Recording - July 2012 - 40

recording studios for traditional music have proliferated, but the tracking of these genres remains more costly and complicated. Whether or not you produce rock or rap, the implications of the small home studio revolution are significant. For independent musicians, it is now possible to release and distribute a project without label backing. While this is a boon to independent music, it is not without its downsides. Record labels, starved for cash, are all too happy to avoid renting expensive studios. Thus, in recent years the industry has seen the closure of many legendary studios. Engineers have also been hit hard economically. It is now more difficult than ever for audio engineers to support themselves from recording alone. For the artist, the great Catch-22 is that although it is now easier to release music, it is harder to grab popular attention. With so many people recording, vast amounts of less-than-professional music are produced. Sure, it’s great that anybody can express himself or herself, but listeners must wade through a whole lot more music when searching for something that they really like. Gone are the days when the major labels filtered the music for public consumption.

digital audio workstations (DAWs) grant the freedoms of both experimentation and excess. Modern styles especially embrace layering. Popular R&B is frequently laden with scores of backing vocals. Alternative rock is typified by the overdubbing of dozens of electric guitars. In this manner, the experienced producer must know when to say when, or the production process will never end. Vocals, especially lead vocals, are given special attention in the overdub stage. As the centerpiece of a track, the lead vocal is the most crucial, memorable, and fragile element. Because of this, vocal recording can be intense, stressful, and drawn out. Central to success is often the creation of a safe, inspirational, and efficient work environment. To ensure the best results, isolation from distraction is critical, and this often translates to use of an out-of-the-way studio, the need for cell phones to be turned off, and as few people around the session as possible. The appropriate studio vibe is also important, with niceties such as dimmed lights, candles, and fresh tea commonplace. Perhaps most essential, especially when recording demanding mega-star divas, is the ability of the engineer to keep a constant flow during the session. Ideally, singers should not wait long for engineers to get levels, make new tracks, or comp takes. With this in mind, pro engineers are typically very fast, and work hard to keep up with the artist’s workflow. Editing, comping, & tuning Since the introduction of tape recording in the 1940s, editing has been used to piece together recorded takes. Over the years, as tape machine track counts grew, more and more effort was spent on perfecting performances through techniques such as punching-in and multi-take compositing. It was in the 1990s, with the move to workstation-based production, that editing grew into its modern role. It is rare to see an album recorded today without some post-recording fixes. In fact, most current pop records see a lot of “fixing”. Comping (compositing) is a specific type of editing in which elements from multiple performances are pieced together to form a complete take. Singers run down a piece multiple times, after which a master performance can be comped from the best moments in each individual take. A tried and true technique, comping dates back to the days of analog when the best parts of half dozen or so vocal tracks would be bounced (rerecorded) to a new comp track. Due to the nearly unlimited track counts found in digital workstations, comping can be far more extensive in today’s productions. While some producers choose to record countless takes and edit after the fact, others prefer to make decisions during recording, keeping postproduction comping to a minimum. While editing is a generic term for all types of tweaking, it can refer specifically to the moving in time of recorded elements. A simple example of time editing is the aligning of notes from various musical instruments to fall together on a specific beat, such as at the crucial last note of a song. Editing can be far more extensive, though, such as the quantization of entire musical performances common in modern pop-rock productions.

In a traditional project, preproduction includes all of the work required before an artist or band commences recording. On the musical side, this might include songwriting, composition, arranging, rehearsing, and even touring.
Overdubs Following the recording of basic tracks, overdubbing is the process of layering various instruments and vocals. As with preproduction and tracking, the line in the sand between tracking and overdubbing is often blurred in the production of modern music. In some cases, however, the overdub stage is very discrete. For a lot of projects, all of one particular type of overdub, such as lead vocals, might be completed in one time frame and in one studio. Other overdubs, such as guitars, brass, and strings, might be done at another studio and time. Whereas the recording of basic tracks might go quickly, overdubbing can stretch out over weeks, months, and even years. Offering virtually unlimited tracks, today’s
40
RECORDING JULY 2012

TV-friendly performers, often young, inexperienced, and visually attractive, can make many small timing errors when performing. Since the aesthetic of today’s radiofriendly records is perfection, editing is required to save the day. Editors, often employing Avid Pro Tools, chop up every note and/or drum hit, aligning each perfectly to the beat grid. This approach is obviously controversial, with purists disgusted by the airbrushed outcome. The truth is that regardless of available technology, the manufacture of pop artists has always occurred. Forty-five years ago it took studio musicians to make the The Monkees sound perfect. Today’s heartthrobs need only a computer. Tuning, or as it is often referred to, “Auto-Tuning” after Antares’ famous Auto-Tune plug-in, has become a crucial part of the modern production process. Love it or hate it, tuning is the trend of the day, and most pop vocal performances are tuned to the point of obvious effect. Of course, tuning does not have to be recognizable or robotic. When pushed to their limits, plug-ins such as Auto-Tune and Melodyne do make the human voice synthetic. When used within reason, however, the results can be both subtle and effective. Pitch correction software now grants millions of mediocre singers the tools to peruse their dreams of recorded stardom. Every engineer should learn to tune. That’s where the work is.

Recording - July 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2012