The Art and Science of Surround and Stereo Recording - Including 3D Audio Techniques

This book presents an extensive and timely survey of more than 30 surround and 20 stereo-microphone techniques. Further, it offers, for the first time, an explanation of why the RCA "Living Stereo" series of legacy recordings from the 1950s and 60s is still appreciated by music lovers worldwide, despite their use of an apparently incorrect recording technique from the perspective of psychoacoustics. Discussing this aspect in detail, the book draws on the author's study of concert hall acoustics and psychoacoustics.
The book also analyzes the "fingerprint" features of a selected number of surround and - more importantly - stereo microphone techniques in depth by measuring their signal cross-correlation over frequency and also using an artificial human head. In addition, the book presents a rating of microphone techniques based on the assessment of various acoustic attributes, and merges the results of several subjective listening tests, including those conducted by otherresearchers. Building on this knowledge, it provides fresh insights into important microphone system features, from stereo to 3D audio. Moreover, it describes new microphone techniques, such as AB-PC, ORTF-T and BPT, and the recently defined BQIrep (Binaural Quality Index of reproduced music).
Lastly, the book concludes with a short history of microphone techniques and case studies of live and studio recordings.

List of contents

Spatial Hearing.- Correlation und Coherence.- Stereo microphone techniques.- Surround microphone techniques.- Artificial head recordings.- Some thoughts on subjective listening tests.- An attempt at a qualitative ranking of several surround-microphones -- an examination of various studies in the field.- Analysis of frequency dependent correlation and coherence in surround microphone systems.- Analysis of frequency dependent correlation in stereo-microphone systems.- BQIrep -- proposal of a 'Binaural Quality Index' for reproduced music.- Case studies of surround and stereo-recordings. - Short history of microphone techniques including DECCA, RCA and COLUMBIA.

About the author

Edwin Pfanzagl-Cardone is head-of-sound at the acoustics department of the "Salzburg Festival" of classical music in Austria. After completing his degree in Electronics Engineering and Information Technology at TGM, he graduated from the "University of Music and Performing Arts" in Vienna in 1991, and received a Tonmeister (Sound Master) degree. In 2000, he completed his M.A. in Audio Production at the University of Westminster, London. In 2011, he received his PhD in Musical Acoustics and Psychoacoustics from KUG - University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria. Since the early 1990s, he has been working as a sound engineer for music recording and live sound reinforcement, and for film and TV, mainly in Europe, but also in Japan and the United States. As an arranger and composer, he has released recordings with BMG and SONY in the field of pop music, and has provided content for international library-music labels, and for radio and TV commercials. Author of AES and VDT-convention preprints, Dr. Pfanzagl-Cardone has published more than 60 articles in magazines for sound engineers, such as Pro Sound News Europe, Studio Sound, Media Biz, and Prospect. Since March 2010, he has been teaching Sound Reinforcement Technology at the Faculty of Design, Media and Arts at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg. As a composer he has released four international CDs. In addition to several hundred archival recordings for the Salzburg Festival, his discography as a sound engineer consists of about thirty CDs and three LPs with music labels such as Deutsche Grammophon and Orfeo. He is the inventor of three microphone techniques: the AB-Polycardioid Centerfill (AB-PC), the ORTF-Triple (ORTF-T) and the Blumlein-Pfanzagl-Triple (BPT), and holds a patent in surround microphone technology.

Summary

This book presents an extensive and timely survey of more than 30 surround and 20 stereo-microphone techniques. Further, it offers, for the first time, an explanation of why the RCA "Living Stereo" series of legacy recordings from the 1950s and 60s is still appreciated by music lovers worldwide, despite their use of an apparently incorrect recording technique from the perspective of psychoacoustics. Discussing this aspect in detail, the book draws on the author’s study of concert hall acoustics and psychoacoustics.

The book also analyzes the "fingerprint" features of a selected number of surround and – more importantly – stereo microphone techniques in depth by measuring their signal cross-correlation over frequency and also using an artificial human head. In addition, the book presents a rating of microphone techniques based on the assessment of various acoustic attributes, and merges the results of several subjective listening tests, including those conducted by otherresearchers. Building on this knowledge, it provides fresh insights into important microphone system features, from stereo to 3D audio. Moreover, it describes new microphone techniques, such as AB-PC, ORTF-T and BPT, and the recently defined BQIrep (Binaural Quality Index of reproduced music).

Lastly, the book concludes with a short history of microphone techniques and case studies of live and studio recordings.

Report

This recent book on spatial microphone techniques is clearly a work of love, and dedication to a topic close to the author s heart. It is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the field that I have ever seen, and few stones are left unturned. It will appeal to those sound engineers with an intellectual interest in stereophony those perhaps who are determined to get to the bottom of why the best-sounding techniques work as well as they do. (Francis Rumsey, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 69 (4), April, 2021) 
For anyone interested in the science and engineering of stereo and surround recording techniques Pfanzagl-Cardone s book makes fascinating reading and provides a fresh insight into their relative strengths and weakness. I found the book very educational and informative, but also enjoyable and fascinating to read, and it has greatly extended my understanding and appreciation of stereo and surround microphone techniques. (Hugh Robjohns, SOS Sound On Sound, soundonsound.com, June, 2021)

Product details

• Authors: Edwin Pfanzagl-Cardone
• Publisher: Springer, Wien
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2021
• EAN: 9783709148891
• ISBN: 978-3-7091-4889-1
• No. of pages: 412
• Dimensions: 163 mm x 31 mm x 240 mm
• Weight: 786 g
• Illustrations: XXIV, 412 p. 346 illus., 135 illus. in color.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Mechanical engineering, production engineering; B, Music, engineering, Signal, Image and Speech Processing, Signal Processing, Speech processing systems, Imaging systems & technology, Image processing, Engineering Acoustics, Acoustical engineering, psychoacoustics, Theory of Music