P R E S E N T A T I O N A B S T R A C T S
Yesterday's FX Today
Created and presented this 1-1/2 hour multimedia tutorial for the 124th Audio Engineering Society Convention in Amsterdam, May 2008.
abstract:
With affordable digital audio tools being continuously invented, refined, improved, extended, and upgraded, we are lucky to be a part of the audio industry at this moment. We have no excuse not to create original, beautiful art. What we do with todays ability to do anything can be informed by the creative and technical achievements expressed in touchstone recordings decades ago. This tutorial takes a close look at some iconic moments of signal processing innovation in recorded music history, undoing, isolating, and analyzing the effects for our edification.
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Electric Guitar - Tracking and Mixing Chutzpah
Created and presented this multimedia presentation analyzing prevalent electric guitar recording techniques for the Central Region Audio Engineering Society Student Summit in St. Louis, MO, Apr 2008.
abstract:
It is an unwritten law that recording engineers approach the electric
guitar amp with a Shure SM57. Put it in close, against the grille
cloth. Slide it a bit off-center of the driver. Oh yeah, it helps
to angle the microphone a little too. These recording decisions
serve us well, but what do they really do? Alex Case, Sound
Recording Technology professor to graduates and undergraduates at
UMass Lowell breaks it down, with measurements and discussion of the
variables that lead to punch, crunch, and other desirables in
electric guitar tone.
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Delay FX
Created and presented this multimedia presentation evaluating the use of delay-based effects in multitrack production for the Central Region Audio Engineering Society Student Summit in St. Louis, MO, Apr 2008.
abstract:
The humble delay line is the basis for a vast range of signal processing effects, including flange, chorus, echo, reverb, and pitch shift.
Alex Case, the author of the forthcoming book,
Sound FX Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects, presents a tutorial on the delay -- the technologies, the techniques, and the creative potential. From simple to elaborate, learn to make better use of delay-based effects in your multitrack productions.
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Total Reverb - More Than Simply Simulated Space
Another update to the Reverb FX lecture (see below), presented to the Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society at Emerson College in Boston, MA, Feb 2008.
abstract:
Reverberation in the recording studio comes from a variety of technologies, and achieves a great range of results. Echo chambers, plates and springs still have their place in contemporary music production even as digital reverb algorithms dominate. This tutorial reviews the technologies behind studio reverb units, shares a broad range of measurement data, and offers organization and insight into the creative, musical applications of reverb. Audio engineers reach for reverb effects to create space and ambience, to be sure. Reverb is also employed to influence timbre, create textures, invoke scene changes, cause or overcome masking, and synthesize new sounds entirely. Professor Case articulates a comprehensive set of strategies for fully leveraging the broad range of effects reverb makes possible.
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Fictional Timbre Close Microphones and Warped Perspectives
Invited paper presented to the 154th Acoustical Society of America Convention in New Orleans, LA, Nov 2007.
abstract:
Recording engineers, particularly in pop and rock genres, have a long tradition of placing microphones exceptionally close to the sound sources they wish to record. Not a gesture towards realism, close microphone techniques are born of practical needs for sound isolation in sometimes cramped recording spaces, production pressures to defer signal processing decisions until the mixdown session, and creative desires to variously avoid, enhance and/or exaggerate sonic features of the instrument is search of a sound that is better than the real thing.
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Reverse Engineering Learning from Some Vintage Effects
Presented a 1-hour multimedia presentation in which iconic effects of the 60s and 70s were reversed and undone, offering lessons to be learned for contemporary signal processing approaches. Parsons Audio Expo, Nov 2007, Boston, MA.
abstract:
We are indeed lucky to be a part of audio at this moment. With ever-increasing digital tools being invented, refined, and made more affordable, we have no excuse not to create original, beautiful art. What we do with todays ability to do anything should be informed by the creative technical achievements expressed back when there was less. This talk takes a close look at some iconic moments of signal processing innovation in recorded music history, undoing and isolating the effects for our edification.
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Snare Strategies For Stage And Studio
Invited tutorial presented to the 123rd Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York City, NY, Oct 2007.
abstract:
Perhaps no other instrument in rock and roll offers the recording engineer so much opportunity -- for success or failure. With a range of sonic capabilities from whispering brushes to cannon fire, the snare drum challenges engineers to know their craft.
From our ears to our gear, the snare pushes the limits. Alex Case distills the challenge: from musical acoustics to psychoacoustics, from microphone techniques to signal processing strategies. Please join this discussion as we bring some order to any session involving drums. Overcome the chaos of studio basics, reduce the stress of the live gig, and take maximum advantage of all the tools available to you at final mixdown.
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Compress for Success Master the Most Misunderstood FX Device
Invited tutorial presented to the 123rd Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York City, NY, Oct 2007.
abstract:
Dynamic range compression confounds many recording engineers, from rookies to veterans. As an audio effect, it can be difficult to hear, and even more difficult to describe. As a tool, its controls can be counterintuitive, and its meters and flashing lights uninformative. This tutorial organizes the broad range of effects created by audio compressors, as audio engineers use it to reduce/control dynamic range, increase perceived loudness, improve intelligibility and articulation, reshape the amplitude envelope, add creative doses of distortion, and extract ambience cues, breaths, squeaks and rattles. Learn when to reach for compression, know a good starting place for compression parameters (ratio, threshold, attack and release), and advance your understanding of what to listen for and which way to tweak.
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The Job in Your Future What Does It Take to Be Employable?
Invited member of Education Forum Panel at the Audio Engineering Society, 123rd Convention, New York City, NY, Oct 2007.
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The Snare Drum We Shall Overcome
Presented a one-hour multimedia presentation on the psychoacoustic and musical acoustic principles that drive contemporary multitrack production techniques for recording and mixing the snare drum at the 1st Annual Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit, Boston, MA, September 2007.
abstract:
Perhaps no other instrument in rock and roll offers the recording engineer so much opportunity for success or failure. With a range of sonic
capabilities from whispering brushes to cannon fire, the snare drum challenges engineers to know their craft. From our ears to our gear, the snare pushes the limits. Alex Case distills the challenge:
from musical acoustics to psychoacoustics, from
microphone techniques to signal processing
strategies. Please join this discussion as we bring
some order to any session involving drums.
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Compression FX
Presented invited feature presentation, a 1-1/2 hour tutorial deciphering the major points of confusion students of audio typically face in applying compression effects in multitrack production at the 1st Annual Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit, Boston, MA, September 2007.
abstract:
Compression is not an effect -- its a vast range of effects possibilities. Through the obtuse parameters variously labeled attack, release, threshold and ratio, engineers are expected to modify signals with results ranging from obvious, to subtle, to inaudible. Alex Case, author of the recently released
Sound FX Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects, leads this tutorial discussing the deep and varied production potential offered by the humble compressor.
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Master Class: Reverberation In Recorded Music
Invited to author and deliver a 3-hour computer presentation on Reverb. Presented in English with Chinese translator, making ample use of audio demonstrations, at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China, June 2007
note:
This is an update of the presentation given at the AES 119th in New York (see below)
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Compression A Real World User's Guide
Invited presentation analyzing the use of dynamic range compression as an effect in multitrack production presented to the Alberta Section of the Audio Engineering Society, Banff, Canada, Feb 2007.
note:
This is an update of the tutorial given at the AES 119th in New York (see below)
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Delay Any Time Is the Right Time
Created and presented this multimedia presentation detailing the technology and musicality of the use of delay-based effects in multitrack production for the Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society at the New England Institute of Art, Boston, MA, Jan 2007.
abstract:
The humble delay line is the basis for a vast range of signal processing effects, including flange, chorus, echo, reverb, and pitch shift. The significance of these effects cannot be overstated, as they are present in some form in at least 99.99% of all pop mixes.
Alex Case, the author of the forthcoming book,
Sound FX Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects, presents a tutorial on the delay -- the technologies, the techniques, and the creative potential. From simple to elaborate, learn to make better use of delay-based effects in your multitrack productions.
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The Snare Drum Breaking Down the Back Beat
Invited presentation for the Parsons Audio Expo
in Boston, MA, Nov 2006.
abstract:
Perhaps no other instrument in rock and roll offers the engineer so much opportunity -- for success or failure. With a range of sonic capabilities from whispering brushes to cannon fire, this instrument challenges engineers to know their craft.
Alex Case breaks it down into bite-size pieces: from musical acoustics to psychoacoustics, microphones to signal processors, and basics to mixdown. Please join this discussion as we try to bring order to that source of chaos known as the snare drum.
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Master Class: Compression in Multitrack Production
Presented a 2-1/2 hour multimedia presentation on Dynamic Range Compression. Presented in English using computer graphics translated into Spanish for this bilingual audience at the Academia de Musica Fermatta, Mexico City, Mexico, Oct 2006.
abstract:
Dynamic Range Compression confounds many recording engineers, from rookies to veterans. As an audio effect, it can be difficult to hear, and even more difficult to describe. As a tool, its controls can be counterintuitive, and its meters and flashing lights uninformative. This tutorial organizes the broad range of effects created by audio compressors, as audio engineers use it to reduce/control dynamic range, increase perceived loudness, improve intelligibility and articulation, reshape the amplitude envelope, add creative doses of distortion, and extract ambience cues, breaths, squeaks and rattles. Attendees will learn when to reach for compression, know a good starting place for compression parameters (ratio, threshold, attack and release), and advance their understanding of what to listen for and which way to tweak.
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Reverb Redux Repeated
Invited presentation to the Student Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society at New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music,New York City, NY, Oct 2006.
notes:
Presented a reprise of the tutorial, Reverb Redux, (see below) to these graduate and undergraduate students of audio who were unable to attend the Audio Engineering Society Convention in San Francisco, or sought out further knowledge on the topic.
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Reverb Redux From Yesterdays Chambers to Todays Convolvers: What a Recordist Ought to Know
Invited tutorial presented to the 121st Audio Engineering Society Convention in San Francisco, CA, Oct 2006.
abstract:
Reverberation in the recording studio comes from a variety of technologies, and achieves a great range of results. Echo chambers, plates and springs still have their place in contemporary music production even as digital reverb algorithms dominate. This tutorial reviews the technologies behind studio reverb units, shares a broad range of measurement data, and offers organization and insight into the creative, musical applications of reverb. Audio engineers reach for reverb effects to create space and ambience, to be sure. Reverb is also employed to influence timbre, create textures, invoke scene changes, cause or overcome masking, and synthesize new sounds entirely. This tutorial articulates a comprehensive set of strategies for fully leveraging the broad range of effects reverb makes possible.
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Designing an Audio Curriculum for the 21st Century
Invited member of Education Forum Panel at the Audio Engineering Society, 121st Convention, San Francisco, CA, Oct 2006.
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I Want My MP3: Downloading's Nothin' and the Music's Free
Invited presentation to the Student Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Mar 2006.
abstract:
Alex Case lifts the lid on data compression schemes used in audio. How does it work? What are the strengths and weaknesses? What should we listen for? From the physiology of our ear, to the agility of our brain, through significant digital signal processing, learn the details about how we are coding our audio so that perceptually less-significant information is thrown away, and a smaller, more portable sound file remains.
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Reverb Revealed Production Strategies for Studio Reverberation
Invited presentation to the Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society
at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Mar 2006.
abstract:
So many reverbs: springs, plates, chambers, convolution, ...
So many patches: large hall, medium room, rich plate, ...
So many parameters: RT60, predelay, bass multiply, ...
What's an engineer to do?
Alex Case presents a discussion of the features, analysis of the facts, and demonstration of the sound qualities of the reverb options available to us in the recording studio today. The presentation summarizes the technologies, inventories the pros and cons, shares measurement data, and distills reverberant sounds into styles and families of effects. Attendees develop a better understanding of these signal processing tools so that they can use reverb intuitively, effectively and creatively.
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Convolution Reverb Is Reinvented
Invited presentation for the Parsons Audio Expo
in Boston, Nov 2005.
abstract: Every once in a while, a new technology appears in the recording studio that changes the way we think, the way we work, and the way we create. Digital audio workstations and mixing automation are notable examples. Add to that list the convolution reverb.
Before the appearance of this new type of signal processing, we relied on other devices for reverberation. Chambers created a large room sound in a small, highly reflective space. Springs and plates emulated acoustic reverberation through their mechanical resonance. And countless digital reverbs from companies like Lexicon, TC Electronic, Yamaha, and Sony have been offering reverberation all these years. What precisely is meant by the word convolution? What does it bring to the session?
Join us for a discussion of convolution and its application to audio today. Appreciate its capabilities. Learn its limitations. Return to the studio ready to create better effects, having added convolution to your production repertoire.
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A Wrinkle in the Space / Time Continuum
Invited presentation to the Student Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society
at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Oct 2005.
abstract: When the recording studio is the musical instrument, artists are free to slow, speed, reverse, warp and otherwise alter time in search of creative expression. It is also common to fabricate multiple, physically unrealizable, audio spaces for simultaneous presentation in a single music performance intended for loudspeaker playback. Join us Monday evening, October 31, for this special Halloween Gathering of the Berklee Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society as we lift the mask off these effects. Time and Space processes are broken down and reverse engineered so that we may see -- and hear -- how they work.
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Creative reflections the strategic use of reflections in multitrack music production.
Paper presented to the 150th ASA Convention
in Minneapolis, MN, Oct 2005.
abstract: There is a long tradition of deliberately capturing and even synthesizing early reflections to enhance the music intended for loudspeaker playback. The desire to improve or at least alter the quality, audibility, intelligibility, stereo width and/or uniqueness of the audio signal guides the recording engineers use of the recording space, influences their microphone selection and placement, and inspires countless signal processing approaches. This paper reviews contemporary multitrack production techniques that specifically take advantage of reflected sound energy for musical benefit.
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Chamber Reverb - D.I.Y. Send your snare to the stairwell, your
kalimba to the kitchen, and your bassoon to the bathroom
Invited tutorial presented to the 119th AES Convention
in New York City, NY, Oct 2005.
abstract: Any live space becomes a reverb chamber if you are willing to make the effort. Careful placement of loudspeakers creates the reverb send, and microphones provide the reverb return. This tutorial reviews the basics of a good reverb chamber -- the architecture, the signal flow, the equipment, the measurements, and most of all the sound. Informed by this review of some of the most important chambers in the history of pop production, learn how to bring it all home. Your productions deserve the uniqueness and richness that only a live chamber can offer. Move your mixes out of the box by applying effects not available for purchase in any box. You alone have access to the spaces around your studio. Turn any live space -- be they stairwells, kitchens, or bathrooms -- into a source of reverberation that becomes part of your own, signature sound.
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Dynamic Range Compression -- A Real World User's Guide
Invited tutorial presented to the 119th AES Convention
in New York City, NY, Oct 2005.
abstract: Compression (of audio, not data) confounds many recording engineers, from rookies to veterans. As an audio effect, it can be difficult to hear, and even more difficult to describe. As a tool, its controls can be counterintuitive, and its meters and flashing lights uninformative. This tutorial organizes the broad range of effects created by audio compressors, as audio engineers use it to reduce/control dynamic range, increase perceived loudness, improve intelligibility and articulation, reshape the amplitude envelope, add creative doses of distortion, and extract ambience cues, breaths, squeaks and rattles. Attendees will learn when to reach for compression, know a good starting place for compression parameters (ratio, threshold, attack and release), and advance their understanding of what to listen for and which way to tweak.
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Rock and Roll Reverb - A Technical Tribute to Avatar Recording Studio's Famous Chamber One
Hosted meeting of the Boston Section of the Audio Engineering Society joint with the University of Massachusetts Lowell Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society, Lowell, MA, Feb 2005.
abstract:While Pop Music reverberation is generally fabricated by a machine, it is occasionally created the old fashioned way: by a room. Actual acoustic reverberation makes its way into recorded music through the use of a Reverb Chamber, a small room used to generate reverb. With cubic volume well below that of a performance hall, it pushes the other side of the Sabine Equation, being built of highly sound reflective materials. What a reverb chamber lacks in room volume, it makes up for in sound reflectivity.
As studios are often located in real estate-strained urban areas (New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, etc.), purpose-built rooms for the generation of reverb are a luxury not many studios can afford. Clever use of stairwells, bathrooms, and basements is easier on the recording studios balance sheet. New York Citys Avatar Recording Studio is home to one of the most recorded reverb chambers in the history of recorded music its the most famous set of steps youve ever heard.
A multistory stairwell consisting of brick walls painted thick in glossy white with steel stairs and landings, Avatar Recording Studios Chamber One is a highly reverberant space that is part of many multi-platinum records. From the Stones to Springsteen, David Bowie to Bryan Adams, rock and pop artists use the reverberant quality of this curious place to make their music sing. Alex Case hosts this meeting sharing his research on the architectural makings of this chamber, demonstrating lush audio examples, and presenting comparative acoustic measurements of this space versus other reference reverbs in our industry.
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Conquering Space and Time -- for Art's Sake
Invited paper presented to the 148th ASA Convention
in San Diego, CA, Nov 2004.
abstract: While sound within a performance space must adhere to the laws of physics governing its propagation, the music synthesized for loudspeaker playback may take some liberties. Recording artists -- with the help of the signal processing tools available in the recording studio -- often fabricate multiple, physically unrealizable, audio spaces for simultaneous presentation in a single music performance. Additionally, these musicians are free to slow, accelerate, repeat, fragment and reverse time for musical benefit. This paper isolates and demonstrates some of the unusual space- and time-focused synthesis techniques in popular recorded music, evaluating their technical basis and artistic merit.
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UMass Lowell's Critical Listening Classroom and Recording Studio
Invited presentation for the monthly meeting of the Boston Audio Society, Lowell, MA, 2004.
summary:Hosted meeting of the Boston Audio Society at University of Massachusetts Lowell in Durgin 114. Created and presented paper detailing the educational value, production capabilities and the technical basis for the Sound Recording Technology programs new Critical Listening Classroom and Recording Studio, designed by Bob Alach, Lou Clark and Bill Carman. Audio enthusiasts from throughout New England were in attendance, auditioned the space, and eagerly toured the rest of the Department of Musics performance, recording and teaching facilities.
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Career & Professional Development in the Audio Industry
Invited panelist for a meeting of the Boston Section of the Audio Engineering Society, held at the Parsons Audio Expo
in Boston, Nov 2004.
summary:Presentation and Discussion, with Tom Bates, Bob Ludwig, Brian Doser, David Franz, Alex Case, and David Moulton. For many people, including almost everyone who attends the Parsons Expo, audio is about more than using the magic of technology; it's a career. Certain skills, attitudes, understandings, work habits, and behaviors can help a career to be successful. Others can hurt. The presenters and panelists will make those distinctions, and will offer ideas that can help any audio professional to make his or her way.
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Manic Compression
Invited presentation for the Parsons Audio Expo
in Boston, Nov 2004.
summary: Compression is a much-misunderstood signal processing effect. In this - Alex Case's most requested lecture - he describes for the New England audio community the technical basis of and creative uses for dynamic audio compression in popular multitrack music. Through analysis and audio demonstrations, this tutorial breaks compression down into different families of effects, each with unique musical results. Approach compression in a more systematic and technically robust way and learn when to use it, what to listen for, and how to tackle the compressor's various settings.
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Alternative Acoustic Environments for the Generation of Reverberation
Invited paper presented to the 147th ASA Convention
in New York City, May 2004.
abstract: The musicians and engineers who create popular recorded music view reverberation as a signal processing effect to be added to any and all elements of a multitrack production. Devices such as digital reverbs, spring reverbs and plate reverbs are tools of the recording trade, synthesizing reverb-like sounds for performance through loudspeakers. Acoustic reverberation makes its way into recorded music through the use of a reverb chamber. A small room is used to generate reverb. With cubic volume well below that of a performance hall, it works the other side of the Sabine equation, being built of highly sound reflective materials. A purpose-built room for the generation of reverb is a luxury not many studios can afford. Clever use of stairwells, bathrooms, and basements is easier on the recording studios balance sheet. This work evaluates the repurposing of these alternative spaces for the generation of reverb in popular recorded music.
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Urban Spaces Adopted by the Performing Arts
Paper presented to the 147th ASA Convention
in New York City, May 2004, celebrating the founding of the Acoustical Society of America in New York 75 years ago.
abstract: No celebration of acoustics in New York City would be complete without mention of the countless alternative spaces used for the performance of music, dance, and other art forms. New Yorks countless train stations, parks, alleys and overpasses provide popular venues for artists to make sound. Lincoln Center and Carnegie get all the glory, but its the streets and train stations that do all the work. This work surveys some of these alternative performance spaces and their acoustic contribution to the performance.
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The Use of Delay in Multitrack Production
Invited paper presented to the 145th ASA Convention
in Nashville, April 2003.
abstract: Delay, inevitable whenever sound propagates through space, is too often the bane of the acoustician's practice. An audible echo generally relegates a music performance hall -- no matter how beautiful it otherwise might sound -- to the lowest status. Multitrack music production on the other hand, with its aggressive use of overdubbing, editing and signal processing, is not bound by those rules of time and space which determine the sound of a hall. In the recording studio, where music is synthesized for playback over loudspeakers, the delay is employed as a powerful, multi-purpose tool. It is not avoided. It is in fact embraced. Echoes are used on purpose, strategically, to enhance the loudspeaker listening experience. Moreover, the humble delay is the basis for many non-echo effects. Flanging, chorus, and pitch shifting are delay-based effects regularly used in audio engineering practice. This paper discusses some of the more common delay-based effects, reviewing their technical structure, the psychoacoustic motivation behind them, and the musical value they create.
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Design of a Critical Listening Classroom and Studio
Co-authored an invited paper presented at the 145th ASA Convention
in Nashville, April 2003.
abstract: The Sound Recording Technology program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell required design of a space that could serve three functions: a critical listening classroom for 30 students, a live room for the department's premier 24 track recording studio, and a 5.1 surround sound mix room. Accomplishing all of the above required a re-evaluation of room shape and treatments and aggressive use of variable acoustics. In addition, all the usual culprits of HVAC noise and vibration, limited space, a constrained budget, and a difficult to renovate reinforced concrete building added to the challenge. This paper reviews the key design and renovation challenges associated with completing this room, opened for use by students and faculty in the Spring 2003 semester.
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Reverberation in Popular Recorded Music - Motivations and Metrics
Master of Science Thesis, 2003.
abstract: In the grand opera houses and symphony halls of the world, reverberation is an integral part of the music listening experience. The reverberant sound of a space is intimately bound to the sound of the music being performed within. The acoustic design of any music performance venue must be directly influenced by the intended programming for the space. Dramatic or musical theater, opera, classical or romantic or contemporary orchestral music, chamber music, religious music, jazz, or any other type of music each imposes specific demands on a hall. In response, two design approaches for the performance hall are valid: specialized and multi-use halls.
Specialized halls are custom-designed for their primary intended programming, creating a single hall for its predominant type of repertoire. Alternatively, multi-use halls, which must accommodate a range of programming, utilize variable acoustic technologies to tailor their acoustics for each. Among the many design features that differentiate these halls, the quantity and quality of the reverberance is a key attribute.
Popular music also places its own unique demands on reverberation. Popular music, however, is most often enjoyed through loudspeaker playback of music recordings. This music is recorded in a sound studio, using natural and synthesized reverberation that flatters, enhances or otherwise refines the aesthetic value of the loudspeaker playback performance. There is a wide variety of pop music listening environments: the living room, the automobile, et cetera. The acoustics of these listening spaces is rarely influenced by the music because these rooms serve other more utilitarian priorities. Unable to rely on help from the acoustics of the loudspeaker playback venue, the music recording seeks to sound pleasing in any space. In pop music, the most important reverberation exists within the recording, not the playback space. In the creation of music recordings, reverberation is selectively added, avoided and/or manipulated to suit the creative needs of the music. The reverberation in the recording is thus even more intimately bound to the music than the natural reverberation of a symphonic hall is to the sound of the orchestra.
This paper surveys the craft and traditions in the use of reverberation in pop and rock music recordings and makes objective comparisons to the standard metrics in architectural acoustics and specifically to the three great halls of the world.
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Control Room Acoustics - Reconsidering Early Reflections
January 2002.
Presentation to the Boston
Section of the Audio Engineering Society. The spectral changes due to the dense volley of early reflections in an untreated, rectangular room is quantified, with surprising results. The expected comb filtering is not as pronounced as commonly held in much of the literature and control room acoustics lore. Should we lift the curse on early reflections?
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The Manipulation of Audio Dynamics Toward Both Technical and
Artistic Goals in Recorded Music
Invited paper presented to the 142nd ASA Convention in Fort Lauderdale, Dec 2001.
abstract: The musical dynamics of recorded sounds must be made to fit
within the audio dynamic range of the recording and playback equipment.
This constraint on dynamic range is presented track by track in the
multitrack recording studio and at every stage of audio signal processing up
to and including the end user's system. Recorded orchestras must be made to
sound good on clock radios.
Audio compressors and limiters have been developed to help the recording
engineer cope with this problem. Automatic, but careful, control of the
signal gain during the course of music recording and playback is part of
almost all music production styles, most notably pop music.
In addition, these dynamics processors are used for purely aesthetic
purposes. They shape the character, timbre, and emotional feel of a musical
performance. These more innovative applications of compression become part
of the music, creating effects that range from subtle to conspicuous. This
paper reviews many compression techniques used in the production of recorded
music and describes their technical and creative goals.
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An Investigation of the Spectral Effect of Multiple Early
Reflections
Invited paper presented to the 141st ASA Convention in Chicago, June 2001.
abstract: The interaction of a direct sound with a single
reflection of short delay is well-understood. Comb filtering is
a quantifiable, measurable, inevitable result. In actual auditoria,
one rarely hears a single early reflection. Typically a volley
of several reflections follows the direct sound. This paper presents
an analytical evaluation of the change in frequency response due
to not one, but several reflections. The combination of a direct
sound with several early reflections does not result in a more
pronounced, more audible comb filter quality. Rather, the interaction
of the direct sound with each of the several reflections in combination
with the interaction among the many reflections themselves tends
to average out or randomize the expected comb filtered, spectral
distortion.
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Bass Hall - A Multi-Use Hall
June 2001.
Co-authored an invited paper presented at the 141st ASA Convention
in Chicago describing the results of hall measurements and analysis
made over a two-year time period, comparing this multi-use hall
to the top rated Orchestra Halls in the world.
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Interactions Among Acoustics, Digital Signal Processing, and
Movement
June 2001.
Co-authored an invited paper on the production, installation
and performance of a large scale, interactive, music-making dance
surface.
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Synthesized Space in Pop Music Production
Invited paper presented to the 140th ASA Convention in Newport
Beach, CA, December 2000.
abstract: The sonic vocabulary of the pop music recording
engineer is not constrained by the architectural acoustics of
any space. Equipped with racks and RAM full of signal processing
tools, the engineer tries to create musical timbres, textures,
ambience and emotions to support whatever feeling the music inspires.
Perhaps nowhere is this departure from the physical to the contrived
more apparent than in reverb. Acoustic analogies like the chamber,
mechanical simulations like the plate, and the wholly invented
spaces of the digital effects device represent a family of effects
which -- inspired by the great halls and opera houses of the world
-- have an identity and freedom all their own. Reverb time, early
decay time, bass ratio, initial time delay gap, and so on become
independent variables freely manipulated by the engineer to create
sonic 'spaces' that may not be physically possible outside of
the studio. This paper surveys contemporary pop music production
trends in reverb and analyzes them through the lens of the architectural
acoustician.
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Synthesizing the Pop Music Reality
Delivered multimedia presentation to the 138th ASA Convention,
in Columbus, OH, June 2000.
abstract: In the never-ending search for a more compelling
loudspeaker playback experience, the equipment of the recording
studio is often used in unexpected and creative ways. The application
of signal processing to multitrack pop music occurs using approaches
that are accessible, but not necessarily intuitive to the acoustician.
In this presentation the snare drum is studied to provide a view
of some modern multitrack music recording and mixing techniques.
The sound of the drum is analyzed both before and after some typical
signal processing in an attempt to quantify the motivation behind
these recording practices. Microphone selection and placement
priorities are discussed. The application of equalization, compression
and ambience effects is analyzed. The perceptual significance
of some processes is demonstrated through the playback of audio
examples, both before and after signal processing.
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Small Studios: Understanding Your Place in the Food Chain
April 1997.
Led symposium for the Boston
Section of the Audio Engineering Society which quantified
market impact of entrance by project studios into the recording
industry. Assembled and moderated interdisciplinary panel discussion.
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