Thursday 19 July 2012

ISEE how recording fits into engineering and how engineering fits into recording

Sorry, the title is a terrible pun on ISEE: the International Symposium on Engineering Education which I spoke at today. This is a bi-annual event where academics in engineering get together (this year at the University of Sheffield) to share ideas about teaching practice.

There were lots of really interesting and controversial presentations (the title of one of this afternoon's talks was Is attending lectures relevant anymore in engineering education?). I was presenting my thoughts on where in the recording studio engineering can (or does) take place. The paper that I wrote to accompany this presentation will soon be posted on the ISEE 2012 web site and I'll also put it on the dedicated web resource that will one of the legacies of this project. I focused on three areas of recording/processing: time-domain effects, dynamic-range control (particularly for mastering) and microphone array design.

The presentation was really well received (or maybe they just applauded at the end because I was the last to go on before lunch and their hunger - mine too, to be honest - was getting the better of them). I had lots of interesting questions and comments during lunch. Although sound recording is not something they usually cover at ISEE, it seemed to pique people's interest and I'm really grateful to all the delegates for their warm response and useful comments.

The paper writing doesn't finish there: I'm currently finishing off an interview for the Journal on the Art of Record Production and will then be starting on an article for an engineering journal. Before that I'm back at ISEE tomorrow to hear some more opinions and ideas on engineering and engineering education.

2 comments:

  1. I think that very profession needs dedication. Engineering lets you learn many of things that you never experienced in your life. Lot of career options are available in recording engineering as several recording studio demand recording engineer.

    Sound Recording Studio

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  2. Hi Ryan

    I think you're right. There is a conception at the moment that there aren't many recording studios left. But as Dave Fisher pointed out when I interviewed him a while back (I've just submitted the text of that interview to the Journal on the Art of Record Production for publication), there are now eighty television channels available via FreeView all of which (apart from the odd data only channel) have audio as well as video output. So there is probably more need to for audio professionals now than there has ever been, but perhaps not in medium to large sized music studios.

    Thanks for your thoughts

    Jez

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