In this blog post, I am going to be taking various songs from different decades and exploring the production behind them. These will mean looking into instruments used, music recording techniques/systems, how computer technology has effected the recording, production/pre-production techniques and influences on the recordings. Some of these songs will be landmark recordings which have changed/pioneered recording in some shape or form at a certain point in history.
Deadweight
First of all I’m going to to be looking at a song by Eastbourne pop-punk band, ROAM.
The intro to the song has a fade in effect with a feedback drone, and then a fast palm muted riff kicks in to start the song. Straight away, this song is giving very strong, old school pop punk vibes, following older bands such as Sum-41. Listening to this song without knowing the date makes me think that this song could be early 2000’s easily. But there are certain aspects of this song which give away the fact that it is more modern sounding than early 2000’s pop-punk. The first big giveaway for me is the drum sound. The drums to me sound way too clean, the drums don’t sound programmed to me but they sound like they have been quantised which gives off a slight hint of a programmed drum sound. The instruments used in this song are drums, bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar and three male vocal parts accompanied by vocal harmonies. The third male vocal is Matt Wilson from american pop-punk band, Set Your Goals. There is a section within this song at the start of the second verse which contains a feature from Matt Wilson. There is a bassline that goes underneath what Matt is singing and I personally really love the tone. It’s thick and gurgling, which really compliments the lyrics and rhythmic structure for this section of the song. In terms of the recording techniques/systems used for this song, I think that the drums were all mic’d up individual along with two overhead mics, one hi hat mic, and one ride mic. My reason for thinking this is because every hit is so defined and tight sounding. The same sound is achievable with other recording systems, but I believe that the method I have explained is the one used. The cymbals are very low in the mix on this single, they are still in the mix, but they are very drowned out by the drums themselves. The vocals sound heavily compressed, auto-tuned and double tracked. Double tracking the vocals thickens out the vocal sound more and adds overall depth to the voice. In my opinion, the vocals in this track sound thick and burly which leads me to believe that they are double tracked. The vocals, although they sound good in my opinion, they do have a few slip ups. The autotune within this track is quite prominent to me and you can hear it especially well in certain parts, there is a slight slip at 2:20 in the song, on the lyric “and all I know is I’ve got my…” you can hear the vocal line slip and the autotune trying to grasp the write note. The overall timbre of this song sounds very burly and thick in my opinion, I think the way that everything in this song has been mixed has been done so purposely to make a thick, heavy sound. The drum sound in my opinion is one of the main reasons that this song sounds so thick, the drum kit may only be a small kit, but it sounds huge. Sometimes drummers can get very punchy sounds from drums from applying the correct technique, from previous experience and meeting the drummer from this band, I know that he employs Moeller technique, which is a whipping technique used to be able to strike the drum with great force whilst on gripping the stick lightly. This could be where the drum sound comes from for his particular drum sound. The room in which the drums were recorded in looks quite small, with carpeted floors. After some research, I’ve discovered that the room has sound acoustic treatment foam on the walls which helps give a dryer sound to the room, to try and get as close to a line input sound as possible for drums. I really like the drum sound on this track and honestly believe that without it, the song would automatically lose some of it’s power and thickness, the only thing I would’ve changed the volume level of the cymbal spread, although they can be heard, I think there is a distinct lack of them which takes away any high end in sound. But overall I really like the drum sound for this track. The guitar sounds for this track sound like they have been DI’d through into the recording system with effects being added in afterwards or via a profiling device such as a Kemper. Within a Kemper you can save your own sound pre-sets for later use, use ones already built in or simply use it as an amp. The sounds that can be made using a Kemper in my opinion are very good, although it can be considered as “not a natural sound” I think the Kemper Profiling System gives a better, cleaner sound to guitars and basses. Within this song, the use of a profiling device is a good idea, for the clear, heavy, distorted sound. When it comes to the guitars, I think that the mix lacks more prominent lead lines, they tend to either be really prominent or barely present at all. But all in all I really like the guitar sound and levels for this track. In terms of rhythmic structures in this track, they’re are various different points to be made. I feel in pop-punk track nowadays, the rhythmic structures are written heavily based on crowd interaction. For instance, half time at a tempo of approximately 200BPM is a very solid rhythm to jump to, it’s also a chance for the melodic and rhythmic sections to open up slightly rather than just hammering chords and lead lines at 200BPM. An example of this is used within this track. In the chorus, the second time around the phrase “Deadweight buried” the pace goes half time and the played parts on all of the instruments free up and get more spacey, allowing a solid pulse, which is easy for a crowd to jump to. On the over end of the spectrum, the beginning of this song is very tight and fast paced, using a rhythm I like to refer to as “the gallop” due to it’s galloping sound. This type of rhythm can again be aimed at audiences due to it’s rowdy sound, which can induce “moshing” at gigs. But more so for the fact that pop-punk in general seen to be very fast paced, and this particular rhythm is pushing the song and giving it the correct pace it needs. The half time sections in this song bring a fresh change to the nature of the song and allowing it to breathe in a sense, rather than just slamming through the entire song in double time at 200BPM. I think this song is very good for rhythmic structures as they are used to compliment the song by giving it the forceful push it needs to work at 200BPM. Finalising my thoughts on this song, I strongly believe that the production used behind the scenes for this song works extremely well to fit the sound of the genre. I can tell that ROAM are trying to veer off from generic modern pop-punk band methods and are trying to bring they’re sound back to the old school, skater vibed pop-punk bands, such as Sum-41 and NOFX. I think that the band have made a very smart move trying to go down this root, in my opinion it is freshening up the pop-punk scene and the production behind this song and the album ‘Backbone’ (which Deadweight is from) in general. I honestly believe that ROAM and they’re producer(s) have made a very good statement with this track and the album which is hard to criticise. If I had to date this recording with only aural analysis, I would date it as a 2013/14 song.
Livery Stable Blues
The second song I’m going to be taking a look at is Livery Stable Blues by The Original Dixieland Jass Band.
Original Dixieland Jass Band – Livery Stable Blues
This recording is considered to be a huge landmark in time as it is documented to be the first commercial jazz song to be recorded and released in mass. Jazz at this stage was called “Jass” which was a term loosely used to refer to sex and was later changed (along with the band’s name too) to Jazz. The instruments I can hear within this piece are Cornet, Piano, Drums, Clarinet and Trombone. Timbre for this tune is a tricky one to pin down in my opinion, the best way I can describe it after listening numerous times is jagged and jolty, in the sense that there are particular notes played in this track that spike out and make me cringe due to the intensity of them. This isn’t however done to the playing. To me it seems like this is an effect of the recording. The recording technique that was used for this recording is nearly 100 years out-dated, which really shows that recording techniques and technology has come a long way this century. This track was recorded via cylinder to a wax disc. Essentially, a big metal cone would’ve been set up in the room, and the widest open end of the cone would face the band, the band would then play the song whilst the cylinder converted the sound and encrypted it on a wax disc. The recording procedure would’ve taken as long as it took to fill the wax disc, depending on the size of it, a song could be a range of different lengths. For the earlier wax discs this would’ve been around two minutes give or take, whereas the ones that were developed later into using this system could hold up to around four minutes. The wax disc method was eventually outdated due to the fact that it was very hard to copy the wax disc without ruining the original completely. The more copies that were made, the worst the original got until it was eventually ruined. Livery Stable Blues was transferred over onto shellac vinyl from the wax disc and was mass produced to be sold around the world. The song eventually became the first popular music song to hit a million sales. Using the cylinder recording method would’ve posed various different problems for those recording a song, this was greatly down to the fact that this was essentially the first proven to work method of recording at the time. Songs that were longer than the capacity of the wax disc would have either of had sections cut from the song to shorten it, or they would’ve had to speed up the song to fill the wax disc capacity. Another irritating factor to this recording method would’ve been the performance technique. The musicians on this record had no way to EQ or mix anything once it was recorded, it was recorded exactly the way it is performed and nothing else could be done to alter it. This meant that levels had to be as close to exact whilst performing this song. The drums in particular would’ve had to stay as low as possible within the mix as it would’ve overpowered every other instrument if the drummer played however he liked. Basically, all of the musicians had to cooperate with each other to make sure no one was playing over the other. In my opinion, it’s done considerably well on this track, especially as it’s the first jazz recording. My only quarrel is that the drums seem to be pretty much non-existent on this track and can only really be heard properly with headphones. That may be down to my hearing in particular, but to me it’s virtually non existence in the mix. To finalise, this song is obviously very poor sounding in todays standard of recording, but considering it is the first jazz recording to ever exist, I think it is very good, especially at a first attempt. Also, this record sold over a million copies, so I don’t think in can be judged as a bad recording, solely down to that fact.
When The Levee Breaks
The next tune I’m going to be delving into, is When The Levee Breaks, re-arranged, performed and recorded by famous pioneering rock band, Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks
When The Levee Breaks was a track written by a blues duo from Raymond, Mississippi. The song was influenced by huge flood in Mississippi which occurred in 1927 and caused water to submerge everything to a 30ft depth. Led Zeppelin went on to re-arrange and record this song in 1971 for a release on their fourth studio album, Led Zeppelin IV. A heavy drum beat kicks in the intro for this song, which has a very unique sound to it. It sounds like everything has an echo. When first listening to this track I thought John Bonham was being a genius and play ghost notes with both the bass drum and just about everything else! But after more intense listening I realised that this distinct drum sound comes from the room itself. The drum beat that John Bonham plays in this track is actually very simple, but because of the room sound, it sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. After further research I discovered that the drums were actually recorded in the stairwell of the studio, with mics set up at the top of the stairs, whilst the drums were set-up and played at the bottom. This makes everything that is played on the drums echo like crazy creating the effect of a lot of reverb and a sound that seems like Bonham is playing ghost notes around the kit too. The amazing thing about this recording technique is that the drums still sound incredible even thought the mics are all the way up a flight of stairs. Some engineers can’t manage a good sound whilst the mics are virtually touching the drum. Although the drums do sound really cool on this recording, using this method on normal tracks probably won’t be ideal. It works for this particular track because the drum beat within the song is very open and simple. If we were to apply the same recording technique to the ROAM song I spoke about earlier in this blog post, it would make the song and drum sound extremely messy and horribly reverbed. Especially as the song is a lot faster than When The Levee Breaks. The guitars in this track have a country sound to them with screeching notes that rattle through your head. It instantly reminds me of classic western film soundtracks. The guitars and bass would’ve been recording through microphones rather than direct input as it wasn’t much of a thing back in the 1970s. For this track however, having the guitars and bass recorded through mics ands certain tones to instruments that aren’t achievable through direct input. For instance, the volume of the amp would’ve added natural distortion which you couldn’t add post production. This is a nice little effect which results in the guitar tone sounding a lot more natural than is achievable via direct input or through a profilling amp. The instruments that are used in this whole recording are drums, harmonica, one male vocal, bass and guitar. The harmonica that Robert Plant plays in this song also has a cool echoey type of effect on it. It sounds almost as if there has been an echo effect added to the harmonica and then it’s been reversed, which creates a very strange echo effect that sticks out like a sore thumb. It sounds great in my opinion. The production on this track seems to be aiming for a sludgy, western style sound, which is achieved very well. Another odd thing that I couldn’t put my finger on to start with, is the fact that the song sounds like its dragging, but in an explainable way, like the song is played in slow motion. It’s turns out that the song was recorded at a faster tempo and then slowed down once everything (except the vocals) was finished and recorded. Another distinct effect that is used very effectively. Overall, I think the production is very odd on this recording but it is definitely used to the band’s advantage. The effects and recording techniques were very well implemented by the producer and the band to create an awesome sounding song. The only thing I don’t like about the song in particular is that it doesn’t seem to bare much dynamic and the song does start to get stale a few minutes in.
Ok, Time For Plan B
Ok, Time For Plan B is the closing song to debut album Take To The Skies by Enter Shikari. This song along with Sorry You’re Not A Winner was the first song the band recorded and got onto an EP. The EP was called Sorry You’re Not A Winner/Ok, Time For Plan B. It also had a demo of a song called The Feast.
Enter Shikari – Ok, Time For Plan B
The instruments used for this track are two male vocals, drums, guitar, bass and a synthesiser. From listening to the track, in my opinion the song is about a relationship where the girl used the guy as a rebound until she found someone who is better than him, then run off with him leaving the previous male shocked in awe. The lyrics that mainly puts this story into my head are “Let this battle commence, one last time” meaning the battle between the two males over the girl, “Yeah you’ve lost the will, to do what’s right again” The girl is going against the right thing to do to ensure she satisfies her own needs. There is also a line in the song that shows that the guy being used wants to move on, but can’t get past his emotions to forget about her “Hunger to discover that you’re not here”. The song itself is a very unique sound, along with all of Shikari’s music. I for one can’t confidently define the genre of their style, but if I were forced to decide I would say Electronic/Alt-Rock. The vocal approach to this song is a mix of shouting and singing, which gives a very hardcore sound to the song, also the singing parts of the song mellow the track out so that it isn’t too much of the same feel, Rou is a very creative lyricist in my eyes because he holds mostly the same views in his lyrics. This gives me a bigger connection to the music as I can largely relate to the music the band makes. At the point in the song where the whole band shouts “Ok, Time For A Plan B!” really kicks the song into a big uproar and is a great way to finish off the album, without this breakdown I feel the song wouldn’t have as much feel to it. The breakdown itself consists of Rou shouting “This means war!” until it slows down even further with Rou along with backing vocals shouting “Let’s make the earth move, let’s make the ground shake!” it mostly consists of only drums, with the bass and guitar chugging twice on a power chord at the start of every bar. The song is the first song I have looked at in this essay that has the drummer playing on a double bass pedal, this is a stereotype among modern metal songs which is starting to appear, in that every song has the double bass pedal syncing up with a guitar riff (which is mostly just chugging on an open string) I for one don’t like this stereotype as I myself like how the drummer from Enter Shikari uses the double bass pedal in their music, and I don’t think the song would have the same feel to it without it. This song has heavy use of a synthesiser which in my opinion deeply separates this song from being any other modern metal song. Enter Shikari back in 2007 pioneered this new electronic metal sound and really managed to make a name for themselves entirely through self-releasing music through a self-funded record label. It’s a very strong move to make both as band and as a production technique as at the time it was way out there. The timbre of this song sounds very crunchy and tightly strung, I think this comes mainly from the rhythmic structures and the tones from both the guitar and the synthesiser. The bursts of 16th notes throughout the song in various places are what makes me think that this song sounds tight and it’s used to an excellent degree in my eyes. The musical style of this track leads me to believe that the band were influenced by bands such as The Prodigy, due to the synth sounds at the use of a heavy sound. The drums for this song were recorded in the same way that the Deadweight drums were, but they aren’t mixed as well in my opinion. The drums sound good don’t get me wrong, but they lack any sense of character, sounding quite flat and unsatisfying to the ear. However I do believe that the mixing of this track is pulled back in a positive way by the guitar tone. It’s very beefy and punchy with just the right amount of distortion to add to the heavyness of the song. It’s arguable that this band helped pioneer a new genre for bands to form, bands such as A Skylit Drive, Hacktivists and so on.
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