awards

Webbys highlight convergence of digital culture, comedy

NEW YORK--Actor B.J. Novak, host of the 14th Annual Webby Awards on Monday night, was--much like his character on sitcom "The Office"--a little too smarmy for his own good.

"This year, The New York Times is a big winner!" Novak said of the storied media establishment in his opening monologue at the Webbys, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek presentation of Slinky-shaped trophies to both judge- and audience-selected winners in innumerable categories. "The New York Times, accepting an award from the Internet, the very thing that threatened to destroy it! Who knows, maybe next year the … Read more

Crave giveaway of the week: Ticket to the Webby Awards

We interrupt this weekly Crave giveaway to make the following important announcement: CNET.com and CNET TV have won a total of three Webby Awards.

Earlier this week, we learned that CNET TV picked up the People's Choice and the judge's award in the technology category, besting video offerings from Al Gore-funded Current TV, Engadget, and The Onion (of which we're big fans).

Additionally, CNET.com was the People's Voice Winner in the guides/ratings/reviews category, out-polling Web sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Metacritic, another property of CBS Interactive that earned the judge's … Read more

The Audiophillie Music Award winners write, perform, and record their tunes

Move over "American Idol," the Audiophillie Music Awards for Excellence in Recorded Sound contest winners are way more talented. They don't just sing--they play instruments, write, and record their own tunes.

Zachary LeFeber's band Magnet South entered "Move On," and I'm glad they did. Zach's the drummer and a very talented audio engineer. A nice fella by the name of Matthew Winner handled vocals and guitar. Magnet South has a blog, where you can see how the music takes shape. The band has been together for two and a half years, but they have real jobs so they haven't played around all that much. Zach recorded "Move On" in his house, using a Sonar digital workstation. He considers himself something of an audiophile, so I wasn't surprised to hear he's getting into vinyl.

Alan Carter wasn't planning on entering the contest, but he had just bought a new Woodpecker ribbon microphone and wanted to record something to try it out. He used the new mic to record everything but the lead vocal and guitar on "Georgia," which was written and sung by Phil Palma. Alan's studio partner Jake played electric guitar; Phil was on acoustic guitar; and Alan played bass.

Alan works for Sweetwater Sound and sells equipment to recording studios,--no wonder "Georgia" sounds so fine. The song was recorded to half-inch analog tape, and, obviously, I didn't know that when I first picked it as a winner. Alan feels that even the best digital recordings never sound as sweet as analog. That's not to say he avoids digital completely--"Georgia" was digitally mixed in Pro Tools, before bouncing it back to analog tape. He concedes there's a lot that you can't do in analog, so he takes a hybrid approach.… Read more

Boy Scouts to get video game awards

The Boy Scouts of America has added two awards for kids to earn, the group announced Wednesday. But the focus of these awards might surprise you.

Rather than teach survival techniques, the awards will allow scouts to earn a belt loop or academics pin by playing video games.

Earning the belt loop is actually quite simple. Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts can get the loop by explaining "why it is important to have a rating system for video games." They also need to "create a schedule" that includes "chores, homework, and video gaming.&… Read more

Have a microphone? You could win Monster Turbine headphones

OK, maybe the name of the contest, "The Audiophillie Music Awards for Excellence in Recorded Sound" is a little intimidating. If that's what's holding you back, rest easy; record some tunes from an unsigned band, or your uncle playing Grateful Dead tunes on a banjo and you could win. A recording of a tuba playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" might be a contender.

Lo-fi entries are welcome, so if you sing or play any instrument, you have a shot at winning a set of either Monster Turbine Pro Gold ($299) or Pro Copper ($399) … Read more

Audio Idol, where the sound is the thing

"American Idol" it's not, so instead of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Mary J. Blige, or Neil Patrick Harris, The Audiophiliac is the sole judge for The Audiophillie Music Awards For Excellence In Recorded Sound contest.

I keep hearing that every kid with a guitar or a mic can make a great recording. Bands record their own tunes all the time. Well, here's a chance to get your music heard and a buzz going on the Audiophiliac. Oh, and six winners will each receive a set of Monster Turbine Pro Gold ($299) or Pro Copper ($… Read more

Microsoft researcher wins Turing Award

Computing industry pioneer Chuck Thacker was honored Tuesday with the industry's highest prize--the A. M. Turing Award.

Thacker, who these days works in Microsoft's Silicon Valley research lab, helped create personal computing at Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center and is one of the co-creators of both the Alto personal computer and Ethernet networking.

In an interview Tuesday, Thacker said he was surprised that he would even be considered for the Turing Award, which typically goes to folks on the software or theory side of things.

"I was flabbergasted," Thacker said. "The last one … Read more

Let's hear it for Oscar nominees for sound

There are two Oscar categories for best sound: best sound editing and best sound mixing. The sound editor designs and pre-plans the sound for the film. If it's a special-effects movie like "Avatar," the sound editor supervises the crew charged with creating the film's soundscape, including all of the sound effects.

Sound editors and mixers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the film biz; they don't get any respect. Look for their names at the very end of the credits, way, way down there with the caterers, hair stylists, and dog wranglers. Yet their mission is near impossible: create a seamless soundtrack that is, in fact, constructed from thousands of sonic fragments.

It's a colossal multichannel jigsaw puzzle, except a lot of the pieces don't fit. It's the mixers' soundtrack machinations that thrust the audience into the reality of the film they're experiencing--the subterfuge totally works--most viewers believe they're watching a literal record of what the camera "saw" and what the microphones "heard." Depending on the type of movie you're watching, most, sometimes 90 percent of the sound was recorded after the film was shot.

The mixers typically work on 15- to 20-second sections of a film, running the sequence over and over, constantly tweaking the balances. They might get hung up on a single music cue for 2 hours. Movies still run at 24 frames per second, and each frame of picture might have hundreds of sound elements. There are background tracks (traffic, wind noise, etc), specific effects tracks (gun shots, birds chirping, etc), foreground dialogue tracks, background dialog (for crowd scenes), plus lots and lots of music tracks.

Music mixing always requires finesse, moving the music in relationship to the picture as little as two frames can completely shift its impact on the scene. Moving a bar here, a downbeat there--it's all about how the music blends with the effects and dialogue--it's easy to lose it. Changes in the music's equalization, balance, and volume can change from picture cut to cut.

Mixing a film is a highly technical endeavor, but at the end of the day, it's not a nuts-and-bolts medium, the film has to feel right. Picture editing dictates the internal rhythms, but sound pushes the film; it has all the little engines that make things happen. It's what gets you caught up in the emotions of the story.… Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: ILM on the future of visual effects (podcast)

This show is about one of the categories for the Academy Awards: visual effects. This year, there are three films up for awards in the visual effects category: Avatar, Star Trek, and District 9. We're going to be talking with Russell Earl of Industrial Light & Magic. Russell was co-visual effects supervisor for one of those films, Star Trek, and also worked on Transformers, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, and two of the Star Wars movies.

Also joining us is CNET writer Daniel Terdiman, who covers digital media, culture, and gaming for the Geek Gestalt blog on CNET.

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