Robert Toft teaches in the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University, Canada. His interests revolve around the notion of research informing practice, and he specializes in both recording practices and the history of singing. He has written five books on historically informed vocal performance and has given master classes at leading conservatories and universities in Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and the USA. Robert's production company, Talbot Records, released its first recording in 2017. Inspired by the intensely dramatic performing styles of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, its main series, Radically Hip, connects modern audiences to the impassioned eloquence of the past.

Part 1, Fundamental Principles

1 Soundwaves

Enclosed Spaces

Performance Venues

2 Audio Chain from Sound Source to Listener

Integrity within an Audio Chain

Basic Concepts and Terminology

Part 2, Production

3 Microphone Types

The Behavior of a Pure Diaphragm

Condenser Microphones

Dynamic and Ribbon Microphones

4 Microphone Characteristics

Frequency Response

Directional (Polar) Patterns

Random Energy Efficiency

Distance Factor

Proximity Effect

Phase

5 Stereo Microphone Techniques

Coincident Pairs

Near-Coincident Arrays

Spaced Microphones

6 Tracking

Critical Listening

Setting Levels

Room Ambience

Part 3, Post-Production

7 EQ - Frequency Balance

Digital Filters

Common Practices

8 Control of Dynamic Range

Compressors

Limiters

Dynamic EQ

De-essers

9 Reverberation

Digital Reflection Simulation

Convolution

10 Delivery

File Types

Loudness and Meters

Part 4, Common Recording Strategies

11 Solo Piano

Recording in Stereo

Unfavorable Room Acoustics

12 Soloists with Piano Accompaniment

13 Small Ensembles

14 Sessions

Solo Piano

Solo Cello

Double Bass and Piano

15 Studio Techniques: Re-Creating the Aural Sense of Historic Spaces

Pre-Production

Production

Post-Production