Sound Engineer Research Articles

Formation model of sound engineers’ communicative competence

The paper considers the concept of communicative competence of a sound engineer. The importance of communications in the professional activity of a sound engineer is revealed. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of communicative competence are analyzed. The role of the personality-oriented approach in the formation of communicative competence is determined. The paper proposes a model for the formation of communicative competence of future sound engineers on the basis of the personality-oriented approach. The model consists of 4 blocks: aim, methodology, content and evaluation of the results. The blocks clearly distribute the methodological and methodical aspects of achieving the set goal. The components of communicative competence of sound engineers are presented, in accordance with them, teaching methods are selected within the framework of the personality-oriented methodology. At the same time, due to the expansion of subjective experience, the use of self-analysis and empathy, the development of student personality is additionally stimulated. Using the program, the teacher can implement the proposed methods or adapt their own professional and communicative experience within the framework of the formation of a specific component of communicative competence of sound engineers. This makes it possible to approach the improvement of communication skills of students with different levels of communicative competence more flexibly. The principles of implementing the model in the learning process are outlined. The structure of the course «Professional Communications of sound engineers» is compiled. The methods aimed at obtaining and consolidating the basic theoretical information necessary for understanding the work of communication processes in the work of a sound engineer are described. The paper consistently reveals the methodology of forming the functional components of communicative competence by applying personality-oriented teaching methods. The research also analyzes the use of active and interactive teaching methods in the context of personality-oriented methodology. The most important condition for implementing the model for forming the communicative competence of sound engineers is considered: training of teachers to apply the personality-oriented approach.

WtRobina, Technical Manifesto for the Deviant Sound Engineer, independently published, 2021, 110 pp. £5.99.

wtRobina, Technical Manifesto for the Deviant Sound Engineer, independently published, 2021, 110 pp. £5.99.

Musical Projects in Guitar Pro 7.5 Sequencer

The purpose of the article is to study the process of creating musical projects in the GUITAR PRO 7.5 sequencer. Research methodology. The article uses a systematic approach, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalisation. The scientific novelty lies in the identification and development of innovative methods of working in the GUITAR PRO 7.5 sequencer, which allows creating musical compositions from scratch using modern software tools, as well as the possibilities of using music information technologies in the further artistic practice of musicians, sound producers, sound engineers, producers and in professional music education. Conclusions. This software product is a powerful music editor that allows one to create original scores at a professional level for subsequent editing. The programme presents many necessary tools with which the user can work with a variety of musical notation symbols and a wide range of sound dynamics and tempo control, which allows you to create samples of sounding musical pieces and their phonograms. It has a powerful built-in MIDI editor, chord builder, player, metronome, and other useful tools for musicians. Guitar Pro 7.5 can be run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS platforms. It is widely used by musicians, composers, arrangers, sound engineers, sound designers, and producers. In addition, Guitar Pro 7.5 methods can be used for studying by students who are mastering the relevant specialties in higher educational institutions. Keywords: music notation editor, score, arrangement, sound, musician, composer, sound producer, sound engineer, producer, professional music education.

Specificity of Using Phonograms in Popular Music

The purpose of the research. This article attempts to characterise the interaction of sound directing practices with popular music during stage performances and concerts. The research methodology employed to address the set objectives consisted of a historical-cultural approach to analyse the development process of digital sound recording formats and innovations in concert touring practices, a philosophical-aesthetic approach when considering the aesthetic principles of the music and sound concept in concert performances, and a method of theoretical generalisation to draw conclusions and justify the specific features of the outlined issues. The scientific novelty of this article lies in being the first in Ukrainian science to substantiate and sequentially describe the work on recording playback phonograms in the studio, as well as their subsequent use together with live performances by artists during a long-anticipated concert tour as a unified music and sound image of the creative ensemble, based on teaching and sound engineering experience. Conclusions. With the development of digital means of artistic expression, the use of phonograms in popular music has gained significant momentum, with the main argument in favour being the "the main focus is the show programme". This, to some extent, justifies artists' performances to pre-recorded playback. Therefore, based on analyzed examples, the specificity of the sound engineer's work with a complex scheme of simultaneous use of phonograms from a player-recorder (HDR) and the sound accompaniment of the creative ensemble during stage performances is elucidated. The issues related to this practice and recommended methods to avoid them are highlighted. It is determined that the concert sound director is a central figure in creating a popular music stage performance. The level of artistic and spectacular event, regardless of the chosen performance format (playback or live performance) of the creative performer/ensemble, depends on their professional skills and practical experience in utilising innovative sound equipment. The use of a full or partial phonogram during a concert, presented to an enthusiastic audience, is a matter of professional ethics and the integrity of the artist(s). Failure to uphold these high components results in complete ruin of the performer's or creative ensemble's stage career. The final choice remains with the artists. Keywords: sound directing, popular singing, backing vocals, instrumental performance, studio sound recording, phonogram, sound equipment.

Design of Midi Drum Controller Using Piezoelectric and Arduino-Based TCRT5000 Sensor to Facilitate Sound Engineer Performance in the Music Industry

This study discusses the Midi Drum Controller using the Arduino Mega which has many analog pins making it suitable for producing complete drum pads as well as piezoelectricity which is used to detect vibrations when the drum pad is beaten, as well as the Tcrt5000 sensor which is used to control the hi-hat so that it can move. from the sound of an open hi-hat to a closed hi-hat. The results of this study indicate that piezoelectricity can detect vibrations and dynamics of strong and weak drum beats and send the game to midi-based virtual drum applications. The Tcrt5000 sensor used can also work well, judging by the sound it produces and the data sent when the Tcrt5000 sensor is on and off.

РОЛЬ ДЕТЕРМІНАЦІЇ У РОЗВИТКУ ЗВУКОРЕЖИСЕРСЬКОЇ КОМПЕТЕНЦІЇ ЗДОБУВАЧІВ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

The article is devoted to specifying the role of determination in the development of sound engineering competence of higher education students. The article defines the concept of “determination”, which was introduced into scientific circulation at the beginning of the 20th century, and summarizes the meaning of the definition of “determination” as a philosophical category at the current stage of the development of the philosophy of science. The crystallization of the idea of determination and the evolution of the content of the definition “determination” in historical retrospect from Aristotle’s views to modern times are characterized in the article. The concepts of determinism, causality, interconnection and directed interaction in the categories of the philosophy of science are differentiated. Various approaches to the content of determination, which were formed in philosophy and science historically, are summarized. The development of determination at the modern stage is characterized, which is characterized by the further generalization of this definition and the identification of new varieties of it. Cultural determinism is defined, which is considered as a concept according to which phenomena of spiritual culture play a certain role in the development of society; and culture is perceived as a relatively autonomous entity, independent of other spheres of life. The importance of historical-theoretical and musicological training disciplines that integrate determination into their content is summarized in the article. Considered musical performance on the example of a game and determined the similarity of music, sound design and game. The existence of a musical image in the performing interpretation of musical works in the discourse of creativity is characterized in the article. Emphasis is placed on the co-creation of the performer, the sound engineer and the performer, which occurs during the concert performance of a musical work. It is concluded that determination has a surprisingly significant importance and plays an important role in the development of sound engineering competence of higher education students and affects both the educational process and the professional activity of graduates in the process of working in the profession.

Review: She’s at the Controls: Sound Engineering, Production and Gender Ventriloquism in the 21st Century, by Helen Reddington

Review: <i>She’s at the Controls: Sound Engineering, Production and Gender Ventriloquism in the 21st Century</i>, by Helen Reddington

Review essay: Between the Material and the Ephemeral

Review essay: Between the Material and the Ephemeral

Creation of musical pieces At GUITAR PRO 6 (Part 2)

The purpose of the article is to find out the specifics and methods of creating music in the sequencer GUITAR PRO 6. Methodology. The article uses a systematic approach, and also applies methods of comparison and generalization. Scientific novelty. For the first time in domestic musicology, innovative methods of working in the modern computer program sequencer GUITAR PRO 6 were discovered and proposed. The application of the methods and rules presented in the study provides the opportunity to transfer the work of a composer, arranger, sound engineer, musician, with a computer to a completely new stage in the development of musical creativity, which significantly improves the result of the study of musical texture, expanding the ways of existence of the work and the like. Conclusions. This software product is a powerful editor that allows you to create original scores at a professional level for subsequent editing. The program presents many useful tools with which the user can work with a different set of symbols of musical notation, as well as with a wide range of regulation of sound dynamics and tempo, which allows you to create samples of musical scores that sound and their phonograms. It has a powerful built-in MIDI editor, chord builder, player, metronome, and many other useful instruments for musicians. Ability to run Guitar Pro 6 on Windows, Linux, Mac OS platforms. Widely used by composers, arrangers, and sound engineers. Also, the methods of work in Guitar Pro 6 can be used for study by students who master the relevant specialties.

진동제어장치의 변화에 따른 스네어 드럼의 라우드니스, 음색 및 엔벨로프 변화에 대한 연구

This paper studied how the volume, tone, and envelop change according to the change in the size and mass of the vibration control device used in the snare drum among the musical instruments composing the drum set. The purpose is to provide information on the snare tone to be expressed by providing the characteristics of the sound derived according to the change of the vibration control device to drummers and sound engineers who play using the snare drum. Improving the ability to use music can have a positive effect on improving the expressive ability of performers and sound engineer depending on the genre and style of music. As a result of the experiment, there was no change in loudness in the environment where the area and mass were changed using the vibration control device, the change in frequency response was insignificant, and the length of the envelope was greatly changed. In the course of the experiment, the tone of the snare drum actually heard was very large. In particular, there was a large tone change in the experimental environment due to the change in area rather than mass. As a result, the vibration control device is substantially only involved in the envelope, and the snare drum has a short envelope, so unlike some perceptions that the tone generated in the front part of the envelope is more important, the back part of the envelope also has a great influence on the tone perceived by humans.

Individual features of the sound engineer style in contemporary jazz sound engineering (on the example of J. Anderson's works)

Individual features of the sound engineer style in contemporary jazz sound engineering (on the example of J. Anderson's works)

John Wheelwright, Sound Engineer

John Wheelwright, Sound Engineer Matthew Kilbane (bio) The life and poetry of John Wheelwright (1897–1940) testify to a subterranean link between two ostensibly very different cultural forms, the sonnet and radio broadcasting. To set about unfolding this surprising affiliation is also to assume the delightful responsibility of introducing readers to an idiosyncratic modern poet little-read these days, one for whom the sonnet and radio were objects of characteristically ingenious aesthetic investment. In the 1930s, Wheelwright’s artistic commitments to these sonorous technologies—first to the poetic form, and then to the communications medium—found their authorization in one-and-the-same deeply felt requirement: the desire to engineer a politically usable modernist poetry. In the final years of that decade, Wheelwright believed he had located at last, in the radical implications of radio broadcasting, a socialist horizon for modern verse. And yet his prior innovations in sonnet form so vividly betray the early stirrings of this quest that the largest stakes of these printed sonnets are most clearly apprehended in the light shed by his later career on the air. To read his sonnets well, in other words, we must read with an ear to radio. For that reason, it makes sense to begin in 1938 at the University Club in Boston’s Back Bay, where for several months that autumn, Wheelwright ran a weekly poetry program on the World Wide Broadcasting Foundation’s noncommercial shortwave station W1XAL (later WRUL). According to its funders at the Rockefeller Foundation, since 1935 W1XAL had been “the only station in the United States with national coverage . . . devoted exclusively to educational programming.” Transmitting 50,000 watts across four shortwave bands, [End Page 238] W1XAL was by the late 1930s a leading “university of the air,” disseminating “New England enlightenment” with the collaboration of faculty from Harvard and other universities to listeners across the country, and, increasingly in non-English languages, around the globe. To recite poetry into a W1XAL microphone was to hitch a ride on a powerful cultural apparatus, one that other entities like the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pan-American Foundation, and the federal government were simultaneously using, in Good Neighborly fashion, to secure US interests abroad. It is high testimony indeed to W1XAL’S soft power that in May 1938, when congressional efforts to establish a government-owned shortwave station “to counter the heavy-handed propaganda of the Nazi and Fascist competition” were squashed by major networks, the Daily Boston Globe could point with beaming hometown pride to W1XAL, already pouring a star-spangled “deluge of high-powered thought . . . into the ether for a world audience.” Given W1XAL’s educational mandate and its high-cultural affiliations, it’s hardly unusual that some of this “high-powered thought” issued from poets. It’s a good deal stranger to find a poet like Wheelwright in the mix. Those listeners tuning in from Peru, Trinidad, or New Zealand were doubtless unfamiliar with W1XAL’s poetry impresario, but Bostonians may have recognized Wheelwright, less perhaps from his poetry than from his minor cultural celebrity, the baffling figure he cut in a city so indelibly his milieu. “What Dublin was to Joyce,” recalled his friend Winfield Townley Scott, “Boston was to Wheelwright.” When remembered today, Wheelwright’s life is often recalled as a spectacle of contradictions. A direct descendent on his father’s side of the Antinomian rebel Rev. John Wheelwright (1592–1679), and on his mother’s side of the merchant Peter Chardon Brooks (1767–1849), once New England’s wealthiest man, even as his family’s finances deteriorated rapidly in the poet’s lifetime Wheelwright could boast of near-perfect Brahmin pedigree. But he also relished confounding this upper-crust exemplarity. As a young man grieving his father’s suicide, Wheelwright rejected the Puritan faith of his ancestors for a [End Page 239] very high church Anglicanism, and after his political radicalization in the early 1930s, set himself the task of squaring Anglican and apocryphal Christian traditions with a drop-dead serious dialectical materialism. He describes his third and final collection of poems, 1940’s Political Self-Portrait—which marshals St. Paul alongside Lenin, and references to the “Apostolic Orders” alongside exhortations...

ABOUT MY TEACHER, FAMOUS SOUND DIRECTOR AND MUSICIAN VITALY NIKOLAEVICH GUSHCHIN

This article is about the famous sound engineer, talented musician and teacher Vitaly Nikolayevich Gushchin, who made an invaluable contribution to the development of various areas of sound engineering in Uzbekistan, including music, audiovisual and radio ones. He is one of those who carried out highly professional sound recording of classical, folk and pop music works, which made up the richest fund of national culture and are in great consumer demand. V. N. Gushchin trained several generations of specialists who successfully work in many areas of sound engineering in the republic and abroad.

Creation of musical pieces at GUITAR PRO 6 (Part 1)

The purpose of the article is to find out the specifics and methods of creating music in the sequencer GUITAR PRO 6. Methodology. The article uses a systematic approach, and also applies methods of comparison and generalization. Scientific novelty. For the first time in domestic musicology, innovative methods of working in the modern computer program sequencer GUITAR PRO 6 were discovered and proposed. The application of the methods and rules presented in the study provides the opportunity to transfer the work of a composer, arranger, sound engineer, musician, with a computer to a completely new stage in the development of musical creativity, which significantly improves the result of the study of musical texture, expanding the ways of existence of the work and the like. Conclusions. This software product is a powerful editor that allows you to create original scores at a professional level for subsequent editing. The program presents many useful tools with which the user can work with a different set of symbols of musical notation, as well as with a wide range of regulation of sound dynamics and tempo, which allows you to create samples of musical scores that sound and their phonograms. It has a powerful built-in MIDI editor, chord builder, player, metronome, and many other useful instruments for musicians. Ability to run Guitar Pro 6 on Windows, Linux, Mac OS platforms. Widely used by composers, arrangers, and sound engineers. Also, the methods of work in Guitar Pro 6 can be used for study by students who master the relevant specialties.

Musical interpretation in the context of the art of recording

The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize the peculiarities of interpretation as a unique phenomenon of musical art in the context of the specifics of sound recording. Methodology. The method of cultural-historical analysis was applied, which contributed to the consideration of the process of development and transformation of interpretation in musical art, and also helped to trace the specifics of the evolution of the art of sound recording; the comparative method, thanks to which the features of the interpretation of a piece of music by the performer, sound engineer and listener are revealed; philosophical, cultural and art history methods of analysis, which contributed to the identification of cause-and-effect relationships and regularities in the functioning of the peculiarities of musical interpretation in the art of sound recording, its consideration, and understanding in the unity of all elements, the reproduction of the context of the socio-cultural space in which this phenomenon developed. Scientific novelty. The musical interpretation is investigated in the context of the specifics of the art of sound recording; the influence of postmodern tendencies on the formation of a new paradigm of interpretation of recorded musical work is revealed; the problem of interpretation in the art of sound recording is characterized at the level of performing an interpretation of a musical work, its fixation as an important semantic process that generates new cultural meanings and sound engineering activities. Conclusions. The study revealed that in the context of the art of sound recording, musical interpretation manifests itself on several levels, since in a recorded musical work, as a material object that is accessible to the senses "in infinite variability of reading" (according to J. Derrida), through the prism of the personality of the author of the musical work, the performer and sound engineer embody ideas about reality, and artistic information encoded and decoded by them takes on its final form only in the mind of the listener.

Volker Müller & Co.: Electronic Music and Sound Engineering at the WDR

This article is about Volker Müller (b. 1942), a German sound engineer who worked at the WDR Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne for approximately 30 years. I look into Müller’s training as a sound engineer at the Düsseldorf Sound Engineering College and his activities at the WDR studio as a way of expanding on West German post-war state’s building and cybernetics pedagogy. By complicating merely technical, operational and mechanistic views of the sound engineer’s role in the studio, I argue that Volker Müller embodied a particular culture of sound engineering and certain political and artistic utopias that resonate with broader political, economic, and pedagogical structures developed in the context of Cold War.

The hearing function of sound engineers: A hearing conservation perspective.

BackgroundOccupational activities performed by sound engineers are associated with hearing loss. However, there is a dearth of research on the hearing functions and the related hearing loss for sound engineers.ObjectivesTo determine the hearing function and early effects of noise on the hearing ability of sound engineers, and to establish whether there are hearing conservation programmes (HCPs) available for sound engineer participants in Johannesburg.MethodsA quantitative cross-sectional design was used. Eight sound engineers from the Academy of Sound Engineering (ASE) participated in the study. The following data were collected from the participants: case history data, ear-related symptoms and hearing conservation data. Hearing screening followed by full diagnostic audiological assessments was conducted for each participant. Descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test were used to analyse the data (confidence interval [CI] = 95%).ResultsParticipants reported tinnitus and aural fullness as common complaints. Only one participant had a unilateral impacted cerumen. All the participants presented with hearing within normal limits bilaterally, with a percentage loss of hearing (PLH) of 1.1% for all the participants. However, five participants presented with a notched configuration that was ≥ 10 decibel (dB), in the high frequency region at 3000 Hz and 6000 Hz bilaterally. One-sample t-test (p = 0.001) inferred that at a mean age of 27.6 years (standard deviation [SD] = 3.85), a notch at 3000 Hz and 6000 Hz was associated with an early sign of a hearing loss for the study participants. An HCP was not in place at the study site.ConclusionThe study indicated a younger age as an associated early sign of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) for the study participants, and that audiologists’ clinical practice needs to explore HCP strategies specific for the sound engineers in order to prevent hearing loss.

ЗВУКОЗАПИСЬ, СРЕДСТВА АУДИОКОММУНИКАЦИИ И ФОРТЕПИАННОЕ ИСПОЛНИТЕЛЬСТВО: ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ВЗГЛЯДОВ

Sound recording and related audio communication tools are complex and ambiguous phenomena, the potential of which was revealed and implemented gradually, as technology improves and new performing practices are consolidated. Sound recording has become a determining factor in the development of musical culture in the XXth century, creating new forms of musical being, changing the principles of musical communication and distribution of roles in the musical hierarchy. In the field of piano art, recording led to the emergence of "virtual" forms of piano performance and post-production practices, gave a new aesthetic quality to piano art, revived the figure of composer-performer, and raised the value of a pianist-interpreter to a new level. The tradition to consider the evolution of art in the context of scientific and technological progress appeared in the 1970s. Nowadays in musicology, the aesthetic significance of recording for piano art remains undefined, there are no large generalizing studies on this issue. Recording has caused fundamental changes in the social life of music and musical performance, the transformation of the traditional musical communication system — these processes are currently most studied. The issues of musical communication are covered in the works of E. Dukov, E. Nazaikinsky, I. Orlova, A. Sokhor, A. Yakupov. Books by N. Lebrecht, Yu. Strakovich, A. Karabanova, T. Kuzub, Yu. Streglov are devoted to the problems of functioning of musical art and their historical origin. A considerable part of G. Gould's journalism is focused on prospects of sound recording. According to Gould, the participation of the performer-interpreter in the process of sound engineering brings his work closer to the composer, allowing "to establish a contact with a work, which is very similar to the composer's own attitude to it". Sound recording becomes the reason for transformation of the traditional system of "composer — performer — listener" musical communication, historically associated with the functioning of concert halls and the composer's priority role. Researchers note the complication of the communicative chain due to the inclusion of the figure of the sound engineer (Yu. Kapustin, I. Orlova). Feedback of listeners and the performer becomes mediated, it is carried out through other channels — public opinion, press (Yu. Kapustin), the figure of a musicologist critic (A. Yakupov, Yu. Streglov). The authors begin to consider sound recording as a new form of musical existence, different from concert practice, which develops its own means of expression, forms its own listener, creates its own performing personnel. In modern research, recording as a component of innovative progress achievements is included in the periodization of information technologies. Sound recording, being a means of documentary communication, creates a new quality of fixation of a work of art in the actual form of performing interpretation, post-production practices expand the aesthetic experience of the performer and listeners. In the modern musical landscape, sound recording becomes a product of joint work of a performer and sound engineer, art manager, music producer, while the role of the performer is "virtualized".

Специфика деятельности звукорежиссеров в учреждениях культурно-досугового типа

&lt;p&gt;В условиях развития инновационных технологий стремительно возрастают требования, предъявляемые к качеству получаемой информации в различных сферах общественного пространства. В статье рассматриваются специфические особенности профессиональной деятельности звукорежиссеров в учреждениях культурно-досугового типа. Культурно-досуговая деятельность является неотъемлемой частью повседневной жизни и во многом определяет нравственные ориентиры современного общества. Звук является достаточно мощным инструментом эмоционально-психологического воздействия и важнейшей художественной составляющей мероприятий аудиовизуального и зрелищно-сценического характера. Именно поэтому вопросам звукофикации массовых культурно-досуговых проектов следует уделять особое внимание с точки зрения качества передачи звуковой информации.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Звукорежиссура культурно-досуговой направленности является сложнейшим технологическим процессом, требующим от специалиста навыков профессиональной работы с техническим оборудованием в процессе звукофикации демонстрационных площадок многоцелевого назначения в учреждениях культуры и культурно-досугового типа. Автор анализирует специфику деятельности звукорежиссеров на примере подготовки и проведения культурно-досуговых программ в условиях сценического пространства учреждений культурно-досугового типа. Дается базовая классификация основных видов деятельности специалиста в процессе работы над звуковым оформлением и сопровождением культурно-досуговой программы. Автор считает, что в силу многообразия художественно-творческих задач, стоящих перед проведением каждого конкретного мероприятия на высоком организационно-техническом уровне, деятельность звукорежиссера приобретает многофункциональный, комплексный характер и становится неотъемлемой частью практически любого культурно-досугового проекта.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Исследование специфики деятельности звукорежиссеров в учреждениях культурно-досугового типа и ее теоретическое обоснование позволит корригировать процесс организации мероприятий культурно-досугового типа.&lt;/p&gt;

Learning to listen: histories of women’s soundwork in the British film industry

Whilst women’s contribution to early cinema (as directors, writers, exhibitors etc) is widely-acknowledged, much less is known of their historical labour in the decades following the introduction of sound, and almost nothing of their work as sound technicians. The employment of women in the jobs created by the new technology of sound remains unstudied. This essay investigates women’s soundwork in the British film industry in the years between 1939 and 1989. It uses archival materials and oral history testimony to draw a micro-history of women’s soundwork in film processing laboratories, the feature film industry and non-fiction shorts. It argues that, whilst women were routinely excluded from prestigious roles such as Sound Engineer and Recordist in the features sector, they flourished in the niche areas of factual programming and Foley sound. Including case studies of the fifty-year careers of Sound Recordist Christine Collins and Foley Artist Beryl Mortimer this paper examines the gendering of women’s participation in film sound and their economic and creative contribution as sound professionals to the British film industry. It also suggests ways in which a study of women’s soundwork might offer new ways of thinking about film history.