The role of the producer

Although the record producer at times became an equal partner with the musicians in creating the recorded performance of classical music, in the popular field, he or she was frequently in total command. Here, in fact, the sounds produced by the musicians may simply be the raw material for the producer to work with. Artificial sounds, overlays of sound upon sound, electronically introduced reverberation, multichannel effects with directional interplay and moving instruments—all may serve as vital ingredients of the recording. Paradoxically, as technological advancement brought the recording beyond the mere imitation of live performances, popular musicians began to bring complex electronic equipment into the concert halls to imitate the sounds of their recordings.

In productions of classical music, serious thought was initially given to whether the recording should faithfully capture the performance as heard from the optimum position in the concert hall or studio or whether the recording setup should be used to “enhance” the performance. Later, few questioned the common practice of correcting actual mistakes. Ever since magnetic tape made detailed editing possible, extra takes were made of sections in which musical problems were evident. The best taping of each section was spliced into a master tape. Even in recordings made during an actual concert, performers sometimes returned to the hall afterward to emend any blemishes. The improvements in recorded performances made possible by tape splicing, however, often could mislead audiences into anticipating the same perfection in live performances. Also, although tape editing facilitated the excision of poor passages that, while acceptable in the heat of a concert, would become irritating upon repeated hearings, it also has been said to have hampered the continuity of the performance. It is unlikely, however, that a listener can spot the rare movement that required no splicing from the majority that did. This alleged lack of continuity, however, was much worse when music had to be recorded in five-minute segments, for recordings at 78 revolutions per minute (rpm).

Microphone placement has been perhaps the major criterion in separating the “natural” or “re-creative” from the “creative” technique of large-scale classical recordings. In a natural setup, microphones are placed in the optimum positions in the hall—often directly over the conductor—in order to re-create the concert-hall or opera-house effect. In the natural arrangement, the conductor is responsible for instrumental and vocal balances.

Some record-producing companies prefer to put microphones closer to the performers; this is called close-miking technique. Here the record producer—generally with the final approval of the conductor or leader—is responsible for balances, for bringing out particular instrumental or vocal lines; in other words, the producer participates in the interpretation. Studio-made popular recordings—other than those of a lush semiclassical nature—have generally used the close-miking technique; in some cases, each performer in a small musical group is assigned his or her own microphone. In a close-miked symphonic recording session, as many as 18 microphones may be used: three for violins; one for cellos and basses (sometimes one for each); one each for woodwinds, brasses, timpani, snare drum and triangle, bass drum and cymbals, celesta or harp, and soloist; and from three to six for a chorus. Several separate recordings, or “tracks,” each comprising the inputs of several microphones, generally are made at the same time, and the producer must balance the strength of these various inputs during the recording session. Until about 1960 two-track machines were ordinarily used; by 1970 eight-track recorders were in use, allowing much more subtle mixing of channels during the editing sessions subsequent to the actual recording. For popular music sessions, 16-track recorders were sometimes used. For stereophony all the recording tracks were edited and mixed to make the final two channels. The record producer also determined the degree of separation between those two channels, and during a dramatic recording—an opera, for example—he or she might function as stage director in guiding the performers around the aural stage.

In quadraphony (quadriphony), which has four channels and which, in disc format, unsuccessfully tried to find a market in the early 1970s, the controversy between natural and close-miked recordings persisted. In classical music, when the two rear channels were used mainly for hall ambience, the arguments centred on the placement of the two front channels. Some companies, however, began to use the four channels as equal partners even in the classics. Columbia, for example, sometimes placed the conductor in the middle of the orchestra, which was seated for optimum quadraphonic array rather than for optimum concert-hall effect. In the early 1970s several quadraphonic disc systems competed for prominence, most notably Columbia’s SQ, Japan Victor Company’s CD-4 (RCA’s Quadradisc in the United States), and Sansui’s RM (also called QS). Since they were incompatible systems, confused consumers, waiting for one to become standard, withheld their votes from all, and by the end of the decade the aural and aesthetic benefits of quadraphony had all but disappeared from the marketplace.