Recording studio as musical instrument

The use of recording studios as a distinct musical instrument or compositional tool began in the early to mid 20th-century, as composers started exploiting the newfound potentials of multitrack recording.[1] Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance. Following the advent of three-track tape in the mid 1950s, recording spaces became more accustomed for in-studio composition, and by the early 1970s, the "additive approach to recording" would be very common in rock music.[2] The practice is sometimes described as "playing the studio".[3] As of the 2010s, the idea remains ubiquitous in genres such as hip-hop, electronic music, and pop.[4]

Background

Phil Spector (center) at Gold Star Studios, where he developed his Wall of Sound methods, 1966

Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance. Initially, the practice of "studio as compositional tool" was evident mainly in the realms of pop music, as only a minuscule number of classical composers took to this form of music-making.[2] Popular recording conventions changed profoundly in the mid 1950s as new possibilities were opened by three-track tape,[2] and by the early 1960s, it was common for producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, orchestration, unnatural reverb, and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and Joe Meek's use of homemade electronic sound effects for acts like the Tornados.[5] In this time, a "gulf" would exist between experimental composers and "out-there" pop musicians, partly due to the role of the recording studio. Regarding this, composer Robert Ashley is quoted in 1966; "We can't be popular musicians, where the fairly exciting things happen. ... The one thing I like about popular music is that they record it. They record it, record it, record it, record it! The astute producer cuts out the magic from the different tapes (laughter) and puts them in a certain order and gets a whole piece. It's very beautiful, because it's really aural magic. ... We have to invent social situations to allow that magic to happen."[6]

Development

1940s

Pioneers from the 1940s include Bill Putnam, Les Paul, and Tom Dowd, who each contributed to the development of common recording practices like reverb, tape delay, and overdubbing. Putnam was one of the first to recognize echo and reverb as elements to enhance a recording, rather than as natural byproducts of the recording space. He engineered the Harmonicats' 1947 novelty song "Peg o' My Heart", which not only was a huge hit, but also became the first popular recording to use artificial reverb for artistic effect. Around the same time, French composers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry were developing musique concrete, a method of composition in which pieces of tape are rearranged and spliced together, and thus originated sampling. Meanwhile in England, Daphne Oram experimented heavily with electronic instruments during her tenure as a balancing engineer for the BBC. Written in 1949, Still Point is a 30-minute piece that combined pre-recorded acoustic orchestration with live electronic manipulation—one of the first ever to do so. However, Ophram's tape experiments were mostly unheard at the time. In 1957, she said recorded sounds were "a sort of modern magic. We think there’s something in it. Some musicians believe it may become an art form in its own right."[4]

1950s–60s

English producer Joe Meek is considered one of the most influential engineers of all time, being one of the first to exploit the use of recording studios as instruments, and one of the first producers to assert an individual identity as an artist.[7] He got his start in 1955 at IBC Studio in London. One of Meek's signature techniques was to overload a signal with dynamic range compression, which was unorthodox at the time. Several of his "radical" techniques (such as close-miking instruments) later became part of normal recording practice.[4][nb 1] Phil Spector, his American counterpart,[8] is also considered "important as the first star producer of popular music and its first 'auteur' ... Spector changed pop music from a performing art ... to an art which could sometimes exist only in the recording studio".[9] His original production formula (dubbed the "Wall of Sound") called for large ensembles (including some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars), with multiple instruments doubling and even tripling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer sound.[10][nb 2]

A colour image of a large room with a piano in the middle
Abbey Road Studio Two, where most Beatles tracks were recorded

The Beatles' producer George Martin and the Beach Boys' leader Brian Wilson are generally credited with helping to popularize the idea of the recording studio as a musical instrument which could then be used to aid the process of composition, and music producers after the mid 1960s increasingly drew from their work.[13][nb 3] Wilson, who was mentored by Spector,[16] was another early auteur of popular music,[13] as well as as the first rock producer to use the studio as a discrete instrument.[16][nb 4] "Good Vibrations", which he produced for the Beach Boys in 1966, is credited as a milestone in the development of rock music[18] and a prime proponent in revolutionizing rock from live concert performances into studio productions which could only exist on record.[19][nb 5] Musicologist Charlie Gillett called it "one of the first records to flaunt studio production as a quality in its own right, rather than as a means of presenting a performance".[21] while rock critic Gene Sculatti called it the "ultimate in-studio production trip", adding that its influence was apparent in songs such as "A Day in the Life" from the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[22] According to author Olivier Julien, Sgt. Pepper represents the "epitome of the transformation of the recording studio into a compositional tool", marking the moment when "popular music entered the era of phonographic composition."[23] Its lasting commercial success and critical impact are largely due to Martin and his engineers' creative use of studio equipment while originating new processes.[24][nb 6]

1970s

Brian Eno, who launched his career in the 1970s as synthesizer player for Roxy Music, is frequently referred to as one of popular music's most influential artists.[26] Critic Jason Ankeny at AllMusic argues that Eno "forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence."[27] His production style has proven influential in several general respects: "his recording techniques have helped change the way that modern musicians – particularly electronic musicians – view the studio. No longer is it just a passive medium through which they communicate their ideas but itself a new instrument with seemingly endless possibilities."[28][nb 7]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ His employers often antagonized him over his methods, and to escape this, he developed a home studio in 1960.[4]
  2. ↑ For example, Spector would often duplicate a part played by an acoustic piano with an electric piano and a harpsichord.[11] Mixed well enough, the listener would then perceive each of the different combinations of instruments as one distinct sound.[12] Session guitarist Barney Kessel notes: "Musically, it was terribly simple, but the way he recorded and miked it, they’d diffuse it so that you couldn't pick out any one instrument. Techniques like distortion and echo were not new, but Phil came along and took these to make sounds that had not been used in the past. I thought it was ingenious."[11]
  3. ↑ Academic Bill Martin argues that the Beach Boys and the Beatles' "expansions in harmony" and "the use of recording technology ... were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock."[14] He also says that the advancing technology of multitrack recording and mixing boards were more influential to experimental rock than electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, allowing the Beatles and the Beach Boys to become the first crop of non-classically trained musicians to create extended and complex compositions.[15]
  4. ↑ In 1967, he believed "Spector started the whole thing. He was the first one to use the studio. ... I heard that song ["Be My Baby"] three and a half years ago and I knew that it was between him and me. I knew exactly where he was at and now I've gone beyond him."[17]
  5. ↑ The song established a new method of operation for Wilson. Instead of working on whole songs with clear large-scale syntactical structures, Wilson limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules"). Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence, allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time.[20] Academic Marshall Heiser saw the resultant style of jumpcuts as a "striking characteristic", and that they "must be acknowledged as compositional statements in themselves, giving the music a sonic signature every bit as noticeable as the performances themselves. There was no way this music could be 'real.' Wilson was therefore echoing the techniques of musique concrète and seemed to be breaking the audio 'fourth wall'—if there can said to be such a thing."[20]
  6. ↑ Julien writes that the Beatles' "gradual integration of arranging and recording into one and the same process" began as early as 1963, but developed in earnest during the sessions for Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966) and "ultimately blossomed" during the Sgt. Pepper sessions.[25]
  7. ↑ Eno listed his studio-as-instrument antecedents as follows: Glenn Gould ("whose technique of recording many performances and editing them together Eno greatly admired"), Jimi Hendrix, Phil Spector ("[who] understood better than anybody that a recording could do things that could never actually happen"), the Beach Boys, the Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds (Eno appreciated the group's psychedelia and experimental approach), the Beatles (Eno referred to Revolver as "my favourite Beatles album"), and Simon and Garfunkel (particularly their song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" [1970], which he called "perfection in its way. ... it is such an incredible tour de force.").[29]

Citations

  1. ↑ Eno 2004, p. 127.
  2. 1 2 3 Eno 2004, pp. 128–129.
  3. ↑ Seymour, Corey (June 5, 2015). "Love & Mercy Does Justice to the Brilliance of Brian Wilson". Vogue.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "A Brief History of The Studio As An Instrument: Part 1 - Early Reflections". Ableton.com. October 25, 2016.
  5. ↑ Blake 2009, p. 45.
  6. ↑ Grubbs 2014, p. 62.
  7. ↑ Patrick, Jonathan (March 8, 2013). "Joe Meek’s pop masterpiece I Hear a New World gets the chance to haunt a whole new generation of audiophile geeks". Tiny Mix Tapes.
  8. ↑ Gritten, David (October 1, 2016). "Joe Meek and the tragic demise of the maverick who revolutionised British pop". The Telegraph.
  9. ↑ Bannister 2007, p. 38.
  10. ↑ Zak 2001, p. 77.
  11. 1 2 Ribowsky 1989, pp. 185-186.
  12. ↑ Ribowsky 1989, pp. 185–186.
  13. 1 2 Edmondson 2013, p. 890.
  14. ↑ Martin 1998, p. 39.
  15. ↑ Martin 2015, p. 75.
  16. 1 2 Cogan & Clark 2003, pp. 32–33.
  17. ↑ Siegel 2013, p. 95.
  18. ↑ Stuessy & Lipscomb 2009, p. 71.
  19. ↑ Ashby 2004, p. 282.
  20. 1 2 Heiser, Marshall (November 2012). "SMiLE: Brian Wilson’s Musical Mosaic". The Journal on the Art of Record Production (7).
  21. ↑ Gillett 1984, p. 329.
  22. ↑ Sculatti, Gene (September 1968). "Villains and Heroes: In Defense of the Beach Boys". Jazz & Pop. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  23. ↑ Julien 2008, pp. 166–167.
  24. ↑ Hannan 2008, p. 46.
  25. ↑ Julien 2008, p. 162.
  26. ↑ Randall Roberts, "Brian Eno to Lecture CSU-Long Beach, Present 77 Million Paintings, Blow Our Minds", LA Weekly, 30 July 2009
  27. ↑ Jason Ankeny, ((( Brian Eno > Biography ))), AllMusic
  28. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
  29. ↑ Tamm 1995, pp. 28–29.

Bibliography

Further reading

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