The Evolution Of Music Production And Recording Engineers

The Rise of Popular Genres in the 1990s

The 1990s were an era that was musically rich, and saw the rise of popular music. The trends that had started in the 1970s and 80s continued; and numerous new genres also came up. Pop music was accompanied by hip-hop, which reached a highly successful stage during these years, and was therefore termed as this genre’s golden age. Contemporary rhythm and blues, rap and reggae gained popularity; in general, urban music was tremendously popular during these years (Van der Hoeven, 2014). This often gave rise to several fusion genres, where urban music was blended with the contemporary styles of soul and jazz.

The growth of computers and technology brought about a decrease in the cost of music production as well as the required equipment, and this led to the rapid growth in the field of electronic music (Emmerson, 2013). The genres that sprang up were techno, progressive and vocal house, and trance.

Rock music gained an altogether different level of popularity, and with the emergence of bands like Nirvana and Radiohead, alternative rock found a way into mainstream music (Strong & Rogers, 2016). It became the most commercially successful genre of music, and many bands that had previously not experimented with it came forward and adopted it. The major bands that were actively engaged in the production of alternative rock music were Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Radiohead, Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction. The Red Hot Chili Peppers was also an important band that helped in the popularity of alternative rock, with their unique blend of funk rock along with the conventional rock form (Mark Yarm, 2017). Their 1999 album, Californication, was the climax of their success. The 90s also witnessed the success of glam metal bands such as Firehouse and Skid Row, but their popularity reached a standstill after 1992-93. The bands that remained consistently popular were Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and of course, Bon Jovi.

Pablo Honey was the debut studio album from the house of English rock band Radiohead that was released in the year 1993 by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Capital Records in the USA. The band started out with demo recording in 1990 before signing a deal with EMI and modifying their name to Radiohead. This paper would take into account the role of the audio engineers in making such recordings and playbacks a major success and the skill sets required by the audio engineers in doing of the same.

Alternative Rock and Urban Music

A History Of Sound Capture And Playback Technology

Long before sound was first exposed, music was proofed- first taken in as the music notation in written structure, then by the mechanical confirmation like the wind-up music boxes where there is existence of a mechanism that turns a spindle resolving the metal tines and manufacturing a melody (Srinivasamurthy et al., 2016). Recording of sound has been stated as an old dream of man. Scientists began declaring the physical fundamentals of the sound in the early middle ages. A Roman philosopher by the name of Bonetus stated the existing relation between the strongholds of vibration and the sound pitch by the end of the 5^th century. During the middle ages, several researchers have tried recording sounds though not with much success, due to their inadequate knowledge.

It was, Jean Duhamel, a French physician and a mathematician who projected a better plan of a player machine along with a sound recorder. He thought to capture the air vibrations through the help of an elastic membrane associated with a needle that scrapes a soft material (Osborn, 2016).  In the year 1877, a machine was manufactured by Thomas Alva Edison that worked properly and as suggested by Duhamel, Edison documented the sound to a tinfoil-covered tube through the help of a needle along with a membrane and a sound-collector conduit. In the year 1887, Emil Berliner got patent to a fresh device of sound recorder, named gramophone. The gramophone device accounts the sound within the disc and not within a cylinder. Gramophone became very popular for the fact that it was easier copying and it was able to squeeze out phonograph out of the market, which was invented in the year 1877 for the purpose of mechanical recording and sound reproduction. Since the year 1940, gramophone transformed into a record player and in recent times into a turntable. The vibrations of the sound waveforms are verified as equivalent physical divergence of a spiral furrow impressed or incised into the exterior of a revolving disc, known as the ‘record’ (Van der Hoeven, 2014).

CD’s were introduced in 1982 that worked like the old vinyl that has the capability in recording spirals on the disc.  Digital audio tape (DAT) came in 1987 that was developed by a company by the name of Sony. DAT is stated to be very similar to the compact cassettes that makes use of a magnetic tape and is confined with a plastic cover. The purpose of such a device has been to record the digital indication rather than the analogue. DAT has the ability in storing more music along with the efficiency being more precise.

The Growth of Electronic Music

The first decade of the 21^st century witnessed an explosion of technology that rocked the total media industries including the industry of recording. Increased speeds of the processor along with the capacities of hard drive have made home recording a feasible alternative for everyone. The result of such swift changes in the technology of computer is evident in the assortment of the new applications of software. The design of recording softwares was targeting certain specific markets like the DJs and the beat writers. Therefore, filling a void missing by the programs chiefly intended for the engineers and musicians. In keeping up with the express growth has been a complex task for the audio engineer. Hardware technology that is being designed would never alter its signal-flow unless being customized by the chief technical engineer of the studio. However, in case of software it is a different proposition. The software merits updated in fixing the flaws within the design, making it difficult for the new users in learning of the same.

Moving forward, the rapid improvement of the recording of the software has challenged the conventional way of creating records. The capability of generating music inexpensively altered the means through which the audio engineers go about their daily work. Today’s audio engineers would be finding themselves in most of the non-conventional recording positions. For this, the audio engineers have been enforced in being more creative in their advancement for maintaining a professional eminence recording.   

Recording in such non conventional situations necessitates many professional recording the studio experience. Home recordings have been very few as unless one has the experience of working in certain professional situations and has the knowledge of technical abilities of handling equipments for playback, one would be having no clue of the things required generating sound (Nathan & Dion, 2017). An experienced engineer would be able to produce better product in his home with the available playback technology at his helm rather than an inexperienced engineer working in a pro studio.

a. Audio Recording And Engineering

An audio engineer is stated to be a trained professional working with the mechanics of mixing, recording and generating sound. Audio engineers should not be mixed with sound producers or the performers as they are the people who deal with the technical side and the mechanical facet of sound and music. It entails an exclusive set of skills for being successful for a recording engineer. One needs to have a trained ear for the refinements of sound along with the mastery of the tons of compound analog and digital equipments. He should also possess the ability of using the technology in attaining specific imaginative results.

The Emergence of Digital Recording

It is no surprise that most of the recording engineers are musicians themselves with many being aspiring musicians at certain point of time. Their love for music, working behind the scenes tirelessly and assisting other artists for making the most of their recordings is what an audio engineer does. The most preferred skill for a recording engineer should be his sense of balance. Everything that he does should be towards attainment of the balance. The drums cannot be much louder, the vocals cannot be much softer. A recording engineer needs a good ear, but only is that individual knows the ways of using the tools for achieving it. A recording engineer who is experienced generally has the feeling of him being the extension of the control board. Recording engineers who have been legendary has the ability of grabbing ten faders from ten various tracks and pushing the same into balance in simultaneous manner.

A recording engineer needs to be confidentially familiar with all the equipments in the studio and the ways each piece of equipment influences the sound of the audio that is being recorded. He needs to be an expert on various kinds of microphones along with every sort of electric guitar and amplifier. A recording engineer requires a stronger work ethic and an implausible attention in many details. Moreover, recording engineers should not be uncommon to marathon recordings that can last several nights, so for that they need to have patience (Janky & Schulhof, 2013). Learning to work fast is another aspect of the recording engineers and they should never be an impediment to the creative procedure. At certain times if the artist is getting new ideas for vocals and the engineer is not ready to record the same, then people would feel much frustrated. An engineers’ work can be utterly frustrating and complex- juggling various critical tasks within a single time frame.

Communication can be stated as the most essential skill of the audio engineer or the recording engineer. Their job is most difficult as they have to work with recording artists having their own style of communication (Emmerson, 2013). The recording engineer needs to learn the exact time when to speak up and when to keep numb. He needs to gauge the personality and the artist’s mood to understand the exact time of making suggestions. A good audio engineer would always establish himself as the helpful partner within the procedure, and not act like a referee pointing out to the mistakes.

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