Adventures In Modern Recording

A Telegraph Book of the Year As a renowned recording-studio maven, Trevor Horn has been dubbed 'the man who invented the '80s'. His production work since the glory days of ZTT represents a veritable 'who's who' of intelligent modern pop, including the likes of ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Simple Minds, Grace Jones and Yes - among many others. This book is Trevor's story in his own words, as told through the prism of twenty-three of his most important songs - from the ones that inspired him to the ones that defined him. This play-by-play memoir transports readers into the heart of the studio to witness the making of some of music's most memorable moments, from the Buggles' ground-breaking 'Video Killed the Radio Star' to Band Aid's perennial 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', via hits such as 'Relax', 'Poison Arrow', 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' and 'Crazy'. Offering unrivalled access to the dark arts of the producer's world and the even darker arts of the music business itself, prepare for some adventures in modern recording...

This title was first published in 2003.This highly original and accessible book draws on the author’s personal experience as a musician, producer and teacher of popular music to discuss the ways in which audio technology and musical creativity in pop music are inextricably bound together. This relationship, the book argues, is exemplified by the work of Trevor Horn, who is widely acknowledged as the most important, innovative and successful British pop record producer of the early 1980s. In the first part of the book, Timothy Warner presents a definition of pop as distinct from rock music, and goes on to consider the ways technological developments, such as the transition from analogue to digital, transform working practices and, as a result, impact on the creative process of producing pop.

Produce a podcast like the pros More people than ever are turning to podcasts for on-demand, mobile entertainment and information. Podcasting For Dummies offers a fast and easy way to get the know-how you need to produce and distribute one of your very own. Written by a pair of podcasting pioneers, this book shares insight on the technology behind recording, editing, and sharing podcasts, along with tips and tricks on how to produce a pro-level podcast. Podcasting has enjoyed a recent boom thanks to a new crop of hit podcasts catching the ears of the public and media along with the continued growth of mobile and streaming devices as a source for entertainment. If you want to jump on the podcasting bandwagon, you've come to the right place! In this fully updated edition, would-be and experienced podcasters alike will get all the tech information, production insight, and promotional tips they need to either get a podcast off the ground or improve on an existing one. Get the gear you need Find your podcasting voice Find and build an audience Plan your podcast New tools have made it easier than ever to create a podcast—and this book shows you how.

This book explores popular music fandom from a cultural studies perspective that incorporates popular music studies, audience research, and media fandom. The essays draw together recent work on fandom in popular music studies and begin a dialogue with the wider field of media fan research, raising questions about how popular music fandom can be understood as a cultural phenomenon and how much it has changed in light of recent developments. Exploring the topic in this way broaches questions on how to define, theorize, and empirically research popular music fan culture, and how music fandom relates to other roles, practices, and forms of social identity. Fandom itself has been brought center stage by the rise of the internet and an industrial structure aiming to incorporate, systematize, and legitimate dimensions of it as an emotionally-engaged form of consumerism. Once perceived as the pariah practice of an overly attached audience, media fandom has become a standardized industrial subject-position called upon to sell box sets, concert tickets, new television series, and special editions. Meanwhile, recent scholarship has escaped the legacy of interpretations that framed fans as passive, pathological, or defiantly empowered, taking its object seriously as a complex formation of identities, roles, and practices. While popular music studies has examined some forms of identity and audience practice, such as the way that people use music in daily life and listener participation in subcultures, scenes and, tribes, this volume is the first to examine music fans as a specific object of study.

Discover how to achieve commercial-grade recordings, even in the smallest studios, by applying power-user techniques from the world's most successful producers. Recording Secrets for the Small Studio is an intensive training course specifically designed for small-studio enthusiasts who want a fast track to release-quality results. Based on the backroom strategies of more than 200 famous names, this thorough and down-to-earth guide leads you through a logical sequence of practical tasks to build your live-room skills progressively from the ground up. On the way, you'll unravel the mysteries of many specialist studio tactics and gain the confidence to tackle a full range of real-world recording situations. User-friendly explanations introduce technical concepts on a strictly need-to-know basis, while chapter summaries, assignments, and extensive online resources are perfect for school and college use. * Learn the fundamental principles of mic technique that you can apply in any recording scenario -- and how to avoid those rookie mistakes that all too often compromise the sonics of lower-budget productions. * Explore advanced techniques which help industry insiders maintain their competitive edge even under the most adverse conditions: creative phase manipulation, improvised acoustics tweaks, inventive monitoring workarounds, subtle psychological tricks... * Find out where you don't need to spend money, as well as how to make a limited budget really count. * Make the best use of limited equipment and session time, especially in situations where you're engineering and producing single-handed. * Pick up tricks and tips from celebrated engineers and producers across the stylistic spectrum, including Steve Albini, Roy Thomas Baker, Joe Barresi, Tchad Blake, Bruce Botnick, Joe Chiccarelli, Neil Dorfsman, Jack Douglas, Geoff Emerick, Paul Epworth, Humberto Gatica, Nigel Godrich, Andy Johns, Eddie Kramer, Kevin Killen, George Massenburg, Hugh Padgham, Alan Parsons, Jack Joseph Puig, Phil Ramone, Bob Rock, Elliott Scheiner, Al Schmitt, Bruce Swedien, Butch Vig, Tony Visconti, and many, many more...

Amid the recent increase in scholarly attention to rock music, Understanding Rock stands out as one of the first books that subjects diverse aspects of the music itself to close and sophisticated analytical scrutiny. Written by some of the best young scholars in musicology and music theory, the essays in this volume use harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, and textual approaches in order to show how and why rock music works as music. Topics of discussion include the adaptation of blues and other styles to rock; the craft of songwriting; techniques and strategies of improvisation; the reinterpretation of older songs; and the use of the recording studio as a compositional tool. A broad range of styles and groups is covered, including Yes, the Beach Boys, Cream, k.d. lang, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead.

Analyzing Recorded Music: Collected Perspectives on Popular Music Tracks is a collection of essays dedicated to the study of recorded popular music, with the aim of exploring "how the record shapes the song" (Moylan, Recording Analysis, 2020) from a variety of perspectives. Introduced with a Foreword by Paul Théberge, the distinguished editorial team has brought together a group of reputable international contributors to write about a rich collection of recordings. Examining a diverse set of songs from a range of genres and points in history (spanning the years 1936–2020), the authors herein illuminate unique attributes of the selected tracks and reveal how the recording develops the expressive content of song performance. Analyzing Recorded Music will interest all those who study popular music, cultural studies, and the musicology of record production, as well as popular music listeners.

A photographic look into the world of vinyl record collectors—including Questlove—in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. Compelling photographic essays from photographer Eilon Paz are paired with in-depth and insightful interviews to illustrate what motivates these collectors to keep digging for more records. The reader gets an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions, including Gilles Peterson and King Britt, as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. Driven by his love for vinyl records, Paz takes us on a five-year journey unearthing the very soul of the vinyl community.