From Inside The Recording Studio,
2025
California State University, Monterey Bay
From Inside The Recording Studio, Mckayla J. Adkison
Capstone Projects and Master's Theses
This project documents the historical, technical, and creative significance of recording studios through both industry examples and the design and construction of a personal backyard studio. By examining iconic studios such as Abbey Road and Capitol Records, the paper highlights how technological innovation, acoustic engineering, and architectural design have shaped the evolution of recorded music. These concepts are then applied to the planning and construction of a custom-built recording studio, emphasizing room dimensions, sound isolation techniques, acoustic treatment, lighting, and sustainable design choices. In addition, the project addresses the importance of aesthetics and emotional comfort in creating a space that …
Democratizing Music Production Through Technology,
2025
California State University, Monterey Bay
Democratizing Music Production Through Technology, Jacob W. Alfaro
Capstone Projects and Master's Theses
This paper explores the history of recording technology and the effects of innovations on recording contemporary music. It follows the changing roles and relationships between artist and producer, as well as a brief look into the recording of our album as a real-time example.
Recording Alternative Rock Guitar: Gear, Techniques, And Implementation,
2025
California State University, Monterey Bay
Recording Alternative Rock Guitar: Gear, Techniques, And Implementation, Alberto De Jesus Garcia Padilla
Capstone Projects and Master's Theses
This paper examines the tools, techniques, and creative decisions involved in recording alternative rock guitar, with particular attention to how genre defining sounds are achieved through gear choice, signal chains, microphone placement, and digital workflows. Drawing on historical context and influential alternative rock artists, the study outlines common guitars, amplifiers, pedals, and recording practices associated with the genre. These concepts are then applied to a practical case study: the recording of guitar parts for the band Phone Booth. By combining traditional amplifier recording with modern digital amp modeling, this project demonstrates how alternative rock guitar tones can be achieved without …
How Experiencing Eudaimonic Emotions Through Music Shapes Prosocial And Altruistic Behavior: Introducing A Unified Model Of Music-Listening-Induced Eudaimonia (Ummie),
2025
Chapman University
How Experiencing Eudaimonic Emotions Through Music Shapes Prosocial And Altruistic Behavior: Introducing A Unified Model Of Music-Listening-Induced Eudaimonia (Ummie), Rebecca Tukachinsky Forster, Daniel H. Spitz, Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, Roni Granot
Communication Faculty Articles and Research
This paper introduces the Unified Model of Music-Listening Induced Eudaimonia (UMMIE), which offers an integrated novel theoretical framework to explain how music listening promotes prosocial and altruistic outcomes. Drawing on communication and psychology research, UMMIE maintains that elicitation of eudaimonic emotions can be appraised inwards, towards oneself, and thus contribute to the individual's personal growth, wellbeing, and development, or outwards, by connecting to something bigger than oneself, to humanity in general, which could possibly then lead to enhanced prosocial and altruistic attitudes and behaviors. The model specifies musical, situational, and individual variables that serve as moderators and increase the likelihood …
Black On Black Sounds: Music, Migration, And The ‘Nu-K Blak’ Identity Formation In Early 21st Century Britain,
2025
Chapman University
Black On Black Sounds: Music, Migration, And The ‘Nu-K Blak’ Identity Formation In Early 21st Century Britain, Monique Charles
Sociology Faculty Articles and Research
Examining literature on the under researched areas of Afrobeats and African migration to Britain, this article identifies significant internal shifts in the ethnic diversity of Black Britain —i.e., from Caribbean (predominantly Jamaican) to West African (Nigerian, Ghanaian) (ONS 2011). Interpreting literature and applying to the British context, it highlights how Afrobeats reshapes Blackness in Britain, particularly the incorporation of desirable Africanness through Afrobeats music. It argues that demographic and musical shifts in Britain result in a renegotiation of the Caribbean and US dominant 20th century Black Britishness — ‘UK Blak’ identity (as identified by Bradley 2013, Gilroy 1993 & Palmer …
Passive Listening: Exploring Interpassivity In Ambient Music,
2025
SAE Auckland
Passive Listening: Exploring Interpassivity In Ambient Music, David Chechelashvili, Alan Brown
Staff Scholarship - New Zealand
The landscape of ambient music presents unique challenges for critique and classification due to its wide range of subgenres, functions and goals. Often defined by its atmospheric and immersive qualities, ambient music is traditionally seen as providing a backdrop for relaxation or as a means to block out the harsh reality of the outside world. This dominant theory, while valuable in certain contexts, tends to oversimplify the multifaceted nature of ambient music and ignores the potential for more nuanced listening experiences. The proposed alternative theory of interpassivity challenges existing understandings of ambient music production and consumption modes. Drawing on psychoanalytic …
Shame On You, Cultural Appropriation! Rethinking Dvořák’S ‘Gypsy Songs, Op. 55,
2025
University of Northern Iowa
Shame On You, Cultural Appropriation! Rethinking Dvořák’S ‘Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, Ana Molano
Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) at UNI
This paper investigates the portrayal of Romani, “gypsy,” people in Western music, with Antonín Dvořák’s song cycle “Gypsy Songs, Op. 55” as a central case study. It explores the view of cultural appropriation as cultural borrowing, examining how this concept intersects with musical exoticism and orientalism, and how these musical traits shaped Dvořák’s portrayal of Bohemian Romani culture. Drawing on historical and socio-musical methodologies, the study analyzes the Bohemian Romani and Hungarian influences in Dvořák’s cycle. It discusses the ecological impact of the Gypsy Songs within its cultural environment and implications for performance reception. By situating Dvořák’s work within broader …
The Art Of Selection - Telling Stories Through Sound,
2025
SAE University College Dubai
The Art Of Selection - Telling Stories Through Sound, Alexander Foley
Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai
The presentation set out to educate novice and intermediate DJs the importance of track selection in a DJ set. This is a skill that elevates a good DJ to a great DJ. It addresses issues that some DJs have when trying to read a crowd or curate a pre planned set. The presentation was given at SAE Dubai's annual DJ symposium to a live audience using slides and audio examples. The presentation was well received and many of the audience had questions and seemed to take away a better understanding of an often underrated element of being a successful DJ. …
Learning How To Practice Takes Practice,
2025
Montclair State University
Learning How To Practice Takes Practice, Micah Killion, Robert Duke
John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works
Effective music learning depends on effective music practice. Although time spent with teachers is an important component of young musicians’ development, time spent alone practicing is perhaps even more consequential. Researchers and teachers have offered many prescriptions about effective music practice, yet observations of young musicians’ actual practice reveal that their behavior in the practice room is often quite unlike what teachers envision. The most important aspects of effective practice are the thinking, perceiving, and decision-making that serve to organize how musicians spend their time. We discuss how to help students focus their attention in ways that lead to the …
Round The Tárrega Bend,
2025
University of Denver
Round The Tárrega Bend, Julian Bream
Soundboard Scholar
In this previously unpublished talk from 2004, delivered two years after his retirement from public performance, Julian Bream traces his own career in relation to the evolution of the modern guitar, recounting his early encounters with nineteenth-century guitars, the introduction of nylon strings to replace gut, innovations in guitar construction, and a transformative meeting with Andrés Segovia. But at the heart of the talk is his approach to sound. Bream discusses the essential elements of his tone production, including his right-hand position with its characteristic “three-quarter Tárrega bend” of the wrist, and his strong preference for the rest stroke. He …
Between Sound And Theology: Timbral Performativity In Brazilian Religious Musicking,
2025
Southern Methodist University
Between Sound And Theology: Timbral Performativity In Brazilian Religious Musicking, Marcell Silva Steuernagel
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This article explores the performativity of timbre, summarizing key perspectives from the English-language scholarship on the topic and setting them in conversation with Latin American perspectives on timbre. In addition, it examines a performance of “500 Graus” (500 degrees), a song performed by Brazilian Pentecostal artists Cassiane and Shirley Carvalhaes, to demonstrate how the performativity of timbre unfolds within a particular expression of Latin American religious musicking. In doing so, it investigates the phenomenon of timbre between music and sound studies, and theology and church music studies, providing insights relevant to the study of timbre and the study of religious …
Timbre — A Transcendent Paradox?,
2025
Independent Scholar
Timbre — A Transcendent Paradox?, Eugenia Siegel Conte
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
Timbre, as ethnomusicologist Cornelia Fales writes, is “paradoxical” precisely because it is one of the most exacting processes in which the human body may sense and comprehend the source of a sound even as that comprehended sound is impossible to describe outside of metaphor or comparison. As one of the more recognizable qualities of sound but the most difficult to describe, timbre allows us to consider physical/emotional (affective) experiences of sound as a key aspect of faith and meditation. In this article, I examine physical-affective intersections of faith and meditation that often are key to praxes of worship, and show …
Live Wires: The Angelus Temple And The Timbre Of Power,
2025
UCLA
Live Wires: The Angelus Temple And The Timbre Of Power, Catherine Provenzano
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This article is a media history and contemporary case study of The Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923. My analysis of the Angelus insists upon the centrality of a hyperaudible paradigm of worship that uses media to maximize the legibility of a Christian message, and, more than this, imagines that media itself as a living soul in need of redemption. Many contemporary megachurches employ savvy applications of sound and sound transmission as instruments of belonging as well as action, and these rely on high-budget investments in church infrastructure, software and personnel. I argue that …
From The Heaviest, Dirtiest Depths To The Washy Ambient Clouds: Guitar Timbre In/As Schismogenesis In North American Christianity,
2025
University of North Carolina - Pembroke
From The Heaviest, Dirtiest Depths To The Washy Ambient Clouds: Guitar Timbre In/As Schismogenesis In North American Christianity, Joshua K. Busman, Nathan Myrick
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This essay argues that within the socio-cultural context of North American Christianity, the timbral qualities of electric guitar, with its long lineage as a site of cultural values conflict and identity negotiation, serves a theological function in the emerging and cohering sonority of digital worship. Using as comparative case studies the timbral qualities of delay and ambience as promoted and sold by Worship Tutorials as representing normative sonic values for these Christians, on the one hand, and the dialectic and schismatic deployment of distortion by the band My Epic on the other, we suggest that these timbral qualities become important …
Sounds Like 'Saudade': Eschatological Echoes In Brazilian 'Gospel' Music,
2025
Southern Methodist University
Sounds Like 'Saudade': Eschatological Echoes In Brazilian 'Gospel' Music, Fernando Berwig Silva
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
This paper analyzes the song “Saudade” by the Brazilian gospel singer Stella Laura. In the song, I argue that Stella Laura uses Brazilian timbral markers from the Sertanejo and Gospel Brazilian music genres to articulate a unique perspective on eschatology, one that is based on the affective structure of the Lusophone word ‘saudade.’ Furthermore, I contend that the song, rooted in the Brazilian nostalgic sertanejo music tradition, leans on stylistic and timbral tools to communicate the idea of saudade from heaven. Beyond lyrics that feature theological notions of origin, identity, and nostalgia, Stella Laura’s song employs timbral, poetic, …
Dream A Little Dream Of Licensing: Jazz And The § 115 Compulsory Music Reproduction License,
2025
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Dream A Little Dream Of Licensing: Jazz And The § 115 Compulsory Music Reproduction License, Jackson S. Roberg
Northwestern University Law Review
The compulsory music reproduction license codified at 17 U.S.C. § 115 allows anyone to obtain the right to record another version of, or “cover,” a previously published musical work. Invoking the compulsory license, however, comes at a dramatic cost. Under § 115(a)(2), the licensee cannot copyright any original musical material they compose for the cover without express permission from the underlying copyright owner, even if that material would otherwise be copyrightable. This limitation gravely harms jazz music, as jazz relies on dynamic recompositions of preexisting music. Jazz musicians depend on compulsory licenses to record the reinterpretative covers essential to the …
Examining Stress And Anxiety Levels Among Undergraduate Music Majors At The University Of South Carolina,
2025
University of South Carolina - Columbia
Examining Stress And Anxiety Levels Among Undergraduate Music Majors At The University Of South Carolina, Elise F. Halbig
Senior Theses
The purpose of this study was to examine the stress and anxiety levels among undergraduate music majors at the University of South Carolina (USC) and identify potential stressors that might be unique or more prevalent among that specific population. To evaluate this, a questionnaire consisting of 42 questions was administered to participants. Most of the questions were carefully developed by the researcher; however, the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al, 1983) was used to examine participants' stress levels, and 13 selected questions from the Burns Anxiety Inventory (Burns, 1989) were used to examine their anxiety levels. A total of 45 …
From Altamont To Astroworld: An Analysis Of Management Issues In Large Scale Music Festivals,
2025
Pace University - New York
From Altamont To Astroworld: An Analysis Of Management Issues In Large Scale Music Festivals, Jennifer Morriss
Honors College Theses
The most common problems in music festivals can largely be broken into two categories: risks to the individual and risks on a grand scale. It is the responsibility of event managers to consider how to best keep everyone safe and maintain proper organization. Risks to the individual are often things like substance use and abuse, harm reduction, and sexual assault or harassment. Meanwhile, broad risks tend to be issues of evacuation and emergency management, crowd safety, stampedes, and casualties or violence. It is crucial to reflect on prior common safety and security issues when setting out to produce a large …
Capturing Magic: Recording Emily Lubitz’S Two Black Horses At Mix Artist Studio – A Reflective Case Study In Contemporary Recording Practice,
2025
SAE Institute Australasia
Capturing Magic: Recording Emily Lubitz’S Two Black Horses At Mix Artist Studio – A Reflective Case Study In Contemporary Recording Practice, Jan Muths
Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai
This paper reflects on the recording of Emily Lubitz’s album Two Black Horses at Mix Artist Studio in early 2024. It outlines how I applied my core engineering values, technical precision, sensitivity to the musicians’ needs, and anticipatory readiness, to capture the energy of a live band with high acoustic separation. Beyond the technical aspects, it demonstrates how ongoing studio practice directly informs and enhances my teaching, keeping lessons current and relevant. The aim is to connect industry experience with teaching practice, showing how staying active in the field strengthens classroom delivery.
Predicting Music Origin With Deep Learning,
2025
California State University - San Bernardino
Predicting Music Origin With Deep Learning, Fruzsina Ladanyi
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
This project explores the usage of a late fusion deep learning architecture to predict the geographic origin of music. Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) and the language of the music sample are used as features. MFCCs were extracted from audio files to capture sound features. The language was identified using OpenAI’s Whisper model to provide additional context. A late fusion neural network architecture combining Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layers for sequential MFCC input and dense layers for non-sequential language features were employed to support both classification and regression tasks. The classification model achieved an accuracy of 33.03% across 56 countries or …
