Can modern composers learn something from the production techniques used in the pop industry?

Even if the technological advances in recording techniques have been immense in the past few decades, very little has changed in the approach of recording the majority of classical and contemporary music. Almost all other music genres have found creative uses of the recording technology and post production and used it to add something new to their music. The ultimate extreme can of course be found in the mass production lines of the pop industry where even the cheapest music can sound neat and slick due to clever recordings and post production. Not to claim that different recording techniques or post productions is the right way for every piece of contemporary music, but could it be that we're being too conservative when it comes to recording new works?

First let's look at how a typical “classical” (here meaning both classical and contemporary) record is recorded, explained in a simplified way. Basically the main sound we hear on a classical record is from two microphones positioned in front of the ensemble and they pick up the sound in a similar fashion as our two ears do when we listen to music. In fact it can be said that these two mics are more or less intended to be like a listener at a concert so when we listen to the CD we hear as it would sound at a concert. A nice sounding location has to be used because the acoustics of the hall colors the recording. The performance is recorded as a whole and if 3rd trombone makes a mistake the whole take (or at least the bar in which the mistake is) is ruined. Of course several takes can be edited together, bar by bar even, but individual instruments can't be edited.

In pop/rock music things are done very differently. There every instrument is recorded separately. Microphones are often positioned very close to the sound source and recording in nice sounding rooms is not crucial. Because of the microphone placements less of the acoustics is picked up by the microphone. Of course bad acoustics aren´t desireable in any type of music but when recording up close the acoustics can be treated locally with screens, pillows and duvets around the microphone and the instrument.

Different mentality yields different results

What allows for this type of recordings in pop music and in return makes it problematic in classical music is simple. It's beat. Almost all pop music is based around a steady beat and therefore the drummer can start playing his track with click-track in the ear and the rest of the band layer the other instruments on top of the drums, one by one. In classical music this is rarely the case and even in the steadiest of music a certain flexibility and “rubato” is necessary at times.

In future articles I intend to talk about the more technical aspects (without getting too technical for an average musician or a composer to follow). For now I want to focus on the different mentality in these genres of music and ask the question if the classical musicians and composers can learn something from the pop genre?

Imagine a 4 piece rock band going to a studio to record a song. Before the start they play a concert recording for the producer so he can get an idea of what to do with the song. The song has guitar as the only chord instrument, bass, drums and vocals. The producer listens to the song and his immediate thoughts are that even if the song works well at a concert as it is, something has to be done to make it work as well on a CD. He will never just put a couple of microphones in front of the band and ask them to play it like the play it at concerts and leave it at that. It's hard to say exactly what a producer would do when it comes to a hypothetical song but he might consider adding a second guitar to the chorus or even a new chord instrument all together. Things like the snare drum which worked perfectly at the concerts may not work as well in the recording so he could modify it's sound (equalization) or even replace it with a new sampled snare sound (yes, people actually do that!). Remember this is made possible because the instruments are recorded up close. That includes individual drums of a drum kit. Other and even more drastic things could also be called upon, like adding programmed drum beats, using different types of guitars in different parts of the song etc. etc. The bottom line is that anything can be done to make the song work on this type of medium. Whether all these things are actually to improve anything is a different matter all together!

Now lets look at what the classical producer (or “tonemeister”) does when he is presented with a new classical work to record. In most cases he would study the score and record the piece exactly the way it's written and as it would sound at a concert. This is perhaps the only correct way to do this because the way classical music is written is much more precise in the way it should sound than most pop music and the liberty taken there by producers would be way out of line in classical recordings.

So, if the some of the possibilities modern recording techniques present us with are to be used in classical recordings it's up to the composers themselves to “compose” them into the pieces. Couldn't it be interesting to actually re-think some pieces and re-arrange them for a recording? It doesn't mean that they shouldn't excist in their previous versions for concerts. Nor does this mean that the traditional way of recording classical music should not be used anymore.

The question remains. Is what works best at concerts necessarily what works best on recordings? And vice versa!? In future articles we will look in more detail at some alternative methods in presenting new music on records and at concerts.

PS: The techniques discussed in this article is something composers have fairly recently started to use. The author of this article does not claim to be the first to think of this and knows of a few interesting records which are recorded in this manor and are in fact the inspiration to this article. Should you have information about classical or contemporary which are recorded with alternative techniques or make interesting use of modern technology, please inform us through the “contact” page. We might consider writing about them on this site.