The Logic of Filtering

Book excerpt: From the very beginnings of sound recording, engineers have strived to reproduce the original sound as purely as possible and overcome the noise that technology leaves in recordings. However, this desire denies the fact that technologically mediated sound is always shaped and filtered by themany channels it travels through as it is recorded and reproduced. The noise that each medium inscribes on recorded sound is not just inescapable - it is fundamental to the sonic contours that characterize recorded music. But how exactly do media technologies shape sound and music? And how have theychanged what we listen for in music over time?In The Logic of Filtering, author Melle Jan Kromhout develops an extensive media archaeological analysis of the 'noise of sound media' that covers all the disturbances, distortions, and interferences that media add to the sounds they reproduce. Combining theoretical, historical, and technicalperspectives on sound media, Kromhout sketches a broad history of the problem of noise in sound recording as he traces the ideal of sonic purity back to nineteenth-century acoustics, examines analog and digital technologies, and analyzes the relationship between noise and temporality. In thoroughlyrevising our understanding of how sound media impact the sonorous qualities of music, this book offers a fresh perspective on the interactions between music, media, and listeners.