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LITERATURE REVIEW

Multichannel Fast-Acting Dynamic Range Compression Hinders Performance by Young, Normal-Hearing Listeners in a Two-Talker Separation Task. Stone, M.A., Moore, B.C.J., Fullgrabe, C. and Hinton, A.C. This is an fascinating report on a study aimed at determining whether high levels of fast-acting amplitude compression has a deleterious effect on auditory information processed by the human brain. To test this idea, two simultaneously presented sentences were played to young, normal-hearing students. They were required to report the keywords from these sentences whilst variably performing a distracting visual task. These sentences were either uncompressed, or were compressed by moderate or severe amounts. They found that cognitive performance worsened with the increasing amount of compression for the trials when the listeners had to perform the distracting visual task. One important finding what that performance was worse when the two sentences were compressed after mixing than when they were compressed prior to mixing. This suggests that part of the deleterious effect of compression was produced by cross modulation of the speech of the two talkers, which makes it harder to segregate the two voices perceptually. It is a very scientific article, written as scientific findings in the field of psycho-acoustics but it makes direct references to The Loudness Wars relevant to popular music production.

The Loudness War: Do Louder, Hypercompressed Recordings Sell Better? Vickers, E. A journal article from the AES written about the increase in records with small dynamic range. It is written in a less formal manner than the previous journal in this review but contained diagrams and charts to illustrate the effect of massive compression on audio. It is clearly written in bias against the Loudness War but regardless of that bias, makes very strong points on how it is detrimental to music. For example, there is a section (including relevant diagram) demonstrating how a recording made on a 1909 Edison Cylinder has more dynamic range than Metallica's 2008 album Death Magnetic, an album consistently used as prime example of the casualties of The Loudness War. The author's argument is that musicians, mastering engineers and record companies have been vying for the loudest sound possible, and to achieve this, have squeezing the dynamic range out of the music with compressors and limiters. He argues that they are sacrificing audio quality, creating musical clutter, and reducing the music's emotional power. He also believes that this hypercompression causes listening fatigue which can discourage continued or repeated listening. This article has become on of importance in the debate over the subject. It seems to be widely referred to and is an excellent source of information.

Sonic Warfare: Sound Affect, and the Ecology of Fear Goodman, S. This book draws a comparison between sound used as a weapon or deterrent, and the products of experimentation by artists and musicians in the search for a new aesthetic. It is an exploration of these uses of acoustic force and how they affect the population. The main focus of this book is on the politics of frequency, something which Goodman, otherwise known as Kode9, is often overlooked in theoretical discussions of sound and music cultures. His conclusion brings him to the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory reception and the unactualised nexus of rhythms and frequencies of within audible bandwidths.

Capturing Sound Katz, M. In Capturing Sound, the author gives an account of the history of recording and the impact it has had on music and culture. It is pointed out, very convincingly, that recording, once used as a way to capture and store sound and music, has now itself influenced sound and music, particularly the way we perform, compose and experience it. The large scale of the history detailed in this book provides and even larger scope for exploring this idea of recorded sound as the mirror of sonic reality. He concludes with these main points: Live and recorded music differ in fundamental ways, recording does not simply record, the amateur is alive and well in the age of mechanical music, and users determine the impact and value of recordings. These are all very relevant to the age of internet music and bedroom producers, where one can easily write, record, mix, master and distribute digitally all from home.

DAFX: Digital Audio Effects Zolzer, U. ed. A detailed book leaning on the scientific side of digital audio production. The author describes each effect with a presentation of the physical and acoustical phenomena, an explanation on how to achieve the effect with signal processing techniques, then a discussion on their relationship with music. The topics include filters, delays, modulators and demodulators, non-linear processing, spatial effects, time/frequency processing, and spectral processing. The book also delves into three new research areas: Virtual analogue effects, automatic mixing, and sound source separation. It is well written, in that the subject is discussed from both an introductory and advanced perspective, making it accessible to a wide audience. It is a desirable text for professionals such as audio engineers, researchers, and students of a range of multimedia courses. The detailed scientific breakdown of each effect gives a fine picture of how these tools actually work.

Acoustics and Psychoacoustics Angus, J. A. S., Howard, D. This a textbook-style format, in that the subject matter is communicated in a very straight-forward and methodical way, with diagrams and mathematical examples throughout, and it has questions and exercises.. This is hardly surprising since it's written for and marketed towards students of music technology, sound recording, traditional music and acoustics. Regardless of this, it is a font of knowledge when it comes to psychoacoustics. It provides invaluable insight into how musical sounds behave and are perceived in real spaces. It is appropriate that acoustics and psychoacoustics are treated together in one text, as they are necessarily complimentary in determining what we perceive as sound.

Beginning with the characteristics and behaviour of sound waves, the book moves on to waveform structure of musical notes and pitch perception, timbre perception and recognition, environment, and finally electronic processing of sound. There is a lot of sound theoretical knowledge in this book and is an excellent resource for a student of music technology.

What is music production? A Producers Guide: The Role, the People, the Process Golding, C., Hepworth-Sawyer, R. Written by two, long-serving producers, this book focuses on the processes of music production, providing valuable insight into the producer's work. It is written in an informal, almost conversational manner while still providing useful and interesting information. It takes you through subjects such as what it means to be a producer, being a business, pre-production, project management, sessions, recording, mixing, engineers, mastering, loudness and The Loudness Wars, and finally the future of music production. There are great little asides written in separate boxes which give little nuggets of information like history of production or an opinion from a particular person of interest. All of this makes this book a breeze to read but still leaves one feeling informed and enriched. Definitely an invaluable source of information on how the theory applies to the real world.

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