This is a new edition, in paperback, of Ken Pohlmann's classic survey of the compact disc world, The Compact Disc: A Handbook of Theory and Use, and celebrates the tenth birthday of possibly the most successful consumer electronics product ever introduced. The phenomenal success of the compact disc - currently over a billion copies are sold each year - has encouraged rapid development of compact disc technology and spawned entirely new applications for it. The text of this new edition has been thoroughly overhauled to take note of all these developments; in addition there is more information on the laboratory origins of the compact disc and the principles underlying the format. It remains a comprehensive and authoritative handbook by an acknowledged expert on digital audio and related topics.

‘Shellac and Swing!’ tells the story of the gramophone’s ‘golden age,’ from 1900-1955, when it helped to shape Britain’s culture from the arts to warfare. The story focuses on the gramophone, the invention of Emile Berliner in the 1880s, but begins with a brief outline of the first attempts to record the human voice and of Edison’s invention of the cylinder and the phonograph. It uses primary evidence, images and interviews with DJs, fans, musicians and historians to explore this fascinating and often eccentric tale. Each chapter ends with ‘On the Record,’ a discussion of a record that relates to the chapter’s themes. Although the gramophone and its fragile shellac discs were vital to Britain’s music scene—opera and music hall, the Jazz Age, the crooners, early rock’n’roll—its impact was far more extensive. Its place in British history encompasses advertising and design, fraud and piracy, phallic symbols, talking books, the threat from radio and TV, the contrasting worlds of the Salvation Army and adult ‘party’ discs, the creation of a parliamentary insult, new political strategies and the seditious activity of the Mau Mau. From the establishment of the Gramophone Company in London in the late 1890s to the end of shellac record production in the 1950s, the British public bought the machines and the discs in their millions and the record labels made stars of performers like Caruso, Harry Lauder, Al Bowlly and Dame Nellie Melba. ‘Shellac and Swing!’ explores the ways in which the gramophone helped these singers to achieve stardom but it also explores in detail and for the first time many other stories of not-so-famous performers, of the gramophone in political electioneering and of forgotten technology: the first pirate radio broadcasters, the soldiers who took their ‘Trench Decca’ portables to the Western Front, the invention of the Flame-O-Phone, the People’s Budget recordings and the pioneering label owner and producer of ‘blue’ discs. The gramophone’s heyday ended with the rise of rock ’n ’roll, teenagers, the 45 rpm single, the LP and the record player, but it survives today as part of a vibrant contemporary music, fashion and lifestyle scene.

Foreword- PART I. BASICS - 1. Introduction 2. Studio Planning 3. Sound Insulation 4. Reverberation 5. Air-Conditioning System Noise Limits 6. Sound-Retardant Windows and Doors 7. Instrument Isolation for Multiple Track Recording 8. Studio Testing 9. Plumbing Noise Control 10. Vibration Isolation 11. Suspended Acoustic Ceiling 12. Elevators 13. Interior Decor of Studios 14. Sound Power Versus Sound Pressure PART II. STUDIOS - 15. Control Rooms 16. ADR Studios 17. Re-Recording Studios 18. Reverberation Chambers 19. Motion Picture and TV Stages 20. Music Recording Studios 21. Review Rooms 22. Future Sound-Recording Studios 23. Canopied Amphitheaters PART III. ELECTROACOUSTICS - 24. Microphone Properties 25. Loudspeaker Sensitivity 26. Electronic Light Dimmers - Index Sound recording studios are often built like showcases, either to attract clientele or to provide a distinctive image for the industry. They are, thus, like people, in that no two of them are alike. Yet, all such structures have to have certain common acoustic elements if they are to function to the best artistic and economic advantages. The enclosures must be sufficiently quiet, exhibit proper reverberatory conditions (often required to be adjustable), be devoid of parallelisms between hard surfaces, have no sound-focusing concave surfaces, be free of vibrations from external and internal sources, etc. It is for the purpose of providing first design principles of sound recording studios that this book has been prepared, so that for any given size structure, satisfactory vocal and instrumental recording conditions can be established therein. All equations involving physical quantities are given both in the English and the MKS system of measurement. Also, when the description of existing studios includes linear dimensions, their metric equivalents follow in parenthesis, as is also done for such quantities as surface density (mass per unit area) and sound absorption.

Founded in 1917, Paramount Records incongruously was one of several homegrown record labels of a Wisconsin chair-making company. The company pinned no outsized hopes on Paramount. Its founders knew nothing of the music business, and they had arrived at the scheme of producing records only to drive sales of the expensive phonograph cabinets they had recently begun manufacturing. Lacking the resources and the interest to compete for top talent, Paramount's earliest recordings gained little foothold with the listening public. On the threshold of bankruptcy, the label embarked on a new business plan: selling the music of Black artists to Black audiences. It was a wildly successful move, with Paramount eventually garnering many of the biggest-selling titles in the "race records" era. Inadvertently, the label accomplished what others could not, making blues, jazz, and folk music performed by Black artists a popular and profitable genre. Paramount featured a deep roster of legendary performers, including Louis Armstrong, Charley Patton, Ethel Waters, Son House, Fletcher Henderson, Skip James, Alberta Hunter, Blind Blake, King Oliver, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, Johnny Dodds, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Jelly Roll Morton. Scott Blackwood's The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records is the story of happenstance. But it is also a tale about the sheer force of the Great Migration and the legacy of the music etched into the shellacked grooves of a 78 rpm record. With Paramount Records, Black America found its voice. Through creative nonfiction, Blackwood brings to life the gifted artists and record producers who used Paramount to revolutionize American music. Felled by the Great Depression, the label stopped recording in 1932, leaving a legacy of sound pressed into cheap 78s that is among the most treasured and influential in American history.

Today, jazz is considered high art, America's national music, and the catalog of its recordings-its discography-is often taken for granted. But behind jazz discography is a fraught and highly colorful history of research, fanaticism, and the simple desire to know who played what, where, and when. This history gets its first full-length treatment in Bruce D. Epperson's More Important Than the Music. Following the dedicated few who sought to keep jazz's legacy organized, Epperson tells a fascinating story of archival pursuit in the face of negligence and deception, a tale that saw curses and threats regularly employed, with fisticuffs and lawsuits only slightly rarer. Epperson examines recorded jazz from its careless handling as a novelty in the 1920s and '30s, through the deluge of 12-inch vinyl in the middle of the twentieth century, to the use of computers by today's discographers. Though he focuses much of his attention on comprehensive discographies, he also examines the development of a variety of related listings, such as buyer's guides and library catalogs, and he closes with a look toward discography's future. From the little black book to the full-featured online database, More Important Than the Music offers a history not just of jazz discography but of the profoundly human desire to preserve history itself.

Awarded a Certificate of Merit at the ARSC Awards for Excellence 2018 In the past two decades digital technologies have fundamentally changed the way we think about, make and use popular music. From the production of multimillion selling pop records to the ubiquitous remix that has become a marker of Web 2.0, the emergence of new music production technologies have had a transformative effect upon 21st Century digital culture. Sonic Technologies examines these issues with a specific focus upon the impact of digitization upon creativity; that is, what musicians, cultural producers and prosumers do. For many, music production has moved out of the professional recording studio and into the home. Using a broad range of examples ranging from experimental electronic music to more mainstream genres, the book examines how contemporary creative practice is shaped by the visual and sonic look and feel of recording technologies such as Digital Audio Workstations.

In Chasing Sound, Susan Schmidt Horning traces the cultural and technological evolution of recording studios in the United States from the first practical devices to the modern multi-track studios of the analog era. Charting the technical development of studio equipment, the professionalization of recording engineers, and the growing collaboration between artists and technicians, she shows how the earliest efforts to capture the sound of live performances eventually resulted in a trend toward studio creations that extended beyond live shows, ultimately reversing the historic relationship between live and recorded sound. Schmidt Horning draws from a wealth of original oral interviews with major labels and independent recording engineers, producers, arrangers, and musicians, as well as memoirs, technical journals, popular accounts, and sound recordings. Recording engineers and producers, she finds, influenced technological and musical change as they sought to improve the sound of records. By investigating the complex relationship between sound engineering and popular music, she reveals the increasing reliance on technological intervention in the creation as well as in the reception of music. The recording studio, she argues, is at the center of musical culture in the twentieth century.

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 who owned Apex Recording Studio 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 to Lady Gaga, and Diana Krall to 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! Inspiring story of the audio industry icon, Al Schmitt. Al shares insights into the way recordings are made at the highest level.

Recording Tips for Music Educators: A Practical Guide for Recording School Groups provides a go-to guide for music educators to plan and execute a successful recording project for school groups. For those teachers who are not comfortable with the recording process, this book functions as a catalyst to becoming comfortable with the planning, execution, and use of a school recording project. One of the most valuable tools for teaching is for students to be able to evaluate themselves. A good recording of the group helps students listen critically and make accurate evaluations of how well they have performed literature they have been taught over time. Covering planning, equipment needs, and equipment use, Recording Tips for Music Educators ensures that educators not trained in music production will be able to create praise-worthy recordings.

Few aspects of daily existence are untouched by technology. Learning and teaching music are no exceptions and arguably have been impacted as much or more than other areas of life. Digital technologies have come to affect music learning and teaching in profound ways, influencing how we create, listen, share, consume, interact, and conceptualize musical practices and the musical experience. For a discipline as entrenched in tradition as music education, this has brought forth myriad views on what does and should constitute music learning and teaching. To tease out and elucidate some of the salient problems, interests, and issues, The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education critically situates technology in relation to music education from a variety of perspectives: historical; philosophical; socio-cultural; pedagogical; musical; economic; policy, organized around four broad themes: Emergence and Evolution; Locations and Contexts: Social and Cultural Issues; Experiencing, Expressing, Learning and Teaching; and Competence, Credentialing, and Professional Development. Chapters from a highly diverse group of junior and senior scholars provide analyses of technology and music education through intersections of gender, theoretical perspective, geographical distribution, and relationship to the field. The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education's dedication to diversity and forward-facing discussion promotes contrasting perspectives and conversational voices rather than reinforce traditional narratives and prevailing discourses.

In this practical, project-based book, music students, educators, and coders receive the necessary tools to engage with real-world experiences in computation and creativity using the programming language Scratch. Designed to teach students the fundamental concepts of computational thinking through interactive music, sound, and media, projects vary in complexity and encourage readers to make music through playing and creating music. This book introduces readers to concepts in computational thinking and coding alongside parallel concepts in music, creative sound, and interaction. The book begins with a gentle introduction to the Scratch 3.0 programming environment through hands-on projects using a computer keyboard and mouse to make music and control sounds, creating original sounds, and performing them as an instrument. The next chapters introduce programming musical sequences, melodies, and structures, and assembling them into a virtual band that can be performed live or automated through algorithms. The final chapters explore computational thinking and music in the contexts of making games with sound effects, teaching the computer to generate music using algorithms and rules, interacting with music using live video, finishing with a chapter on musical live coding, where readers will create and manipulate computer code to perform, improvise, and create original music live.

Rock 'n' roll was born in rural Alabama, 1923, in the form of Sam Phillips, the youngest son of a large family living in a remote colony called the Lovelace Community. His father had a gift for farming, which was brought to an end by the Depression. His mother picked guitar and showed the kind of forbearance that allowed her to name her son after the doctor who delivered him drunk and then had to be put to bed himself. And yet from these unprepossessing origins, in 1951 Phillips made what is widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll record, Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket 88'. Just two years later a shy eighteen-year-old kid with sideburns, fresh out of high school, wandered into his recording studio to make a record 'for his mother', secretly hoping that it might somehow get him noticed. His name was Elvis Presley. Elvis's success, and the subsequent triumph of rock 'n' roll, was initially propelled to an almost astonishing degree by a limited number of releases by Carl 'Blue Suede Shoes' Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis - all from this tiny, one-man label. An engaging mix of biography and anecdote, Peter Guralnick's book brilliantly recreates one shining moment in the history of popular culture. And Sam Phillips was the man who brought it all about.

(Book). Ever since his father gave him a disc recorder at the tender age of 10, Bruce Swedien has known what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. The names of the people he has worked with are too many to list, but when one mentions musicians like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Eddie Harris, Quincy Jones, Jennifer Lopez, and even Michael Jackson, a great deal is immediately understood. In this book, Swedien generously gives away detailed information from his lifetime in the studio-from a musical, technical, and very personal perspective. This book has something for everyone who is interested in music, especially those curious about the stories behind the scenes of some of the best music to ever come out of the recording studio.

Between 1895 and 1920, the United States saw a sharp increase in commercial sound recording, the first mass medium of home entertainment. As companies sought to discover what kinds of records would appeal to consumers, they turned to performance forms already familiar to contemporary audiences—sales pitches, oratory, sermons, and stories. In A Most Valuable Medium, Richard Bauman explores the practical problems that producers and performers confronted when adapting familiar oral genres to this innovative medium of sound recording. He also examines how audiences responded to these modified and commoditized presentations. Featuring audio examples throughout and offering a novel look at the early history of sound recording, A Most Valuable Medium reveals how this new technology effected monumental change in the ways we receive information.

In this rich study of noise in American film-going culture, Meredith C. Ward shows how aurality can reveal important fissures in American motion picture history, enabling certain types of listening cultures to form across time. Connecting this history of noise in the cinema to a greater sonic culture, Static in the System shows how cinema sound was networked into a broader constellation of factors that affected social power, gender, sexuality, class, the built environment, and industry, and how these factors in turn came to fruition in cinema's soundscape. Focusing on theories of power as they manifest in noise, the history of noise in electro-acoustics with the coming of film sound, architectural acoustics as they were manipulated in cinema theaters, and the role of the urban environment in affecting mobile listening and the avoidance of noise, Ward analyzes the powerful relationship between aural cultural history and cinema's sound theory, proving that noise can become a powerful historiographic tool for the film historian.

Get your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some of the world's best-known and loved rock albums and records, including Oasis's What's the Story (Morning Glory), a number of Queen songs including Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and Motoerhead's first recordings. This new edition will be fully revised and updated with new chapters on the artists who have recorded at Rockfield since 2007, including new interviews with bands such as Thunder, The Dirty Youth, Gun and YES; the Studios' recent appearances in film and television such as the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film and the Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm documentary; and a section on Rockfield's neighbouring rehearsal studio, Monnow Valley, which later became a recording studio in its own right and has hosted bands such as Black Sabbath. A must-read for anyone interested in rock music and music history.

Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of "absolute" instrumental music. In this original, provocative book, Arved Ashby argues that recording technology has transformed our understanding of art music. Contesting the laments of nostalgic critics, Ashby sees recordings as socially progressive and instruments of a musical vernacular, but also finds that recording and absolute music actually involve similar notions of removing sound from context. He takes stock of technology's impact on classical music, addressing the questions at the heart of the issue. This erudite yet concise study reveals how mechanical reproduction has transformed classical musical culture and the very act of listening, breaking down aesthetic and generational barriers and mixing classical music into the soundtrack of everyday life.

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.

Who produces sound and music? And in what spaces, localities and contexts? As the production of sound and music in the 21st Century converges with multimedia, these questions are critically addressed in this new edited collection by Samantha Bennett and Eliot Bates. Critical Approaches to the Production of Music and Sound features 16 brand new articles by leading thinkers from the fields of music, audio engineering, anthropology and media. Innovative and timely, this collection represents scholars from around the world, revisiting established themes such as record production and the construction of genre with new perspectives, as well as exploring issues in cultural and virtual production.

‘Sonic intimacy’ is a key concept through which sound, human and technological relations can be assessed in relation to racial capitalism. What is sonic intimacy, how is it changing and what is at stake in its transformation, are questions that should concern us all. Through an analysis of alternative music cultures of the Black Atlantic (reggae sound systems, jungle pirate radio and grime YouTube music videos), Malcolm James critically shows how sonic intimacy pertains to modernity’s social, psychic, spatial and temporal movements. This book explores what is urgently at stake in the development of sonic intimacy for human relations and alternative black and anti-capitalist public politics.

Popular Music in the Post-Digital Age explores the relationship between macro environmental factors, such as politics, economics, culture and technology, captured by terms such as 'post-digital' and 'post-internet'. It also discusses the creation, monetisation and consumption of music and what changes in the music industry can tell us about wider shifts in economy and culture. This collection of 13 case studies covers issues such as curation algorithms, blockchain, careers of mainstream and independent musicians, festivals and clubs-to inform greater understanding and better navigation of the popular music landscape within a global context.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production provides a detailed overview of current research on the production of mono and stereo recorded music. The handbook consists of 33 chapters, each written by leaders in the field of music production. Examining the technologies and places of music production as well the broad range of practices - organization, recording, desktop production, post-production and distribution - this edited collection looks at production as it has developed around the world. In addition, rather than isolating issues such as gender, race and sexuality in separate chapters, these points are threaded throughout the entire text.

Written by one of the most prominent thinkers in sound studies, Amplifications presents a perspective on sound narrated through the experiences of a sound artist and writer. A work of reflective philosophy, Amplifications sits at the intersection of history, creative practice, and sound studies, recounting this narrative through a series of themes (rattles, echoes, recordings, etc.). Carter offers a unique perspective on migratory poetics, bringing together his own compositions and life's works while using his personal narrative to frame larger theoretical questions about sound and migration.

Noise Uprising brings to life the moment and sounds of a cultural revolution. Between the development of electrical recording in 1925 and the outset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the soundscape of modern times unfolded in a series of obscure recording sessions, as hundreds of unknown musicians entered makeshift studios to record the melodies and rhythms of urban streets and dancehalls. The musical styles and idioms etched onto shellac disks reverberated around the globe: among them Havana's son, Rio's samba, New Orleans' jazz, Buenos Aires' tango, Seville's flamenco, Cairo's tarab, Johannesburg's marabi, Jakarta's kroncong, and Honolulu's hula. They triggered the first great battle over popular music and became the soundtrack to decolonization.

Historic RCA Studio B, Home of 1,000 Hits, is a landmark with a legacy built by some of the most important producers and artists in country and pop music. During a golden window, from 1957 to 1977, approximately 18,000 sessions were recorded within its walls, including more than 200 songs by Elvis Presley. The many hits spread Nashville s reputation as Music City worldwide. Generously illustrated with rare photos from the museum s archives, this book traces the story of RCA Studio B from its birth through the city s striking musical evolution, to its existence today as both working studio and tourist attraction and celebrates a magical, bygone era.