Sharps Redmore Acoustics Prize 2024

Sharps Redmore are pleased to announce Archie Hazell as the winner of our 2024 Acoustic Consultants Prize!

Each year, Sharps Redmore choose one student from Anglia Ruskin University’s BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology course to be the recipient of our “Acoustic Consultants Award” for their exceptional work during their studies at ARU. Students can win the award for work relating (or closely relating) to acoustics, or for work that showcases them as an outstanding student whose academic achievement deserves recognition.

This year, Archie’s work, stood out from the crowd due to its complexity and use of programming to explore how compression creates harmonic distortion. Here’s a small statement from Archie with some more detail about themselves:

“Growing up, my two main interests were computers and music, and the love of both remains today. My musical influence was undoubtedly my late grandfather – player of all things stringed (including a Hurdy-Gurdy!) and a long-time member of an Irish folk band. I think my enthusiasm for computers and technology in general came pre-installed – it’s just always been there.

Following these themes, I studies Music Technology and Computer Science at A Level before going on to Anglia Ruskin University where I received a first in BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology. The fact that my favourite module at university was Audio Programming surprised no-one who knows me.

It was a total surprise and real honour to be awarded the Sharps Redmore Outstanding Academic Achievement in my final year.

I’m the drummer in a three-piece rock band based in Bury St Edmunds. We are about to record our first EP and we’ve been fortunate enough to receive recent award nominations for up and coming artists. Just to keep my band mates on their toes I’m teaching myself guitar and have also just started learning bass too. I absolutely will not be singing.

I’m an avid motorsport fan, especially Formula 1, also taking part in competitive sim racing – although not quite at the standard of a certain Mr Verstappen.

My Dissertation has the snappy title of:

“To what extent does the harmonic distortion characteristics of a single band compressor and multi-band compressor compare through the frequency spectrum and can distortion in a multi-band compressor be reduced?”.

As programming was the part of the course I enjoyed the most, I wanted to explore something in that remit. Reverb is the effect I find the most interesting, but I had already investigated this during my second year so instead I chose to investigate compression and how it creates harmonic distortion. During my research I found a gap in research analysing the effect multi band compression had on harmonic distortion.

My investigation involved creating single and multi-band compressor prototypes and testing them to ensure the compressors wouldn’t falsify my data. I then used a frequency sweep as an input to my compressors to analyse how harmonic distortion is created across the frequency spectrum. This ultimately proved that single and multi-band compressors share distortion traits such as THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) but differ in terms of intermodulation and linearity.”

Sharps Redmore are delighted to partner with Anglia Ruskin University in celebrating and rewarding student’s academic achievements. A special thank you goes to Dr William Campbell and Dr Sven-Amin Lembke for helping us to select a worthy winner.

Congratulations once again to Archie Hazell. The Sharps Redmore team wishes you all the very best.