35 Years of Digital Audio in the Entertainment Industry

James A. (Andy) Moorer

This presentation will be a random-walk through the author's experience of bringing advanced digital audio technology to problems in the entertainment industry, along with comments about how the industry has changed over this period, and some of the implications for the future of technology in entertainment.

Included will be examples from the professional audio industry and film industry, selected from the author's own career, starting from research at Stanford University, through the "Star Wars" years at Lucasfilm, to CD mastering applications at Sonic Solutions to the present. A number of audio examples from each era will accompany the presentation.

James A. Moorer is an internationally-known figure in digital audio and computer music, with over 40 technical publications and four patents to his credit. In 1991, he won the Audio Engineering Society Silver award for lifetime achievement. In 1996, he won an Emmy Award for Technical Achievement with his partners, Robert J. Doris and Mary C. Sauer for Sonic Solutions/NoNOISE¨ for Noise Reduction on Television Broadcast Sound Tracks. In 1999, he won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Engineering Award (Oscar) . . . for his pioneering work in the design of digital signal processing and its application to audio editing for film. He is currently working at Adobe Systems, Inc. as Senior Computer Scientist in the DVD Team. From 1987-2001, Dr. Moorer has served as Senior Vice President for Advanced Development at Sonic Solutions, and is responsible for the NoNOISE¨ package for restoration of vintage recordings. From 1986 to 1987, Dr. Moorer consulted for NeXT, Inc., on DSP software architecture for audio processing. From 1985 to 1986, he was the chief technical officer at the Lucasfilm Droid Works. From 1980 to 1985, he was the digital audio project leader at Lucasfilm, Ltd. From 1977-1980, he was the Reponsable Scientifique (technical advisor) at IRCAM in Paris. From 1975 to 1977, he was the co-director of the Stanford Computer Center for Research in Music and Acoustics. From 1968 to 1972, he was a professional programmer at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Dr. Moorer holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, granted in 1975 . Prior to that, Dr. Moorer earned an S.B. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1968, and an S.B. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1967.