The Institute of Audio Research (IAR) was an educational institution in New York City. Students of IAR were offered a wide variety of academic programs in the field of music production and audio engineering. Students could choose from courses in audio electronics, digital music production, mixing music, and audio processing and storage, among others. [1] It was founded in 1969 and closed in 2017, before partially resurfacing as part of Five Towns College in 2022.
The Institute of Audio Research was founded in 1969. IAR started as a seminar program for working engineers. By the early 1970s, there was an enormous demand for training from people with no prior background or experience who wanted to find a way into the music recording industry. In response, IAR developed a comprehensive program that allowed the novice, in only about a year, to become qualified for work in a professional recording facility. [2]
It ceased operations on December 31, 2017 after 48 years of providing audio education.
IAR resurfaced as part of Five Towns College in Long Island. Five Towns College now offers a Master's in Professional Studies (M.P.S.) degree, and other audio programs starting in Summer 2022. [3]
IAR's Audio Recording and Production Program (ARP) was a 900-hour program focused on modern recording technology. [4] Upon successful completion of the program, graduates received a Diploma in Audio Recording and Production. The Audio Recording & Production curriculum was designed so that it could be completed by a full-time student in nine months and by a part-time student in one year.
The audio school's facilities included a recording studio complex with a 96-input automated digital console, Yamaha grand piano, Hammond C3 organ with Leslie speakers, amps and a full drum set, lab rooms for hands-on signal processing operations, computer applications in audio, post-production suites, and classrooms for lectures and demonstrations. [2] IAR’s facility offered a full range of professional audio equipment, including analog and digital consoles and recorders, vintage and DSP signal processors, digital audio workstations using industry-standard software for MIDI sequencing and digital audio production, digital multitrack automated mixers, and an extensive collection of vintage and current microphones. The all-digital studio featured dual Sony DMX-R100 consoles. IAR’s computer networks featured G3 and G4 Macs, using Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Reason virtual synthesizer software and more. Multiple digital multitrack workstations afford the optimum in hands-on opportunities for students.
IAR’s faculty was drawn from the extensive recording talent available in the New York City area. Collectively, they garnered Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Oscar nominations and awards, plus numerous Platinum records and Gold records. [4] The audio engineering and music production curriculum was crafted by faculty members who are deeply involved in music and audio. [5]
A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensuring artists deliver acceptable and quality performances, supervising the technical engineering of the recording, and coordinating the production team and process. The producer's involvement in a musical project can vary in depth and scope. Sometimes in popular genres the producer may create the recording's entire sound and structure. However, in classical music recording, for example, the producer serves as more of a liaison between the conductor and the engineering team. The role is often likened to that of a film director though there are important differences. It is distinct from the role of an executive producer, who is mostly involved in the recording project on an administrative level, and from the audio engineer who operates the recording technology.
Digital music technology encompasses the use of digital instruments, computers, electronic effects units, software, or digital audio equipment by a performer, composer, sound engineer, DJ, or record producer to produce, perform or record music. The term refers to electronic devices, instruments, computer hardware, and software used in performance, playback, recording, composition, mixing, analysis, and editing of music.
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic, or otherwise creative treatment is done in order to produce a finished version that is appealing to listeners.
A hard disk recorder (HDR) is a system that uses a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio or digital video. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to reel-to-reel audio tape recording and video tape recorders, and provide non-linear editing capabilities unavailable using tape recorders. Audio HDR systems, which can be standalone or computer-based, are typically combined with provisions for digital mixing and processing of the audio signal to produce a digital audio workstation (DAW).
A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single singer-guitarist, to a large building with space for a full orchestra of 100 or more musicians. Ideally, both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician or audio engineer to achieve optimum acoustic properties.
Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive whole. Multitracking became possible in the mid-1950s when the idea of simultaneously recording different audio channels to separate discrete tracks on the same reel-to-reel tape was developed. A track was simply a different channel recorded to its own discrete area on the tape whereby their relative sequence of recorded events would be preserved, and playback would be simultaneous or synchronized.
A digital audio workstation is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.
Acid Pro is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid Pro, and since spring 2018 by Magix as both Acid Pro and a simplified version, Acid Music Studio. Acid Pro 11 supports 64-bit architectures, and has MIDI, ASIO, VST, VST3, DirectX Audio, and 5.1 surround sound support.
TASCAM is the professional audio division of TEAC Corporation, headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, California. TASCAM established the Home Recording phenomenon by creating the "Project Studio" and is credited as the inventor of the Portastudio, the first cassette-based multi-track home studio recorders. TASCAM also introduced the first low-cost mass-produced multitrack recorders with Simul-Sync designed for recording musicians, and manufactured reel-to-reel tape machines and audio mixers for home recordists from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. Since the early 00's, TASCAM has been an early innovator in the field-recording and audio accompaniment to video with their DR-series recording platforms. TASCAM celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021.
The Music Industry Arts Program at Fanshawe College trains students for careers in the contemporary music industry. It was started in 1970 as Creative Electronics by former Radio Caroline DJ Tom Lodge, but when the college demanded that Creative Electronics become a career program, Lodge had the students build a recording studio, gathered music industry executives for an advisory group and changed the name of the program to Music Industry Arts. The program has been the starting point for hundreds of acclaimed recording engineers, record producers, live performers, sound editors and entertainment industry executives. The program is highly competitive, receiving over 800 applications every year with only about 115 students being accepted. Students in the MIA program are also eligible for membership in a Student Section of the Audio Engineering Society.
Professional audio, abbreviated as pro audio, refers to both an activity and a category of high-quality, studio-grade audio equipment. Typically it encompasses sound recording, sound reinforcement system setup and audio mixing, and studio music production by trained sound engineers, audio engineers, record producers, and audio technicians who work in live event support and recording using mixing consoles, recording equipment and sound reinforcement systems. Professional audio is differentiated from consumer- or home-oriented audio, which are typically geared toward listening in a non-commercial environment.
Harrison Audio Consoles is an international company based in Nashville, Tennessee that manufactures high-end mixing consoles, Digital Audio Workstations (DAW), audio plugins, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound reinforcement and music recording industries. The company is renowned as an industry innovation for its "in-line" mixing console design that has subsequently become the standard for nearly every large-format music console. Over 1,500 Harrison consoles have been installed worldwide, presenting a significant percentage of the overall world market share for high-end audio consoles. The company founder, Dave Harrison, was inducted as a Fellow in the Audio Engineering Society for this technical contribution of the recording industry and in particular the first 32-bus "in-line" console.
n-Track Studio by n-Track Software is a multitrack audio editing, digital audio workstation (DAW) program for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Android and iOS.
Mixcraft is a digital audio workstation for Windows, developed by Acoustica since its first release in April 2004. It is as a digital audio workstation, MIDI sequencer, virtual instrument host, non-linear video arranger, and music loop recording program.
An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer…"
In music recording, mix automation allows the mixing console to remember the audio engineer's adjustment of faders during the post-production editing process. A timecode is necessary for the synchronization of automation. Modern mixing consoles and digital audio workstations use comprehensive mix automation.
In sound recording and reproduction, audio mixing is the process of optimizing and combining multitrack recordings into a final mono, stereo or surround sound product. In the process of combining the separate tracks, their relative levels are adjusted and balanced and various processes such as equalization and compression are commonly applied to individual tracks, groups of tracks, and the overall mix. In stereo and surround sound mixing, the placement of the tracks within the stereo field are adjusted and balanced. Audio mixing techniques and approaches vary widely and have a significant influence on the final product.
DJ Yonny is an American DJ, producer and remixer. Known for his time on New York City's radio station WBMP and on Philadelphia's radio station WRDW-FM. He is also a member of The Heavy Hitters DJs.
EarSketch is a free educational programming environment. Its core purpose is to teach coding in two widely used languages, Python and JavaScript, through music composing and remixing. This learning environment was developed first at Georgia Institute of Technology, under Prof. Jason Freeman and Prof. Brian Magerko.
