John Walker on digitalization
From John Walker: Re-creating great performances · · TED
“Audio has come very late to this game -- I'm not talking about digitizing, and bits, and re-mastering. I'm talking about turn it into the data that it was made from, which is how it was performed.”
On , John Walker, Founder at Autodesk Inc, spoke about digitalization during John Walker: Re-creating great performances on TED.
About John Walker
In a 2025 podcast appearance, John Walker discussed his career as a business owner and longtime leader in Vistage International, an executive coaching organization. He reflected on challenges in family-owned businesses, citing an example of a CEO with seven children who wanted each to receive an equal share of the business, which Walker described as an arrangement that would not work. He noted that he is currently involved in community activities and traveling with his wife, and that he occasionally considers new business opportunities. Walker previously gave a 2008 TED talk in which he described a project to recreate historical piano performances by separating the performance data from the original recording. He explained that the process involved analyzing attributes of each note, such as how hard keys were struck, and using a Yamaha Disklavier Pro piano to play the data. Walker stated that the result allowed listeners to experience performances as if they were in the room with the musician, and he described the technology as crossing "the uncanny valley" in artificial intelligence terms.