Recording studios play a vital part in the music industry. They are where state-of-the-art equipment is used to record musical performances for posterity or for release as a single or album. They may also be involved in other aspects of sound recording, such as manipulating sounds electronically to produce new or unusual effects.
The history of audio recording began with Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877. Edison’s original machine used wax cylinders as the recording medium, but these were replaced ten years later by flat discs. Initially, these early phonographs were intended to be a type of archiving device…like a dictaphone or a message machine. However, manufacturers were quick to sense the commercial potential of this new device, and introduced the first records and phonographs for the entertainment market in 1894. By 1924, thousands of phonographs and millions of records had been sold.
The growth of radio in the 1930s led to great advances in sound recording. Early recordings on Edison-type machines had used large conical “horns” as the transducer (a device that electrically or mechanically changes one form of energy into another). These horns recorded the source sounds directly onto the disc, and served as an amplifier on playback. But they were clumsy and the sound fidelity was extremely poor.
Meanwhile in Germany scientists were hard at work on a technological advance in audio recording. This was not mechanical, but electric. “Wire” recording used a microphone as the transducer, and a spool of wire as the recording format. These wire recording machines had a much higher fidelity than the Edison machines. However, the early wire recordings were delicate and subject to accidental erasure. After World War II, inventors used wire technology as a basis to create the reel-to-reel tape recording format. In the mid-1940s, two Frenchmen, composer Pierre Henry and acoustical engineer Pierre Schaeffer, began some of the first experiments with musique concrete. This used sounds from real life (automobiles, birds, etc.), or taken from other sources such as recordings, to create new musical works or “sound compositions.” Often these sounds were passed through a filter (which let some frequencies through and blocked others), played backward, or manipulated in other ways. Henry and Schaeffer foreshadowed later innovations in electronic music and “sampling” technology. By 1954, avant-garde composers such as STOCKHAUSEN, VARESE, and JVULHAUD had composed their own musique concrete in the recording studios of Henry and Schaeffer.
During the 1950s, along with the innovations of Henry and Schaeffer, modern analog recording equipment and multi-tracking techniques appeared. These innovations can be attributed to the tireless invention and experimentation of one man, singer-guitarist Les Paul. Paul invented one of the first functional electric guitars and a viable multi-track recording system. His first foray into recording used direct-to-disc technology; later he incorporated an analog tape machine that included a process called selective synchronization (“sel-sync”), variations of which are still used today on modern analog multi-track recorders.
Paul built a state-of-the-art studio in his home in Hollywood, where he recorded multi-tracked hits, playing all the instrumental parts, and harmonising lead guitar and voice. He invented the eight-track recorder, which became an industry standard and the forerunner of modern analog and digital 16-, 24-, and 48-track recording machines.
A multi-track recording device uses a magnetic recording head that can record more than one “track.” A track is a sequence of electromagnetic pulses representing musical or audio information in the case of analog recording; or, in digital recording, the track is a series of digitally “sampled” sounds.
A stereo (short for “stereophonic”) recording has two tracks, a right channel and a left channel, which when combined approximate the way sounds are heard by the human ear. Stereophonic reproduction allows different sound sources (drums, guitars, voices, natural or ambient sounds, for example) to be “panned” (placed) within the stereo field so that the listener hears sounds coming from different directions. Multi-track recorders using more than two tracks (4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, or 48) allow each instrument, voice, or individual sound to be recorded separately before being combined into a finished stereo mix.
Several factors have to be considered in the design of a state-of-the-art recording studio. It is important to eliminate unwanted sounds from the recording environment, so studio design is an art in itself. Most studios have two discrete areas…the studio, or recording room, and the control room.
The control room is the area where all the recording equipment is kept…the analog or digital recording unit, the mixing board, the monitor speakers, the computer, and the signal processing equipment. In this room the producer and engineer work to create the best possible recordings of the source sounds.
The control room is separated from the studio by a double wall with an airtight double door. The floor is usually “floated” (an additional floor or platform is mounted on sub-flooring and is sometimes connected to shocks or springs to prevent sound transference). Most often, the control room is visually connected to the studio via a large window or windows, which must be constructed using several panes of glass set at opposing angles to prevent sound-leakage or rattling. Sometimes the visual connection is made through closed-circuit video equipment.
Because the recording equipment is often left on for long periods of time, the control room may have a specially air-conditioned room, closet, or alcove where the tape-machine is kept. To provide the best possible monitoring (listening) environment, some control rooms use acoustic foam and devices known as “bass traps.” To provide a good acoustic environment, both the studio and control room must be constructed with no parallel walls, to avoid the creation of “standing waves,” which are echoes or reverberations that are heard in square rooms with hard surfaces.
Studio rooms are also constructed with double walls, and often have permanently or temporarily partitioned areas or booths for recording individual instruments or vocalists. Some studios have wall areas with louvers that can be opened or closed to create different types of recording environments (smooth, hard surfaces reflect the sound; soft, angled surfaces reduce reflection or give diffused sound).
Many recording studios have become identified with a particular sound or style of recording, through a combination of acoustic environment, equipment, engineering and production staff, as well as the artists who have recorded there. Some of these famous studios have been affiliated with major record labels; others have been “independents.” Among the most famous recording studios of the modern pop era are Sun Studios, affiliated with Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee and owned by Sam Phillips, the man credited with discovering Elvis PRESLEY; and Abbey Road in London, which was affiliated with Apple Records, both owned by the BEATLES. Today most of the recording studios connected with the major record labels in the U.S. are concentrated in New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles.
Technological advances in the last few years have led to a great proliferation of mid-sized and smaller commercial studios, and have created a “‘home-recording” boom. Many young musicians, who would have found the cost of recording a demo or an album prohibitive, can now have sophisticated equipment at their fingertips for a reasonable price.
The art and science of studio recording is constantly changing, and the next century will provide more advances in recording technology that were unimaginable when Edison invented his first phonograph.
Gregg Juke
SEE ALSO:
AMPLIFICATION; ELECTRONIC MUSIC; PRODUCERS; RECORD COMPANIES; RECORD PRODUCTION.
FURTHER READING
Alten, Stanley R. Audio in Media: The Recording Studio (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996);
Southall, Brian, et al. Abbey Road: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Recording Studio (London: Omnibus Press, 1997).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Studies I and II; Gesang der Jünglinger; Edgard Varese: Poeme electronique.