In this post I want to talk about a huge growth area in the field of audio: podcasts. This is a huge topic so I will start with what will ultimately become a series of articles. Podcasts can, in a sense, be considered a new kind of radio. Before the introduction of television people would…
HEADPHONE MADNESS
This blog is a personal history, for me, of headphones. But it is more than my personal story, it is a story of the role of headphones in society. CHILDHOOD As a child I was given a pair of headphones. I think they came as part of a do-it-yourself crystal radio kit (though the kit…
BLIND AUDIO
This post is a request for input from the professional audio community. You can respond via the comment box related to this post or email me off list: info@theaudiopenguin.flywheelsites.com. If you have a long response that might be interesting to others, and does not contain proprietary information, I may even invite you to contribute your…
THE ENCOUNTER
This post is a kind of review of one of the most striking performances on Broadway in terms of sound design and the function of sound in a theatre performance. The play is The Encounter, currently ending a 16-week run at The Golden Theatre in NYC. The Broadway show is not the first run for…
LISTEN TO THE DATA
This post is about auditory display and related topics. This subject is not taught in most recording programs so it may be new to readers of this blog. But it is a field with new opportunities. By its broadest definition “auditory display” can refer to any information that is communicated in sound. Thus, at this…
THE UNUSUAL HISTORY OF THE AUDIOBOOK
Book review: The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Matthew Rubery Harvard University Press (November 14, 2016), 384 pages I thought I knew all about “talking books.” When I was a child my mother was hired by a blind attorney in our neighborhood to come over and read to him. Later I was aware…
The “PRE”
When someone sets out to do a recording, whether it is popular music, classical music, audiobook narration, audio drama, sound effects, etc. they usually say “What microphone should I use?” or perhaps “what kind of recorder should I use?.” Sometimes “What mixer?” I created a post about mics for spoken voice, but…