Learn the basics of recording, processing, and mixing audio using Ableton Live software. This robust and innovative digital audio workstation opens your way to a musical toolkit used by musicians, performers, and producers worldwide. Audio Production Basics with Ableton Live will guide you through the essential audio production tasks you'll use to make the most of your Live software. The exercises in this book can be completed in any edition of Ableton Live, allowing you to get hands-on practice with Live's creative tools. With this book and the included online media files, you'll get working experience using Ableton Live, covering everything from setting up your computer to the fundamentals of audio production, including: Basic digital audio workstation operations and audio hardware options Principles of sound production and microphone use Essential Live concepts and operations MIDI fundamentals for playing and recording virtual instruments Working in the Arrangement View and the Session View Managing devices and routing signals in Live Using automation to create dynamic changes to audio Mixing your projects and exporting final mixed tracks Ableton Live is easy to set up, flexible, and fun to use. And everything you learn here will apply when you are ready to move on to more advanced study in audio production. Take a step to unleash your musical inspiration and creativity with Audio Production Basics with Ableton Live.

One of the most important documentaries on rock music ever published, this is EMI Records' official diary-format history of every Beatles recording session. Now in paperback. Researched from hundreds of unreleased Abbey Road archive tapes, featuring thousands of previously unpublished studio documents and interviews with many of the key recording personnel. The book is filled with over 350 color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations, including rare photos by Linda McCartney and the first facsimile reproductions of Abbey Road recording sheets, tape boxes, album sleeve roughs, memos, contracts, press releases and much more.

First published in French in 1998, revised in 2010, and appearing here in English for the first time, Michel Chion's Sound addresses the philosophical, interpretive, and practical questions that inform our encounters with sound. Chion considers how cultural institutions privilege some sounds above others and how spurious distinctions between noise and sound guide the ways we hear and value certain sounds. He critiques the tenacious tendency to understand sounds in relation to their sources and advocates "acousmatic" listening-listening without visual access to a sound's cause-to disentangle ourselves from auditory habits and prejudices. Yet sound can no more be reduced to mere perceptual phenomena than encapsulated in the sciences of acoustics and physiology. As Chion reminds us and explores in depth, a wide range of linguistic, sensory, cultural, institutional, and media- and technologically-specific factors interact with and shape sonic experiences. Interrogating these interactions, Chion stimulates us to think about how we might open our ears to new sounds, become more nuanced and informed listeners, and more fully understand the links between how we hear and what we do.

This book provides a broad overview of spaciousness in music theory, from mixing and performance practice, to room acoustics, psychoacoustics and audio engineering, and presents the derivation, implementation and experimental validation of a novel type of spatial audio system. Discussing the physics of musical instruments and the nature of auditory perception, the book enables readers to precisely localize synthesized musical instruments while experiencing their timbral variance and spatial breadth. Offering interdisciplinary insights for novice music enthusiasts and experts in the field of spatial audio, this book is suitable for anyone interested in the study of music and musicology and the application of spatial audio mixing, or those seeking an overview of the state of the art in applied psychoacoustics for spatial audio.

More than 90 record companies release over 9,000 pop records each year--a staggering total of 52,000 songs. Each one competes for the gold record, the recording industry's symbol of success that certifies $1 million worth of records have been sold. Solid Gold explains why, for each record that succeeds, countless others fail. This book follows the progress of a record through production, marketing, and distribution, and shows how a mistake made at any point can mean its doom. Denisoff suggests that a drastic shift in the demographic makeup of the pop music audience during the sixties has resulted in a broader listening public, including fans at every level of society.

Can you turn a soulful ballad into a hit dance track, or make any Billboard hit your own? With this all-in-one guide to remixing, you can! Whether you're a professional DJ or producer, or are just beginning to mix tracks, this step-by-step guide will bring you through the entire process of making your own professional-quality remixes. Author Simon Langford, a renowned producer/remixer with over 300 remixes and chart-toppers under his belt, shares his years of experience and expertise in the most in-depth guide on the market. The Remix Manual covers creative processes, technical, legal, and contractual issues, and includes a unique remix "walk-through," and useful contacts and links. The companion website, www.TheRemixManual.com, provides source files that illustrate all stages of the remix, as well as additional interviews, additional "walk-throughs", a "Buyer's Guide", video tutorials and demo versions of the hottest mixing software. A working musician and remixer, Simon Langford provides up-to-the-minute information on all aspects of the remix process, from the latest software tips and tricks to timeless artistic advice. While technical aspects are explained in detail, you also get a pro's advice on how to produce outstanding tracks by being aware of the originals message, style, and emotion. The creative side of remixing is explored from all angles, as a wide variety of industry insiders weigh in on key issues in exclusive interviews and quotes.

The field of popular music production is overwhelmingly male dominated. Here, Paula Wolfe discusses gendered notions of creativity and examines the significant under-representation of women in studio production. Wolfe brings an invaluable perspective as both a working artist-producer and as a scholar, thereby offering a new body of research based on interviews and first-hand observation. Wolfe demonstrates that patriarchal frameworks continue to form the backbone of the music industry establishment but that women's work in the creation and control of sound presents a potent challenge to gender stereotyping, marginalisation and containment of women's achievements that is still in evidence in music marketing practices and media representation in the digital era.

Getting Great Sounds: The Microphone Book imparts microphone tips and tricks of the pros to make them available to any sound engineer or home studio enthusiast. It explains aspects of all kinds of microphones, how they work, and how to use them in session recording. A well-known recording engineer with decades of industry experience, Tom Lubin presents technical information in a friendly, straightforward, and easy-to-grasp way, based on real-life experiences. This third edition includes a review of key practices at the end of chapters and a new section that provides an overview of microphone manufacturers you may not have heard of. There are now over one hundred and fifty companies making microphones for studio applications of one form or another, and most are small companies owned by people who are passionate about good sound. These companies feature high quality microphones, and many use classic designs with more affordable prices. How to choose and use microphones was once a skill passed down from senior sound engineers to their assistants as they would listen and learn by observation. Today, few large studios have assistant engineers, and an overwhelming number of studios are operated by their owners who are often self-taught and lack the benefit of the big-studio tutelage. This book is your guide to understanding the ins and outs of microphones and music studio production.

An authoritative reference on all aspects of audio engineering and technology including basic mathematics and formulae, acoustics and psychoacoustics, microphones, loudspeakers and studio installations.
Compiled by an international team of experts, the second edition was updated to keep abreast of fast-moving areas such as digital audio and transmission technology. Much of the material has been revised, updated and expanded to cover the very latest techniques. This is a new paperback version.
Understand all aspects of audio engineering and technology through the extensive coverage and detail included
Keep up to date with modern theory and practice

Practical, concise, and approachable, Audio Engineering 101, Second Edition covers everything aspiring audio engineers need to know to make it in the recording industry, from the characteristics of sound to microphones, analog versus digital recording, EQ/compression, mixing, mastering, and career skills. Filled with hand-ons, step-by-step technique breakdowns and all-new interviews with active professionals, this updated edition includes instruction in using digital consoles, iPads for mixing, audio apps, plug-ins, home studios, and audio for podcasts. An extensive companion website features fifteen new video tutorials, audio clips, equipment lists, quizzes, and student exercises.

This book uncovers how music experience-live and recorded-is changing along with the use of digital technology in the 2000s. Focussing on the Nordic region, this volume utilizes the theory of mentalization: the capacity to perceive and interpret what others are thinking and feeling, and applies it to the analysis of mediated forms of agency in popular music. The rise of new media in music production has enabled sound recording and processing to occur more rapidly and in more places, including the live concert stage. Digital technology has also introduced new distribution and consumption technologies that allow record listening to be more closely linked to the live music experience. The use of digital technology has therefore facilitated an expanding range of activities and experiences with music. Here, Yngvar Kjus addresses a topic that has a truly global reach that is of interest to scholars of musicology, media studies and technology studies.

This volume deals with various social-science perspectives on law and legal control pertaining to music in a variety of contexts. Under influence of important recent social developments, especially in the realm of communications technology, the world of music has been changing very rapidly and profoundly these past decades. As a result, the world of music, especially popular music, has been subject to a range of new legal issues. This volume brings together some 15 scholars to contribute their respective chapters on the socio-legal aspects involved in music as a social reality. The chapters address various pertinent questions from the perspective of socio-legal studies, sociology of law, jurisprudence, and related social and behavioral sciences. The issues addressed can range from matters of formal law and legislation to law-related behavior, deviance, and informal normative structures and processes that have a relevance to music, whether in a contemporary or historical setting. Thematically diverse within the province of the social and behavioral sciences related to law, the chapters in this volume are not restricted in terms of theoretical approach and methodological orientation.

The field of music production has for many years been regarded as male-dominated. Despite growing acknowledgement of this fact, and some evidence of diversification, it is clear that gender representation on the whole remains quite unbalanced. Gender in Music Production brings together industry leaders, practitioners, and academics to present and analyze the situation of gender within the wider context of music production as well as to propose potential directions for the future of the field. This much-anticipated volume explores a wide range of topics, covering historical and contextual perspectives on women in the industry, interviews, case studies, individual position pieces, as well as informed analysis of current challenges and opportunities for change. Ground-breaking in its synthesis of perspectives, Gender in Music Production offers a broadly considered and thought-provoking resource for professionals, students, and researchers working in the field of music production today.

Dan Alexander Audio reveals the origins and history of vintage recording gear, told by the man who coined the term. It discusses the products of 22 manufacturers, illustrated with over 450 never-before-published photographs in full-color and reprints of original manufacturers' sales brochures from the author's collection. This book features: A list of over 7,500 pieces of vintage gear Dan Alexander sold from 1979 until 2000, including prices, serial numbers, and buyer A complete list of microphone types distributed by Telefunken from 1928 until 1980, including technical information on mics by Neumann, Akg, Schoeps, Rft, and Geffel A complete list of Trident A and B range console 40 pages on Neve modules and consoles Helios product information and photographs information sourced from Dick Swettenhams' personal sales binder.

Every session, every gig, every day, recording engineers strive to make the most of their audio signal processing devices. EQ, Compression, Delay, Distortion, Reverb and all those other FX are the well-worn tools of the audio trade. Recording and mixing, live and in the studio, engineers must thoroughly master these devices to stay competitive sonically. Its not enough to just know what each effect is supposed to do. Sound FX explains the basic and advanced signal processing techniques used in professional music production, describing real world techniques used by experienced engineers, and referencing popular music examples released internationally. The reader learns not just how to, but also what if, so they can better achieve what they already hear in the productions they admire and chase what they only hear in their imaginative minds ear. Sound FX will immediately help you make more thorough, more musical use of your sound FX.
The accompanying website www.soundfx-companion.com includes audio exaples of FX featured in the book.
Features:
A chapter dedicated to each key effect:
Distortion
Compression & Limiting
Expansion & Gating
Reverb
Equalization
Delay
Pitch Shift
Volume
More than 100 line drawings and illustrations.
Accompanying website featuring examples of all FX covered in the book.
Discography of FX at the end of each relevant chapter.
From the Sound FX Intro:
The most important music of our time is recorded music. The recording studio is its principle musical instrument. The recording engineers and music producers who create the music we love know how to use signal processing equipment to capture the work of artists, preserving realism or altering things wildly, as appropriate. While the talented, persistent, self-taught engineer can create sound recordings of artistic merit, more productive use of the studio is achieved through study, experience and collaboration. This book defines the technical basis of the most important signal processing effects used in the modern recording studio, highlights the key drivers of sound quality associated with each, shares common production techniques used by recording engineers with significant experience in the field, references many of the touchstone recordings of our time, and equips the reader with the knowledge needed to comfortably use effects devices correctly, and, more importantly, to apply these tools creatively.
* Mixing and Recording, studio and live -- for everyone who uses signal processing in audio.
* Defines the technical basis of the most important signal processing effects used in the modern recording studio
* Highlights the key drivers of sound quality associated with each
* Equips the reader with the knowledge needed to comfortably use effects devices correctly, and, more importantly, to apply these tools creatively

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.

Get the most out of Digidesign's Pro Tools software with this comprehensive home studio guide that will show you how to create the highest quality recordings by honing your production skills and engineering techniques. With a complete explanation of the entire production process, you'll find out everything you need to know to make your music projects stand out from the rest. You'll learn how to: mix and master recordings like the pros; run a recording session and produce great songs; set up your home studio and improve its efficiency; set up mics to capture superior sounds; master the intricacies of Pro Tools with keystroke shortcuts and technical instruction; record real-sounding MIDI tracks; and much more. Ideal for producers, engineers, songwriters and artists. The Second Edition is fully updated for the new features of Pro Tools 6.X software and all Digidesign home studio hardware products. A new chapter on Digital Audio Editing was added to the book, and new hands-on projects have been added in every chapter. Additionally, there are new, more advanced Pro Tools sessions with audio examples that explain many in-demand Pro Tools techniques.

This classic work has inspired and informed a whole generation of artists and technicians working in all branches of the audio industry. Now in its seventh edition, The Sound Studio has been thoroughly revised to encompass the rapidly expanding range of possibilities offered by today's digital equipment. It now covers: the virtual studio; 5.1 surround sound; hard drive mixers and multichannel recorders; DVD and CD-RW.
Alec Nisbett provides encyclopaedic coverage of everything from acoustics, microphones and loudspeakers, to editing, mixing and sound effects, as well as a comprehensive glossary.
Through its six previous editions, The Sound Studio has been used for over 40 years as a standard work of reference on audio techniques. For a new generation, it links all the best techniques back to their roots: the unchanging guiding principles that have long been observed over a wide range of related media and crafts.
The Sound Studio is intended for anyone with a creative or technical interest in sound - for radio, television, film and music recording - but has particularly strong coverage of audio in broadcasting, reflecting the author's prolific career.
* Provides encyclopaedic information on audio techniques - essential for both the audio practitioner and student
* Covers the philosophy behind the techniques - answering the question 'why' as well as 'how'
* Includes details on the latest digital audio computer-editing systems

Modern MIDI equips you with everything you need to use MIDI in your music productions. With a particular focus on practical application and step-by-step explanations, this book does far more than tell you about how MIDI works. Simple explanations and real-world scenarios encourage you to test out the techniques for yourself. The second edition of Modern MIDI builds on the first, making sequencing approachable for absolute beginners, reinforcing the fundamentals of MIDI and expanding the coverage into new mobile technology and vintage gear. Modern MIDI is essential reading for beginners from all backgrounds, including students and professionals, as well as experienced users looking to develop their existing setups.

Digital Sampling is the first book about the design and use of sampling technologies that have shaped the sounds of popular music since the 1980s. Written in two parts, Digital Sampling begins with an exploration of the Fairlight CMI and how artists like Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel used it to sample the sounds of everyday life. It also focuses on E-mu Systems and the use of its keyboards and drum machines in hip-hop. The second part follows users across a range of musical worlds, including US/UK garage, indie folk music, and electronic music made from the sounds of sewers, war zones, and crematoriums. Using material from interviews and concepts from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Digital Sampling provides a new and alternative approach to the study of sampling and is crucial reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including music technology, media, communication, and cultural studies.

In this book, Barbara Ellison and Thomas B. W. Bailey lay out and explore the mystifying and evanescent musical territory of 'sonic phantoms': auditory illusions within the musical material that convey a 'phantasmatic' presence. Structured around a large body of compositional work developed by Ellison over the past decade, sonic phantoms are revealed and illustrated as they arise through a diverse array of musical sources, materials, techniques, and compositional tools: voices (real and synthetic), field recordings, instrument manipulation, object amplification, improvisation, and recording studio techniques. Somehow inherent in all music--and perhaps in all sound--sonic phantoms lurk and stalk with the promise of mystery and elevation. We just need to conjure them.

THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR Critically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson. A BOOK OF THE YEAR SUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR 'Compelling . . . befitting its extraordinary subject.' BRIAN ENO 'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . . . the perfect monument.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . . . inspiring.' RICHARD RUSSELL Tony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Hacienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North. To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book. From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheer force of personality. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage. 'An immersive experience . . . very moving indeed.' MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER 'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.' STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN 'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.' THE SPECTATOR 'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.' UNCUT

Audio Mastering: The Artists collects more than twenty interviews, drawn from more than 60 hours of discussions, with many of the world's leading mastering engineers. In these exclusive and often intimate interviews, engineers consider the audio mastering process as they, themselves, experience and shape it as the leading artists in their field. Each interview covers how engineers got started in the recording industry, what prompted them to pursue mastering, how they learned about the process, which tools and techniques they routinely use when they work, and a host of other particulars of their crafts. We also spoke with mix engineers, and craftsmen responsible for some of the more iconic mastering tools now on the market, to gain a broader perspective on their work. This book is the first to provide such a comprehensive overview of the audio mastering process told from the point-of-view of the artists who engage in it. In so doing, it pulls the curtain back on a crucial, but seldom heard from, agency in record production at large.

Ever wonder what goes into the creation of some of the best music ever recorded? Ever wonder how someone becomes an iconic professional who is universally admired and respected? Al Schmitt on the Record: The Magic Behind the Music reveals answers to those questions and more. In this memoir of one of the most respected engineers of all time, you'll see how a very young boy - mentored by his uncle Harry in New York - progressed through the recording world in its infancy, under the mentorship of Tom Dowd, in its heyday, becoming one of the all-time great recording engineers. And now today Al continues as an unstoppable force at the top of the recording world with his name on mega-hits from the likes of Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, and Dylan. Al's credits include a veritable who's who of the music world. Reading the compelling accounts of Al's life in the studio, you'll see how he has been able to stay at the top of his game since the '50s, and you'll experience what is was like behind the scenes and in-the-studio during of many of his historic, impactful recordings. Schmitt also shares many of the recording techniques and creative approaches that have set him apart, including his approach to microphones, effects, and processors, and he even shares setup diagrams from many of his highly-lauded recording sessions!