Good evening, everyone!
Opening Address by Prof Dr Agnieszka Roginska at the Connecting Audio Night
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Agnieszka Roginska, Fotos: Ella See, Markus Thiel
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"You know, standing here tonight at the Tonmeistertagung, I can't help but think about what a unique privilege this is.
It's truly an honor to be standing here at this Tonmeistertagung banquet, surrounded by some of the finest audio minds in Europe and in the world. Looking around this room, I see people who've dedicated their lives to capturing sound in all its glory, whether it's the subtle resonance of a Steinway, the roar of a stadium crowd, or the whisper of dialogue in a film scene. The Verband Deutscher Tonmeister has been renowned for audio excellence for 75 years.
The history of our field is extraordinary. When the VDT was founded in 1949, we were still figuring out magnetic tape. Some of the founding members of this organization were pioneers who helped establish the very foundations of modern recording. They had a handful of microphones, a couple of channels, and were cutting lacquers by hand - no plugins, no DAWs, no undo button - and still managed to capture performances that move us today. At the end of the day, it’s not about the technology. It’s what you do with the technology. The founders built this organization with a commitment to excellence that has lasted 75 years, growing from a small film sound association to nearly 2,000 members representing the audio industry. We stand on the shoulders of giants who understood that audio isn't just a technical discipline. It's an art form.
Over the decades, we've witnessed and driven so much change: from mono to stereo, from analog to digital, from 2-channel to immersive audio. Each generation thought they'd reached the pinnacle, and each generation was wonderfully wrong. The VDT has been there through all of it, maintaining standards, fostering education, and reminding us that at the end of the day, it's all about serving the music and the artist's vision.
My students in New York City walk into class with earphones that do computational audio processing more powerful than the entire studio I learned in. They've grown up with spatial audio in their pockets. They think latency means something taking more than 30 milliseconds. But here's what's beautiful: they come to learn from people like us because they understand that technology without artistry is just equipment. They want to understand psychoacoustics, critical listening, the philosophy of sound. They want to know why things sound the way they do, not just which button to press. This gives me hope.
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So let's talk about where we're going, because frankly, I think we're living in the most exciting era our field has ever seen.
Spatial audio is finally having its moment. And I don't mean having "a moment" like over a decade ago with object based audio, when we all nodded politely and went back to stereo or surround. I mean truly having its moment. The industry’s adoption of spatial audio, the gaming industry's sophisticated use of object-based audio, the fact that people are actually listening to immersive music at home. The binaural rendering technology we have today would seem like magic to those VDT founders. We can create convincing 3D soundfields through headphones. We have a large number of consumer products that can track a listener's head movement and update the audio scene in real-time.
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And here's the thing: it's not just a gimmick anymore. Artists are finally thinking spatially from the beginning. The creative language is changing. I want to talk for a moment about AI and machine learning. We're not talking about AI replacing Tonmeisters. We're talking about tools that can handle the tedious parts of our job so we can focus on the creative ones.
Imagine: stems separation that actually works. Automatic room analysis and correction that doesn't sound like it was processed through a tin can. Intelligent metadata tagging for object-based audio that doesn't require three hours of manual work. These tools are emerging right now, and they're getting good.
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Personalized audio is another frontier that fascinates me. We're moving toward a world where the mix can adapt to the listener, their hearing profile, their environment, their preferences, even their emotional state. Some of you are thinking: "But wait, what about artistic intent?" And you're right to ask! This is where we, as Tonmeisters and educators, have a crucial role. We need to be in these conversations, setting the standards, defining the boundaries. Because if we don't, someone else will.
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Volumetric audio and VR/AR experiences are creating entirely new paradigms. We're not just mixing for speakers or headphones anymore – we're creating acoustic environments that people walk through. The rulebook we've spent decades perfecting? We might need to add a few chapters.
Let me share some things I'm genuinely excited about: Real-time binaural synthesis is getting really good. We're close to the point where remote collaboration in a virtual acoustic space will feel genuinely present. Imagine mixing a session with collaborators around the world, but everyone perceives themselves in the same room with accurate spatial cues. This isn't science fiction. This is almost here.
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The democratization of high-quality spatial audio production is accelerating. Remember when recording studios were the only places with the technology and knowledge to make professional recordings? Then personal computers changed that. Now spatial audio is having its "home recording revolution" moment. Tools that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars can now run on a laptop. This means more voices, more perspectives, more creativity in spatial audio.
Neuroscience and audio are converging in fascinating ways. We're beginning to understand how the brain constructs spatial auditory scenes, how attention works in complex acoustic environments, how music affects us neurologically. This isn't just academic curiosity. This knowledge will inform how we create better, more emotionally impactful audio experiences.
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You know what I find most exciting and challenging about being a professor of music technology? I prepare students for careers that don’t exist yet. And that's thrilling. It means our field isn't done. It means you all have more exciting work ahead. It means those VDT founders, brilliant as they were, only set the foundation. We're still building.
The future of audio isn't just about better specs, lower noise floors, or higher resolution - though those are nice. It's about using these tools to create deeper emotional connections, to tell stories in new ways, to preserve culture, to bring people together through sound and, most importantly, to expand the possibilities of human expression.
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The VDT has been renowned for audio excellence for 75 years not because it chased every trend, but because it has maintained standards while staying open to innovation, and balancing the technical with the artistic. Through three-quarters of a century of technological advancement, the organization has thrived by adapting while staying true to its core mission: excellence in audio. And perhaps most importantly, you remember that we're not in the business of moving air, we're in the business of moving people. This is how you honor the past: by building an incredible future.
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So here's to the next 75 years. Here's to the innovations we can't even imagine yet. Here's to spatial audio that makes people cry, to mixes that become cultural touchstones, and to technologies that amplify human creativity rather than replace it.
And here's to all of you - for maintaining the craft, for pushing the boundaries, and for making sure that whatever the future holds, it will sound absolutely incredible.
Thank you."