https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8926-8518
![Sample our Arts journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110799/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Arts.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to delimit communicational questions for the study of the phenomenon of audiophilia. The research on audiophilia raises topics such as the influence and experience of audio technologies, the circulation of different types of sound media, the feedback between production and consumption, the practices that connect human and nonhuman in the reconfiguration of artistic production, etc. We aim to present three axes of analysis of audiofilia as a problem of communication. Firstly, audiophilia as a concept, its historical, functional and ideological determinations. Secondly, the musical production practices that problematise the links between art and technique in the scope of studios and phonographic recordings. Finally, the impact audiophilia has on listening techniques and on the very forms of translation and configuration of audiophile listening as communicational processes.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. A great deal of equipment used for producing LPs was discarded with the transition from analog to digital technologies. With the reappearance and economic growth of vinyl records, specially linked to an audiophile ideal which defended a better sound quality, among other virtues of the media, some factories in Brazil had to rescue not only the old, abandoned press machines but also the technicians, already retired, who were responsible for its operation. For more details, see (Castanheira et al. Citation2019).
4. Convolution is a crossed audio synthesis, frequently applied in the production of reverbs, capable of simulating many devices from a single algorithm. More on convolution is at: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/the-basics-of-convolution-in-audio-production.html.. Accessed on: 03/21/2021.
5. Sampling is an audio process in which a continuous signal is converted into a discrete signal. So, a sound is decomposed and recomposed in a digital environment, enabling time, dynamics and pitch alteration, etc (See Conter and Lucas Citation2020).
6. Artificial intelligence, in audio, is used in the development of mixing, mastering and composition software (see https://www.prosoundnetwork.com/international/ai-audio-workflows. Accessed on: 03/21/2021).
7. Lisciel Franco is a Brazilian musical producer who makes exclusively analog recordings with equipment which he himself makes and commercialises. His YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-1e939Y2MgmPcaMAF1MJLQ, accessed on: 03/30/2021) shows his studio work, in masculine performances filled with bad language and confusing rhetorical strategies which draw on authority arguments, sometimes hampering the understanding of the phonographic production processes he seeks to explicit. Lisciel usually praises a recording aesthetic based on the experiences of international major successes of the 1950s to the late 1990s and usually bashes Brazilian recordings with claims that may sound colonial. He is currently engaged on the development of a music distribution platform that would include only independent artists, recording engineers, music producers and their studios. The project is named UYD.
8. Arthur Joly is a Brazilian musical producer known for the analog synthesisers that he maintains, manufactures and commercialises (https://www.recosynth.com/.).
9. Bunker Analog is a recording studio in Minas Gerais, Brazil, which makes exclusively analog recordings. It has already been completely transferred to some cities, including Belo Horizonte, Nova Lima and São João del Rey.
10. Green Box Audio (https://www.greenboxproaudio.com.br/) is an electronics enterprise from Santa Catarina, Brazil, which fabricates analog audio equipment.
11. Máquina de fazer vinil – Manos e Minas (2015) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-FKCfFtzqk. (accessed 11 March 2022)
12. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=−4zMNJOHoNI. (accessed 11 March 2022)
13. Minhas Novas Recomendações (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7fN3sq7h2BDFtBrzXWo4Zg. (accessed 11 March 2022)
14. Comparativo de Gamers… (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nORaI11lS4g&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022).
15. Sobre Neutralidade … (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ0S_qKv3GE&t=582s&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
16. O Maior Custo-Benefício… (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUFdUVzCLk&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
17. Fones Totalmente Sem Fio… (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PohmaXujQg&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
18. Um dos Fones Mais Importantes da História… (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CQ0jqn87HA&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
19. Me Conquistou … (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFyawzZ8DOw&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
20. O Top de Linha da Edifier… (n.d.) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKX4nVjmxZY&ab_channel=MINDTHEHEADPHONE. (accessed 11 March 2022)
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
José Cláudio S. Castanheira
José Cláudio S. Castanheira is a professor at the Communication Department in Fluminense Federal University (UFF) and at the Postgraduate Programs in Communication at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) and at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). Carried out a research stay in the Communication Department of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, in 2021-2022. Leader of the research group GEIST (Group of Study of Images, Sonorities and Technologies). Researcher in the areas of digital culture, music, sound studies and film studies. Coordinator of CIPS (International Conference on Sonorities Research - https://www.sonoridades.net/).
Pedro Silva Marra
Pedro Silva Marra is a professor at Communications and Media Department at Federal University of Espirito Santo, and at the Graduation Programmes in Communications and Media at Federal University of Ouro Preto and Federal University of Espirito Santo, both in Brazil. He is a PhD in Communications and Media at Fluminense Federal University, Brazil, and was a research trainee at McGill University at Art History and Media Department. He leads the Ateliê de Sonoridades Urbanas (Urban Sonorities Atelier - https://sonoridadesurbanas.com/), a research group that investigates sounds’ territorial features as means to either occupy, dispute, lot and conquer space or regulate movement and fluxes within the city. He is a member of GEIST (Study Group on Images, Sonorities and Technologies), an inter-institutional research group that organises CIPS (International Conference on Sonorities Research - https://www.sonoridades.net/).
Dulce Mazer is a journalist. She has developed a postdoctoral research project at the Graduate Program in Communication and Information at UFRGS. She is a PhD in Communication and Information from the same Program (CAPES Scholarship) and was a research trainee at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City (Department of Anthropology). She is a member of GEIST (Study Group on Images, Sonorities and Technologies), an inter-institutional research group that organises CIPS (International Conference on Sonorities Research - https://www.sonoridades.net/).
Cássio de Borba Lucas
Cássio de Borba Lucas teaches at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s (UFRJ) School of Communication (ECO) and develops a postdoctoral research project at the Rio the Janeiro State University (UERJ). His Ph.D. in communication was awarded by Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS). This research was aided by the funding given by FAPERJ (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), project number 400724/2023-5.