{"id":60308,"date":"2024-08-05T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=60308"},"modified":"2024-08-05T04:22:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T08:22:56","slug":"the-radio-phonics-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/the-radio-phonics-laboratory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Radio Phonics Laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-60311\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x.webp 1500w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x-1024x1024.webp 1024w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Radio_1024x1024@2x-624x624.webp 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fastradioburst23<\/strong> here to let you know about a brand new book from Imaginary Stations contributor <strong>Justin Patrick Moore<\/strong>. <em><strong>The Radio Phonics Laboratory: Telecommunications, Speech Synthesis, and the Birth of Electronic Music<\/strong><\/em> is a radiocentric look at the origins of electronica. Radioheads will find much to enjoy in the pages of this tome including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Elisha Gray\u2019s Musical Telegraph, arguably the world\u2019s first synthesizer that used telegraph wires to send music down the line to distant listeners.<\/li>\n<li>Lee De Forest\u2019s Audion Piano. Radio pioneer Lee De Forest used his invention of the triode vacuum tube, or audion, to make an electronic musical instrument, perhaps his least contentious invention!<\/li>\n<li>The radio work and espionage activities of Leon Theremin, who worked as an engineer at a distant station deep within the Soviet Union where he discovered the principles to make his famous antenna-based instrument.<\/li>\n<li>The avant-garde antics of the Lost Generation composer George Antheil and his collaboration with actress Hedy Lamarr that led to the development of the spread spectrum suite of transmission techniques that now permeate our everyday life wherever there is WiFi.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>But that\u2019s not all!<\/strong><\/em> At the heart of this narrative is the evolution of speech synthesis. Spanning the groundbreaking work of Homer Dudley at Bell Laboratories with his work on the voder and vocoder to the dual discovery of Linear Predictive Coding from the research done by Fumitada Itakura at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in Japan to the parallel discoveries in the same field made by Manfred Schroeder and Bishnu S. Atal at Bell Labs. Linear Predictive Coding gets put to work whenever someone picks up a cell phone to make a call, or when they get on their DMR radio to join a net with their fellow ham radio friends across the world. Linear Predictive Coding was later put to work in the compositions of early computer music pioneer Paul Lansky at Princeton.<\/p>\n<p>Tracing the early use of the vocoder in enciphered radio transmissions between Churchill and Roosevelt in World War II to its use by Robert Moog and Wendy Carlos, this is the story of how investigations into the nature of speech generated a tool to be used by the music makers who merged their voices with the voice of the machine.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>But wait, there\u2019s more!<\/em><\/strong> The creative use of these phonic frequencies really took hold when radio stations and radio companies spearheaded the creation of the first electronic music studios. These laboratories include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Halim El-Dabh\u2019s use of wire recorders loaned from Radio Cairo to create the first pieces of what was later called musique concr\u00e8te, where raw sounds were manipulated to create a new kind of music.<\/li>\n<li>Pierre Schaeffer\u2019s creation of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) under the auspices of the Radiodiffusion Nationale station in France, leading to the subsequent spread of musique concr\u00e8te.<\/li>\n<li>The genesis of the Studio for Electronic Music of the West German Radio (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) born out of early developments in elektrische music made by the countries experimental instrument builders.<\/li>\n<li>The subsequent building of an electronic music studio at NHK in Japan.<\/li>\n<li>The story behind the \u201csound-houses\u201d of the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and its pioneers <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.daphneoram.org\/\">Daphne Oram<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/deliaderbyshireday.com\/dd-archive\/\">Delia Derbyshire<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The development of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music studio made in conjunction with the RCA company and the building of their gargantuan instrument, The RCA Mark II Synthesizer.<\/li>\n<li>And further explorations in the work being done at Bell Labs where the computers made music under the guidance of Max Matthews leading to creative breakthroughs from composers Don Slepian and Laurie Spiegel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of particular interest in this realm to the radio buff is the work of John Chowning, a composer who worked out the principles of FM synthesis, essentially figuring out how to do frequency modulation in the audio domain. He went on to create the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford, which became a model for the kind of sound laboratory later implemented in France at IRCAM, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics\/Music.<\/p>\n<p>This the story of how electronic music came to be, told through the lens of the telecommunications scientists and composers who transformed the dits and dahs of Morse code into the bleeps and blips that have captured the imagination of musicians and dedicated listeners around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Radio Phonics Laboratory is available directly from <strong>Velocity Press<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/velocitypress.uk\/product\/radio-phonics-laboratory-book\/\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a> in the UK and Europe. North American readers can find it on <strong>Bookshop.org <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/the-radio- phonics-laboratory-telecommunications-speech-synthesis-and-the-birth-of-electronic-music- justin-patrick-moore\/20977297?ean=9781913231552\">here<\/a><\/strong> , <strong>Amazon.com<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Radio-Phonics-Laboratory-Telecommunications-Electronic\/dp\/1913231550\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CC6B7M1L02SY&amp;amp&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.H4q6r50MSt11wYqGaoUCzykUFi2YsptZFulcjyezenrGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.sTVBYCBr2lxOES86fXx9jbHxOvsOPLDXLUB0RCE3Toc&amp;amp&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;amp&amp;keywords=radio+phonics+laboratory&amp;amp&amp;qid=1722516752&amp;amp&amp;sprefix=radio+phonics+laboratory%2Caps%2C74&amp;amp&amp;sr=8-1%20]\"><strong>here <\/strong><\/a>and fine bookstores everywhere.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8zPnwEqQunw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fastradioburst23 here to let you know about a brand new book from Imaginary Stations contributor Justin Patrick Moore. The Radio Phonics Laboratory: Telecommunications, Speech Synthesis, and the Birth of Electronic Music is a radiocentric look at the origins of electronica. Radioheads will find much to enjoy in the pages of this tome including: Elisha Gray\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[508,251,3194,442,3,288,43,554],"tags":[10065,10577,10576,10578,10575],"class_list":["post-60308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-2","category-books","category-guest-posts","category-music","category-news","category-radio-history","category-shortwave-radio","category-slightly-off-topic","tag-justin-patrick-moore","tag-speech-synthesis","tag-telecommunications","tag-the-birth-of-electronic-music","tag-the-radio-phonics-laboratory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-fGI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34049,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/justin-moore-on-making-music-with-radios\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":0},"title":"Justin Moore on Making Music with Radios","author":"Thomas","date":"September 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Justin Patrick Moore (KE8COY), who is a radio host, radio enthusiast and musician. At my request, Justin has shared the following article excerpts from his blog that discuss the convergence of music and radio: Imaginary Landscapes The development of telecommunications technology and electronic circuits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/art-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SX-99-Dial-Nar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SX-99-Dial-Nar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SX-99-Dial-Nar.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SX-99-Dial-Nar.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59916,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/i-am-the-morning-dj-on-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":1},"title":"I am the morning DJ on WORD","author":"Fastradioburst23","date":"June 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"FastRadioBurst 23 letting you know of our Imaginary Stations transmissions this week. On Sunday 9th June 2024\u00a0at 0900\/1300 hrs UTC\u00a0on\u00a06160 kHz\u00a0and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz we bring you a show called WORD to Europe via Shortwave Gold. Expects words and letters, books, (Radio Phonics)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Guest Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Guest Posts","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/guest-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shortwave-music-library-June-2024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shortwave-music-library-June-2024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shortwave-music-library-June-2024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shortwave-music-library-June-2024.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59987,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/shortwaves-the-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":2},"title":"Shortwave&#8217;s the WORD","author":"Fastradioburst23","date":"June 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Good day shortwave folks from myself FastRadioBurst 23. Here\u2019s some text from the Imaginary Stations crew letting you know of our audio communications this week. On Sunday 16th June 2024\u00a0at 0900\/1300 hrs UTC\u00a0on\u00a06160 kHz\u00a0and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz we bring you more on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Guest Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Guest Posts","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/guest-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WORD-Flyer_WRMI.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WORD-Flyer_WRMI.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WORD-Flyer_WRMI.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/WORD-Flyer_WRMI.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39294,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/september-1-2019-free-radio-skybird-returns-to-channel292\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":3},"title":"September 1, 2019: Free Radio Skybird returns to channel292","author":"Thomas","date":"August 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, \"One Deck\" Pete, who shares the following announcement: DJ Frederick\u2019s\u00a0Free Radio Skybird\u00a0returns to the shortwaves on\u00a0Sunday September 1st 2019\u00a0via\u00a0http:\/\/www.channel292.de\/\u00a0on\u00a06070 kHz\u00a0at\u00a01900 UTC (8pm UK time). With a mixture of features and music, the hour transmission will include\u00a0One Deck Pete\u2019s \u201cSoothing sound of shortwave\u201d, Steve\u00a0with\u00a0Mini indie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/free-radio-skybird-advert_2-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/free-radio-skybird-advert_2-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/free-radio-skybird-advert_2-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46573,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/free-radio-skybird-sunday-november-21st-and-december-6th-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":4},"title":"Free Radio Skybird: Sunday November 22nd and December 6th, 2020","author":"Thomas","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source:\u00a0Pete Madtone) The final\u00a0Free Radio Skybird\u00a0programme of this year (bar the repeat two weeks later) is on\u00a0Sunday November 22nd at\u00a01200 UTC\u00a0on\u00a06070 kHz\u00a0via\u00a0Channel 292. It features\u00a0DJ Frederick,\u00a0Justin Patrick Moore\u00a0with\u00a0The Radiophonic Laboratory\u00a0and\u00a0Weed\u2019s\u00a0own\u00a0One Deck Pete\u00a0with \u201cTunes to cheer you up.\u201d Tune in!\u00a0\u00a0#shortwavesnotdead\u00a0#freeradioskybird","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Free-Radio-Skybird-November-21st-2020_AMEND-e1605959749734.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Free-Radio-Skybird-November-21st-2020_AMEND-e1605959749734.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Free-Radio-Skybird-November-21st-2020_AMEND-e1605959749734.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38781,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/free-radio-skybird-returns-august-4-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":60308,"position":5},"title":"Free Radio Skybird returns August 4, 2019","author":"Thomas","date":"August 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I just received a message from DJ Frederick noting that Free Radio Skybird will \"broadcast on 4 August @ 1900 UTC on 6070 kHz.\" Free Radio Skybird is \"a shortwave radio show celebrating music & culture in the spirit of free radio.\" According to our friend, One Deck Pete, he'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antennaanenbrothers1-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antennaanenbrothers1-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antennaanenbrothers1-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60308"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60331,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60308\/revisions\/60331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}