In this work the long-term spectral contours of a large dataset of popular commercial recordings were analyzed. The aim was to analyze overall trends, as well as yearly and genre-specific ones. A novel method for averaging spectral distributions is proposed that yields results that are prone to comparison. With it, we found out that there is a consistent leaning toward a target equalization curve that stems from practices in the music industry but also to some extent mimics natural, acoustic spectra of ensembles.

Authors: Pestana, Pedro Duarte; Ma, Zheng; Reiss, Joshua D.; Barbosa, Alvaro; Black, Dawn A. A.
Affiliations: Catholic University of Oporto - CITAR, Oporto, Portugal; Lusíada Universityof Portugal (ILID); Centro de Estatística e Aplicacoes; Queen Mary University of London, London, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 135 (October 2013) Paper Number: 8960
Publication Date: October 16, 2013
Subject: Recording and Production

Click to purchase paper as a non-member or you can login as an AES member to see more options.

No AES members have commented on this paper yet.

Subscribe to this discussion

To be notified of new comments on this paper you can subscribe to this RSS feed. Forum users should login to see additional options.

Start a discussion!

If you would like to start a discussion about this paper and are an AES member then you can login here:
Username:
Password:

If you are not yet an AES member and have something important to say about this paper then we urge you to join the AES today and make your voice heard. You can join online today by clicking here.