Pensado has announced that its third annual Pensado Awards has now been posted online at Vimeo.

The award show was created by Herb Trawick and Dave Pensado of Penwick Media (the producers of the acclaimed online video series Pensado’s Place and other industry-leading audio-related media) as a means to acknowledge today’s emerging brand of music professional and “recognize the faces behind the sound.”

Presented in stunning HD, this video production combines separately taped clips (showcasing Herb’s and Dave’s signature charm) with the proceedings of the live ceremony, which took place on Saturday, August 20, 2016, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, CA.

The ceremony hosted a standing-room-only crowd of over 1000 recording industry figures – some as proud nominees, some as presenters, some there to simply be a part of the evening – including songwriter/producer busbee; GRAMMY®-winning movie scoring mixer Alan Meyerson; hip-hop production collective 1500 or Nothin’; producer and instrumentalist DJ Iz; a contingent from G.O.O.D. Music; vocalist Patti Austin; multi-GRAMMY award-winning engineer/producers Ron Fair, Jack Joseph Puig, Ed Cherney, Mick Guzauski, and Al Schmitt; and many more. A special highlight was a taped tribute to producer/engineer/mixer Chris Lord-Alge (Pink, Foo Fighters, Avril Lavigne, Green Day), the winner of the Pensado Giant Award, from Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, Dwight Yoakam, Steven Tyler and Chris’s brother, GRAMMY Award winning engineer/mixer Tom Lord-Alge.

The event was co-hosted by singer-songwriter/actress/fashion designer Taryn Manning (electronic duo Boomkat, 8 Mile, Orange Is the New Black), drummer Samantha Maloney (Hole, Mötley Crüe, Peaches), Chris Lord-Alge, recording/mix engineer MixedByAli (Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Robin Thicke) and mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen (Tom Waits, Sheryl Crow, T-Bone Burnett). The musical theme of the awards show was “Celebrate the Guitar,” with live performances by Phil X (Triumph, Bon Jovi), Michael “Fish” Herring (Prince, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera) and Ethan Farmer (Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake). The Pensado Awards show drew tremendous attention on social media, having over 500 posts that garnered over 5.5 million impressions on the night of the ceremony alone. Press impressions in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, and in the immediate aftermath, totaled nearly 15 million.

At the ceremony, the following winners were announced:

  • OMG! Mix of the Year: Josh Gudwin/Andrew Wuepper for “Sorry” (Justin Bieber); Vance Powell for “Tennessee Whiskey” (Chris Stapleton)
  • Game Changer of the Year Award: Dave Cobb
  • Break Thru Songwriter: Brody Brown
  • Master of Mastering: Joe LaPorta
  • Tracking Engineer: Steve Genewick
  • Best Non-English Song: JJ Lin, “Twilight”
  • Outstanding Brand: Indaba Music
  • Break Thru Mixer Award: Delbert Bowers
  • Live/FOH: Wilberto Madera (Pitbull)
  • Spin Doctor DJ Award: Henry Fong
  • AIR Award (Best Assistant, Intern or Runner): Shamir Nicholas, Chris Galland and Wesley Seidman
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound for Visual Medium Award: Straight Outta Compton
  • Pensado Giant Award: Chris Lord-Alge
  • Dave Pensado Educator Award: Learn from Legends, Recording Connection
  • Herb Trawick Visionary Award: Xfer Records

A full list of nominees can be found at http://pensadoawards.com/award_categories.html.

The culmination of the awards segment was the presentation of the Pensado Giant Award to Chris Lord-Alge, who offered thanks to many of his industry friends and clients, and very special thanks went to his brother Tom Lord-Alge, who unfortunately could not attend, and his mother Vivian, who had flown in from the east coast to watch Chris accept his award.

Herb Trawick, Co-host/Executive Producer and Creator of Pensado’s Place, as well as the Manager and Advisor to Co-host Dave Pensado, states,

“We are very proud of our third annual Pensado Awards, and we’re so glad that we’re now able to share it in HD with our online family. We hope you all enjoy the ceremony and the taped segments we added just for you. This year’s awards were the best yet, and the Pensado organization continues to grow and expand, so stay tuned, as we have so many exciting things to announce in the coming months.”

This year’s Pensado Awards drew a list of sponsors that comprises some of the most prominent names in professional audio, M.I. and audio education, including The Blackbird Academy, Vintage King Audio, Avid, iZotope, The Recording Academy® Producers and Engineers Wing®, LANDR, DTS, Westlake Pro, Barefoot Sound, The Recording Connection Audio Institute, Fab Factory, Augspurger, Music Connection, Burl Audio, Gibson Brands, Milkman Sound, Rock N Roll Relics and Shinola Detroit.

More information: Pensado’s Place / Pensado Awards 2016