Would You Like to Write for Signal2Noise?

[Sorry — we are no longer accepting submissions. This page is for archival purposes only]

We welcome articles from everyone in the professional audio community. By writing for Signal2Noise you will be contributing to a new, exciting forum for communicating with your fellow audio professionals, and participating in substantive discussions with others all over the world.
You don't have to be a professional writer--just have something to say and be reasonably good at saying it. Since we are not limited to a fixed number of pages every month, we can publish as much good content as we can find--so if you have always wanted to get your thoughts on a subject out to other industry pros, here's your chance.

What types of articles are we looking for?

Studio applications. Recording, post-production, live sound, electronic music, mastering, broadcasting, etc. Case studies, How-to, What-to-do-when.

Equipment techniques. General (tape baking secrets) or specific (getting RFI out of the XYZ-123 mic preamp). Modifications, special applications, hints, kinks, bugs, workarounds.

Original research. New findings in electronics, acoustics, psychoacoustics, media, delivery systems, social or economic trends, anything relevant to our industry.

New technologies. Ideas for products, applications, or techniques. We don't allow blatant plugging of products, but if a new product incorporates a significant new technology or application, we'll write about the technology.

Historical pieces. How something (a record, a piece of gear, a film, a concert) was done.

Opinion pieces. "I like this new trend because..." or "I think we're all going down the tubes because...". But please, no personal attacks and don't say anything bad about anyone or anything that you're not prepared to prove.

Education. How do we teach the next generation of audio professionals (or shouldn't we bother)? Ideas, opinions, case studies.

Social or economic issues and trends. Where the industry is going and how to survive it, counterfeiting and copyright, censorship vs. responsibility, government regulation, etc. etc.

Studio/concert horror stories and jokes have their own special sections in s2n...surf over to them for information and submission forms.

Is there anything we won't accept?

We don't print equipment reviews, promotional pieces or marketing materials, sales pitches, classified ads, personal attacks, or articles whose ownership isn't clear. We reserve the right to reject any article that we feel is inappropriate.

How do you propose an article to us?

Send a brief outline of your piece, telling us what you want to write about and what points you want to make (if it's all written, by all means send the whole piece), along with a summary of graphics and/or audio files that would accompany the piece, to editor@s2n.org.

Articles must be submitted in a standard text format, i.e., ASCII text, MS Word, RTF, etc. If you know HTML, so much the better, but it's not necessary. If you use a special word-processing format, please ask whether we can accomodate it.

How long should articles be?

People like to be able to digest things on the Web quickly, so articles should be fairly short--anywhere between 200 and 1500 words is ideal. If you have something important to say that runs longer than that, we may break your article up into two or more separate sections.

Can you include sound files?

One of the most exciting aspects of doing an on-line journal is that we can attach audio files to any article, so that readers can actually hear what you're writing about. We can assist you in preparing audio files so that they can be streamed or downloaded.

Sounds should be in AIFF, .WAV, SDII, .snd, QuickTime, or MIDI (Standard MIDI File using General MIDI or a DLS sound set that you provide). Compressed files for streaming audio will be accomodated as we get the various streaming engines on line.

How about graphics?

Graphics should be in PICT, TIFF, GIF, or JPEG format. Other formats may be accomodated--ask us. Make sure to mark clearly the places in the text where the graphics should appear.

Keep graphics small and use as few colors as possible, so that readers don't have to wait long periods of time to download them.

Can I give you an article that has already been published?

Yes. We have no problems publishing works that have appeared elsewhere, as long as the rights belong to you. If you have sold an article to a print magazine, chances are that after they publish it, all the rights revert back to you, and you are free to submit your piece to us.

Some magazines, however, make you sign a contract saying that the piece is a "work for hire", or that the magazine is buying "all rights". (Sometimes this "contract" is the endorsement form on the back of your check!) In these cases, you will have to talk to the magazine to see what their policy is regarding your right to subsequent publication. We will ask you to sign an indemnification agreement accepting all responsibility for any copyright problems, so make sure you know the article is yours before you submit it.

Can I post or publish my article somewhere else?

We ask the piece not appear anywhere else on the World Wide Web within one year of our posting it, except on a page or site maintained by you personally, or by your company.

If, after you submit it to us, you want the article to appear in a print journal, that's fine, but we would like you to acknowledge in the journal that it appeared here first.

Do I have any responsibility after the article is published?

Yes. Every article published has a moderated on-line discussion thread, "Talkback", that relates to it. We will want you to be a major participant in that discussion. If readers want to ask questions or refute the points in your article, we need you to be there to respond to them. By submitting an article to us, you agree that you will be available for this purpose.

How long does my article stay "in print"?

We will normally keep an article on-line for at least a year after we first post it. If it becomes dated and needs upgrading or removal, we will discuss that with you. If we think it can stay useful for longer than a year, we would like that option, but if you want to remove it for any reason after a year we will do so.

What do you pay?

Alas, we don't. As a non-commercial journal supported largely by volunteer and student labor, we don't have the budget to pay contributors at this time.

Anything else I should know?

We reserve the right to edit your article for brevity, language, etc., following standard journalistic practice. If you don't like our editing, you can ask us, within two weeks of our posting the article, to remove it.

Your name and industry affiliation must be published with the article. We will need a brief bio submitted with the article telling readers who you are and what you do. We may, in very special cases, agree to post an article anonymously, but you would have to convince us that anonymity is absolutely necessary.

If you have any other questions please feel free to e-mail the editor.

We look forward to your contributions!

Letters to the Editor | Staff