The Influence of Technology on Sound Engineering

Everybody knows the artist who sang a popular song or has seen that popular movie but how many who was involved in the sound engineering? Sound engineering is not everybody’s cup of tea. It has a very restricted audience of either those involved in the art of sound recording and mixing or those who have a love for music production. The genius of recording and Mixing engineers has brought fame to many artists. Would The Beatles have been the same if the engineers hadn’t made turned their vision to reality? Not all this would have been possible without the constant growth and development in technology.

Let’s take a walk through time and dive into the technology advances and their influence on sound engineering through the decades.

1900 -1940’s: Vinyl discs and cutting lathesTechnology was growing in leaps and bounds but the market place did not allow for the integration of this technology in the studio. Vinyl discs had not grown in sales as much yet and the all the records were made with the same technique and procedure. The audio engineer during this time did not have the freedom to add much to the performance of the artists due to the limitations of the cutting lathe technology.

1950’s: The age of the analog tape machinesAnalog recording technology was built in the late 1940’s but it was in the 50’s that its effects were truly felt. The vinyl technology had a few major limitations like the time of recording on one side, the amount of low frequency content that could go on it and dynamics of the performance. If any of these fell out of balance, then the recording was absolutely ruined. Analog technology changed this entirely and dramatically. With analog, any of these imbalances would at the most need some editing and multiple performances could be recorded on one tape. This when the mastering engineering came to be!

1960’s: Multi-track recording technology take overWhen the world was still enjoying music on vinyl and tapes, the recording engineering were working towards creating multitrack recordings. It was during this time that the stereo technology created during the 1950’s. With multitrack recording, engineers could record individual instruments as tracks and then mixed. Thus, the mixing engineer was born. The Sel-Sync multitrack recording made recording possible and easier for artists and bands. Adding layers with careful thought was possible and overdubbing become a frequently used term among the engineers.

This technology brought about a revolution in the production processes. With the ability to separate and layer performances, the amount of time it took to record grew exponentially. With passing time, the engineer was gaining importance in the entire recording process and it kept getting even more creative with every single decade passing.

1970’s: The rule of the expanded track countsThis was the decade when we saw the true explosion of technology. The parametric equalizers and compressors became a part of every studio. Companies brought reverb and effects processing into recording studios. New recording studios were being built with isolation booths for better isolation of instruments in the multitrack recording environments. Managements started building studios for

recording specific styles of music. The golden age for sound engineers began at this time. From being employees, they went to freelancing as artists began to see the value of a good engineer.

1980’s: The first time digital recording showed upAs tapes took over from the vinyl, the compact disc in the 80’s began to steal the show from the tapes. It changed the way people listened to music and the therefore changed the way music was made bringing the digital technology into the studios. Most of the recording community were strongly against it as they said it took away the warmth in the music. But those who adapted to it, won the race in the long run. Digital technology had many advantages over tape. It increased the dynamics range, eliminated the tape hiss and made it possible to duplicate the recording as many times as possible without any loss of quality during replication. The midi sequencer allowed for a performance once captured to be edited to perfection. A whole new style of recording studio was born with smaller recording spaces and larger controls for the new breed of clients like the programmers, DJ’s and electronic music producers.

1990’s: Computers made non-destructive editing the normThis was a decade of an explosion in changes in the digital technology. The industry peaked in the mid 90’s and dropped a great deal in the 2000’s or the 21st century. Computers took the place of the recording console and the tape machines. The availability of cheap technology with advanced mixing capabilities made it possible for producers to work from home studios. The hit became even worse as the recording labels cut down on recording budgets with the drop in sales of CD’s. Most recording studios could not survive this hit. The ones that did now carter only to the crowd that has the budget to hire them!

2000’s: The technology explosionTechnology changed the game completely in this decade or more. The computers were faster and the hard drive capabilities allowed home music production. The hardware stopped ruling the game as the software took over. The way people listened to music also changed drastically. The CD’s had become old news and people migrated to carrying music on their pen drives, ipods. Music became available for sale on online stores like itunes etc. Apple pro logic, Abelton live, and few other such programs came to be that made it very easy for home production standards to rise high. But it didn’t stop there. Surround sound came into the picture and industry standards changed when Dolby sound became to be. There is now talk about a 3D sound technology that will change the way we hear music all over again.

What next?The technology will continue to grow and go to places that cannot even imagine now and software will continue to rule the game. With every software update, there will be a new feature to master. But the one who stays on top of his game will see the benefits. And this is when the expertise and experience will continue to gain importance. It is already evident that a skilled and experienced producer can producer better quality music at home than someone with insufficient experience at a studio. Going forward training and education in the various techniques of sound engineering will become more and more important especially with a course that gives you the combined learning of theory and practical. And that is what we are doing at the Seamedu School of Pro-Expressionism.