This submission explores the development of collaborative computer music creation and the role of the Musical Assistant, or Computer Music Designer, or Live Electronics Designer, or RIM (Réalisateur en informatique musicale) and does so primarily through the consideration of a series of collaborations with composers over the last 18 years. The submission documents and evaluates a number of projects which exemplify my practice within collaborative computer music creation, whether in the form of live electronics, tape-based or fixed media work, as a live electronics performer, or working with composers and others to create original tools and music for artistic creations. A selection of works is presented to exemplify archetypes found within the relational structures of collaborative work. The relatively recent development of this activity as an independent metier is located within its historical context, a context in which my work has played a significant role. The submission evidences the innovative aspects of that work and, more generally, of the role of the Computer Music Designer through consideration of a number of Max patches and program examples especially created for the works under discussion. Finally, the validation of the role of the Computer Music Designer as a new entity within the world of music creation is explored in a range of contexts, demonstrating the ways in which Computer Music Designers not only collaborate in the creation of new work but also generate new resources for computer-based music and new creative paradigms.

While many Higher Education subject areas have embraced technology-supportedlearning (TSL), its uptake has been noticeably slower in the practicum of the art and design subject area. As such our understanding of the use of TSL in this practicum is under-developed. This multi- and inter-disciplinary practice-based research project is a case study, within this under-developed area, based around the question: “Can TSL aid the acquisition and development of practical skills associated with sound recording a location-based interview, introduced (as part of studio-based practice) during a three-hour class to level 1 undergraduate art and design students?” In addressing this research question I argue that the design and evaluation of TSL requires a holistic approach, grounded in an understanding of the audience, subject matter and learning context / environment, requiring a comprehensive consideration of user experience design (UXD), where theory informs rather than leads pedagogy/practice. Taking a grounded approach, an analysis of existing needs was first undertaken within the learning environment; practitioners, and other UK providers of SRIT skills were consulted; a number of pre-existing technology-based practical skillsfocused artefacts were reviewed and theories, models and principles were drawn upon across a number of associated cognate fields. Adopting a post-theoretical perspective and action research principles, an artefact called “RecordingCoach” was designed, realised, utilised and evaluated. RecordingCoach enables its users to observe sound recording equipment being setup; set up a virtual sound kit themselves as well as undertake both assisted and independent interviews with two virtual interviewees. RecordingCoach records the independent virtual interviews in real time and saves them to the host computer hard drive, capturing microphone handling, responses to situational/ environmental sound and verbal audio exchanges. The evaluation of RecordingCoach took place over a one-year period with the participation of 108 students. Attitudes towards the artefact, patterns of learning activity, behaviour and assignment performance were scrutinised and nonassessed performance indicators were referred to. The resulting findings are very positive suggesting that TSL can be effective within the practicum of the art and design subject area.

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that well-established home recording studio owners in a city in the southeastern United States have used to compete in the recording industry. Four home recording studio owners served as participants. Each participant owned and operated a home studio business in the target area for longer than 10 years. Porter's 5 competitive forces model and Christensen's disruptive innovation theory were the conceptual lenses for this study. Interviews, direct observations, and website documents were the 3 data collection sources used to achieve methodological triangulation. The data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step thematic approach to qualitative data analysis: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding. Four themes emerged from the analysis of the data: doing business and making money with friends, keeping the family safe and the studio secure, decoupling the clock from the creative process, and linking strategy to personal goals. The findings of this study may contribute to positive social change by economically empowering aspiring entrepreneurs to become small business owners and create new jobs that help strengthen their local economies.

<p>This dissertation explores creative music, sound design and image production in the context of consumer culture (as defined by how its participants socialize in late-capitalist culture using commodities). Through the stylization of image, music and sound effects, advertisers communicate an abstract concept of a brand, and instantiate the brand through an audience member's heightened experience of the brand via the ad. Facilitated by socialized and mediatized frameworks for brand communications, branding is an embodied practice that relies on the audience member's participation with the brand through her/his real experience with an (audiovisual) advertisement. The effect of making the abstract brand tangible relies on successfully executing advertising objectives to create "impact" through stylized and often hyperreal representations of reality. At the same time, audience members' encounters with ads and branding practices represent bona fide experiences for them within American-capitalist cultural practices, and audience members take part in these practices as part of social participation and general making-sense of their everyday lives.</p><p>In late-capitalist consumer culture, the idea of the "consumer" operates within the liminal space of constructions of hyper-reality and the self. Through advertising, corporate interests mediate how people relate to and through commodities as consumers. Through ads, producers communicate an idea of a brand, that is, the collection and stylistic design of specific visual and sonic symbols, and the associated ideas, values or emotions that project an identity or persona about a company and its products or services. In attempts to increase the efficacy of their ads, ad producers fashion image, music and sound design specifically in ways they believe will generate "impact," that is, a physical, physiological or emotional response to audiovisual stimuli that are infused with symbolic meanings and values. </p><p>In their attempts to create effective ads, ad producers circumscribe identities of people based on demographics, behavior metrics, or a host of other measures intended to define what the industry calls "target audiences." With the belief that target audience members share wants, needs and values, ad producers build constellations of audiovisual signifiers that they believe will resonate with target audience members. These signifiers borrow from cultural narratives and myths to tell stories about brands and products, and communicate how people's lived experiences might be transformed through consumption practices. </p><p>With meticulous formulation of image, music and sound design, ad producers create a "hyperreality," that is exaggerated, heightened or stylized representation of reality. Through these carefully produced audio and visual artifacts, ad producers (re)circulate cultural narratives they believe communicate meaning and ideas of value, and make those abstract beliefs tangible through the audience member's sensorial experiences. With hyperreality grounded in an audience members' body and emotions, ad producers believe they can shape and direct audience members' ideas about their personal identities, and that of others and social groups. Additionally, ad image, music and sound design contribute to the naturalization of the ways people can socialize around branded identities and interconnect through commodities.</p> / Dissertation

The loudspeaker system and the room interface are the two main components in any listening environment. Research will be conducted focusing on the room component using Control Room 'A' of the McGill University Recording Studio in an attempt to optimize the monitoring situation. The sound field of the room will be broken down and analyzed in both time and frequency domains. The problem areas of the room will be identified and the surfaces altered by means of absorption, reflection and diffusion.

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This diploma theses deals with the issues of music in movies. However, it is mainly focused on the life of Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer, one of the temporary Czech film music composer. I approached his life through a biography and an interview. Then I developed the matters of film music upon his work. First, I discussed the historic point of view and than the practical one - three interviewees helped me with that. Futher, I described the process of recording in Smecky Music Studio and I also analysed two parts of soundtrack from the movie Against the Wild which was composed by Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer. Last but not least, the results of a questionare are introduced to show how people perceive film music and its composers.

Mit der Arbeit wird angestrebt, die komplexen Prozesse der Herstellung von an Tonträger gebundenen Klangkonfigurationen innerhalb des Tonstudios, die im Zuge feldspezifischer Prozesse als Popmusik funktionieren können, unter bestimmten Rahmenbedingungen durch Beobachtungen, Beschreibungen und Analysen bzw. Interpretationen zu erfassen. Die Funktion bzw. Funktionsweise dieser Institution des Feldes der populären Musikproduktion soll unter Verweis auf wahrgenommene Mechanismen und Strukturen jenes Feldes nachvollziehbar gemacht werden. Zur Auswertung der in Feldstudien erhobenen Daten werden Theorien von Pierre Bourdieu und Michel Foucault genutzt, da die Komplexität der untersuchten Prozesse mit Hilfe nur eines Ansatzes nicht hinreichend hätte interpretiert werden können. Im Gegensatz zur Intention Bourdieus wird jedoch auf einen allgemeinen, übergreifenden Gültigkeitsanspruch der Erkenntnisse auf gesellschaftliche Prozesse oder vermeintlich verwandte Felder verzichtet; die Arbeit orientiert sich vielmehr an der Herangehensweise einer auf den Untersuchungsgegenstand bezogenen Theorie der Grounded Theory. Die verwendeten Daten sind der Arbeit in transkribierter Form als Anhang beigefügt. / This dissertation attempts to adequately represent and explain the complex field-specific processes which take place in the recording studios of popular music production during the creation of configurations of sound. Using participant observation in Berlin-based recording studios for data collection, this data was analyzed by utilizing and modifying the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. In contrast to Bourdieu’s claims that fields have an identical structure, the field of popular music production is quite unique in its workings and cannot be explained in such a manner. Based on these findings, a partially different model and terminology is being developed. Most of the used data is available as (German) transcription in the appendix.

The master‘s thesis deals with creating of a business plan for building up a department which will provide services of a recording studio and services of sound system installation and lighting of small musical events of different types. The department will come into existence by spreading of the core business of building and accounting company Aksamit s. r.o., which has been working in the region of south Moravia since 1991. In the thesis, market research, analysis of internal and external sourroundings, 7S analysis, SWOT analysis, financial analysis and risk analysis are made and on this basis feasibility of the project is evaluated.