Stereo is everywhere. The whole culture and industry of music and sound became organized around the principle of stereophony during the twentieth century. But nothing about this-not the invention or acceptance or ubiquity of stereo-was inevitable. Nor did the aesthetic conventions, technological objects, and listening practices required to make sense of stereo emerge fully formed, out of the blue. This groundbreaking book uncovers the vast amount of work that has been required to make stereo seem natural, and which has been necessary to maintain stereo's place as a dominant mode of sound reproduction for over half a century. The essays contained within this book are thematically grouped under (Audio) Positions, Listening Cultures, and Multichannel Sound and Screen Media; the cumulative effect is to advance research in music, sound, and media studies and to build new bridges between the fields. With contributions from leading scholars across several disciplines, Living Stereo re-tells the history of twentieth-century aural and musical culture through the lens of stereophonic sound.

- Concept of aural diversity enables new, more inclusive ways of approaching sound and hearing in research and practice - Interdisciplinary roster of contributors produces cross-disciplinary connections and makes this book relevant to readers across arts, humanities, and sciences - Includes chapters that address applied issues and how to incorporate aural diversity in practical and artistic contexts

Finding Your Career in the Modern Audio Industry equips the reader with the skills they need to turn an interest in audio, sound, or music technology into a career. This book provides insight for aspiring professionals seeking audio-related opportunities in entertainment, technology, education, and more. In the audio industry, there is typically a gap between those in-training and those with professional (and financially sustainable) careers. This book bridges the information gap, offering practical and real-world advice to those in this volatile stage of their career. Including 70+ interviews with professionals from over 20 countries, Finding Your Career in the Modern Audio Industry offers insight into how others (across the industry and the world) have applied entrepreneurial thinking, problem-solving, and creative solutions to build their careers. Including international case studies and interviews with diverse professionals, Finding Your Career in the Modern Audio Industry is essential reading for anyone taking their first steps into an audio-related field.

Wild Track is an exploration of birdsong and the ways in which that sound was conveyed, described and responded to through text, prior to the advent of recording and broadcast technologies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Street links sound aesthetics, radio, natural history, and literature to explore how the brain and imagination translate sonic codes as well as the nature of the silent sound we "hear" when we read a text. This creates an awareness of sound through the tuned attention of the senses, learning from sound texts of the natural world that sought – and seek – to convey the intensity of the sonic moment and fleeting experience. To absorb these lessons is to enable a more highly interactive relationship with sound and listening, and to interpret the subtleties of audio as a means of expression and translation of the living world.

This is a book about video art, and about sound art. The thesis is that sound first entered the gallery via the video art of the 1960s and in so doing, created an unexpected noise. The early part of the book looks at this formative period and the key figures within it - then jumps to the mid-1990s, when video art has become such a major part of contemporary art production, it no longer seems an autonomous form. Paul Hegarty considers the work of a range of artists (including Steve McQueen, Christian Marclay, Ryan Trecartin, and Jane and Louise Wilson), proposing different theories according to the particular strategy of the artist under discussion. Connecting them all are the twinned ideas of intermedia and synaesthesia. Hegarty offers close readings of video works, as influenced by their sound, while also considering the institutional and material contexts. Applying contemporary sound theory to the world of video art, Paul Hegarty offers an entirely fresh perspective on the interactions between sound, sound art, and the visual.

The Audio Expert is a comprehensive reference book covering all aspects of audio, with both practical and theoretical explanations. It is written for people who want to understand audio at the deepest, most technical level, but without needing an engineering degree. The Audio Expert explains how audio really works in much more depth than usual, using common sense plain-English explanations and mechanical analogies, with minimal math. It uses an easy to read conversational tone, and includes more than 400 figures and photos to augment the printed text. However, this book goes beyond merely explaining how audio works. It brings together the concepts of audio, aural perception, musical instrument physics, acoustics, and basic electronics, showing how they're intimately related. It also describes in great detail many practices and techniques used by recording and mixing engineers, including video production and computers. This book is meant for intermediate to advanced recording engineers and audiophiles who want to become experts. There's plenty for beginners too. One unique feature is explaining how audio devices such as equalizers, compressors, and A/D converters work internally, and how they're spec'd and tested, rather than merely describing how to use them. There's plenty of myth-busting and consumerism too. The book doesn't tell readers what brand power amplifier to buy, but it explains in great detail what defines a good amplifier so people can choose a first-rate model wisely without over-paying. Most explanations throughout the book are platform-agnostic, applying equally to Windows and Mac computers, and to most software and hardware. Many audio and video examples are included to enhance the written text. The new edition offers many updates and improvements throughout. New sections on coding an equalizer, comparing microphone preamps, testing results of loudspeaker isolation devices, new online video content on music theory, plus incorporated chapters on MIDI basics, computers, video production, plus new myth-busters, and much more!

Sound Inventions is a collection of 34 articles taken from Experimental Musical Instruments, the seminal journal published from 1984 through 1999. In addition to the selected articles, the editors have contributed introductory essays, placing the material in cultural and temporal context, providing an overview of the field both before and after the time of original publication. The Experimental Musical Instruments journal contributed extensively to a number of sub-fields, including sound sculpture and sound art, sound design, tuning theory, musical instrument acoustics, timbre and timbral perception, musical instrument construction and materials, pedagogy, and contemporary performance and composition. This book provides a picture of this important early period, presenting a wealth of material that is as valuable and relevant today as it was when first published, making it essential reading for anyone researching, working with or studying sound.

The Creative Electronic Music Producer examines the creative processes of electronic music production, from idea discovery and perception to the power of improvising, editing, effects processing, and sound design. Featuring case studies from across the globe on musical systems and workflows used in the production process, this book highlights how to pursue creative breakthroughs through exploration, trial and error tinkering, recombination, and transformation. The Creative Electronic Music Producer maps production's enchanting pathways in a way that will fascinate and inspire students of electronic music production, professionals already working in the industry, and hobbyists.

Drum Sound and Drum Tuning assists drummers, sound engineers, and music students in learning critical skills related to drum sound and achieving an optimised and personalised drum kit set-up. The book covers the essential theories of percussion acoustics and develops this knowledge in order to facilitate creative approaches to drum tuning and professional-level recording and mixing of drums. All aspects of drumhead vibration, drumhead equalisation, and resonant drumhead coupling are de-mystified, alongside discussions relating to drumhead types, drum shell vibration, and tuning to musical intervals for different performance genres. The book develops drum sound theory and creative analysis into a detailed dissection of recording and production techniques specifically for drums, including discussions on studio technologies, room acoustics, microphone techniques, phase coherence, and mixing drums with advanced digital audio workstation (DAW) techniques and creative processing tools. Drum Sound and Drum Tuning includes many practical hands-on exercises that incorporate example tutorials with Logic Pro and iDrumTune Pro software, encouraging the reader to put theory into immediate creative practice and to develop their own listening skills in an informed and reflective manner. The book also documents primary interviews and opinion from some of the world's most celebrated drummers, music producers, and sound engineers, enabling the reader to connect the relevant theories with real-world context, whilst refining their own personalised approach to mastering drum sound.

From 1940 to 1990, new machines and devices radically changed listening to music. Small and large single records, new kinds of jukeboxes and loudspeaker systems not only made it possible to playback music in a different way, they also evidence a fundamental transformation of music and listening itself. Taking the media and machines through which listening took place during this period, Listening Devices develops a new history of listening.Although these devices were (and often still are) easily accessible, up to now we have no concept of them. To address this gap, this volume proposes the term "listening device." In conjunction with this concept, the book develops an original and fruitful method for exploring listening as a historical subject that has been increasingly organized in relation to technology. Case studies of four listening devices are the points of departure for the analysis, which leads the reader down unfamiliar paths, traversing the popular sound worlds of 1950s rock 'n' roll culture and the disco and club culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Despite all the characteristics specific to the different listening devices, they can nevertheless be compared because of the fundamental similarities they share: they model and manage listening, they actively mediate between the listener and the music heard, and it is this mediation that brings both listener and the music listened to into being. Ultimately, however, the intention is that the listening devices themselves should not be heard so that the music they playback can be heard. Thus, they take the history of listening to its very limits and confront it with its "other"-a history of non-listening. The book proposes "listening device" as a key concept for sound studies, popular music studies, musicology, and media studies. With this conceptual key, a new, productive understanding of past music and sound cultures of the pre-digital era can be unlocked, and, not least, of the listening culture of the digital present.

Turn on any classic rock station and you'll soon hear a song that Ken Scott worked on. As one of the preeminent recording engineers and producers of the 20th century, Ken has garnered gold, platinum, and diamond record sales awards; multiple Grammy nominations; and even a Clio award (for his recording of the classic Coke ad "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"). Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust shares Ken Scott's intimate memories of working with some of the most important artists of the 20th century while crafting a sound that influenced generations of music makers.

Ken's work has left an indelible mark on hundreds of millions of fans with his skilled contributions to Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album. As producer and/or engineer of six David Bowie albums (including the groundbreaking Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars) as well as other timeless classics, the sound Ken crafted has influenced several generations of music makers that continues to this day. Ken captured the sonic signatures of a who's-who of classic rock and jazz acts, including Elton John, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Duran Duran, The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, America, Devo, Kansas, The Tubes, Missing Persons, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Dixie Dregs, and Stanley Clarke.

This is his story, complete with funny, provocative, and oh-so-honest tales of the studio, stage, and even an infamous swimming pool incident. Never-before-seen photographs and technical details make this book a must-have for every music fan.
"This is easily the best book of its sort I've ever read, and it works on so many levels?it's got great stories that give us insights into some of the biggest names in music; it offers a history of recording technology and techniques from the late '60s to the present; and coursing through it all is an unflinching and often self-deprecating biography of our hero as he negotiates the perils, pitfalls and triumphs of a life in the m

Coproduction is dedicated specifically to the study of an emerging field in music production musicology. It explores the limits of what this field might be, from the workings of a few individuals producing music together in the studio, to vast contributions of whole societies producing popular music. Taking a wide-ranging approach to examining the field, Coproduction looks through multiple formats including essays, interviews, and case studies, with analysis and commentary of coproduction experiences at Abbey Road studios. It does so by examining multiple disciplines from social science and coproduction in mental health, to philosophy and mathematics. At its extremes (which is the extreme middle and not the blunt 'cutting edge') the authors attempt to produce every song in their development of an all-encompassing pop music concept, peculiarly called Toast theory. In attempting to unite the pragmatic collaborative patterns of Vera John-Steiner with philosophical postmodernist concepts of connection, Coproduction has something to offer readers interested in the traditional workings of teams of producers, as well as those seeking to understand the wider philosophy of collaboration in music production.

Widespread distribution of recorded music via digital networks affects more than just business models and marketing strategies; it also alters the way we understand recordings, scenes and histories of popular music culture. This Is Not a Remix uncovers the analog roots of digital practices and brings the long history of copies and piracy into contact with contemporary controversies about the reproduction, use and circulation of recordings on the internet. Borschke examines the innovations that have sprung from the use of recording formats in grassroots music scenes, from the vinyl, tape and acetate that early disco DJs used to create remixes to the mp3 blogs and vinyl revivalists of the 21st century. This is Not A Remix challenges claims that 'remix culture' is a substantially new set of innovations and highlights the continuities and contradictions of the Internet era. Through an historical focus on copy as a property and practice, This Is Not a Remix focuses on questions about the materiality of media, its use and the aesthetic dimensions of reproduction and circulation in digital networks. Through a close look at sometimes illicit forms of composition-including remixes, edits, mashup, bootlegs and playlists-Borschke ponders how and why ideals of authenticity persist in networked cultures where copies and copying are ubiquitous and seemingly at odds with romantic constructions of authorship. By teasing out unspoken assumptions about media and culture, this book offers fresh perspectives on the cultural politics of intellectual property in the digital era and poses questions about the promises, possibilities and challenges of network visibility and mobility.

(Book). In this prime collection of first-hand interviews, 37 of the world's top record producers share their creative secrets and hit-making techniques from the practical to the artistic. George Martin reveals the technical and musical challenges of working with The Beatles, while Phil Ramone, producer for such artists as Billy Joel, discusses studio wall treatments. Offering real-world advice on everything from mics to mixing to coaching a nervous singer, producers interviewed include Arif Mardin (Aretha Franklin), Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Alan Parsons (Pink Floyd) and more.

- Filled with contributions from world-leading academics and practitioners, from a variety of backgrounds and countries. - Highly interdisciplinary overview of live music, which will be relevant to professionals and students interested in music business, music technology, music production and performance. - Includes papers on cutting-edge issues, such as augmented reality and virtual reality.

The Beatles. The Beach Boys. Blur, Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Kate Bush and Coldplay. EMI was one of the big four record companies, with some of the biggest names in the history of recorded music on its roster. Dominating the music industry for over 100 years, by 2010 EMI Group had reported massive pre-tax losses. The group was divided up and sold in 2011. How could one of the greatest recording companies of the 20th century have ended like this? With interviews from insiders and music industry experts, Eamonn Forde pieces together the tragic end to a financial juggernaut and a cultural institution in forensic detail. The Final Days of EMI: Selling the Pig is the story of the British recording industry, laid bare in all its hubris and glory.

Loudspeakers: For Music Recording and Reproduction, Second Edition is a comprehensive guide, offering the tools and understanding needed to cut out the guesswork from loudspeaker choice and set-up. Philip Newell and Keith Holland, with the assistance of Sergio Castro and Julius Newell, combine their years of experience in the design, application, and use of loudspeakers to cover a range of topics from drivers, cabinets, and crossovers, to amplifiers, cables, and surround sound. Whether using loudspeakers in a recording studio, mastering facility, broadcasting studio, film post-production facility, home, or musician's studio, or if you simply aspire to improve your music-production system this book will help you make the right decisions. This new edition provides significant updates on the topics of digital control, calibration, and cinema loudspeaker systems.

This edited collection delves into the industrial music genre, exploring the importance of music in (sub)cultural identity formation, and the impact of technology on the production of music. With its roots as early as the 1970s, industrial music emerged as a harsh, transgressive, and radically charged genre. The soundscape of the industrial is intense and powerful, adorned with taboo images, and thematically concerned with authority and control. Elemental to the genre is critical engagement with configurations of the body and related power. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this collection analyses the treatment of subjects like the Body (animal, human, machine), Noise (rhythmic, harsh) and Power (authority, institutions, law) in a variety of industrial music's elements. Throughout the collection, these three subjects are interrogated by examining lyrics, aesthetics, music videos, song writing, performance and audience reception. The chapters have been carefully selected to produce a diverse and intersectional perspective, including work on Black industrial musicians and Arabic and North African women's collaborations. Rather than providing historical context, the contributors interpret the finer elements of the aesthetics and discourses around physical bodies and power as expressed in the genre, expanding the 'industrial' boundary and broadening the focus beyond white European industrial music.

Sonic Identity at the Margins convenes the interdisciplinary work of 17 academics, composers, and performers to examine sonic identity from the 19th century to the present. Recognizing the myriad aspects of identity formation, the authors in this volume adopt methodological approaches that range from personal accounts and embodied expression to archival research and hermeneutic interpretation. They examine real and imagined spaces—from video games and monument sites to films and depictions of outer space—by focusing on sonic creation, performance, and reception. Drawing broadly from artistic and performance disciplines, the authors reimagine the roles played by music and sound in constructing notions of identity in a broad array of musical experiences, from anti-slavery songsters to Indigenous tunes and soundscapes, noise and multimedia to popular music and symphonic works. Exploring relationships between sound and various markers of identity—including race, gender, ability, and nationality—the authors explore challenging, timely topics, including the legacies of slavery, indigeneity, immigration, and colonial expansion. In heeding recent calls to decolonize music studies and confront its hegemonic methods, the authors interrogate privileged perspectives embedded in creating, performing, and listening to sound, as well as the approaches used to analyze these experiences.

Music videos play a critical role in our age of ubiquitous streaming digital media. They project the personas and visions of musical artists; they stand at the cutting edge of developments in popular culture; and they fuse and revise multiple frames of reference, from dance to high fashion to cult movies and television shows to Internet memes. Above all, music videos are laboratories for experimenting with new forms of audiovisual expression. The Rhythm Image explores all these dimensions. The book analyzes, in depth, recent music videos for artists ranging from pop superstar The Weeknd to independent women artists like FKA twigs and Dawn Richard. The music videos discussed in this book all treat the traditional themes of popular music: sex and romance, money and fame, and the lived experiences of race and gender. But they twist these themes in strange and unexpected ways, in order to reflect our entanglement with a digital world of social media, data gathering, and 24/7 demands upon our attention.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Composers and sound artists have explored for decades how to transform microphones and loudspeakers from "inaudible" technology into genuinely new musical instruments. While the sound reproduction industry had claimed perfect high fidelity already at the beginning of the twentieth century, these artists found surprising ways of use - for instance tweaking microphones, swinging loudspeakers furiously around, ditching microphones in all kinds of vessels, or strapping loudspeakers to body parts of the audience. Between air and electricity traces their quest and sets forward a new theoretical framework, providing historic background on technological and artistic development, and diagrams of concert and performance set-ups. From popular noise musician Merzbow to minimalist classic Alvin Lucier, cult instrument inventor Hugh Davies, or contemporary visual artist Lynn Pook - they all aimed to make audible what was supposed to remain silent. www.microphonesandloudspeakers.com

With the rising popularity of online music, the nature of the music industry and the role of the Internet are rapidly changing. Rather than buying records, tapes, or CDs-in other words, full-length collections of music-music shoppers can, as they have in earlier decades, purchase just one song at a time. It's akin to putting a coin into a diner jukebox-except the jukebox is in the sky, or, more accurately, out in cyberspace. But has increasing copyright protection gone too far in keeping the music from the masses? Digital Music Wars explores these transformations and the far-reaching implications of downloading music in an in-depth and insightful way. Focusing on recent legal, corporate, and technological developments, the authors show how the online music industry will establish the model for digital distribution, cultural access, and consumer privacy. Music lovers and savvy online shoppers will want to read this book, as will students and researchers interested in new media and the future of online culture.

(Book). Electric guitar players can choose from a library full of guitar books, but comparatively little has been written about the other 50% of the electric guitar: the amplifier. This book takes a giant step toward redressing the balance, providing the first overall view of amp-dom, including: how amps work, profiles of the major manufacturers, 'transistor dinosaurs' and their place in amp history, reissues vs. vintage amps, and troubleshooting. Terms are defined in the margin as they are introduced, and plenty of photos and diagrams illuminate the text.