Every once in a while, the Audio Engineering Society lines up a session that feels less like a panel and more like a masterclass. That’s what’s happening at AES Show 2025 in Long Beach, where GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Sounwave will sit down with legendary mixer Manny Marroquin for a conversation on craft, collaboration, and the delicate art of building sound. The talk, titled “Inside the Creative Process with Sounwave: Shaping Sound and Artist Identity,” lands on Thursday, October 23.
For the uninitiated, Sounwave (born Mark Anthony Spears) isn’t just another name in the credits—he’s the creative engine behind some of the most era-defining records of the last decade. From Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer-winning DAMN. to SZA’s chart-dominating collaborations, from Taylor Swift’s Midnights to Beyoncé’s Renaissance, his fingerprints are everywhere. Most recently, he helped produce Lamar’s GNX, the album that spawned the cultural earthquake of Not Like Us—a track that didn’t just top charts, it set the entire internet ablaze.
Beyond the studio, Sounwave’s resume stretches into moments that have defined pop culture at large: Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, the Grand National Tour, even consumer tech with his retro-futurist Songbook MAX speakers designed with Tivoli Audio. And yet, for all the accolades (seven GRAMMYs and counting), the through-line is his ability to translate an artist’s vision into sound that feels inevitable: music that sticks not because it’s engineered to, but because it resonates.
AES president Gary Gottlieb put it best: “This session is about more than production techniques; it’s about understanding the art of building trust with artists and shaping music that defines a generation.” With Marroquin steering the conversation—a man whose mixing credits touch nearly 250 million albums—expect less industry jargon and more raw perspective on how great records are actually made.
If you’re heading to Long Beach this October, don’t think of this as just another conference slot. Think of it as a chance to hear how some of the most important music of the last twenty years came to life, straight from the source. Until then, revisit the proof:
For more information about the AES Show 2025 program and registration, visit aesshow.com.
