Recovering Analog-Tape Seismograms from the 1980 Mount St. Helens Pre-Eruption Period

Mount St. Helens in Washington State erupted violently (Volcano Explosivity Index = 5) on 18 May 1980. During the previous two months, intense seismic activity at the volcano was recorded by a combination of continuous analog-tape recordings, paper drum recordings, and a recently installed triggered digital event computer system. Because of the technological constraints of the time, the digital data available cover only a little more than 1% of the two-month period. The paper drum records only exist for a few of the seismic stations and are also quite incomplete. However, the analog-tape data from some stations is near complete for almost the whole two months. During the period 2005–2014, these old analog tapes were recovered from storage and digitized to generate standard digital data for archiving at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center. This recovery process was long and complicated but, for the most part, was fairly successful. Although the quality of these recovered data is nowhere near as good as modern digital seismograms, this dataset does provide a near-continuous record of the significant seismic sequence that led up to the major volcanic eruption. It includes the large variety of seismic signals from different types of volcanic earthquakes and harmonic tremor and should be a valuable resource for those studying volcanic seismicity.

Sonifigrapher. Sonified Light Curve Synthesizer

In an attempt to contribute to the constant feedback existing between science and music, this work describes the design strategies used in the development of the virtual synthesizer prototype called Sonifigrapher. Trying to achieve new ways of creating experimental music through the exploration of exoplanet data sonifications, this software provides an easy-to-use graph-to-sound quadraphonic converter, designed for the sonification of the light curves from NASA’s publicly-available exoplanet archive. Based on some features of the first analog tape recorder samplers, the prototype allows end-users to load a light curve from the archive and create controlled audio spectra making use of additive synthesis sonification. It is expected to be useful in creative, educational and informational contexts as part of an experimental and interdisciplinary development project for sonification tools, oriented to both non-specialized and specialized audiences.

Recording to Hard Drive

When digital audio workstations (DAWs) do not multiply recording options to unthinkable levels of over-choice, they have simplified and automated tasks that were exceedingly difficult and time consuming to execute on analog tape. But they have informed jazz production most profoundly in the smallest sorts of ways. Fixing the little stuff that once marred, otherwise stellar, performances is now very quick and easy. A number of jazz recordings discussed in this chapter were not recorded digitally, and when they were, many of their producers merely treated digital tape and hard drives as the new, perhaps "improved," analog tape. Much of the time, in the world of jazz production a potentially revolutionary technology is just added to—and conceptualized in terms of–what was already available.

Sound Body: The Ghost of a Program

The author considers the importance of the voice as a transformative instrument in 20th-century art, particularly in relation to the tape recorder and digital audio technology. He examines his collaborative work with sound poet Bob Cobbing in the 1970s and compares this with a recent gallery installation created with artist John Latham. Research from the 1970s into acoustic voice masking and resonance is contrasted with the use of analog tape process-ing and the sonic potential of computer audio software programs both in studio work and in improvised performance. Finally, the author discusses the implications of these con-frontations between body and machine.

Introducing students to musical technology: the case for reel-to-reel analog tape machines

Since their beginnings, popular music studies have relied primarily on disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and semiotics. However, the nineties saw the emergence of a generation of scholars whose knowledge of the recording studio led them to show a common interest in technological parameters, and to develop new tools for musicological analysis. This article describes the perspectives that their work offers within the realm of education.