Download or read book Perfecting Sound Forever written by Greg Milner and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1915, Thomas Edison proclaimed that he could record a live performance and reproduce it perfectly, shocking audiences who found themselves unable to tell whether what they were hearing was an Edison Diamond Disc or a flesh-and-blood musician. Today, the equation is reversed. Whereas Edison proposed that a real performance could be rebuilt with absolute perfection, Pro Tools and digital samplers now allow musicians and engineers to create the illusion of performances that never were. In between lies a century of sonic exploration into the balance between the real and the represented. Tracing the contours of this history, Greg Milner takes us through the major breakthroughs and glorious failures in the art and science of recording. An American soldier monitoring Nazi radio transmissions stumbles onto the open yet revolutionary secret of magnetic tape. Japanese and Dutch researchers build a first-generation digital audio format and watch as their "compact disc" is marketed by the music industry as the second coming of Edison yet derided as heretical by analog loyalists. The music world becomes addicted to volume in the nineties and fights a self-defeating "loudness war" to get its fix. From Les Paul to Phil Spector to King Tubby, from vinyl to pirated CDs to iPods, Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever pulls apart musical history to answer a crucial question: Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? The answers he uncovers will change the very way we think about music.
Download or read book Perfecting Sound Forever written by Greg Milner and published by . This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1915, Thomas Edison proclaimed that he could record a live performance and reproduce it perfectly, shocking audiences who found themselves unable to tell whether what they were hearing was an Edison Diamond Disc or a flesh-and-blood musician. Today, the equation is reversed. Whereas Edison proposed that a real performance could be rebuilt with absolute perfection, Pro Tools and digital samplers now allow musicians and engineers to create the illusion of performances that never were. In between lies a century of sonic exploration into the balance between the real and the represented. Tracing the contours of this history, Greg Milner takes us through the major breakthroughs and glorious failures in the art and science of recording. An American soldier monitoring Nazi radio transmissions stumbles onto the open yet revolutionary secret of magnetic tape. Japanese and Dutch researchers build a first-generation digital audio format and watch as their "compact disc" is marketed by the music industry as the second coming of Edison yet derided as heretical by analog loyalists. The music world becomes addicted to volume in the nineties and fights a self-defeating "loudness war" to get its fix. From Les Paul to Phil Spector to King Tubby, from vinyl to pirated CDs to iPods, Milner pulls apart musical history to answer a crucial question: Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? The answers he uncovers will change the very way we think about music.
Download or read book Perfecting Sound Forever written by Greg Milner and published by Le Castor Astral éditeur. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: « Très, très, très peu de livres changeront votre façon d’écouter la musique. Celui-ci est l’un d’eux. » Venant de Jarvis Cocker – fondateur du groupe Pulp et collaborateur de Nancy Sinatra, Brigitte Fontaine ou Charlotte Gainsbourg –, le compliment vaut de l’or. Greg Milner ne propose pas seulement de découvrir l’évolution de l’enregistrement sonore, il met en lumière une partie trop souvent oubliée de l’histoire de la musique. Occulté, l’enregistrement musical retourne désormais au centre du débat grâce à cet auteur habité par son sujet. Perfecting Sound Forever fait prendre conscience que, de l’amélioration des techniques, émanent d’intenses enjeux humains. De « Mary Had a Little Lamb » – premier enregistrement de Thomas Edison – aux tubes format MP3 des Red Hot Chili Peppers, en passant par Les Paul et Neil Young, l’auteur raconte le destin d’hommes fascinés par la musique et sa captation. Ce récit montre que derrière l’évolution des techniques se cachent des personnages passionnément épris de musique. Dès les premières lignes, Greg Milner manifeste d’ailleurs son amour pour cet art avec une écriture romanesque, pleine de verve, qui dévoile les liens qu’unissent la musique et ces moments jouissifs d’invention, ces Eurêka de la création. À l’heure du digital et du dématérialisé, le livre de Greg Milner pose enfin la question de l’authenticité et de la perfection acoustique. L’enregistrement absolu existe-t-il ? Si oui, quelle est la partition ultime ? À travers l’histoire du son, l’auteur nous raconte comment la musique a fait évoluer la technologie de l’enregistrement, mais également comment cette dernière a influencé la musique en retour. Avec Perfecting sound forever, Greg Milner marque un tournant dans l’histoire de la musique et sa narration. Ce texte a séduit l’ensemble de la critique anglo-saxonne. L’ouvrage, publié par les éditions Granta en 2010, a été plébiscité en Angleterre et aux États-Unis, comme en témoigne sa nomination au National Book Critics Circle Award.
Download or read book To Feel the Music written by Neil Young and published by BenBella Books. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil Young took on the music industry so that fans could hear his music—all music—the way it was meant to be heard. Today, most of the music we hear is com-pressed to a fraction of its original sound,while analog masterpieces are turning to dustin record company vaults. As these record-ings disappear, music fans aren't just losing acollection of notes. We're losing spaciousness,breadth of the sound field, and the ability tohear and feel a ping of a triangle or a pluckof a guitar string, each with its own reso-nance and harmonics that slowly trail off intosilence. The result is music that is robbed of its original quality—muddy and flat in sound compared to the rich, warm sound artists hear in the studio. It doesn't have to be this way, but the record and technology companies have incorrectly assumed that most listeners are satisfied with these low-quality tracks. Neil Young is challenging the assault on audio quality—and working to free music lovers from the flat and lifeless status quo. To Feel the Music is the true story of his questto bring high-quality audio back to musiclovers—the most important undertaking ofhis career. It's an unprecedented look insidethe successes and setbacks of creating thePono player, the fights and negotiationswith record companies to preserve master-pieces for the future, and Neil's unrelentingdetermination to make musical art availableto everyone. It's a story that shows how muchmore there is to music than meets the ear. Neil's efforts to bring quality audio to his fans garnered media attention when his Kickstarter campaign for his Pono player—a revolutionary music player that would combine the highest quality possible with the portability, simplicity and affordability modern listeners crave—became the third-most successful Kickstarter campaign in the website's history. It had raised more than $6M in pledges in 40 days. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, Neil still had a long road ahead, and his Pono music player would not have the commercial success he'd imagined. But he remained committed to his mission, and faced with the rise of streaming services that used even lower quality audio, he was determined to rise to the challenge. An eye-opening read for all fans of Neil Young and all fans of great music, as well as readers interesting in going behind the scenes of product creation, To Feel the Music has an inspiring story at its heart: One determined artist with a groundbreaking vision and the absolute refusal to give up, despite setbacks, naysayers, and skeptics.
Download or read book Pinpoint How GPS is Changing Technology Culture and Our Minds written by Greg Milner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the most mesmerizing and exhilarating, yet alarming modern technology books…an extraordinary tale." —Gillian Tett, Financial Times Pinpoint tells the fascinating story of a hidden system that touches nearly every aspect of modern life. Tracking the development of GPS from its origins as a bomb guidance system to its present ubiquity, Greg Milner examines the technology’s double-edged effect on the way we live, work, and travel. Savvy and original, this sweeping scientific history offers startling insight into how humans understand their place in the world.
Download or read book The Sound Book The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World written by Trevor Cox and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-02-10 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A lucid and passionate case for a more mindful way of listening to and engaging with musical, natural, and manmade sounds." —New York Times In this tour of the world’s most unexpected sounds, Trevor Cox—the “David Attenborough of the acoustic realm” (Observer)—discovers the world’s longest echo in a hidden oil cavern in Scotland, unlocks the secret of singing sand dunes in California, and alerts us to the aural gems that exist everywhere in between. Using the world’s most amazing acoustic phenomena to reveal how sound works in everyday life, The Sound Book inspires us to become better listeners in a world dominated by the visual and to open our ears to the glorious cacophony all around us.
Download or read book Chasing Sound written by Susan Schmidt Horning and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2013-12-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recording studio, she argues, is at the center of musical culture in the twentieth century.--Emily Thompson, Princeton University "Science"
Download or read book Here There and Everywhere written by Geoff Emerick and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-03-16 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An all-access, firsthand account of the life and music of one of history's most beloved bands--from an original mastering engineer at Abbey Road Geoff Emerick became an assistant engineer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1962 at age fifteen, and was present as a new band called the Beatles recorded their first songs. He later worked with the Beatles as they recorded their singles “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the songs that would propel them to international superstardom. In 1964 he would witness the transformation of this young and playful group from Liverpool into professional, polished musicians as they put to tape classic songs such as “Eight Days A Week” and “I Feel Fine.” Then, in 1966, at age nineteen, Geoff Emerick became the Beatles’ chief engineer, the man responsible for their distinctive sound as they recorded the classic album Revolver, in which they pioneered innovative recording techniques that changed the course of rock history. Emerick would also engineer the monumental Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums, considered by many the greatest rock recordings of all time. In Here, There and Everywhere he reveals the creative process of the band in the studio, and describes how he achieved the sounds on their most famous songs. Emerick also brings to light the personal dynamics of the band, from the relentless (and increasingly mean-spirited) competition between Lennon and McCartney to the infighting and frustration that eventually brought a bitter end to the greatest rock band the world has ever known.
Download or read book The Truth About Forever written by Sarah Dessen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-04-06 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Once and for All Expect the unexpected. Macy’s got her whole summer carefully planned. But her plans didn’t include a job at Wish Catering. And they certainly didn’t include Wes. But Macy soon discovers that the things you expect least are sometimes the things you need most. “Dessen gracefully balances comedy with tragedy and introduces a complex heroine worth getting to know.” —Publishers Weekly Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Books by Sarah Dessen: That Summer Someone Like You Keeping the Moon Dreamland This Lullaby The Truth About Forever Just Listen Lock and Key Along for the Ride What Happened to Goodbye The Moon and More Saint Anything Once and for All
Download or read book Now You re Talking written by Trevor Cox and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of how humans developed our capacity for conversation—and what might happen now that computers are catching up. Trevor Cox has been described by The Observer as ""a David Attenborough of the acoustic realm."" In Now You're Talking, he takes us on a journey through the wonders of human speech, starting with the evolution of language and our biological capability to speak (and listen), and bringing us up to date with the latest computer technology. Language is what makes us human, and how we speak is integral to our personal identity. But with the invention of sound recording and the arrival of the electrified voice, human communication changed forever; now advances in computer science and artificial intelligence are promising an even greater transformation. And with it come the possibilities to reproduce, manipulate, and replicate the human voice—sometimes with disturbing consequences. Now You're Talking is the fascinating story of our ability to converse. It takes us back to the core of our humanity, asking important questions about what makes us human and how this uniqueness might be threatened. On this illuminating tour we meet vocal coaches and record producers, neuroscientists and computer programmers, whose experience and research provide us with a deeper understanding of something that most of us take for granted—our ability to talk and listen.
Download or read book Live Wires written by Dan Warner and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2017-10-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an electronic world, saturated with electronic sounds. Yet, electronic sounds aren’t a new phenomenon; they have long permeated our sonic landscape. What began as the otherworldly sounds of the film score for the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and the rarefied, new timbres of Stockhausen’s Kontakte a few years later, is now a common soundscape in technology, media, and an array of musical genres and subgenres. More people than ever before can produce and listen to electronic music, from isolated experimenters, classical and jazz musicians, to rock musicians, sound recordists, and the newer generations of electronic musicians making hip-hop, house, techno, and ambient music. Increasingly we are listening to electronic sounds, finding new meanings in them, experimenting with them, and rehearing them as listeners and makers. Live Wires explores how five key electronic technologies—the tape recorder, circuit, computer, microphone, and turntable—revolutionized musical thought. Featuring the work of major figures in electronic music—including everyone from Schaeffer, Varèse, Xenakis, Babbitt, and Oliveros to Eno, Keith Emerson, Grandmaster Flash, Juan Atkins, and Holly Herndon—Live Wires is an arresting discussion of the powerful musical ideas that are being recycled, rethought, and remixed by the most interesting electronic composers and musicians today.
Download or read book America on Record written by Andre Millard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-05 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study provides a history of sound recording from the acoustic phonograph to digital sound technology. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Download or read book Sonic Wonderland written by Trevor J. Cox and published by Bodley Head Childrens. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ranging across an array of realms including literature, classical music, history, archaeology, psychology, neuroscience, geology, physics, biology and ecology, this book tours the world's most amazing acoustic phenomena and the sometimes even stranger people behind them - and pleas for a deeper appreciation and respect for our shared sonic landscapes.
Download or read book Fluent Forever written by Gabriel Wyner and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2014-08-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
Download or read book How Music Got Free written by Stephen Witt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Journalist Stephen Witt traces the secret history of digital music piracy, from the German audio engineers who invented the mp3, to a North Carolina compact-disc manufacturing plant where factory worker Dell Glover leaked nearly two thousand albums over the course of a decade, to the high-rises of midtown Manhattan where music executive Doug Morris cornered the global market on rap, and, finally, into the darkest recesses of the Internet."--
Download or read book Perfect Sound Forever written by Rob Jovanovic and published by Justin, Charles & Co.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Pavement fans and rock enthusiasts comes an engaging profile of the band and their quirkily dark, melodic sound and cryptic, mirth-filled lyrics.
Download or read book Killer Show written by John Barylick and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2012 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive book on The Station nightclub fire on the 10th anniversary of the disaster
