overadjusting your levels

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is the non-transparent* use of certain recording implements (sweepable EQs, gain, volume fades, compression, pans, distortion, reverbs, other effects) generally acknowledged to have begun with the advent of electronic music?

if not, where? and if so, is it considered to be an innovation begat by technology or one that coincidentally occured alongside it?

* by non-transparent i mean any use of these tools in such a way that is explicitly designed to be obvious to the listener (cf. your average house midrange sweep) and at odds with their traditional intention

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

(actually you might want to strike 'other effects' from that list since they were basically built to be noticed)

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 08:54 (twenty-two years ago)

advent of electronic music

Can you be a bit mre specific, like do you just mean the advent of recorded music or what?

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

(advent of recorded music = 50 yrs b4 advent of "electrically recorded" music, and c.80 b4 advent of electronics)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

ok let's assume 'electronic music' in this sense encompasses the birth of techno etc

certainly it would've been possible to use these tools before protools etc

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 10:50 (twenty-two years ago)

volume fades

That must have been common since the very beginning of recording.

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

by non-transparent i mean any use of these tools in such a way that is explicitly designed to be obvious to the listener (cf. your average house midrange sweep) and at odds with their traditional intention

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, you posted the dwarf thing. nevermind.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

surely most studio trickery as integral part of the recording can be traced back to the beatles?

― Officer Pupp, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Think George Martin and The Beatles are credited with flanging among other things. Also backwards recording.

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Joe Meek predates George Martin and the Beatles on using backwards tapes -- he also used a lot of other "obvious" electronic effects in his production back in the late '50's and early '60's.

If you don't restrict your question to pop music, then it seems accurate to ascribe the first usage of these kinds of effects to early electronic composers, eg: Varese, Ussachevsky, Luening. Tape delay and electronic reverb are the most commonly-used in this era of electronic music.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Compressors, Delay Based Effects (Flange, Chorus etc), EQ sweeps (remember the wah wah is an EQ sweep), Gates, Distortion and the rest originated in analogue recording. Even pitch shifting did, I think.

What electronic music has now giving us is pitch correction, time stretching (including granulisation) and formant based effects.

To me formant based FX are the most exciting. Quick explanation (note - I'm notoriously rubbish at explaining these things)

"The formant is the frequency component or resonance of an instrument or voice sound that doesn't change with the pitch of the note being played or sung. For example, the body resonance of an acoustic guitar remains constant, regardless of the note being played."

Technology can now detect this in an audio signal and keep it constant while it changes other characteristics of the sound around it. This has led to such wonderful devices as the Steinberg Voice Machine, a tool whereby you can repitch the sound of any vocal track to whatever you are playing on a midi keyboard (give it a go - especially with rap acappellas) and the Waves Maxx Bass which boosts bass signals by adding low harmonics that are in pitch with the original signal to give you a very clear and non-"wooly" sound.

These type of effects are still in their early days and should be really, really good in five years or so.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I cannot wait for electronic vocalists in a box to arrive. This is what electronic music needs in order to go to the next level perhaps? Now that all the other parts of the traditional band have been replaced by electronic counterparts. What also matters is that this technology be very easy to use, and very fast and intuitive.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Thursday, 28 August 2003 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

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