Creating Mixtures: The Application of Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA) to Audio Recording
Wieslaw Woszczyk, Albert S. Bregman · 2007
This chapter focuses on the application of principles of auditory scene analysis (ASA) to the art of recording. The general guideline from which all the detailed ones follow comes from the definitions of integration and segregation: to cause sounds to be distinct, strengthen the ASA cues that favor segregation, and to blend them, weaken those cues. ASA describes how the auditory system sorts out the complex sense data received from a mixture of sounds into separate perceived sound sources, such as distinct voices or instruments. In all cases of audiovisual integration, sound reduces the ambiguity of picture and helps to define it, while picture reduces the ambiguity of sound or its position and helps to define its purpose. The entire process of composing, performing, recording, and mixing involves a careful consideration of which sounds should be fused together and which should be segregated so that the music can communicate its intended purpose clearly and fully.