Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition is the authoritative guide to all aspects of recording acoustic classical music. Offering detailed descriptions, diagrams, and photographs of fundamental recording techniques such as the Decca tree, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the essential skills involved in successfully producing a classical recording. Written by engineers with years of experience working for Decca and Abbey Road Studios and as freelancers, Classical Recording equips the student, the interested amateur, and the practising professional with the required knowledge and confidence to tackle everything from solo piano to opera.

DJ like a pro without skipping a beat The bestselling guide to spinning and scratching is back! If you've ever spent hours in your bedroom with two turntables and an earful of tracks that sound off-beat or out of key, DJing For Dummies is the go-to guide for taking your skills to the next level. Inside, John Steventon, a successful club DJ, walks you through the basics of mixing, the techniques and tricks you need to create your own DJ style and how to make DJing work for you. Covering both digital and old-school vinyl-based instruction, this guide covers all the latest DJ technology, equipment and software so you can get mixing and stay one step ahead of the crowd. Brimming with expert advice and easy-to-follow explanations, the information in DJing For Dummies gives you everything you need to build a foolproof set and play to a live crowd. * Nail down the basics and build on existing skills * Sort through the latest equipment and technology * Have a go at crossfading, beatmatching and scratching * Mix tracks seamlessly to sound like a pro If you're new to the game or looking to step up your skills and graduate to club work, DJing For Dummies has you covered.

Known as the "Father of Festival Sound," Bill Hanley (b. 1937) made his indelible mark as a sound engineer at the 1969 WoodStock Music and Arts Fair. Hanley is credited with creating the sound of WoodStock, which literally made the massive festival possible. Stories of his on-the-fly solutions resonate as legend among festivalgoers, music lovers, and sound engineers. Since the 1950s his passion for audio has changed the way Audiences listen to and technicians approach quality live concert sound. John Kane examines Hanley's echoing impact on the entire field of sound engineering, that crucial but often-overlooked carrier wave of contemporary music. Hanley's innovations founded the sound reinforcement industry and launched a new area of technology, rich with clarity and intelligibility. By the early seventies the post-WoodStock festival mass gathering movement collapsed. The music industry shifted, and new sound companies surfaced. After huge financial losses and facing stiff competition, Hanley lost his hold on a business he helped create. By studying both his history during the festivals and his independent business ventures, Kane seeks to present an honest portrayal of Hanley and his acumen and contributions. Since 2011, Kane conducted extensive research, including over one hundred interviews with music legends from the Production and performance side of the industry. These carefully selected respondents witnessed Hanley's expertise at various events and venues like Lyndon B. Johnson's second inauguration, the Newport Folk/Jazz Festivals, the Beatles' final tour of 1966, the Fillmore East, Madison Square Garden, and more. The Last Seat in the House will intrigue and inform anyone who cares about the modern music industry.

A No Depression Most Memorable Music Book of 2022 The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon. Christopher M. Reali's in-depth look at the fabled musical hotbed examines the events and factors that gave the Muscle Shoals sound such a potent cultural power. Many artists trekked to FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound in search of the sound of authentic southern Black music-and at times expressed shock at the mostly white studio musicians waiting to play it for them. Others hoped to draw on the hitmaking production process that defined the scene. Reali also chronicles the overlooked history of Muscle Shoals's impact on country music and describes the region's recent transformation into a tourism destination. Multifaceted and informed, Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals reveals the people, place, and events behind one of the most legendary recording scenes in American history.

Off the Record is a revealing exploration of piano performing practices of the high Romantic era. Author and well-known keyboard player Neal Peres Da Costa bases his investigation on a range of early sound recordings (acoustic, piano roll and electric) that capture a generation of highly-esteemed pianists trained as far back as the mid-nineteenth-century. Placing general practices of late nineteenth-century piano performance alongside evidence of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of legendary pianists such as Carl Reinecke (1824-1910), Theodor Leschetizky (1830-1915), Camille Saint-Saens (1838-1921) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), he examines prevalent techniques of the time--dislocation, unnotated arpeggiation, rhythmic alteration, tempo fluctuation--and unfolds the background and lineage of significant performer/pedagogues. Throughout, Peres Da Costa demonstrates that these early recordings do not simply capture the idiosyncrasies of aging musicians as has been commonly asserted, but in fact represent a range of established expressive practices of a lost age.
An extensive collection of these fascinating and sometimes rare professional recordings of the Romantic age masters are available on a companion web site, and in addition, Peres Da Costa, himself a renowned period keyboardist, illustrates points made throughout the book with his own playing. Of essential value to student and professional pianists, historical musicologists of 19th and early 20th century performance practice, and also to the general music aficionado audience, Off the Record is an indispensable resource for scholarly research, performance inspiration, and listening enjoyment."

In the 1950s and '60s those shiny 45-rpm records with the big hole in the middle were the primary delivery system for popular American music especially rock 'n' roll. Cheap to manufacture and available to even fly-by-night record operations the donut disc changed the way popular music was written recorded promoted and marketed and it broke a at least for a time a the iron-fisted dominance of the major record corporations. This book traces the 7-inch single's origins back to the 1880s and explains the personality conflicts that led an eccentric genius to develop the 45 into one of postwar America's most popular consumer products. It explores how the jukebox the autonomous disc jockey and payola and artist rip-offs kept the 45 at the forefront of rock for 20 years. There are also chapters on the most valuable (and legendary) 45s of all time as well as the oddities oddballs and freak hits that make listening to 45s so much fun. With over 80 illustrations a many in full color.

Musical Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction presents new insights into the study of musical rhythm through investigations of the micro-rhythmic design of groove-based music. The main purpose of the book is to investigate how technological mediation - in the age of digital music production tools - has influenced the design of rhythm at the micro level. Through close readings of technology-driven popular music genres, such as contemporary R&B, hip-hop, trip-hop, electro-pop, electronica, house and techno, as well as played folk music styles, the book sheds light on how investigations of the musical-temporal relationships of groove-based musics might be fruitfully pursued, in particular with regard to their micro-rhythmic features. This book is based on contributions to the project Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction (RADR), a five-year research project running from 2004 to 2009 that was funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Good live sound engineering and concert sound engineering requires more than plugging in some amplifiers and turning a few volume knobs. It demands knowledge of acoustics and electronics combined with working with a band or producer to give them the sound they want. Every venue is different -- from the cozy bar to a medium-sized concert hall to an outdoor arena -- and each brings its own challenges to audio engineering. But it's the live sound engineer's job to work with and control the acoustics and make sure the band sounds great. This book is going to be the missing link between the technical side of audio engineering and normal everyday language and understanding. It'll discuss the most important aspect of Mixing a live show, and how to be creative with the tools you are given. The idea is to go and use the book in a practical environment. In depth descriptions of what each knob does, and how they affect the end result. Musicians and aspiring live-sound professionals can lean from an expert who has mixed for acts including La Roux - The Hoosiers I Amy Winehouse I Corinne Bailey Rae- and worked sets from the main stage at Glastonbury to the local cozy bar, gleaning invaluable insight into what the pros do, how they do it, what they do it with. Readers will learn the technical, practical, and political aspects of the job - from customizing mixing approaches and choosing the right equipment to working with artists and other engineers. The book also includes insightful, sometimes bizarre, but entertaining anecdotes about the climb to the big time. Author Dave Swallow combines a lively writing style with essential details, including complete gear lists for featured tours, and informative sidebars that offer specific advice on how to get started and get the gig.

Since its initial release in 1997, Paul Gilreath's The Guide to MIDI Orchestration has been the premiere text on creating realistic emulations of a symphony orchestra using samplers and computer recording techniques. Now in its fourth edition, The Guide to MIDI Orchestration explains how to merge this ever-expanding technology with the artistry of orchestration to produce the most lifelike recordings possible. The book is written for composers, arrangers, and MIDI musicians of all levels, and will be helpful to game composers, film and television composers, traditional orchestral composers, teachers, instructors, and the serious hobbyist. Highlights of the book include:

• Introduction to and overview of the orchestra
• In-depth discussions of each orchestral section
• Detailed information on each instrument's timbre, range and uses
• Discussions of orchestration techniques
• Demonstrations on how to build an orchestration from the ground up
• Presentations on techniques for achieving balance and musical interest
• Setup and recommendations for software and equipment
• Details on setting up a multi-computer network for use as slave computers
• Overview of software sampler and Digital Audio Workstation software
• Presentation of note entry methods
• DAW and sampler template implementation
• Detailed steps for achieving realistic reverberation and instrument placement
• Start to finish steps to achieve a final mix
• Insightful interviews with top mastering engineers

Visit

www.focalpress.com/cw/gilreath-9780240814131/

for updates and enhanced content including PDFs of orchestral library reviews and additional written content, audio files of musical examples from the book, video demonstrations, and much more.

Compiled in cooperation with the Antonin Dvorak Society of Prague, Czechoslovakia, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, this is the first book-length discography on Dvorak. It updates the discography appended to Jarmil Burghauser's Antonin Dvorak Thematic Catalogue (1960). Burghauser, President of the Dvorak Society, explains in a foreword to the present work that, due to the immense proliferation of Dvorak recordings, it was decided not to include a discography in the revised edition of the Thematic Catalogue. Organized similarly to the Catalogue by genres and works, Antonin Dvorak on Records may be used in conjunction with it and, further, will be valuable to musicians, students, collectors, and others primarily interested in the recordings. The discography selects from the many thousands of Dvorak recordings those of excellence and historic significance on LP and CD formats, representing the diversity of the oeuvre. The volume introduction surveys the recording history before the LP revolution. Indexes provide access to the recordings by works and by performers and performing groups.

The MIDI Manual: A Practical Guide to MIDI within Modern Music Production, Fourth Edition, is a complete reference on MIDI. Written by David Miles Huber (a 4x Grammy-nominated musician, producer and author), this best-selling guide provides clear explanations of what MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 are, acting as a guide for electronic instruments, the DAW, MIDI sequencing and how to make best use of them. You will learn how to set up an efficient MIDI system and how to get the most out of your production room and ultimately ... your music. Packed full of useful tips and practical examples on sequencing and mixing techniques, The MIDI Manual also covers in-depth information on system interconnections, controllers, groove tools, the DAW, synchronization and more. For the first time, the MIDI 2.0 spec is explained in light of the latest developments and is accompanied with helpful guidelines for the long-established MIDI 1.0 spec and its implementation chart. Illustrated throughout with helpful photos and screenshots, this is the most readable and clearly explained book on MIDI available.

Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition is the authoritative guide to all aspects of recording acoustic classical music. Offering detailed descriptions, diagrams, and photographs of fundamental recording techniques such as the Decca tree, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the essential skills involved in successfully producing a classical recording. Written by engineers with years of experience working for Decca and Abbey Road Studios and as freelancers, Classical Recording equips the student, the interested amateur, and the practising professional with the required knowledge and confidence to tackle everything from solo piano to opera.

This book examines music stores as sites of cultural production in contemporary India. Analyzing social practices of selling music in a variety of retail contexts, it focuses upon the economic and social values that are produced and circulated by music retailers in the marketplace. Based upon research conducted over a volatile ten-year period of the Indian music industry, Beaster-Jones discusses the cultural histories of the recording industry, the social changes that have accompanied India's economic liberalization reforms, and the economic realities of selling music in India as digital circulation of music recordings gradually displaced physical distribution. The volume considers the mobilization of musical, economic, and social values as a component of branding discourses in neoliberal India, as a justification for new regimes of legitimate use and intellectual property, as a scene for the performance of cosmopolitanism by shopping, and as a site of anxiety about transformations in the marketplace. It relies upon ethnographic observation and interviews from a variety of sources within the Indian music industry, including perspectives of executives at music labels, family-run and corporate music stores, and hawkers in street markets selling counterfeit recordings. This ethnography of the practices, spaces, and anxieties of selling music in urban India will be an important resource for scholars in a wide range of fields, including ethnomusicology, anthropology, popular music studies, and South Asian studies.

From the paperwork to the practical aspects, Access All Areas gives you an excellent insight into the live music and touring industry. Drawing on a vast range of real-world experiences Wilkins provides you with the key technical aspects of gigging and touring in an easily understood manner. Whether you are performing in a church, club or concert hall, Access All Areas has examples and suggestions to make the event run smoothly. Gain understanding of the terms and techniques involved in live music performance. Learn what the industry use as standard equipment as well as what it does and how to use it effectively from an industry expert. If you are backstage, in front of the mic or behind the sound booth this book needs to be in your toolbox for constant reference.
* Gain expert advise on key practical areas of the live music scene and what's involved in putting a show together
* Benefit from Wilkins' extensive industry experience
* Learn how to stage an event in any venue

Major Label Mastering: Professional Mastering Process distills 25 years of mastering experience at Capitol Records into practical understandings and reliable systems. Containing unparalleled insights, this book reveals the mastering tricks and techniques used by Evren Goeknar at one of the world's most notable record labels. Beginning with the requisite competencies every Mastering Engineer must develop, Major Label Mastering delves into the particulars of the mastering studio, as well as fundamental mastering tools. Included among these tools is The Five Step Mastering Process, a rigorously tested system that equips the practitioner to successfully and confidently master a project to exacting standards of audio fidelity. Covering all bases, the book discusses both macro and micro considerations: from mindset approach and connecting with clients down to detailed guidelines for processing audio, advanced methods, and audio restoration. Each chapter ends with exercises intended to deepen understanding and skill, or to supplement course study. Suitable for all levels, this is a unique resource for students, artists, and recording and Mastering Engineers alike. Major Label Mastering is supplemented by digital resources including audio examples and video tutorials.

The revised edition of Understanding Records explains the musical language of recording practice in a way any interested reader and student can easily understand. Drawing on readily available hit records produced since 1945, each section of this book explains a handful of core production and engineering techniques in chronological record-making sequence, elucidates how those techniques work, what they sound like, how they function musically, where listeners can hear them at work in the broader Top 40 soundscape, and where they fit within the broader record-making process at large. As the only book to introduce music production and its practical elements with no assumed prior knowledge, the revised edition includes: * Exclusive print and video interviews with emerging and established recordists, including: Alex Chuck Krotz (Drake, Three Days Grace, Mother Mother); Kevin O' Leary (Shawn Mendes, The Glorious Sons, Monster Truck); Alastair Sims (Rush, The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies); Matt Shelvock (kingmobb, san holo, bitbird, DROLOE); and Russ Hepworth-Sawyer (Billy Ray Cyrus, Steve Earle, Amadou & Miriam) * Numerous "real word" audio examples, organized into easily accessible streaming playlists, culled from Juno-nominated sessions the author himself worked on, and numerous other professional sources. * Easy to understand explanations of each facet of the record production process, which avoid technical jargon and clarify terminology. * Information on new developments in recording practice and updated musical references. Completely reworked and expanded sections on mixing and audio mastering.

Recording Analysis: How the Record Shapes the Song identifies and explains how the sounds imparted by recording processes enhance the artistry and expression of recorded songs. Moylan investigates how the process of recording a song transforms it into a richer experience and articulates how the unique elements of recorded sound provide essential substance and expression to recorded music. This book explores a broad array of records, evaluating the music, lyrics, social context, literary content and meaning, and offers detailed analyses of recording elements as they appear in a wide variety of tracks. Accompanied by a range of online resources, Recording Analysis is an essential read for students and academics, as well as practitioners, in the fields of record production, song-writing and popular music.

A beyond-cool look at the world of high-end audio design for passionate collectors, obsessive audiophiles, and design fans

At a time when sales of vinyl records have hit a 25-year high, and analog technologies are providing the kind of extraordinary audio experiences that our increasingly digital world has started to remove, Hi-Fi is essential reading. This unique book explores just how, when, and why the world fell in love with the look, feel, and sound of top-of-the-line audio equipment. Hi-Fi traces this fascinating evolution from the 1950s to today (and tomorrow), taking readers right up to the current renaissance of all things analog and the emergence of cutting-edge designs for die-hard audiophiles.

Detailed information on almost all ethnic and vernacular recordings from many countries on 78rpm is provided in this seminal work. The current state of discographical research in this wide and varied field is such that a research tool of this nature is badly needed. Jesse Walter Fewkes and Mary Hemenway recorded Native American music as early as 1890; Bela Bartok recorded rural music in the Balkans; Erich von Hornbostel, the grand old man of ethnomusicology in Europe, recorded in Southeast Asia. More than just a discography, this work demonstrates that cultures around the world and over time have more similarities than differences. A necessity for scholars, students, archivists, and individual record collectors and dealers.

The goals of this volume are many and varied: to promote thought and discussion toward a concise definition of recorded ethnic music; to assist specialists working on individual discographical projects; to introduce users to the interconnectedness of cultures through regional music; to gather heretofore disparate pieces of information under one cover in a way that for the first time allows specialists to accurately identify all manner of recordings in many languages. The four sections of the volume work together for easy usage through cross referencing. The philosophy behind the volume was expressed by Rodney Gallop when he remarked that music, for him, was often the key to the understanding of other cultures.

The Digital Songstream is the first practical guide to getting up and running in the new digital world of music. Cutting through myths, it offers a step-by-step introduction to what's possible for performers, composers, and listeners-addressing legal and ethical issues as well as the nuts and bolts of what equipment to buy and what services are available.
Written in a friendly, easy-to-understand way by a master musician and computer expert, The Digital Songstream will be the first-and only-reference needed for anyone wishing to enter the world of computer music.

Pop Music Production delves into academic depths around the culture, the business, the songwriting, and most importantly, the pop music production process. Phil Harding balances autobiographical discussion of events and relationships with academic analysis to offer poignant points on the value of pure popular music, particularly in relation to BoyBands and how creative pop production and songwriting teams function. Included here are practical resources, such as recording studio equipment lists, producer business deal examples and a 12-step mixing technique, where Harding expands upon previously released material to explain how 'Stay Another Day' by East 17 changed his approach to mixing forever. However, it is important to note that Harding almost downplays his involvement in his career. At no point is he center stage; he humbly discusses his position within the greater scheme of events. Pop Music Production offers cutting-edge analysis of a genre rarely afforded academic attention. This book is aimed at lecturers and students in the subject fields of Music Production, Audio Engineering, Music Technology, Popular Songwriting Studies and Popular Music Culture. It is suitable for all levels of study from FE students through to PhD researchers. Pop Music Production is also designed as a follow-up to Harding's first book PWL from the Factory Floor (2010, Cherry Red Books), a memoir of his time working with 1980s pop production and songwriting powerhouse, Stock Aitken Waterman, at PWL Studios.

We're all able to record music; a smartphone will get you quick results. But for a good sound, a lot more is involved. Acoustics, microphone placement, and effects have a huge influence on the resulting sound. Music Production: Learn How to Record, Mix, and Master Music will teach you how to record, mix, and master music. With accessible language for both beginner and advanced readers, the book contains countless illustrations, includes tips and tricks for all the popular digital audio workstations and provides coverage of common plugins and processors. Also included is a section dedicated to mastering in a home studio. With hundreds of tips and techniques for both the starting and advanced music producer, this is your must-have guide.

Master the basics from first principles: the physics of sound, principles of hearing etc, then progress onward to fundamental digital principles, conversion, compression and coding and then onto transmission, digital audio workstations, DAT and optical disks. Get up to speed with how digital audio is used within DVD, Digital Audio Broadcasting, networked audio and MPEG transport streams. All of the key technologies are here: compression, DAT, DAB, DVD, SACD, oversampling, noise shaping and error correction theories are treated in a simple yet accurate form. Thoroughly researched, totally up-to-date and technically accurate this is the only book you need on the subject.
* Expand your knowledge with this thorough treatment of digital audio for a wide range of disciplines* Clearly explainations require a minimum of math to allow for easy understanding* Get up to speed with how digital audio is used within DVD, Digital Audio Broadcasting, networked audio and MPEG transport streams

"Music affects every person. It is the soundtrack of our happiness, zest for achievement and relationships to others. Music brings great ideas and feelings. It soothes the soul. It creates and sustains memories." - Hank Moore Pop Music Legends covers change and growth of the music recording industry. It is based on the Hank Moore's involvement in music over the years, interviews with hundreds of music stars and his knowledge of pop culture. It is the only book that encompasses a full-scope music perspective and is designed to have high appeal mass appeal, historical, entertainment and is applicable to a broad audience.