Horning presents a history of sound recording, tracing the evolution from technology as a tool to capture live performance to the creation of performances for studio recording. After an
introduction broadly covering the changing concerns of the practice, the book begins with the acoustic era up to the 1930s when the focus was on pushing the limits of performance and technology
to get fidelity on the recording. The electric revolution is then discussed, with the massive expansion of techniques that electrical recording brought, and the development of a whole new
vocation around studio recording. The author goes over mid-century technical improvements in both high-fidelity technology and sound engineering as a profession, before dedicating two chapters
to the postwar explosion of a new recorded musical culture with creative processes happening in-studio, especially with the advent of multi-track recording. The conclusion summarizes how, since
the beginning of recording, artists and engineers have been forever “chasing sound” in all of its beautiful and novel forms. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
