Convention Paper
Pathways through Recording Analysis
AES Convention 137 · Paper 9103 · October 2014
Abstract
If you are in the audio industry, you analyze recordings. What do you listen for? What do you hear? Why are you listening? There are many relevant answers to these questions depending on one’s role in the industry or purpose for listening. This paper will explore the process of recording analysis and the idea of “pathways” through the many elements, dimensions, and functions that it might address; pathways that can be modified to suit the material and purpose for the analysis. Music recording will then be used as an example to bring a focus to the process. “Recording analysis” will then be the study of sound qualities of recordings and the interrelationships of those qualities and the music’s materials and structure and its text.
