Quest for Audio Excellence is driven by an ongoing battle with the forces of aural desensitization
and plummeting audio standards and practices at all levels in
the global professional and public audio arenas. This area includes
reports in the form of reviews of audio engineers and technicians
working the professional performance scene as well as articles
on sound and related issues. The focus is on what is specifically
required to improve the personal and public musical auditory environment.
The information in this section of the site is accessible through
either of two lists, a Titles List and a Dated Annotated List (latest posts first).
Titles List
An Audio Horror Story: Testing and Tuning a Soundspace
Audio Fidelity, Hearing, and our Educational System
Audio Prayer
Audio Report 1: Marcus Roberts
Audio Report 2: The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
Audio Report 3: Intel Internet Media Symposium
Audio Report 4: Ali Akbar Khan
Audio Report 5: Chanticleer
Audio Report 6: Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Audio Report 7: Kronos Quartet
Audio Report 8: Zakir Hussain
Audio Report 9: Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
Audio Report 10: Les Brown & His Band of Renown
Conversations With Audio Engineers
Countering Audio Feedback Squeals
The Crevices of Audio Compression
The Effects of Sound/Music on the Human Digestive System
Loud Music & Hearing Loss
"Manipulative and Sometimes Apocalyptic Sound Engineering"
Noise and Sound Pollution: Issues and Principles
Perceptual Expectations, Immersive Sound Environments, and Recording
Searching for a Balance of Sound and Silence
Why Are Audio Engineers The Enemies Of Our Ears?
Dated Annotated List
- July 19, 2003. An essay entitled The Crevices of Audio Compression that examines the reality of musical values relative to audio
compression algorithms.
- July 17, 2003 An article by Lewis Segal, LA Times Staff Writer
called "Manipulative and Sometimes Apocalyptic Sound Engineering"
- July 27, 1999. Continuation of a conversation with audio engineer
Scott Fahy on a variety of subjects including hearing disabilities and compensatory techniques.
- July 13, 1999. An email response and exchange with audio engineer
Scott Fahy on a variety of subjects including hearing disabilities and compensatory techniques.
- July 10, 1999. Quest for Audio Excellence Audio Report 10. Good
sound from Les Brown & His Band of Renown.
- July 8, 1999. A short message from an audio engineer agreeing with the premise of my piece An Audio Horror Story: Testing and Tuning a Soundspace.
- May 24, 1999. A message about countering audio feedback squeals to David Scheirman, a leading light in the audio world.
- April 1, 1999. Quest for Audio Excellence Audio Report 9. An article on the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra´s unnecessary
and excessive use of electronic sound reinforcement with the music
of Duke Ellington.
- September 22, 1998. Quest for Audio Excellence Audio Report 8. A review of a fine job done by San Francisco´s Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts house staff of Cedric Lathan, Audio Engineer/Technician,
and James Jones, his assistant, on a performance by Zakir Hussain,
tabla and percussion maestro.
- September 11, 1998. Conversation with sound engineer Scott Dunn.
- September 3, 1998. Conversation with audio engineer Eric Madson.
- September 2, 1998. Conversations with audio engineer Dave Stevens.
- September 1, 1998. Conversation with a 19 year old "Mixwiz"
- August 30, 1998. David Scheirman´s (a longtime professional audio engineer) response to Why Are Audio Engineers the Enemies of Our Ears. An excellent summary of Pellegrino´s essay and the responses
to it.
- August 30, 1998. Conversations with Chip Self, audio engineer
and President of Logic Systems Sound and Lighting, inc. Because
of HTML limitations on file size, this exchange comes in two parts:
A and B.
- August 30, 1998. A new subsection of the Quest for Audio Excellence
called Conversations With Audio Engineers. It contains dialogues in the form of email exchanges between
Pellegrino and audio engineers who've responded to audio issues
posted on Pellegrino´s site. For anyone interested in the fundamentals
of quality issues in the audio scene of the late 1990s, the dialogues
should provide a rare source of firsthand information in a field
that suffers from an exceedingly short supply of oversight, criticism,
and reflection. The exchanges also provide an unusual window onto
the demands of working audio engineers.
- July 22, 1998. A set of email pieces on Noise and Sound Pollution: Issues and Principles.
- April 7, 1998. An email response and exchange with an audio engineer
on the subject of tuning a soundspace.
- April 4, 1998. A collection of email messages from audio engineers
responding to two of the essays in Quest for Audio Excellence.
Responding to Why Are Audio Engineers the Enemies of Our Ears?
Responding to An Audio Horror Story: Testing and Tuning a Soundspace an audio engineer comments on engineers working the university scene and the "standard" procedure
for tuning a soundspace.
- March 18, 1998. An email that's representative of responses to
my essay on "Why Are Audio Engineers the Enemies of Our Ears?"from
audio folks who refuse to face the issues that undermine the field
and prefer to vent out of hubristic rage.
- March 8, 1998. Quest for Audio Excellence Audio Report 7. A review of a great job done by Jay Cloidt and the Kronos Quartet
audio team on their concert at Theater Artaud in San Francisco.
- March 5, 1998. An email message on Searching for a Balance of Sound and Silence originally posted to the quiet-list forum.
- March 3, 1998. An email response from an audio engineer concerned
about excessive sound levels in clubs and the necessity for patrons
to use prophylactics in their ears.
- February 26, 1998. An email response from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation audio
engineer to an earlier essay, Why Are Audio Engineers the Enemies of Our Ears?
- February 20, 1998. Quest for Audio Excellence Audio Report 6. A review of the fine job done by David Robinson, audio engineer
on tour with The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performing in UC
Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.
- February 19, 1998. An essay based on a gut-wrenching experience
I had as a visiting multimedia artist recently with a soundspace
that had been tuned mechanically by an audio technician applying
a formula he maintained was an industry standard - An Audio Horror Story: Testing and Tuning a Soundspace.
- February 2, 1998. Information on Audio Fidelity, Hearing, and our Educational System taken from some World Forum for Acoustic Ecology exchanges.
- December 3, 1997. An essay on Perceptual Expectations, Immersive Sound Environments, and Recording.
- November 19, 1997. Responding voices to an earlier essay, Why Are Audio Engineers the Enemies of Our Ears?
- June 22, 1997. More email messages on Loud Music & Hearing Loss posted on the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology in response to
a continuing discussion of the subject.
- May 18, 1997. An email message (plus additional material) on Loud Music & Hearing Loss posted on the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology in response to
a continuing discussion of the subject.
- May, 1997. The first public tilt in my Quest for Audio Excellence
- a letter written in 1993 to UC-Berkeley's Cal Performances in an effort to raise their audio consciousness. Cal Performance's response my Audio Prayer.
- January 1997. A Quest essay on The Effects of Sound/Music on the Human Digestive System.
- October 1996. Quest Report 5 on Chanticleer, a 12-man vocal ensemble
- September 1996. Quest Report 4 on the North Indian Music Concert by Ali Akbar Khan
- July 1996. Quest Report 3 on the Intel Internet Media Symposium
- July 1996. Quest Report 2 on The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra at the Marin County Fair--includes a lead on a good audio engineer.
- July 1996. A Quest Essay on Why Are Audio Engineers The Enemies Of Our Ears?
- April 1996. Quest Report 1 on a Jazz Piano Concert by Marcus Roberts at UC Berkeley--includes key psychoacoustic and practical principles.
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