Precision Headphone Amplifier

Audio Apps & Hardware/Peripherals for Smartphones/Tablets

AVID Pro Tools | Dock

Audio Education Technology – (new category)

iZotope Pro Audio Essentials

Computer Audio Hardware

Universal Audio Apollo Twin USB Interface

DJ Production Technology - Hardware/Software – (new category)

Native Instruments TRAKTOR Kontrol S5

Headphone / Earpiece Technology

Sennheiser HD 25 Plus

Large Format Console Technology

Solid State Logic System T

Microphone Preamplifiers

AMS Neve 1073DPX

Microphones – Recording

Schoeps ORTF-3D

Microphones - Sound Reinforcement

Shure KSM8 Dualdyne

Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects

Softube Marshall JMP 2203

Musical Instrument Hardware

Moog Music Mother-32

Musical Instrument Software

Softube Marshall Bluesbreaker 1962

Signal Processing Hardware

Warm Audio WA-2A Tube Opto Compressor

Signal Processing Hardware (500 Series Modules)

API 512V

Signal Processing Software (Dynamics / EQ / Utilities)

iZotope Ozone 7 Advanced

Signal Processing Software (Effects)

Soundtoys 5

Small Format Console Technology

Solid State Logic Sigma Delta

Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers

Meyer Sound MJF-208 Stage Monitor

Studio Monitors

Genelec 8430A IP SAM

Wireless Technology

Sennheiser evolution Wireless G3 A-1 Band

Workstation Technology / Recording Devices

AVID Pro Tools 12.3

CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT

Film Sound Production

Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Interactive Entertainment Sound Production

DICE / Electronic Arts Star Wars: Battlefront

Record Production – Album

David Bowie Blackstar

Record Production – Single

David Bowie Blackstar

Remote Production - Recording or Broadcast

CBS 58th Grammy Awards

Studio Design Project

Walters-Storyk Design Group Boston Symphony Orchestra Control Room

Television Sound Production

HBO Game of Thrones

Tour/Event Sound Production

Sting and Peter Gabriel Rock Paper Scissors North American Tour

In total, winners were selected from 180 nominees. Title sponsors for the show included The Les Paul Foundation, Harman and Visit Anaheim. 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.

High-resolution images for editorial use are available here - http://assignments.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/gyipa_public?nav=pr500497288

Please photo credit all Getty images to 'Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM.’

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