The Daily Omnivore

The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles during the early 1960s. Working with such audio engineers as Larry Levine and the session musicians who became known as The Wrecking Crew, Spector created a dense, layered, reverberant sound that came across well on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. He created this sound by having a number of electric and acoustic guitarists perform the same parts in unison, adding musical arrangements for large groups of musicians up to the size of orchestras, then recording the sound using an echo chamber.

To attain Spector’s signature sound, his arrangements called for large ensembles (including some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars), with multiple instruments doubling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer sound. Spector also included orchestral instruments – strings, woodwind, brass and percussion – not previously associated with youth-oriented pop music. Spector himself called his technique ‘a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids.’

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Auto-Tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies, which uses proprietary software to alter pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It was originally intended to disguise off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned despite originally being slightly off-key. The processor slightly blends pitches to the nearest true semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest tone in traditional equal temperament). Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly. The overall effect to the discerning ear can be described as hearing the voice leap from note to note stepwise, like a synthesizer.

Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch. Auto-Tune was used to produce the prominent altered vocal effect on Cher’s ‘Believe.’ Recorded in 1998, ‘Believe’ was the first commercial recording to use the software for this purpose. In an early interview, the producers claimed that they had used a Digitech Talker FX pedal, in an attempt to preserve a trade secret. After the success of the single, the technique became known as the ‘Cher Effect.’ The use of Auto-Tune as a musical effect was revived in the late-2000s by R&B singer T-Pain, who elaborated on the effect and made active use of Auto-Tune in his songs.

Overproduction is the excessive use of audio effects, layering, or digital manipulation in music production. Common traits include: audio processing effects such as reverb, delay, or dynamic range compression; heavy layering or multi-tracking  (in the context of pop and rock music, this may refer to the addition of elements such as chorused vocals or backing strings).

Other modifications include pitch correction, time correction, and quantization (correcting to perfect notes). Records are sometimes overseen by a producer who ‘imposes’ his or her own distinctive ‘sound’ or techniques on a band or artist (producers frequently accused of this kind of ‘overproduction’ include Phil Spector and Mutt Lange). The term ‘overproduction’ implies that a producer or mastering engineer has made ‘unnecessary’ additions or changes to a record in the production process, and in doing so has decreased the quality or enjoyability of the music.

The loudness war is a pejorative term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness. Older music typically has a very diverse dynamic, that is, there are quiet parts of the track and much louder parts. For example, acoustic interludes leading up to the body of a song might be produced at a very quiet level, with some of the loudest sounds being snare drums and other kinds of percussion.

While the rationale for the loudness war is often described as an attempt to make the quieter parts of music more accessible to a listener, the overall effect is that that dynamic between sounds becomes leveled out, with no sound standing out from the track as a much louder sound. This results in a loss of clarity, where it’s no longer possible to experience music as a distinct interplay of louder and quieter parts.

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