Editing Shortwave radio (section)

==Shortwave broadcasts and music==
[[File:Stockhausen 1994 WDR.jpg|thumb|right|Composer [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]]]]
Some musicians have been attracted to the unique aural characteristics of shortwave radio which – due to the nature of amplitude modulation, varying propagation conditions, and the presence of interference – generally has lower fidelity than local broadcasts (particularly via FM stations). Shortwave transmissions often have bursts of distortion, and "hollow" sounding loss of clarity at certain aural frequencies, altering the harmonics of natural sound and creating at times a strange "spacey" quality due to echoes and phase distortion. Evocations of shortwave reception distortions have been incorporated into rock and classical compositions, by means of delays or feedback loops, equalizers, or even playing shortwave radios as live instruments. Snippets of broadcasts have been mixed into electronic sound collages and live musical instruments, by means of analogue [[tape loop]]s or [[digital sampler|digital samples]]. Sometimes the sounds of instruments and existing musical recordings are altered by remixing or equalizing, with various distortions added, to replicate the garbled effects of shortwave radio reception.<ref name=Wörner1973/><ref name=Sheppard2009/>

The first attempts by serious composers to incorporate radio effects into music may be those of the Russian physicist and musician [[Léon Theremin]],<ref name=Wire2000/> who perfected a form of radio oscillator as a musical instrument in 1928 ([[regenerative circuit]]s in radios of the time were prone to breaking into [[oscillation]], adding various tonal [[harmonics]] to music and speech); and in the same year, the development of a French instrument called the [[Ondes Martenot]] by its inventor [[Maurice Martenot]], a French cellist and former wireless telegrapher. [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]] used shortwave radio and effects in works including ''[[Hymnen]]'' (1966–1967), ''[[Kurzwellen]]'' (1968) – adapted for the Beethoven Bicentennial in ''Opus&nbsp;1970'' with filtered and distorted snippets of Beethoven pieces – ''[[Spiral (Stockhausen)|Spiral]]'' (1968), ''[[Pole (Stockhausen)|Pole]]'', ''[[Expo (Stockhausen)|Expo]]'' (both 1969–1970), and ''[[Licht#Wednesday|Michaelion]]'' (1997).<ref name=Wörner1973/>

[[Cyprus|Cypriot]] composer [[Yannis Kyriakides]] incorporated shortwave [[numbers station]] transmissions in his 1999 ''ConSPIracy cantata''.<ref name=Dolp2017/>

[[Holger Czukay]], a student of Stockhausen, was one of the first to use shortwave in a [[rock music]] context.<ref name=Sheppard2009/> In 1975, German [[electronic music]] band [[Kraftwerk]] recorded a full length [[concept album]] around simulated radiowave and shortwave sounds, entitled ''[[Radioactivity (album)|Radio-Activity]]''.<ref name=Barr2013/> [[The The]]'s Radio Cineola monthly broadcasts drew heavily on shortwave radio sound.<ref name=thethe2011/>