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Recording studio as an instrument

October 15, 2023

In music production, the recording studio is often treated as a musical instrument when it plays a significant role in the composition of music. Sometimes called "playing the studio", the approach is typically embodied by artists or producers who favor the creative use of studio technology in record production, as opposed to simply documenting live performances in studio.[1] Techniques include the incorporation of non-musical sounds, overdubbing, tape edits, sound synthesis, audio signal processing, and combining segmented performances (takes) into a unified whole.

A Studer four-track tape recorder used at EMI Studios from 1965 to the 1970s

Composers have exploited the potential of multitrack recording from the time the technology was first introduced. Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were typically created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance. Following the advent of three-track tape recorders in the mid-1950s, recording spaces became more accustomed for in-studio composition. By the late 1960s, in-studio composition had become standard practice, and has remained as such into the 21st century.

Despite the widespread changes that have led to more compact recording set-ups, individual components such as digital audio workstations (DAW) are still colloquially referred to as "the studio".[2]

Definitions Edit

There is no single instance in which the studio suddenly became recognized as an instrument, and even at present [2018] it may not have wide recognition as such. Nevertheless, there is a historical precedent of the studio—broadly defined—consciously being used to perform music.

—Adam Bell, Dawn of the DAW: The Studio As Musical Instrument[3]

"Playing the studio" is equivalent to 'in-studio composition', meaning writing and production occur concurrently.[4] Definitions of the specific criterion of a "musical instrument" vary,[5] and it is unclear whether the "studio as instrument" concept extends to using multi-track recording simply to facilitate the basic music writing process.[6] According to academic Adam Bell, some proposed definitions may be consistent with music produced in a recording studio, but not with music that relies heavily on digital audio workstations (DAW).[5] Various music educators alluded to "using the studio as a musical instrument" in books published as early as the late 1960s.[7]

Rock historian Doyle Greene defines "studio as compositional tool" as a process in which music is produced around studio constructions rather than the more traditional method of capturing a live performance as is.[1] Techniques include the incorporation of non-musical sounds, overdubbing, tape edits, sound synthesis, audio signal processing, and combining segmented performances (takes) into a unified whole.[1] Despite the widespread changes that have led to more compact recording set-ups, individual components such as DAWs are still referred to as "the studio".[2]

Evolution of recording processes Edit

 
Phil Spector (center) at Gold Star Studios, where he developed his Wall of Sound methods, 1965

Composers have exploited the potential of recording technology since it was first made available to them.[8] Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were typically created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance.[9] Writing in 1937, the American composer John Cage called for the development of "centers of experimental music" places where "the new materials, oscillators, turntables, generators, means for amplifying small sounds, film phonographs, etc." would allow composers to "work using twentieth-century means for making music."[10]

In the early 1950s, electronic equipment was expensive to own, and for most people, was only accessible through large organizations or institutions. However, virtually every young composer was interested in the potential of tape-based recording.[11] According to Brian Eno, "the move to tape was very important", because unlike gramophone records, tape was "malleable and mutable and cuttable and reversible in ways that discs aren't. It's very hard to do anything interesting with a disc".[9] In the mid 1950s, popular recording conventions changed profoundly with the advent of three-track tape recorders,[12] 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.[13]

In-studio composition became standard practice by the late 1960s and early 1970s, and remained so into the 2010s. During the 1970s, the "studio as instrument" concept shifted from the studio's recording space to the studio's control room, where electronic instruments could be plugged directly into the mixing console.[14] As of the 2010s, the "studio as instrument" idea remains ubiquitous in genres such as pop, hip-hop, and electronic music.[15]

Notable artists and works Edit

1940s–1950s Edit

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 was a significant chart hit and became the first popular recording to use artificial reverb for artistic effect.[15] Although Les Paul was not the first to use overdubs, he popularized the technique in the 1950s.[16]

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, however, her tape experiments were mostly unheard at the time.[15]

1950s–1960s Edit

Meek, Leiber, Stoller, and Spector Edit

 
The Tornadoes – "Telstar" (1962)
Meek's best-known production, "Telstar", features a sped-up piano, a clavioline overdubbed three times, and a guitar that fades in and out of the recording.[15] The piece won an Ivor Novello Award and sold over five million copies worldwide.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

English producer Joe Meek was 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.[17] He began production work in 1955 at IBC Studios in London. One of Meek's signature techniques was to overload a signal with dynamic range compression, which was unorthodox at the time. He was antagonized by his employers for his "radical" techniques. Some of these methods, such as close-miking instruments, later became part of normal recording practice.[15] Music journalist Mark Beaumont writes that Meek "realised the studio-as-instrument philosophy years before The Beatles or The Beach Boys".[18]

Discussing Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Adam Bell describes the songwriting duo's productions for the Coasters as "an excellent example of their pioneering practices in the emerging field of production", citing an account from Stoller in which he recalls "cutting esses off words, sticking the tape back together so you didn't notice. And sometimes if the first refrain on a take was good and the second one lousy, we'd tape another recording of the first one and stick it in place of the second one."[19]

Phil Spector, sometimes regarded as Joe Meek's American counterpart,[20] 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".[21] 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.[22][nb 1] It evolved from his mid-1950s work with Leiber and Stoller during the period in which they sought a fuller sound through excessive instrumentation.[24][nb 2] Spector's 1963 production of "Be My Baby", according to Rolling Stone magazine, was a "Rosetta stone for studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson".[25]

 
Martin working with the Beatles, 1964

Beatles and Beach Boys Edit

The Beatles' producer George Martin and the Beach Boys' producer-songwriter Brian Wilson are generally credited with helping to popularize the idea of the studio as an instrument used for in-studio composition, and music producers after the mid 1960s increasingly drew from their work.[26][nb 3] Although Martin was nominally the Beatles' producer, from 1964 he ceded control to the band, allowing them to use the studio as a workshop for their ideas and later as a sound laboratory.[28] Musicologist Olivier 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 sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).[29] Wilson, who was mentored by Spector,[30] was another early auteur of popular music.[26] Authors Jim Cogan and William Clark credit him as the first rock producer to use the studio as a discrete instrument.[30]

 
The Beatles – "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966)
Author Mark Brend writes that, with Revolver, the Beatles advanced on Meek's approach, and employed the studio as "an environment for wide-ranging sonic research" that included experimentation with tape loops, reversed and speed-manipulated tape sounds, and backwards-recorded lead guitar parts.[31]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

According to author David Howard, Martin's work on the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", from Revolver, and Spector's production of "River Deep – Mountain High" from the same year were the two recordings that ensured that the studio "was now its own instrument".[32] Citing composer and producer Virgil Moorefield's book The Producer as Composer, author Jay Hodgson highlights Revolver as representing a "dramatic turning point" in recording history through its dedication to studio exploration over the "performability" of the songs, as this and subsequent Beatles albums reshaped listeners' preconceptions of a pop recording.[33] According to Julien, the follow-up LP 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."[34] Composer and musicologist Michael Hannan attributes the album's impact to Martin and his engineers, in response to the Beatles' demands, making increasingly creative use of studio equipment and originating new processes.[35]

Like Revolver, "Good Vibrations", which Wilson produced for the Beach Boys in 1966, was a prime proponent in revolutionizing rock from live concert performances into studio productions that could only exist on record.[36] For the first time, Wilson limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments (or "modules") rather than a complete song. Through the method of tape splicing, each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence – as Wilson explored on subsequent recordings from this period – allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time.[37][nb 4] Musicologist Charlie Gillett called "Good Vibrations" "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",[38] 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 Sgt. Pepper.[39]

1970s–2010s Edit

 
Brian Eno at a live remix in 2012

Adam Bell credits Brian Eno with popularizing the concept of the studio as instrument, particularly that it "did not require previous experience, and in some ways, a lack of know-how might even be advantageous to creativity", and that "such an approach was typified" by Kraftwerk, whose members proclaimed "we play the studio".[14] He goes on to say:

While those of the ilk of Brian Wilson used the studio as an instrument by orchestrating everyone that worked within it, the turn to technology in the cases of Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Brian Eno signify a conceptual shift in which an alternative approach that might make using the studio as an instrument cheaper, easier, more convenient, or more creative, was increasingly sought after. Compared to the 1960s, using the studio as an instrument became less about working the system as it were, and working the systems.[14]

Producer Conny Plank was cited as creating "a world in sound using the studio as an instrument" producing bands such as Can, Cluster, Neu!, Kraftwerk and Ultravox amongst many others, the studio was seen as an integral part of the music.[40][41]

Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry was noted for his 70s reggae and dub productions, recorded at his Black Ark studio.[42] David Toop commented that "at its heights, Perry's genius has transformed the recording studio" into "virtual space, an imaginary chamber over which presided the electronic wizard, evangelist, gossip columnist and Dr. Frankenstein that he became."[43]

From the late 1970s onward, hip hop production has been strongly linked to the lineage and technique of earlier artists who used the studio as an instrument. Jazz critic Francis Davis identified early hip-hop DJs, including Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, as "grassroots successors to Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and George Martin, the 1960s producers who pioneered the use of the recording studio as an instrument in its own right."[44]

 
My Bloody Valentine performing in 2008

Beginning in the 1980s, musicians associated with the genres dream pop and shoegazing made innovative use of effects pedals and recording techniques to create ethereal, "dreamy" musical atmospheres.[45] The English-Irish shoegazing band My Bloody Valentine, helmed by guitarist-producer Kevin Shields, are often celebrated for their studio albums Isn't Anything (1988) and Loveless (1991). Writing for The Sunday Times, Paul Lester said Shields is "widely accepted as shoegazing's genius", with "his astonishing wall of sound, use of the studio as instrument and dazzling reinvention of the guitar making him a sort of hydra-headed Spector-Hendrix-Eno figure".[46]

American psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips earned comparisons by critics to Brian Wilson's work[failed verification] when discussing their albums Zaireeka (1997) and The Soft Bulletin (1999), which were the results of extensive studio experimentation. When asked what instrument does he play, frontman Wayne Coyne simply stated "the recording studio".[47][importance of example(s)?]

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ For example, Spector would often duplicate a part played by an acoustic piano with an electric piano and a harpsichord.[23] 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."[23]
  2. ^ Leiber and Stoller considered Spector's methods to be very distinct from what they were doing, stating: "Phil was the first one to use multiple drum kits, three pianos and so on. We went for much more clarity in terms of instrumental colors, and he deliberately blended everything into a kind of mulch. He definitely had a different point of view."[24]
  3. ^ Academic Bill Martin writes 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.[27]
  4. ^ 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."[37]

References Edit

  1. ^ a b c Greene 2016, p. 179.
  2. ^ a b Bell 2018, p. 34.
  3. ^ Bell 2018, p. 37.
  4. ^ Seymour, Corey (June 5, 2015). . Vogue. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Bell 2018, pp. 34–35.
  6. ^ Bell 2018, p. 38.
  7. ^ Bell 2018, p. xvi.
  8. ^ Eno 2004, p. 127.
  9. ^ a b Eno 2004, p. 128.
  10. ^ Cage, J.(2004),'The Future of Music Credo,'in Cox, Christoph; Warner, Daniel. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-1615-5.
  11. ^ Holmes, Thomas B.; Holmes, Thom (2002). Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition. Psychology Press. pp. 81–85. ISBN 978-0-415-93644-6.
  12. ^ Eno 2004, pp. 128–129.
  13. ^ Blake 2009, p. 45.
  14. ^ a b c Bell 2018, p. 49.
  15. ^ a b c d e "A Brief History of The Studio As An Instrument: Part 1 - Early Reflections". Ableton.com. October 25, 2016.
  16. ^ Bell 2018, p. 12, 39.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Beaumont, Mark (February 3, 2022). "Suicide or murder? The life and untimely death of Sixties pop genius Joe Meek". Independent. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  19. ^ Bell 2018, p. 39.
  20. ^ Gritten, David (October 1, 2016). "Joe Meek and the tragic demise of the maverick who revolutionised British pop". The Telegraph.
  21. ^ Bannister 2007, p. 38.
  22. ^ Zak 2001, p. 77.
  23. ^ a b Ribowsky 1989, pp. 185–186.
  24. ^ a b Moorefield 2010, p. 10.
  25. ^ . RollingStone.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  26. ^ a b Edmondson 2013, p. 890.
  27. ^ Martin 2015, p. 75.
  28. ^ Millard 2012, pp. 178–79.
  29. ^ Julien 2008, p. 162.
  30. ^ a b Cogan & Clark 2003, pp. 32–33.
  31. ^ Brend 2005, pp. 55–56.
  32. ^ Howard 2004, pp. 2–3.
  33. ^ Hodgson 2010, pp. viii–ix.
  34. ^ Julien 2008, pp. 166–167.
  35. ^ Hannan 2008, p. 46.
  36. ^ Ashby 2004, p. 282.
  37. ^ a b Heiser, Marshall (November 2012). . The Journal on the Art of Record Production (7). Archived from the original on 2015-04-15. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
  38. ^ Gillett 1984, p. 329.
  39. ^ Sculatti, Gene (September 1968). . Jazz & Pop. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  40. ^ "A Brief History of The Studio As An Instrument: Part 3 | Ableton". www.ableton.com. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  41. ^ Dave Everley (2019-09-05). "How prog was Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank?". louder. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  42. ^ Toop 2018, p. 115.
  43. ^ Toop 2018, pp. 114–115.
  44. ^ Davis 2004, p. 259.
  45. ^ Edmondson 2013, p. 1205.
  46. ^ Lester, Paul (April 12, 2009). . Times Online. Archived from the original on September 19, 2009.
  47. ^ "Wayne Coyne – "I Am Not on Drugs… Yet"". 22 January 2011.

Bibliography Edit

  • Ashby, Arved Mark, ed. (2004). The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening, Meaning, Intention, Ideology. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-58046-143-6.
  • Bannister, Matthew (2007). White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Indie Guitar Rock. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-8803-7.
  • Bell, Adam Patrick (2018). Dawn of the DAW: The Studio As Musical Instrument. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-029660-5.
  • Blake, Andrew (2009). "Recording practices and the role of the producer". In Cook, Nicholas; Clarke, Eric; Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-82796-6.
  • Brend, Mark (2005). Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-879308551.
  • Cogan, Jim; Clark, William (2003). Temples of Sound: Inside the Great Recording Studios. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-3394-3.
  • Davis, Francis (2004). Jazz and Its Discontents: A Francis Davis Reader. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-81055-7.
  • Edmondson, Jacqueline, ed. (2013). Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39348-8.
  • Eno, Brian (2004). "The Studio as Compositional Tool" (PDF). In Cox, Christoph; Warner, Daniel (eds.). Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-1615-5.
  • Gillett, Charlie (1984). The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. Perseus Books Group. ISBN 978-0-306-80683-4.
  • Greene, Doyle (2016). Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966–1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2403-7.
  • Hannan, Michael (2008). "The sound design of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". In Julien, Olivier (ed.). Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-6708-7.
  • Hodgson, Jay (2010). Understanding Records: A Field Guide to Recording Practice. New York, NY: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-5607-5.
  • Howard, David N. (2004). Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-05560-7.
  • Julien, Oliver (2008). "'A lucky man who made the grade': Sgt. Pepper and the rise of a phonographic tradition in twentieth-century popular music". In Julien, Olivier (ed.). Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-6708-7.
  • Martin, Bill (2015). Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork. Open Court Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8126-9939-5.
  • Millard, André (2012). Beatlemania: Technology, Business, and Teen Culture in Cold War America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0525-4.
  • Moorefield, Virgil (2010). The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-13457-6.
  • Ribowsky, Mark (1989). He's a Rebel. Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-24727-2.
  • Toop, David (2018) [First published 1995]. Ocean of Sound: Ambient Sound and Radical Listening in the Age of Communication. Serpent's Tail. ISBN 978-1-78816-030-8.
  • Zak, Albin (2001). Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92815-2.

Further reading Edit

  • Eller, Dylan (March 28, 2016). "Revisiting Brian Eno's 'The Studio as a Compositional Tool'". TechCrunch.
  • Schmidt Horning, Susan (2016) [1st pub. 2012 by Ashgate]. "The Sounds of Space: Studio as Instrument in the Era of High Fidelity". In Frith, Simon; Zagorski-Thomas, Simon (eds.). The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4094-0562-7.

October 15, 2023
recording, studio, instrument, music, production, recording, studio, often, treated, musical, instrument, when, plays, significant, role, composition, music, sometimes, called, playing, studio, approach, typically, embodied, artists, producers, favor, creative. In music production the recording studio is often treated as a musical instrument when it plays a significant role in the composition of music Sometimes called playing the studio the approach is typically embodied by artists or producers who favor the creative use of studio technology in record production as opposed to simply documenting live performances in studio 1 Techniques include the incorporation of non musical sounds overdubbing tape edits sound synthesis audio signal processing and combining segmented performances takes into a unified whole A Studer four track tape recorder used at EMI Studios from 1965 to the 1970sComposers have exploited the potential of multitrack recording from the time the technology was first introduced Before the late 1940s musical recordings were typically created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real life performance Following the advent of three track tape recorders in the mid 1950s recording spaces became more accustomed for in studio composition By the late 1960s in studio composition had become standard practice and has remained as such into the 21st century Despite the widespread changes that have led to more compact recording set ups individual components such as digital audio workstations DAW are still colloquially referred to as the studio 2 Contents 1 Definitions 2 Evolution of recording processes 3 Notable artists and works 3 1 1940s 1950s 3 2 1950s 1960s 3 2 1 Meek Leiber Stoller and Spector 3 2 2 Beatles and Beach Boys 3 3 1970s 2010s 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 Further readingDefinitions EditThere is no single instance in which the studio suddenly became recognized as an instrument and even at present 2018 it may not have wide recognition as such Nevertheless there is a historical precedent of the studio broadly defined consciously being used to perform music Adam Bell Dawn of the DAW The Studio As Musical Instrument 3 Playing the studio is equivalent to in studio composition meaning writing and production occur concurrently 4 Definitions of the specific criterion of a musical instrument vary 5 and it is unclear whether the studio as instrument concept extends to using multi track recording simply to facilitate the basic music writing process 6 According to academic Adam Bell some proposed definitions may be consistent with music produced in a recording studio but not with music that relies heavily on digital audio workstations DAW 5 Various music educators alluded to using the studio as a musical instrument in books published as early as the late 1960s 7 Rock historian Doyle Greene defines studio as compositional tool as a process in which music is produced around studio constructions rather than the more traditional method of capturing a live performance as is 1 Techniques include the incorporation of non musical sounds overdubbing tape edits sound synthesis audio signal processing and combining segmented performances takes into a unified whole 1 Despite the widespread changes that have led to more compact recording set ups individual components such as DAWs are still referred to as the studio 2 Evolution of recording processes Edit nbsp Phil Spector center at Gold Star Studios where he developed his Wall of Sound methods 1965Composers have exploited the potential of recording technology since it was first made available to them 8 Before the late 1940s musical recordings were typically created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real life performance 9 Writing in 1937 the American composer John Cage called for the development of centers of experimental music places where the new materials oscillators turntables generators means for amplifying small sounds film phonographs etc would allow composers to work using twentieth century means for making music 10 In the early 1950s electronic equipment was expensive to own and for most people was only accessible through large organizations or institutions However virtually every young composer was interested in the potential of tape based recording 11 According to Brian Eno the move to tape was very important because unlike gramophone records tape was malleable and mutable and cuttable and reversible in ways that discs aren t It s very hard to do anything interesting with a disc 9 In the mid 1950s popular recording conventions changed profoundly with the advent of three track tape recorders 12 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 13 In studio composition became standard practice by the late 1960s and early 1970s and remained so into the 2010s During the 1970s the studio as instrument concept shifted from the studio s recording space to the studio s control room where electronic instruments could be plugged directly into the mixing console 14 As of the 2010s the studio as instrument idea remains ubiquitous in genres such as pop hip hop and electronic music 15 Notable artists and works Edit1940s 1950s Edit 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 was a significant chart hit and became the first popular recording to use artificial reverb for artistic effect 15 Although Les Paul was not the first to use overdubs he popularized the technique in the 1950s 16 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 however her tape experiments were mostly unheard at the time 15 1950s 1960s Edit Meek Leiber Stoller and Spector Edit nbsp The Tornadoes Telstar 1962 source source Meek s best known production Telstar features a sped up piano a clavioline overdubbed three times and a guitar that fades in and out of the recording 15 The piece won an Ivor Novello Award and sold over five million copies worldwide Problems playing this file See media help English producer Joe Meek was 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 17 He began production work in 1955 at IBC Studios in London One of Meek s signature techniques was to overload a signal with dynamic range compression which was unorthodox at the time He was antagonized by his employers for his radical techniques Some of these methods such as close miking instruments later became part of normal recording practice 15 Music journalist Mark Beaumont writes that Meek realised the studio as instrument philosophy years before The Beatles or The Beach Boys 18 Discussing Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Adam Bell describes the songwriting duo s productions for the Coasters as an excellent example of their pioneering practices in the emerging field of production citing an account from Stoller in which he recalls cutting esses off words sticking the tape back together so you didn t notice And sometimes if the first refrain on a take was good and the second one lousy we d tape another recording of the first one and stick it in place of the second one 19 Phil Spector sometimes regarded as Joe Meek s American counterpart 20 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 21 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 22 nb 1 It evolved from his mid 1950s work with Leiber and Stoller during the period in which they sought a fuller sound through excessive instrumentation 24 nb 2 Spector s 1963 production of Be My Baby according to Rolling Stone magazine was a Rosetta stone for studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson 25 nbsp Martin working with the Beatles 1964Beatles and Beach Boys Edit The Beatles producer George Martin and the Beach Boys producer songwriter Brian Wilson are generally credited with helping to popularize the idea of the studio as an instrument used for in studio composition and music producers after the mid 1960s increasingly drew from their work 26 nb 3 Although Martin was nominally the Beatles producer from 1964 he ceded control to the band allowing them to use the studio as a workshop for their ideas and later as a sound laboratory 28 Musicologist Olivier 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 sessions for Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967 29 Wilson who was mentored by Spector 30 was another early auteur of popular music 26 Authors Jim Cogan and William Clark credit him as the first rock producer to use the studio as a discrete instrument 30 nbsp The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows 1966 source source Author Mark Brend writes that with Revolver the Beatles advanced on Meek s approach and employed the studio as an environment for wide ranging sonic research that included experimentation with tape loops reversed and speed manipulated tape sounds and backwards recorded lead guitar parts 31 Problems playing this file See media help According to author David Howard Martin s work on the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver and Spector s production of River Deep Mountain High from the same year were the two recordings that ensured that the studio was now its own instrument 32 Citing composer and producer Virgil Moorefield s book The Producer as Composer author Jay Hodgson highlights Revolver as representing a dramatic turning point in recording history through its dedication to studio exploration over the performability of the songs as this and subsequent Beatles albums reshaped listeners preconceptions of a pop recording 33 According to Julien the follow up LP 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 34 Composer and musicologist Michael Hannan attributes the album s impact to Martin and his engineers in response to the Beatles demands making increasingly creative use of studio equipment and originating new processes 35 Like Revolver Good Vibrations which Wilson produced for the Beach Boys in 1966 was a prime proponent in revolutionizing rock from live concert performances into studio productions that could only exist on record 36 For the first time Wilson limited himself to recording short interchangeable fragments or modules rather than a complete song Through the method of tape splicing each fragment could then be assembled into a linear sequence as Wilson explored on subsequent recordings from this period allowing any number of larger structures and divergent moods to be produced at a later time 37 nb 4 Musicologist Charlie Gillett called Good Vibrations 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 38 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 Sgt Pepper 39 1970s 2010s Edit nbsp Brian Eno at a live remix in 2012Adam Bell credits Brian Eno with popularizing the concept of the studio as instrument particularly that it did not require previous experience and in some ways a lack of know how might even be advantageous to creativity and that such an approach was typified by Kraftwerk whose members proclaimed we play the studio 14 He goes on to say While those of the ilk of Brian Wilson used the studio as an instrument by orchestrating everyone that worked within it the turn to technology in the cases of Sly Stone Stevie Wonder Prince and Brian Eno signify a conceptual shift in which an alternative approach that might make using the studio as an instrument cheaper easier more convenient or more creative was increasingly sought after Compared to the 1960s using the studio as an instrument became less about working the system as it were and working the systems 14 Producer Conny Plank was cited as creating a world in sound using the studio as an instrument producing bands such as Can Cluster Neu Kraftwerk and Ultravox amongst many others the studio was seen as an integral part of the music 40 41 Jamaican producer Lee Scratch Perry was noted for his 70s reggae and dub productions recorded at his Black Ark studio 42 David Toop commented that at its heights Perry s genius has transformed the recording studio into virtual space an imaginary chamber over which presided the electronic wizard evangelist gossip columnist and Dr Frankenstein that he became 43 From the late 1970s onward hip hop production has been strongly linked to the lineage and technique of earlier artists who used the studio as an instrument Jazz critic Francis Davis identified early hip hop DJs including Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash as grassroots successors to Phil Spector Brian Wilson and George Martin the 1960s producers who pioneered the use of the recording studio as an instrument in its own right 44 nbsp My Bloody Valentine performing in 2008Beginning in the 1980s musicians associated with the genres dream pop and shoegazing made innovative use of effects pedals and recording techniques to create ethereal dreamy musical atmospheres 45 The English Irish shoegazing band My Bloody Valentine helmed by guitarist producer Kevin Shields are often celebrated for their studio albums Isn t Anything 1988 and Loveless 1991 Writing for The Sunday Times Paul Lester said Shields is widely accepted as shoegazing s genius with his astonishing wall of sound use of the studio as instrument and dazzling reinvention of the guitar making him a sort of hydra headed Spector Hendrix Eno figure 46 American psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips earned comparisons by critics to Brian Wilson s work failed verification when discussing their albums Zaireeka 1997 and The Soft Bulletin 1999 which were the results of extensive studio experimentation When asked what instrument does he play frontman Wayne Coyne simply stated the recording studio 47 importance of example s See also Edit nbsp Record production portalAcousmatic music Art pop Click track Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center Electroacoustic music Experimental pop Groupe de Recherches Musicales Lo fi DIY music Plunderphonics Post punk Psychedelic music Recording consciousness Recording practices of the Beatles Soundbreaking documentary series Xenochrony Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano Studio for Electronic Music WDR Notes Edit For example Spector would often duplicate a part played by an acoustic piano with an electric piano and a harpsichord 23 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 23 Leiber and Stoller considered Spector s methods to be very distinct from what they were doing stating Phil was the first one to use multiple drum kits three pianos and so on We went for much more clarity in terms of instrumental colors and he deliberately blended everything into a kind of mulch He definitely had a different point of view 24 Academic Bill Martin writes 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 27 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 concrete and seemed to be breaking the audio fourth wall if there can said to be such a thing 37 References Edit a b c Greene 2016 p 179 a b Bell 2018 p 34 Bell 2018 p 37 Seymour Corey June 5 2015 Love amp Mercy Does Justice to the Brilliance of Brian Wilson Vogue Archived from the original on June 7 2015 Retrieved October 31 2018 a b Bell 2018 pp 34 35 Bell 2018 p 38 Bell 2018 p xvi Eno 2004 p 127 a b Eno 2004 p 128 Cage J 2004 The Future of Music Credo in Cox Christoph Warner Daniel Audio Culture Readings in Modern Music A amp C Black ISBN 978 0 8264 1615 5 Holmes Thomas B Holmes Thom 2002 Electronic and Experimental Music Pioneers in Technology and Composition Psychology Press pp 81 85 ISBN 978 0 415 93644 6 Eno 2004 pp 128 129 Blake 2009 p 45 a b c Bell 2018 p 49 a b c d e A Brief History of The Studio As An Instrument Part 1 Early Reflections Ableton com October 25 2016 Bell 2018 p 12 39 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 Beaumont Mark February 3 2022 Suicide or murder The life and untimely death of Sixties pop genius Joe Meek Independent Retrieved April 11 2022 Bell 2018 p 39 Gritten David October 1 2016 Joe Meek and the tragic demise of the maverick who revolutionised British pop The Telegraph Bannister 2007 p 38 Zak 2001 p 77 a b Ribowsky 1989 pp 185 186 a b Moorefield 2010 p 10 The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time RollingStone com Archived from the original on 16 May 2007 Retrieved 2007 06 02 a b Edmondson 2013 p 890 Martin 2015 p 75 Millard 2012 pp 178 79 Julien 2008 p 162 a b Cogan amp Clark 2003 pp 32 33 Brend 2005 pp 55 56 Howard 2004 pp 2 3 Hodgson 2010 pp viii ix Julien 2008 pp 166 167 Hannan 2008 p 46 Ashby 2004 p 282 a b Heiser Marshall November 2012 SMiLE Brian Wilson s Musical Mosaic The Journal on the Art of Record Production 7 Archived from the original on 2015 04 15 Retrieved 2017 07 14 Gillett 1984 p 329 Sculatti Gene September 1968 Villains and Heroes In Defense of the Beach Boys Jazz amp Pop Archived from the original on 14 July 2014 Retrieved 10 July 2014 A Brief History of The Studio As An Instrument Part 3 Ableton www ableton com Retrieved 2023 04 29 Dave Everley 2019 09 05 How prog was Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank louder Retrieved 2023 04 29 Toop 2018 p 115 Toop 2018 pp 114 115 Davis 2004 p 259 Edmondson 2013 p 1205 Lester Paul April 12 2009 Sonic Cathedral spark shoegazing music revival Times Online Archived from the original on September 19 2009 Wayne Coyne I Am Not on Drugs Yet 22 January 2011 Bibliography EditAshby Arved Mark ed 2004 The Pleasure of Modernist Music Listening Meaning Intention Ideology Boydell amp Brewer ISBN 978 1 58046 143 6 Bannister Matthew 2007 White Boys White Noise Masculinities and 1980s Indie Guitar Rock Ashgate Publishing Ltd ISBN 978 0 7546 8803 7 Bell Adam Patrick 2018 Dawn of the DAW The Studio As Musical Instrument Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 029660 5 Blake Andrew 2009 Recording practices and the role of the producer In Cook Nicholas Clarke Eric Leech Wilkinson Daniel eds The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 139 82796 6 Brend Mark 2005 Strange Sounds Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop San Francisco CA Backbeat Books ISBN 978 0 879308551 Cogan Jim Clark William 2003 Temples of Sound Inside the Great Recording Studios Chronicle Books ISBN 978 0 8118 3394 3 Davis Francis 2004 Jazz and Its Discontents A Francis Davis Reader Da Capo ISBN 0 306 81055 7 Edmondson Jacqueline ed 2013 Music in American Life An Encyclopedia of the Songs Styles Stars and Stories that Shaped our Culture ABC CLIO ISBN 978 0 313 39348 8 Eno Brian 2004 The Studio as Compositional Tool PDF In Cox Christoph Warner Daniel eds Audio Culture Readings in Modern Music A amp C Black ISBN 978 0 8264 1615 5 Gillett Charlie 1984 The Sound of the City The Rise of Rock and Roll Perseus Books Group ISBN 978 0 306 80683 4 Greene Doyle 2016 Rock Counterculture and the Avant Garde 1966 1970 How the Beatles Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era McFarland ISBN 978 1 4766 2403 7 Hannan Michael 2008 The sound design of Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band In Julien Olivier ed Sgt Pepper and the Beatles It Was Forty Years Ago Today Ashgate ISBN 978 0 7546 6708 7 Hodgson Jay 2010 Understanding Records A Field Guide to Recording Practice New York NY Continuum ISBN 978 1 4411 5607 5 Howard David N 2004 Sonic Alchemy Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings Milwaukee WI Hal Leonard ISBN 0 634 05560 7 Julien Oliver 2008 A lucky man who made the grade Sgt Pepper and the rise of a phonographic tradition in twentieth century popular music In Julien Olivier ed Sgt Pepper and the Beatles It Was Forty Years Ago Today Ashgate ISBN 978 0 7546 6708 7 Martin Bill 2015 Avant Rock Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork Open Court Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 8126 9939 5 Millard Andre 2012 Beatlemania Technology Business and Teen Culture in Cold War America Baltimore MD Johns Hopkins University Press ISBN 978 1 4214 0525 4 Moorefield Virgil 2010 The Producer as Composer Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music MIT Press ISBN 978 0 262 13457 6 Ribowsky Mark 1989 He s a Rebel Dutton ISBN 978 0 525 24727 2 Toop David 2018 First published 1995 Ocean of Sound Ambient Sound and Radical Listening in the Age of Communication Serpent s Tail ISBN 978 1 78816 030 8 Zak Albin 2001 Poetics of Rock Cutting Tracks Making Records University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 92815 2 Further reading EditEller Dylan March 28 2016 Revisiting Brian Eno s The Studio as a Compositional Tool TechCrunch Schmidt Horning Susan 2016 1st pub 2012 by Ashgate The Sounds of Space Studio as Instrument in the Era of High Fidelity In Frith Simon Zagorski Thomas Simon eds The Art of Record Production An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field Routledge ISBN 978 1 4094 0562 7 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Recording studio as an instrument amp oldid 1176496501, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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