Tim Canfer

Biography

Tim Canfer is a lecturer in Music Production at Keele University, a researcher in liveness, a developer of plugins for live music production, a music producer, and a musician. He is the events director for the Society for Music Production Research and the editor of the Routledge Perspectives on Education in Audio & Music Production series of books.

Tim has spent over twenty years working in music production, performance, and event promotion. He has collaborated extensively, producing rock, folk, and electronic music in large recording studios, project studios, and on location. He also produces and hosts podcasts.

Tim studied at the University of Leeds, Leeds College of Music, and Leeds Metropolitan University.

Research and scholarship

Tim's research focuses on two areas: the exploration of liveness in modern music performance and music production workflows of rock and electronic genres. He develops the Reactive Backing series of plugins and works with several industry partners to create new music technologies.

As Events Director for the Society for Music Production Research, Tim is the creator and organiser of the ongoing global online micro-conferences.

He is also a series editor for the Routledge Perspectives on Education in Audio and Music Production (POEM) series of books, and a founder member of the Education through Podcasting initiative (EPOD).

Teaching

Tim is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, Advance HE), which recognises teaching practice that has breadth and depth in high-quality teaching. He has designed, externally examined, and verified numerous music production programmes from institutions such as the University of Hertfordshire, York St John University and the Academy for Live Technology.

Tim leads teaching and assessment on the Music Production modules:

• MUS-10128 Unlocking the Studio: Your Journey into Sound Engineering
• MUS-20080 Advanced Studio Engineering and Production
• MUS-20078 Live Sound
• MUS-20082 Augmenting Live Performance
• MUS-30053 Advanced Mixing and Mastering

as well as the other humanities modules:

• FYO-00259 Foundations of Humanities 2
• ENG-20025 Work Placement

Tim is keen on co-developing Music Production pedagogy, particularly in areas such as practice-led, research-led, bottom-up, ungrading, e-learning, and asynchronous forms.

Publications

Canfer, T., Boehm, C., Salazar, C., (eds.) (2025). Podcasting & Education: Concepts, Communities and Case Studies. Routledge.

Boehm, C., Canfer, T., Anthony, B., Thompson, P., Ward, S. (eds.) (2025). Innovations in Music Production Pedagogy. Routledge. (Perspectives on Education in Music Production)

Canfer, T. (2025) 'Super Duper Loopers and the "Free for Feedback" release model', in Innovation in Music: Have you tried this? Routledge.

Canfer, T. (2023) Music Technology in Live Performance: Tools, Techniques, and Interaction. Focal Press.

Canfer, T. (2019) 'Visual agency and liveness in the performance of electronic music', in R. Hepworth-Sawyer et al. (eds) Innovation In Music: performance, production, technology and business. Routledge (Perspectives on Music Production), pp. 100–112.

Canfer, T. (2016) 'A System of Reactive Backing for Live Popular Music', in R. Hepworth-Sawyer et al. (eds) KES Transactions on Innovation in Music. Innovation in Music II, Future Technology Press (Innovation in Music), pp. 26–36.