Search

Microphone technique is a vital component of capturing good quality audio and is, consequently, discussed in detail within this chapter. Special techniques such as the ‘Blumlein pair’ and ‘Decca Tree’ are discussed in context. The Mercury Living Presence record label is given as an example of the way record labels attempted to distinguish themselves by a particular recording technique. Current coincident and near-coincident pair techniques are discussed, and the reader is introduced to Ambisonics and immersive sound. more...

The industrial revolution never really stopped, and ever since, our world has been driven by technology. At first, this could be considered a good thing as it helped to spread civilisation and helped people to undertake traditional tasks. However, after the Second World War, this exponential rise in available technology made many human jobs redundant. It helped a few to become super rich, at the expense of the many. But there was more. Mass, automated production, using the cheapest possible raw materials, did not necessarily make good quality goods. Indeed, it was in no one’s interest to focus upon quality anymore, at least, not for the mass market. In relation to audio, if one wishes to build a high-quality audio system for the home, it is now an expensive exercise, outside of the reach of many. Furthermore, generations are now growing up who, in fact, have never heard good quality audio, even though good recordings were available more than half a century ago. This chapter focuses upon this phenomenon. more...

When music was recorded onto tangible media such as vinyl records and CDs, musicologists and those who simply liked to build their own music library, as they would do with books, for example, could easily store and catalogue their own music collections. But now that so much music is acquired as digital files and not ever made into a tangible artefact, this is not the case. Music files may be added and deleted at will from digital audio devices, whether they be portable, or in the form of music streamers with integral hard discs. This is a potential problem as a good deal of music being made now may simply disappear and not be available for reference in the future. This is something that needs to be taken into consideration. This chapter explains why. more...

Music itself, that is all the different genres that, together, make up what we call popular music, has changed as dramatically as the technology involved in recording it. Indeed, in some respects, it has been the technology which has enabled such changes. But there is also a social aspect involved, and this is discussed within this chapter. Also discussed is the manner in which recording an orchestra has changed and what this means for our perception of classical music when produced in this way. These are important issues which deserve our full attention, and this chapter provides a starting point for discussion. more...

This chapter covers the fairly dramatic transition period from before to after the war. It is interesting to note that stereophonic sound was invented 8 years before the war but was not used until the 1950s. Early forms of recording sound are discussed as well as the introduction of the tape recorder. more...

This chapter simply covers how to do things properly by recording true stereo sound, which was invented by Alan Blumlein in 1931, although not properly used before the 1950s. This is mostly because, until the advent of the tape recorder, there was no easy way to record stereophonic sound. Blumlein had managed it in the laboratory, but then, he was a genius. He did define clearly the methodologies for recording stereo, even though the technology was not there at the time. In the 1950s and into the very early 1960s, audio engineers in the classical music field followed these principles and made some wonderful, true stereo recordings, which we may still hear today. But then most of them were overtaken by multi-track technology, and they forgot the art. This chapter shows you how to do it again and produce true stereo recordings. more...

Music producers and audio engineers were, for the most part, employed by the large recording companies. However, some became freelance and applied their skills across a broad repertoire, and this trend is discussed accordingly. Technical excellence and record reviews are introduced, including those of the Gramophone magazine which were highly respected. Some real-world experiences of recording orchestras and concert bands are included, in order to place things in perspective. more...

This chapter introduces the name Alan Dower Blumlein and the tremendous flow of ideas that came from this one man within a decade. It discusses the invention of stereophonic sound, the moving coil microphone and the sound for film. The sudden flourish of what became known simply as ‘High Fidelity’ is introduced and the resultant global market that was developed. Blumlein’s work on RADAR is also briefly discussed as many may not know of this, or his subsequent death while testing new variations of RADAR in an aircraft crash. more...

The ‘perfect sound forever’ concept as posited by Philips and Sony sounded too good to be true but, nevertheless, digital audio in the form of CDs was quickly accepted by both the manufacturers and the buying public. However, after a while, when some began to listen critically to the sound of CDs, they realised that something was missing. At that time, there were few truly digital recordings and those that did exist had been recorded on a variety of equipment, and of course, publicly available CD players varied significantly. This is all discussed in this chapter, together with the evolution of digital recording. Other digital formats are also discussed. more...

Education and the teaching of specialist skills is important. From an individual perspective, if one has no particular skills, then how may one be in demand within a competitive market? Consequently, those aspiring to be audio engineers need to be taught their craft. This used to happen within record companies and broadcast corporations, but increasingly this is not the case. To fill this gap, a number of external courses, often called ‘tonmeister’ courses have sprung up, often undertaken within universities, sometimes simply as commercial courses in isolation. It is important that students are properly taught the right skills and not just how to use popular software. We explore this area within this chapter. more...

If one listens to recordings made in the 1950s and then their counterparts recorded today, one cannot but hear a distinct change in the way the music is being played and consequently the sound. This is particularly noticeable with orchestral, classical music. In early recordings, the levels of enthusiasm, competence and affinity with the music being played, all seem to be of a higher standard than modern counterparts. In addition, we are now in the age of the ‘designer musicians’. Soloists who seem more intent on showing you how fast they can play, than on following the score. Soloists and conductors who also dress badly, in that they wear casual clothes and do not follow the accepted tradition. Actually, this is a very important point. In popular music, the change has been even more dramatic, aided, to some extent by technology. These are the themes which are explored in this chapter. more...

This chapter covers the evolution of the tape recorder and the part it was to play in the history of recorded sound. Mixers are also discussed, together with ancillary devices and their effect on the sound that we hear. Moving coil microphones are introduced, together with an explanation as to how different polar patterns may be used for good effect. Multi-track tape recorders are discussed, together with how they changed the manner in which people worked. more...

The pressure upon recording studios to offer 24-track recording was very real, and many had to invest significantly in not only the 24-track machines but compatible audio mixers and outboard electronics. The installation of such equipment into an existing studio required an enormous effort and associated cost. This was driven mostly by the popular music fraternity, but would come to affect the classical music field as well, with consequent changes in the way classical music was recorded and the sound that record buyers heard, which did not necessarily correspond with the sound of the orchestra as heard in the concert hall. The importance of true stereo sound is also discussed. more...

The booming record business, especially with popular music in the 1960s, was a phenomenon which enabled distribution networks and record stamping plants to be established in many countries. This is discussed together with typical business models and the relationship between artist and record label. The introduction of independent record labels in the popular music field, together with the smaller specialist labels in classical music, is also explored. more...

This chapter looks at the revolutionary steps in the playback of audio. We listened, for a long time to shellac and vinyl discs, before the Compact Cassette came along, and then the CD and, finally music in file formats which may be played back on a variety of devices, including computers. But there were also commercial failures such as SACD, DCC, MiniDisc, Elcaset and DAT. Now, there is a revival of vinyl discs and the record players upon which to play them. This evolution of playback technology is discussed and explained herein. more...

The impact that the Digital Audio Workstation has made on recorded sound is almost incalculable. It completely revolutionised popular music and then quickly moved across into the classical music sphere, making tape recorders redundant. Today, everything is recorded directly to digital files upon either a portable recording device or a computer. The quality of the analogue to digital convertors (ADC) used, either within a portable device or a computer interface, will largely determine the quality of the captured and sampled audio. The ADCs used in inexpensive portable devices are unlikely to have the same quality as those specialised devices which might cost 20 or 30 times more, even if the specifications seem similar. Computer programmes (DAWs) will also sound slightly different from each other, depending upon how they manipulate the digital file. These issues will be discussed. more...

It is understandable that the popular and traditional forms of music reflect the times in which they were created. If you listen to traditional ‘folk’ music from 100 years ago and listen to current popular music, there is a huge difference. Even if you listen to such music from 20 years ago, there is a significant difference. This is because music, like literature, painting and sculpture, is an art form. The arts are created by artists, by human beings living within a particular civilisation or time period. These periods of time are influenced by politics, fashions, migration and other factors, and these factors are, in turn, directly reflected in the arts. This is why we have no more Beethovens or Rembrandts. This chapter explores why music is important in this context. more...

The advent of purpose-built recording studios came after broadcast and even recorded sound and here we discuss this transition. Recording for film is discussed, as are the plethora of outboard electronics with which the better studios had to equip themselves. The career of George Martin is touched upon briefly, as he is regarded as one of the first influential producers in the field of popular music. The curve of ever increasing physical tape tracks and tape widths, leading to the eventual advent of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), is discussed. more...

In an attempt to improve the perceived quality of digital audio, as presented with the CD, experiments were made with sampling at a higher frequency than the 44.1 kHz standard of CD. The Digital Audio Tape (DAT) introduced by Sony could record with a sampling rate of up to 48 kHz, and this was quickly adopted within the professional and broadcast world. Others, particularly those making recording equipment, brought in sampling rates of 96 kHz and then 192 kHz and higher. In addition, there was the ill-fated SACD which used a different digital system altogether, at a higher sampling rate. The issue, as discussed here, is that consumers need products to play these higher sampling frequency recordings, and this in practice means that audio replay in the home is changing completely. Also discussed here is bit depth (the CD standard is 16 bit) and the extended dynamic range that higher bit depths allow. more...

The arrival of digital technology made a huge impact upon recorded sound. The concept of ‘perfect sound forever’ as marketed by Sony and Philips with the introduction of CD was quickly accepted by the majority but questioned by a few who made comparisons with good quality analogue sound. The impact upon the record market was also significant, as record labels rushed to digitise their back catalogues. However, early recordings made in digital were variable, and clearly, it was not the perfect technology that marketing departments would have us believe. This is all discussed, together with the way that digital audio workstations have enabled the creation of music without actual instruments, by anyone who has a computer. more...

It is a fact that many classical music recordings that were made in the late 1950s and early 1960s actually sound much more realistic and are of better quality than many of those made today. This is principally because they were recorded in true stereo with good quality microphones and relatively little in the signal chain. Some audio engineers continue to work this way, but not many. The art and science have largely been lost. In the popular music field, they never really adopted stereo anyway, except from some recordings made in the early 1950s, and so things have not changed much, except of course from the impact of digital technology. These issues are discussed. more...

The pace of change at present within the world is beginning to be too fast for many to keep up with. Consequently, they tend to find what they are comfortable with and stay with it. This has caused markets to fragment as new generations come along and embrace the technology of the time. This phenomenon has had significant effects within the audio industry, which explains why recorded sound has changed and many good products have failed, because they were the wrong product at the wrong time. So, where does this leave us with respect to the future of recorded sound and, especially, for how that sound is consumed by the public. We have seen many changes and this chapter explores a little more deeply. more...