Music production, pro-audio, music recording techniques

This thesis tries to elucidate and exemplify possible intersections between experimental rock of the late 60s and early 70s and the field of electroacoustic music, focusing mostly on production/compositional techniques and aesthetic approaches. A historical overview of the context which experimental rock emerged from is attempted, exploring why and how certain production techniques were used at that period in rock music and investigating into whether the aesthetic outcome of these techniques relates to experiments in the field of electroacoustic music. Musical examples from the field of classical, jazz and rock styles (including artists like Glenn Gould, Lennie Tristano, Miles Davis, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fred Frith (Henry Cow) and Frank Zappa) are addressed for the sake of exploring different experimental studio practices. Moreover, a part of this research deals with the creative exploration of the production techniques discussed in order to develop my personal compositional work and eventually to create a framework where a discussion about composing electroacoustic music from the perspective of rock production (and vice-versa!) could emerge.

Through a sequence of empirical studies, Paula Wolfe demonstrates how the patriarchal structure of our industry isolates women in music production. As an artist-producer-researcher, she spotlights the life experiences of women artists-producers who stay the course despite all the blocks. Giving a tribute to women singer-songwriters who have developed their production and promotion skills alone in their home studio, her book elaborates on the new opportunities that the digital industry offers to marginalized producers, apart from major labels. From the perspectives of an insider, researcher, and educator, I propose to also consider collective empowerment, feminist approaches of creation, and improvisation processes to preserve our inner power and stand against the status quo. Eventually, I call for 'the female gaze' inspiration that would benefit the industry at large because our globalized world needs more diversity to keep our listeners interested.

The main object of this paper is the composition Seven Circles completed in 1959 by Danish composer Else Marie Pade. It is the first piece of purely electronic music composed in Denmark. The paper has three primary focuses which are first: the evolution of electronic music that leads up to Seven Circles, second: Pade and the production of the piece itself, and third: how the techniques used by Pade point out the way towards the electronic music we know today.

La tecnología ha incidido en la escucha y consecuente recepción de la música
desde los inicios de los primeros dispositivos de registro a comienzos del siglo XX. En la actualidad, podemos afirmar que una escucha de las producciones discográficas que no tome en consideración el diseño sonoro de las mismas es tan impertinente como errónea. Hoy, las estrategias de construcción de la dimensión sónica han logrado trascender ampliamente los confines de la concepción técnica históricamente vinculada a esa instancia, poniendo de relieve el rol artístico de los ingenieros de sonido.
El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la dimensión sónica de “Rastro”, canción perteneciente a la cantautora argentina Marilina Bertoldi, empleando la metodología de análisis soundbox, elaborada por Allan F. Moore. El análisis que nos proponemos realizar está guiado por una hipótesis de trabajo: afirmamos que en “Rastro” el diseño sonoro está orientado a caracterizar los segmentos formales de la canción mediante el uso de diferentes estrategias y procesos propios que operan tanto como factores de integración como de diferenciación de las diferentes partes, articulándose permanentemente con los aspectos inmanentes de la canción.
Conceptos clave: soundbox, posproducción, mezcla, caracterización, acusmática.

La réflexion proposée a pour but de mettre en valeur sur l’industrie musicale, et plus particulièrement sur le segment de la production audio, l’impact de l’apparition probable d’un essaim d’innovations technologiques dans un futur proche. Ces innovations sont à mettre en parallèle avec les modalités existantes de gestion, d’organisation et de création au sein des organisations du secteur. Le but recherché est de mettre en évidence la supériorité des organisations agiles et les mécanismes qui pourraient permettre d’accompagner les prémices de la singularité technologique.

With more than a dozen number one singles, multiple Grammy wins and nominations, and Songwriter of the Year Award from BMI, the 26-year-old producer and songwriter Benny Blanco has ensured his place in the history of popular music. Some of his hits include Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” and “California Gurls”, Maroon 5’s "Moves Like Jagger,” and “Payphone," Britney Spears’ “Circus,” Taio Cruz’s "Dynamite," Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK,” and Gym Class Heroes’ "Stereo Hearts." Blanco’s remarkable success at such a young age is matched only by his humility and the maturity of his understanding of the post millennial songwriting and production process in the contemporary popular music milieu in which he occupies a central position.

The following is an edited transcription of a presentation given by Blanco in which he delved into his songwriting and production techniques using examples from stems of his hit recordings and by answering audience questions. The presentation was given at the Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts, Phoenix, MD., USA, November 10, 2012. It was arranged and (very lightly) moderated by Richard James Burgess for the Washington DC chapter of the Recording Academy’s Producer and Engineer Wing for which he was, contemporaneously, its co-chair.

Motivated by Marshall McLuhan’s suggestion that advances in technology serve to alter sense perceptions, and that it is the role of artists to be aware of such changes, the author explores intersections and contrasts among five different approaches to the subject and practice of ear training in the context of sound recording technology, with attention to how these approaches serve to expand and challenge traditional ear training pedagogy and what these changes to tradition reveal about how sound recording technology has altered our sense perceptions.

The late James Yancey, known by his producer name of Jay Dee or J Dilla, is considered by many hip-hop scholars and musicians to be one of the most influential producers of the genre. His techniques of sampling are some of the most creative and intricate in the world of hip-hop beat making and are viewed as virtuosic in their own right. By analyzing his compositional process through selected tracks on his seminal (and final) album Donuts, I will be exploring how Dilla used over seventy-five samples from a variety of music genres and artists to create a sonic collage that is one of the most influential instrumental works of hip-hop genre. This analysis will demonstrate the sampling techniques of J Dilla, illustrating methodologies for analyzing specific sampling techniques. Out of the thirty-one tracks on the album Donuts, I will be analyzing several tracks within the three main chapters of the thesis: “Workinonit,” “Mash,” “Time: Donut of the Heart,” “Glazed,” and “Don’t Cry.” By applying specific methodologies of analysis to specific tracks on Donuts, I highlight the complexities and nuances involved in transforming the original sampled audio into an entirely new piece of music.

During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, 'lo-fi,' a term suggesting poor sound quality, the opposite of 'hi-fi,' became a characteristic perceived in certain popular-music recordings and eventually emerged as a category within independent or 'indie' popular music. It is typically taken to express the technical and technological deficiencies associated with amateur or 'DIY' musical production, namely at home using cheap recording equipment. However, this thesis rejects the assumption that lo-fi equates to a mode of production and charts it as a construction and a certain aesthetics within popular music discourse, defined as 'a positive appreciation of what are perceived and/or considered normatively interpreted as imperfections in a recording.' I chart the development and manifestation of lo-fi aesthetics, and the ways it focuses on various 'lo-fi effects' such as noise, distortion ('phonographic imperfections') and performance imperfections, in several decades of newspapers, magazines and websites covering popular music in the English-speaking world.
I argue that lo-fi aesthetics is not merely the unmediated, realist authenticity that it is often claimed to be, but one that is also fascinated with the distance from perceived commercial norms of technique and technology (or 'technocracy') that lo-fi effects signify. Lo-fi aesthetics derives from aesthetics of primitivism and realism that extend back long before phonographic imperfections were positively received. I also differentiate between lo-fi aesthetics and aesthetics of noise music, distortion in rock, glitch, punk and cassette culture. An appreciation for recording imperfections and the development of 'lo-fi' as a construction and a category is charted since the 1950s and particularly in the 1980s, 1990s and in the twenty-first century, taking in the reception of artists such as the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Hasil Adkins, the Shaggs, Jandek, Daniel Johnston, Beat Happening, Pavement, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Beck, Will Oldham, Ariel Pink and Willis Earl Beal.

This paper is a short investigation about identifying and solving frequency masking in an audio mix. Frequency masking presents a problem when audio engineers mix a song because similar frequency ranges of different instruments musical elements combine to reduce the clarity and definition of the song mix.

Since the first musicological studies oriented to urban popular music, the main approach has been and continues to be that of sociology. This has become a key element in the renewal of the anthropological perspective of the musical event since it offers invaluable information about the uses and functions of music in different social contexts. But a complete image of what happens in the musical event can only be obtained if all the aspects that constitute it are analyzed. These are elements that both this sociological perspective and notational analysis leave, in some way, aside: sound in its physical aspect and its relationship with all the elements of meaning. Although it is evident that the notation seeks to translate sound into symbols on paper, it is equally clear that it has only been able to represent a small part of its wide range of characteristics. On the other hand, musical analysis runs the risk of falling into subjective appraisals that do not have a sufficiently solid basis for current musicological study. Therefore, it is convenient to offer new interpretive perspectives that start from an objective element. The proposal of this work is to take the electromechanical effect as a reference. This element has been fundamental in the development of the sound vocabulary of urban popular music since its first uses in the 1950s and, however, musicological study has been systematically left out.
This research takes Philip Tagg's (2013) analytical model and conducts a case study. Based on the decomposition of the song "Ogre Battle" by the rock group Queen and the study of the use of effects, a semiotic analysis is proposed that allows us to understand, on the one hand, the significant depth of the quartet's sound discourse and, on the other hand, the techniques used in the exploitation of this language. The results of this study want to highlight the need to explore this path already proposed in 1982 by Tagg himself, but still to be developed.

This research explores the world of recordings live in the studio.
Trying to analyze advantages and disadvantages, a lot of different recording and mixing techniques will be examined, to find out how having all the band playing at the same moment could be an advantage to the final result instead of a big problem. Because every engineer, as well as any musician and producer, has a different idea about the "perfect recording session", many interviews of experienced people in this field have been reported.
To clearly understand the pros and cons of live recording and overdub recording, has been taken in consideration a big part of the commercial music, from classical and jazz to rock and pop, because is often the situation and the music itself that dictate the session plan: for example, while a rock band is usually recorded in overdub, if involved in soundtrack for cinema or visual arts, it needs to be recorded live.
The contrast between overdub and "live in studio" recordings changes radically the role of producers and engineers in all the production stages. Particularly the producer, while is often responsible of the arrangement, in case of the overdubbing, in case of a live recording should be almost transparent to allow the musicians to give the best performance.

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. . . . See link below to publisher's catalog page.

During the 1980s Metallica developed a loyal fan base who championed them as distinct from the most popular heavy metal bands of the period. As Metallica began in the 1990s to experiment with songs that were increasingly introspective, drawing from blues and country music, many fans accused the band of "selling out." After the band’s lawsuit against Napster and three universities, news stations broadcast public CD smashings and testimonies of angry fans who felt they were victims of the band’s greed. The outrage felt by Metallica fans is remarkable in its endurance and publicity and, I argue, cannot be explained by reference to any single event.

To explain the magnitude and endurance of fans’ frustrations, I pursue a reception study of fan and media discourses surrounding Metallica’s major controversies between 1991 and 2008. Drawing from Glenn Pillsbury’s study of Metallica and sell-out accusations (2006: 133–81) that focuses on racial, class, and gender codes, I synthesize these factors within an account of subcultural prestige using theories from Pierre Bourdieu’s “Field of Cultural Production.” As the accusations mount, Metallica and their angry fans move further apart in Bourdieu’s field, in which economic success is inversely related to artistic prestige. Fan complaints about monetary greed, particularly those directed at commercially successful producers Bob Rock and Rick Rubin, suggest that many fans share Bourdieu’s opposition of prestige and popularity, despite media scholars’ criticisms that it relies on an outdated, simplistic model of cultural production stemming from the nineteenth century (Hesmondhalgh 2006).

Within the context of contemporary Hollywood film music production; this thesis explores the use and application of technology for orchestral composition, orchestral music recording, through to the final delivery and integration of music on the dubbing stage. It also looks at the impact of technology on the entire post-production process and explores alternative ways for a more integrated filmmaking experience between director and composer. This empirical research was successfully applied to the production of two Hong Kong feature film scores for Election 2 (2006) and After This Our Exile (2006) and the production of the first Hong Kong film orchestral scoring session at Shaw Studios on the 22nd of February 2007.

Comment l’enregistrement a-t-il modifié les manières d’être de la musique ? Quelles incidences a-t-il eu sur nos façons d’interpréter et d’écouter les œuvres ou les improvisations? Comment est-il devenu un outil dans la construction d’un répertoire, d’une tradition voire d’un genre musical ? Quel est son rôle dans la recherche musicologique ? Voilà les questions, tant philosophiques que musicologiques, que cet ouvrage se propose d’aborder, en prenant en compte aussi bien la musique savante que les musiques populaires. 
Textes d’Alessandro Arbo, Clément Cannone, Roberto Calabretto, Luca Cossettini, Paola Delfino, Jacques Favier, Akiba Fuminori, Stéphane Gasparini, Benjamin Lassauzet, Pierre-Emmanuel Lephay, Jonathan Nubel, Angelo Orcalli, Samaa Sulaiman Marion-Gallois, Julie Walker, Rodolphe Weyl.

With the ever growing disenfranchisement of musicians and artists in the in ability of government entities to enforce stricter and favourable music quota which aim to increase the consumption of local music by increasing the current music quota as it stands from 25% to at least 60% for commercial radio, with more and more musicians calling for an increase in the current quota. In an open letter to the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Pallo Jordan from the South African Music Quota Committee (SAMQC) (Oct 2007) they voiced their concerns:
“The SA content quota of 25% for commercial radio is not only too low, it is also often meaningless, because The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) allows stations to include gig guides, interviews and promotions as part of their local quota.
You state, and we agree, that “cultural industries are serious business”. The structures protecting the national interest in iron, minerals, fishing, sport and many other areas are strongly enforced and defended here in South Africa. Why not our music?”
More initiatives such as the “Play Local of Die” campaign whose aim is to urge commercial broadcasters to increase their local content with regards to commercial radios stations playlist was launched by South African Hip Hop artist commonly known as JR (Real Name: JR Bogopa) to further exhibit the South African musicians plight in how pivotal it is to their careers and overall financial well-being that the current quota be raised significantly.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of local content quota on domestic radio broadcasters in South Africa. The population for this study included 100 radio station which broadcast in the republic of South Africa. The response rate for the e-mail questionnaire was 100% of the 100 respondents. A Likert-type scale instrument consisted of 39 questions divided into two sections: Section one looked at the demographic profile of the respondents and section two focused on getting
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responses on the factors impacting local content quota and domestic broadcasters, namely local content quota, implications for domestic broadcasters, revenue streams, impact on local musicians, governments role in local content quota, success factors, globalisation and piracy.
In order to realise the purpose of this study, the following research design was used:
Step 1 A literature review was conducted to determine the various factors impacting local artists, local broadcasters and local content quota.
Step 2 A questionnaire was composed according to the principles and guidelines in steps 1.
Step 3 Empirical data was obtained with the aid of an e-mail survey.
Step 4 The results of the data were analysed and interpreted.
Step 5 The empirical results were integrated with Step 3.
Step 6 Conclusions and recommendations were completed.
The main findings from the study were:
 The study revealed that the radio industry is not unanimous in the call from artists for government to increase the local content quota and thus prefer that the current status quo continue.
 That local content quota are not the only way to curb the South African music industry’s woes, artists should seek to maximise their revenue by exploiting the infinite avenues for revenue that globalisation avails.

This article contextualises music technology within the Hip Hop tradition of beat making. While literature exploring music technology in music therapy has proliferated in recent years, much of this has focused on the “assistive” function of technology, where it is used to facilitate music making for clients who have limited access to playing acoustic – or non-tech-based – instruments. This paper argues for an alternate lens that positions music technology within the tradition of beat making and that this is a musicing practice of value in its own right. To do so, a brief historical account of the beat making tradition is provided, which locates its origins within Hip Hop culture and acknowledges the evolution of the myriad beat-based genres that have and continue to emerge around music technology. A basic typology of beat making equipment is then provided to foster greater understanding of these technologies as instruments in their own right and their role in shaping contemporary music. To account for the rapid innovation in this area, the typology focuses on pieces with historical significance and the primary functions that remain the building blocks of composition and performance in beat making to this day. Brief accounts of how these instruments can and are integrated into therapeutic practice are also provided. It is acknowledged that this paper itself represents only one, brief account of beat making traditions and instruments. Yet, it is hoped it will promote understanding of their significance and serve as a useful reference in helping practitioners consider how these instruments may enrich practice. It is argued that such consideration is not only useful, but critical for reasons of cultural sustainability, and ensuring the relevance of music therapy practice in the 21st Century.

Much has been written on jazz, its explosive success at the beginning of its life journey, and its gradual gain of respectability as it aged – in exchange for a noticeable loss of popularity in the land of its birth. But very few researchers have touched upon the role that American copyright law has played in the development of jazz. This short book investigates the connection between the existing copyright laws, their administration in the U.S., and the historic changes in the way jazz music has been performed and consumed in America. Cross-examination of data coming from musicology, sociology, legal and economic studies points in the direction of legal issues as the primary underlying cause of negative changes that affected jazz. Bad copyright laws led to bad practices of law enforcement, which in turn, promoted bad business practices in relation to jazz. At the end of this chain, after about sixty years passed from jazz’ inception, the general public started losing interest in this art form which has become severely censored as a result of imperfect copyright laws, their overly restrictive administration, as well as the failure of legislative bodies and courts to recognize the special nature of jazz.
The most American form of expression in music, widely popular during the 1920-1950’s, has eventually turned into an esoteric Aesopian art form, meaningful mainly to an expert – ideally, a jazz performer himself.

Se trata del primer libro-manual de Audio Branding escrito en idioma español. En este caso el libro describe el estado del arte disponible a nivel mundial sobre el tema y brinda un acercamiento a la realidad sobre el mismo en el contexto latinoamericano, específicamente el colombiano

Nota: versión impresa disponible en el link adjunto

This thesis analyses by comparison the processes by which literature becomes deep-rooted and popular music noble, in Brazil, to grasp the different logics of constructing the nation through culture. We examine successively the differentiation of cultural production fields by analyzing, internally and externally, two sets of logical operators of classification : the books about history of Brazilian literature, published between 1888 and 1964, and the popular music programs broadcasted by radio between 1919 and 1964. The valorization of traditions and the consecration of artistic pantheons, in these two areas, go together with the construction of status (author, compositor, producer, critic), of cultural practices and forms (œuvre, genres, styles) that are new, from the producers to their audience. Then we confront these two processes in order to bring out variances and non-variances and apprehend the multiple forms of cultural nationalism. Putting in relation the morphological transformations of Brazilian society, the formation of national markets and of cultural policies, and also the migration and professional conversion trajectories, we contemplate the modes of transfer of essentialists schemes of classification between, on one side, the scholar and the popular, and, on the other side, the national and the foreign. It’s a question of understanding how the different strategies of objectivating the national contribute, by turning sacred a cultural heritage, to put in coherence differentiated processes, to the reification of the idea that a “national essence” would express itself in all the fields of social life.

ABSTRACT
The study examined the effect of socio-economic status of parents on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. Main objectives of the study were to examine the effect of socio-economic status, health and educational background of parents on secondary school students’ performance in Nigeria.
Concerning the methodology, the researcher employed both primary and secondary data for the study. Secondary data for the study was gotten from textbooks, research journals and the internet. The researcher used questionnaire for the collection of data from the respondents. Samples of 200 students from five (5) secondary schools were used for the study. Data was analyzed using the chi-square method of hypothesis testing and formulation.
Findings from the study revealed that socio-economic status of parents affect the academic performance of students. Out of 200 students used for the study, majority asserted to this and the alternate hypothesis was accepted. Other findings from the study showed that there is a relation between student health status and their academic performance as well as parent’s educational background.
The researcher recommended that various strategies should be put in place to reduce peer to peer influence.

This doctorate has been conducted as a practice-as-research based project, resulting in the submission of the 2 hours of recordings of creative work for examination. The written thesis that accompanies the creative work has a tripartite structure, and follows the model described by Robin Nelson in the text Practice as research in the arts: principles, protocols, pedagogies, resistances (Nelson 2013, p.34).
The first section, A Conceptual Framework, outlines the history and theoretical implications of the aesthetic of yūgen, surveying the evolution and etymology of the term and describing the traditional techniques used in classical and medieval Japan to evoke the aesthetic in the fields of poetry, painting and garden design. This section concludes with an investigation of the author‘s creative translation of the aesthetic of yūgen into the methods of ludic yūgen, as used in the author‘s creative praxis. These methods involve the use of miegakure, improvisation, omission, limitations, sparse means and the manipulation of shadows and darkness.
The second section, A Location in a Lineage, reviews historical practice in the art of recording which has involved the use of the methods of ludic yūgen. The locating of these methods in the rock genre, specifically in the recordist tradition, is elucidated. The use of the methods of ludic yūgen by recording artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Robert Pollard, the Bomb Squad, Beck, Pixies and others is described, and the researcher‘s creative work is revealed as belonging to an unacknowledged tradition of ludic recordists working in the realm of popular music. In addition, the role of humour in ludic yūgen, the ludic approach to music and the importance of the artist‘s unique voice are delineated.

The third and final section of the written thesis is essentially a diary of creative practice, functioning as a linear exegesis that traces the development of the creative work and the evolution of the intellectual context in which that praxis takes place.

The presence of K-pop production in Norway is not coincidental. Norwegian producers have identified economic and artistic market opportunities in Korea, while the Korean music industry has encouraged non-domestic producers to export pop songs to the Korean market and to collaborate with Korean producers. This model of production is a part of corporate globalization strategies such as S.M. Entertainment’s “cultural technology.” Yet, literature is scarce on the music in K-pop and its production. This thesis explores the musical content and production practices in transnationally produced K-pop tracks, and further investigates how international and transnational collaborations work in the production of K-pop. It attempts to bridge the gap between the most occurring themes of Hallyu research – culture, fandom, cultural geography, economics, ethnography or an interdisciplinary amalgam of these – and K-pop’s musical content.

Since the early 80’s, there has been an increasing diffusion of what was initially high-cost recording technology down into the general populace. Multi-million dollar technology, once only the domain of large record companies and influential recording studios, has become increasingly available to a wider group of users at entry-level costs and based around domestic computer-based technology. As the average person can now “dabble” in writing and recording, potentially creating a trend towards solo rather than collaborative efforts, and with the increasing quantity of available sounds and options of musical direction now available to this solo writer and recordist, many of the musical restrictions and the limitations once inherent in the technology and the social/industrial environment of the past have been overcome.
Combined with a loss of artistic qualitative control by the traditional gatekeepers of commercial output – namely the music publishers and record companies – and the resultant democratisation of written and produced music with its vast set of possible musical outcomes, has this wealth of possibilities negatively affected the overall creative (and technological) quality of the new music producers at this new technological edge?
If so, by setting up some artificial constraints via the generation and selection of rules within a custom-generated songwriting & production manifesto, can a set of structures be created that will aid in re-enabling or enhancing the innovative process, as well as potentially disseminating some of the potentially lost (or long-trailing) concepts of industry best practice?

This article addresses the cultural and historical significance of the modern interpretation of extended range guitars while also discussing specifications of the instruments and the context of a mix. The extended range guitar refers to the added strings on a traditional six string guitar by adding a seventh, eight, and even ninth string to the electric guitar. First, this article explores how artists such as Steve Vai, Korn, Meshuggah, and Animals As Leaders have impacted and shaped the commercial creation, success, and cultural effects on the musical community with these extended range guitars, specifically within heavy metal. Secondly, it examines the specifications of the extended range guitars, such as scale length, string gauges, hardware, wood, and price in relation to seventh, eighth, and ninth strings. Lastly, it discusses how to approach a mix with extended range instruments, considering that these guitars are now interfering with low frequencies in relation to a drum kit and bass guitar.

In concert music John Cage’s 4’33” has overshadowed all other silent compositions, but within sound recording there is a wide range of silent records. It is the purpose of this piece to chart the uses to which silent record production has been put. Some artists have used silence to illustrate the nuances of recording formats (Christian Marclay has made ‘silent’ vinyl records to note the noise of analogue grooves; in contrast, the Melvins have used silence to highlight the dead spaces of CDs). Others have used silence to comment on the music industries’ monetary policies (Vulfpeck have issued silent streams as a way of earning money for nothing, while Michelle Shocked has released silent streams to protest that this format has paid her little for her music). Silent records have been produced in the name of conceptual art: there are musicians who have covered 4’33” (Frank Zappa), who have edited it (Sonic Youth), and remixed it (Adam F, Mr Scruff). Silence has been used to register political protest (Sly and the Family Stone, John Lennon, John Denver) or to make comment upon censorship (Crass, Orbital). It has also been used as an act of remembrance (West Coast Art Pop Experimental Band, Mike Batt). When silence moved away from the concert hall and onto the record it had a new range of stories to tell. It can make us think again about record production, record formats, royalties, copyright, audience expectations and even music itself.

The reduction of spatial variation in the quality of reproduced sound within a defined space using varied loudspeaker placements is a significant challenge for sound engineers. Dr Bruce Wiggins has conducted research into encoding, decoding and processing algorithms using Ambisonics, a system based around full-sphere sound reproduction. The outcomes of the research have been made accessible to the wider community by the creation of a suite of software plug-ins (WigWare), a production workflow, and associated teaching materials which can enable commercial audio workstations to benefit from Ambisonics. There are numerous recorded instances of successful use.