CARLSBAD, Calif. — The NAMM TEC Awards’ TECnology Hall of Fame announces five defining audio products and innovations as the newest inductees to the prestigious TECnology Hall of Fame. The 2022 awards will be honored at a ceremony held at 11:00 am on June 4, 2022, during the annual NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Founded in 2004 by noted technology journalist (and FRONT of HOUSE editor) George Petersen and presented since 2015 by the NAMM Museum of Making Music, the TECnology Hall of Fame honors products and innovations that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of audio and music technology.
Joining the 175 previous honorees in the TECnology Hall of Fame, the five inductees for 2022 are the: Leslie Organ Speaker (1941); Neumann M 50 Microphone (1950); NHK PCM Digital Recorder (1967); Oberheim OB-X Music Synthesizer (1979); and the TASCAM DA-88 Modular Digital Recorder (1993).
“Each of these innovations made a major contribution to how sound is created and reproduced – even years after their debut,” says TECnology Hall of Fame Director George Petersen.
Don Leslie’s concept for the rotating Leslie speaker forever changed the distinctive sound of the Hammond organ, opening new avenues for sound manipulation. More than 70 years later, Neumann’s M 50 vacuum tube microphone is still considered the worldwide gold standard for orchestral recording. Created by Japan public broadcasting’s R&D division in 1967, the NHK system proved the viability of pulse code modulation techniques, resulting in the first digital audio tape recorder. Electronic music pioneer Tom Oberheim’s OB-X analog music synthesizer created a sensation on its debut in 1979 and was soon heard on hits by artists ranging from Rush to Queen, to Madonna, Styx, Prince and even Jean-Michel Jarre. And in 1993, TASCAM’s DA-88 helped launch a revolution in audio recording using low-cost videotapes that made digital multi-track systems available and affordable to both pro and home studios.
Hosted by George Petersen, the TECnology Hall of Fame ceremony takes place on Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. in the NAMM Member Center, inside the Anaheim Convention Center and is open to all NAMM attendees.
For more on the TECnology Hall of Fame, visit www.tecawards.org/tecnology-hall-of-fame.
For more about the NAMM Show, go to: www.namm.org/thenammshow/2022
