Michael Gerzon – Beyond Psychoacoustics
by Robert Charles Alexander
ISBN 978-0-9560160-0-3
2008 – Dora Media Productions
568 pages (including 32 pages of photographs)

Michael Gerzon was a genius who dedicated his life to the furtherance of his two passions: audio engineering and mathematics.

Best known for inventing Ambisonics and the Soundfield Microphone, he was also a prolific sound recording engineer whose archive of recorded material is now stored for the nation in The British Library National Sound Archive. Having studied at Oxford University, his post-graduate work at The Mathematical Institute was primary concerned with axiomatic quantum theory. His other inventions include DVD-Audio, Lossless Data Compression algorithms and numerous software-based audio engineering tools which today are the mainstay of modern digital music production techniques. He also wrote enormous amounts of poetry and owned one of the largest and most valuable rare vinyl record collections ever amassed.

Dead at the age of just 50 in 1996 from complications due to Asthma, his obituaries included the prediction that thirty years from now people will marvel at how we, in our time, were blessed to have been in Michael’s company; yet, many of his inventions may not be fully understood or utilised for decades to come.

‘Michael Gerzon – Beyond Psychoacoustics’ is the result of more than five years of painstaking, detailed research undertaken by author Robert Charles Alexander, travelling across the world interviewing friends, family and colleagues of Michael Gerzon, piecing together the definitive study of a man who can truly be called a ‘genius’.