Book chapter
Studying Recording Techniques
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production, pp 233-249
2020
Abstract
This chapter is the result of a conversation we had about the study of recording techniques – particularly the research-based texts from our field and our sense that they had not been critically evaluated as a whole. Independently we had voiced frustration with various aspects of the standard texts, including the gaps we saw in them and the problems that had arisen using them in teaching. We had also heard from students about their own issues, which further pointed to the need for dialogue around the books we ask them to read and study.
However, thinking about actually writing such a critique brought on a fraught silence. Beyond the obvious reluctance to criticize the life’s work of colleagues, our view was that many of the standard texts suffer because of the features of this field. The texts we use were all written over a relatively short period of time, with the earliest entries dating back only to the last half century (Bernhart and Honegger 1949). Sound recording is a multifaceted, technology-intensive field, which creates a need for resources that evolve, grow and accommodate the ever-changing ‘state of the art’. Compared to fields such as mathematics, English literature, philosophy or medicine, ours is still in its infancy. Extending this metaphor, we heed the advice that ‘children need models rather than critics’. Any critique we put forth could be countered by the call to simply do better and write that perfect text....
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Details
- Title
- Studying Recording Techniques
- Creators
- Kirk McNally - University of VictoriaToby Seay - Drexel University, Arts and Entertainment Enterprise
- Contributors
- Andrew Bourbon (Editor) - University of HuddersfieldSimon Zagorski-Thomas (Editor) - University of West London
- Publication Details
- The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production, pp 233-249
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
- Number of pages
- 17
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Arts and Entertainment Enterprise
- Other Identifier
- 991022019317404721