The 31st TEC Awards took place at NAMM 2016 and we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners but there are several that we would like to highlight...

Workstation Technology - Avid Pro Tools 12

We gave Pro Tools 12.3 Editors Choice because Avid started to show innovation with Track Commit and then with Track Freeze being added in 12.4 as we said in our podcast review of 2015, Pro Tools 12 is now where it should have been from day one and it is great to see Avid winning the Workstation technology category against stiff competition.

Small Format Console Technology - Avid Pro Tools | S3

Even when I was out at IBC last September the Avid S3 with the free Control app looked a powerful combination for smaller facilities, especially with the VCA features normally only found on larger control surfaces like the S6 now available on the S3. It will be great to get our hands on the Avid S3 together with a Dock and see how well these to perform together.

Computer Audio Hardware - Universal Audio Apollo 8P Thunderbolt 2 Audio Interface

James absolutely loved this unit and you can see how he got on recording a band with nothing but Universal Audio Apollo technology. With all the interface technology available now in this diverse sector we now work in it is good to see Universal Audio being acknowledged in this way.

Musical Instrument Software - iZotope Iris 2

Although I don't work in music as much it seems this very clever tool, that uses the iZotope Spectrogram type display to create sounds, and clearly the TEC Awards judges agree by awarding Iris 2 the best music instrument software.

Signal Processing Software (Dynamic/EQ/Utilities) - iZotope RX 4 Complete Audio Repair & Enhancement

Well this award comes as no surprise to me then.  iZotope RX4 and now RX5 regularly saves my clients bacon over and over again, and same goes for Russ too and makes me look good with them too as project after project is saved from the bin. With the release of iZotope RX5 it continues to get better and better .

Signal Processing Software (Effects)- AMS Neve AMS RMX16 Digital Reverb Plug-In For UAD-2 Platform

The AMS Neve RMX16 is an industry classic. I am old enough to remember it when it came put and it is great to see the official emulation on the UAD-2 platform being recognised in the signal processing category.

In Conclusion

It is always great to see good design and good products acknowledged and there are some interesting parallels with our own Pro Tools Brand Of The Year Award nominated and voted by you the community, which iZotope won with Universal Audio in the short list.