scholarly journals The Logic of Noise Reduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-74
Author(s):  
Melle Jan Kromhout
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Noise Reduction ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Output Signal ◽  
Transmission Channels ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
Sound Media ◽  
Technological Transmission

Chapter 2 explores the conceptual implications of the myth of perfect fidelity by further analyzing the two case studies introduced in chapter 1. While analog noise reduction and the addition of “dither”-noise in the digital domain at first seem diametrically opposed (reducing and adding noise, respectively), closer analysis shows that they both serve to conceal the physical influence of the medium on the reproduced sound. Following a conceptual logic of noise reduction, they strive to achieve the most accurate copy of the “original” sound. Information theory has shown, however, that this influence of media technological transmission channels on the output signal is inevitable, because the physical limitations of the medium cannot be fully overcome. The chapter therefore suggests replacing the myth of perfect fidelity with the competing concept of a noise resonance of sound media, to account for the fact that noise, distortion, and randomness unavoidably shape all reproduced sound.

scholarly journals The Myth of Perfect Fidelity

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-43
Author(s):  
Melle Jan Kromhout
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Noise Reduction ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Sound Media ◽  
The Many ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Chapter 1 gives a brief history of the noise of sound media from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, tracing the development of different concepts of noise in dialogue with and reaction to ever more complex and sophisticated technologies. It explores the many ways in which inventors, engineers, producers, and musicians have sought to prevent, reduce, and eliminate this noise. The chapter thereby draws the contours of a myth of perfect fidelity or the idea that reproduced sound can in principle be separated from the noise of the medium and complete similitude between original and copy can be achieved. This myth is illustrated by two examples of noise-related technologies: Dolby analog noise reduction, which actively reduces the noise of sound media, and the counterintuitive practice of “dithering” in digital recording, by means of which small amounts of random noise are introduced to reduce digitization errors.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 241-262
Author(s):  
M.I. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Music And Politics ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Politics Of Race ◽  
Political Economic

The Conclusion draws on the empirical findings of each chapter in order to theorize—reflect on—our way “out” of these case studies. It follows on from the conceptual and methodological themes laid out in Chapter 1, challenges presented to scholarship across the disciplinary spectrum that looks to locate and track where, and how, “politics” (of race, class, gender, and religion) are now being rendered as and through music. Chapter 7 recapitulates the main themes from each chapter as references to audio clips, suggested listening, in order to underscore the findings of this study: how music-and-politics and, or music-as-politics sound within, and between sociocultural and political economic settings. Getting closer to how these practices and sound archives work means taking into account creative practices and performance cultures not only of music making but also of music taking. This final chapter can also function as an introduction for the book as the flipside of Chapter 1.

Criminalizing Villainy

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Jonathan Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Concepts And Categories ◽  
Late Fifteenth

In juridical theory, a villainy implied a malicious offence in word or deed that took on a legal dimension if it was particularly grievous, and thus warranted judicial redress. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the juridical concepts and categories of crime that were associated with ‘villainous’ or ‘foul’ allegations known as vilains cas. From the late fifteenth century, the notion of vilain cas expanded to include the very worst crimes (those dubbed vilains et énormes). Chapter 1 ends with two case studies of vilains cas, showing how in practice, punishing a villainy and even identifying a villain in law was far from straightforward.

scholarly journals Sound migrations in Portuguese: cultural representations of the portuguese diaspora in the brazilian radio

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Teresa Alves
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Sound Media ◽  
The Way

Portuguese language is a multiple sounds language. Regarding the different possible accents, Portuguese-speaking way seems to be one of the language’s most relevant characteristics. Radio, as a sound media, is able to represent this diversity. There are several radio shows produced towards the Portuguese culture diaspora. In this paper, we will analyse radio shows produced in Brazil for the Portuguese diaspora: strategic differential, representation ability and the way they relate to diaspora and migrant communities. Looking at Portugal and Brazil as case-studies, we will reflect on post-colonial relationships between the two countries, based on radio as a medium able to undertake the decolonial turn.

Introduction

Leftovers ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ruth Cruickshank
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Market ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Critical Material ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Food And Drink ◽  
Post War ◽  
Market Economics

The introduction establishes the untapped interpretative potential bound up with food and drink and representations of it. An extraordinary nexus of post-war French thought that uses or is legible through figures of eating and drinking is identified, along with the new critical combinations which here provide a framework for re-thinking eating and drinking in four case-study novels. The conventional literary potential of food and drink is established, before introducing the contrasting novels which exceed those conventions. These are well-known, prize-winning works, all translated into English. They are self-consciously literary and differently theoretically-informed about intersecting questions of language, trauma, gender, class, race and global market economics. Chapter 1 is introduced as providing a flexible critical apparatus for the ensuing case studies and as a suggestive tool for re-thinking representations of eating and drinking in other genres or media. Optimizing accessibility, case studies can be read singly or severally (references to relevant sections of Chapter 1 are provided), and the novel, writer and any relevant critical material are introduced before re-thinking the representations of food and drink in each post-war French fiction. Thus, culturally-specific insights emerge together with a springboard for examining leftover interpretations in other forms of representational practice from other times and places.

Strikes, Ballots, Law, and Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Breen Creighton ◽  
Catrina Denvir ◽  
Richard Johnstone ◽  
Shae McCrystal ◽  
Alice Orchiston
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Historical Outline ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the nature and purposes of strike action. It suggests that strikes are a means of protecting and promoting the social and economic interests of workers—especially in the context of collective bargaining. It provides an historical outline of the relationship between strikes and the law by tracing the transition from repression of union organization, and more specifically the capacity to take strike action, through toleration to recognition, and recently back to reluctant toleration. The chapter also notes that the capacity to take strike action is almost always limited in one or more ways, including restrictions on the organizations and/or individuals that can lawfully take strike action, the forms of strike action that can legitimately be taken, the matters in relation to which strike action may be taken, and the procedural requirements for lawful strike action. A very common procedural constraint is a requirement that proposed strike action be authorized by a pre-strike ballot. Chapter 1 introduces the usual ostensible rationale for pre-strike ballots—the need to protect the democratic rights of individuals: the so-called ‘democratic imperative’. It also uses two case studies to introduce important theoretical and practical issues raised by the use of pre-strike ballots.

Mobile Inequality in the Age of Translocality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sabina Lawreniuk ◽  
Laurie Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of translocal inequality by highlighting the multi-faceted nature of inequality and its manifestation across multiple places, times and forms. Examples are offered to demonstrate how factors as diverse as a parent’s health, a child’s education and the specifics of agricultural livelihoods continue to influence individuals’ behaviour and wellbeing regardless of distance. However, as argued in this chapter, the impact of material differences across space is only part of the story. Rather, as Chapter 1 posits, such persistent, translocal inequalities in mobile contexts are sustained by narratives shaped by the interplay of economic, ecological, and embodied factors. In highly mobile and dynamic contexts, it is shown, these narratives of stigma and praise, inclusion and exclusion, are the constant that facilitates the persistence of inequality. Arguing that the large-scale nature of much scholarship on inequality serves to mask this subtle role, Chapter 1 then introduces the six linked case studies that comprise the book’s empirical sections, outlining how their combination reveals inequality to be a “total social fact” rooted in translocal networks of association, affection and obligation.

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