The analogue music studio: education and research as heritage-in-process

Analogue sound and music are experiencing a twenty-first-century revival, with vinyl sales soaring, artists increasingly employing analogue recording techniques, and aesthetic debates over the alleged superiority of analogue sound. At the same time, however, our world has become saturated with digital technology, analogue equipment is becoming obsolete, and analogue studio skills are ever more difficult to find. This chapter interrogates the paradoxical contexts of the analogue revival and explores the possibilities of preserving as well as developing analogue sound and music in a digital age. Based on research and educational practices at Kingston University‘s Visconti Studio, the dynamic creativities that occur within studio spaces and the distribution of musicality among equipment, spaces, and studio participants are illuminated and discussed. Evaluations of these processes are aimed at understanding the balance between the materialities of practice and the idealism surrounding sound quality. Through targeted practical, intellectual, and educational activities, as proposed in this chapter, it is possible not only to preserve analogue studio heritages but also to contribute to their ongoing significance.