I’ve recently returned to teaching audio at Houston Community College after a not-so-brief hiatus of some 20+ years. As I was preparing a lesson plan about microphones, I outlined in the lecture that recording and microphone techniques could be historically divided into two major categories: old-school & new-school. And inevitably, there was a crossover period where old school techniques co-existed with the beginnings of a new-school approach. And these disciplines coincided over a period well-known for memorable music productions known as the SIXTIES (in reality, 1955 to 1968 +/- a year or so).
Prior to the sixties, the goal of music recording was to CAPTURE a performance. Both theaters and music studios were meticulously-designed in regard to natural sound and acoustics. Levels and volumes were adjusted by the musicians themselves or by physical placement on the “stage” of the performance. The recordist’s goals were to embrace the sound as if the listener were present at the performance.
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Paul with his Les Paulverizer, another one of his inventions that amplified and multiplied sound to simulate a full orchestra, delighted 1950s America as a star of vinyl, radio, and television. His inventiveness in the recording process enriched electronics company Ampex using his designs to become the standard in professional recording throughout the 1950s and 1960s. |
With the introduction of multi-track recording and large-format mixing consoles in the late 60’s, the new-school era of recording began. The process was conceived and developed by guitarist Les Paul in the 1940s with the financial and inspirational assistance of Bing Crosby and the Ampex Corporation,Each musical part of an overall performance could be recorded until it was “perfect”. If a “group performance” was good, but the bass player hit a bad note on the 32nd measure, you could now go back and “punch-in” the correct note from the bassist. Isolation of all instruments became ultra important as each part became a “performance” unto itself. Each “track” had its own level & tone control as well as acoustic environment. Now, the recording process BECAME the “performance.” This phenomenon has grown even more isolated, surgical and non-human in the present-day environment of digital workstations and virtual instruments.
In the SIXTIES… The first multi-track recorders (notwithstanding Les Paul’s research) appeared in 2-track & 3-track formats. Coming from a history of “capturing the performance”, the Rhythm Section of a song still followed the old-school guidelines in either mono or stereo (1 or 2 tracks respectively). That would leave one or two tracks open for a separate, isolated performance of vocals, string sections or horn sections – perhaps even a solo instrument. But the energy and synergy of capturing people playing together as a musical group was kept intact. In the extreme case of Phil Spector’s famous “wall of sound”, there would be two of every instrument – Two drummers, two piano players, two bass players, at least two guitar players & on & on – All playing simultaneously! The results were huge backing tracks full of energy, excitement, tone and acoustic space! And THAT is the magic inherent in the music of the period (and why recordings from that period continue to gain appreciative listeners, year after year, generation after generation).
Now I’m not revealing any startling new hypothesis here, nor am I addressing a subject that hasn’t already been reviewed or discussed by many before me. Presently, even music-as-a-career is currently in the middle of a old-school/new-school transition. But it’s always worthy to take a look in the rear-view mirror every now & then, especially in a discipline such as music where the career path to future success is so ill-defined. We’re all in search of the magic energy of a hit song. And in a world that’s become increasingly virtual and synthesized, maybe some answers lie in mixing modern music methods with the true beauty of human group interaction. Is it live? or is it… just music.
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llowed us to communicate with others. Outside of the occasional thunderclap, things were pretty darn quiet for a long while. But something happened when first, gunpowder, and then, the industrial revolution, arrived: LOUD NOISES. If you use your hearing for business, as I do, or just for things like hearing the beautiful sounds of nature, you might want to do everything possible to keep them healthy.
Before we go further in this series, we must understand that Copyright Law is constantly evolving in a strange, congressional law and litigation-based balancing act, either advancing or subtracting from a creator’s exclusive right to control an original artistic or scientific (some add technological) work. Four decades ago, most music copyright legal issues were confined to three areas: Counterfeit Duplication, Unauthorized Usage and Plagiarism. With counterfeiting, duplicators would crank out thousands of illegal copies of records and tapes and sell them to black market distributors. Most of this product found its way to countries with little or no copyright enforcement as well as some rural areas of the U.S. Federal penalties were quite strict and prosecuted under racketeering (RICO Act), whereby civil and criminal punishment came in a packaged bundle: up to 20 years in jail, $25,000 fines and seizing of all physical assets attributed to the criminal activity. After frequent FBI crackdowns in the late 70’s, most piracy relocated to Southeast Asia and China where it transitioned to compact discs in the 80’s. It was not significantly curtailed until the 1990’s when the U.S. made “protection of intellectual rights” a global trade issue.
Purpose & character of use – noncommercial or educational purposes
With the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (AHRA), which amended the Copyright Act of 1976, Congress attempts to resolve “home taping” and pre-internet digital recording issues. The act allowed the much-delayed arrival of Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Philip’s Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) & SONY’s minidisc into the US by defining the relationship and royalty rates between blank media/device manufacturers and the content industry. In regard to “home taping”, the act states in section 1008, “No action may be brought… alleging infringement of copyright… based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.” What congress intended was to legitimize the copying of a purchased record or cd for the sake of portability in the same sense that consumers could copy broadcast TV on a VCR for time-shifting. But consumers read “noncommercial” as not for sale to the public, though Congress clearly states later in the amendment “not for direct or indirect commercial advantage.” By no means did this amendment legitimize the copying of content just because you did it “at home” or didn’t “sell copies to the public.”
In its current ad campaign, 
Now YouTube has picked up a big hammer in enforcing the music rights. Have they unleashed a robot to listen for unlicensed music within video posts? 
Why do people hate radio? Is it an image problem? It must be! We research the music listeners want to hear, and then we rotate the songs through the day. And the cost to the listener? Totally free of charge! We should be the most beloved industry on the planet.
Now shuffle the deck and let a monkey draw 5 random cards for each hour. After the 52 cards run out, re-shuffle the deck and put the monkey back to work.
CONCLUSION
Does Elvis get a free dessert and song?
Published January 8, 2010 Productivity , blogs , commentary , music , social networking Leave a CommentTags: Birthday, Elvis, music, social media
ELVIS PRESLEY’S BIRTHDAY!
My how the time flies! Is it possible that Elvis Presley’s birthday on January 8, 2010 puts him at 75 years old? Have you seen him today?
Other celebrations exist too. Amazing isn’t it?