ResearchWorks: Listening With Your Eyes? The Impact of Visual Information on Audio Mixing

Since the late 1990s, there has been a shift from traditional studio environments to producers using computers for the majority, if not entirety, of the mixing process. With this comes a large amount of visual feedback such as analysers, spectrographs, novel user interface widgets and hardware emulations. As a result, a large amount of the mixing process is now mediated by visual correlates of audio information. While for many users this is a valuable resource, it is worth considering its impact. This talk considers the possible influence of visual feedback on mixing, discussing how it may alter a producers’ approach, process and outcomes.

Speaker

Joshua Mycroft is a musician, teacher and producer with a professional background in studio mixing and production. As well as teaching and production, Josh is actively involved in research, with his focus being the interplay of visual and auditory modalities and how they share attention during mixing. During his PhD he explored alternatives to current design paradigms and trialled novel approaches to visual feedback for computer-based mixing interfaces. He is currently completing a study at Guildhall looking at the influence of user interface complexity on mixing.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.