YESTERDAY

I’ve always looked at the history of music and sound technology with a sense of awe and wonder, although I really can’t explain why. Like so many in this industry, I tend to get shivers when I see a wonderful old tape machine or an original tube compressor. For no reason whatsoever, I get all giggly and woozy when I read about some of the earlier consoles that were used to record industry greats, see pictures from past recording sessions (Figure 23.1) or see an original Ampex 200 (the first commercially available professional tape machine). I experience this same sense of awe when I read about my personal historical heroes such as:

■ Nikola Tesla, who introduced us to alternating current, X-ray, the AC electric motor, the laser—the full list is way too long to list here. You’ll notice that I don’t put Edison in this class, as I found him to be a far better businessman and exploiter than an inventor.

■ Alan Dower Blumlein, inventor of stereo mic techniques, the 45º/45º stereo record, the television scan tube, radar and more.

■ John (Jack) T. Mullin (Figure 23.2a), who stumbled across a couple of German magnetophones (Figure 23.2b) at the end of World War II and was smart enough to send them back to San Francisco. With the help of Alexander M. Poniatoff (founder of Ampex) and Bing Crosby (Figure 23.3a), Jack and his machines played a crucial role in bringing the magnetic tape recorder into commercial existence.

■ Mary C. Bell (Figure 23.3b) who was probably the first woman sound engineer, along with her husband, Bill Swartau, who was himself an audio pioneer.

… and the list goes on.

FIGURE 23.1
Universal Recording, Chicago. (a) Bill Putnam’s prototype mixing console at Universal Recording, 1957. (Courtesy of Universal Audio, www.uaudio.com) (b) Nat King Cole clowning around with engineer Bill Putnam (out of shot, in the control room at left). (Courtesy of Universal Audio, www.uaudio.com)

FIGURE 23.2
The first tape machines outside of Deutschland. (a) John (Jack) T. Mullin (pictured left) with the two original German magnetophones. (Courtesy of the late John [Jack] T. Mullin) (b) Close-up of one of the two original German magnetophones.

FIGURE 23.3
The early analog period. (a) Bing Crosby with the first Ampex Model 200 machines that allowed for tape editing to splice different takes together in post-production. (b) Mary C. Bell in NBC’s dubbing room #1 (April, 1948) inspecting broadcast lacquer discs for on-air programs. (Courtesy of Mary C. Bell)

Every once in a techno-blue moon, major milestones come along that affect almost every facet of information and entertainment technology. Such milestones have ushered us from the Edison and Berliner era of acoustic recordings, into the era of broadcasting, electrical recording and tape, to the environment of the multitrack recording studio (Figure 23.4), and finally into the age of the computer, digital media and the Web. With the introduction of personal home recording equipment (Figure 23.5), the cassette-based porta-studio and affordable mixer/console designs, that began in the 1980s, recording technology was to forever change into being a medium that could be afforded by the general masses.

FIGURE 23.4
The analog professional recording studio. (a) Gilfoy Sound Studios, Inc., circa 1972. Notice that the room is set up for quad surround! (Courtesy of Jack Gilfoy, www.jackgilfoy.com) (b) Little Richard at the legendary LA Record Plant’s Studio A (circa 1985) recording “It’s a Matter of Time” for the Disney film Down and Out in Beverly Hills. (Courtesy of the Record Plant Recording Studios, photo by Neil Ricklen)

When you get right down to it, the foundation of the modern information and digital age was laid with the invention of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has likewise drastically changed the technology and techniques of present-day recording by allowing circuitry to be easily designed and mass-produced at a fraction of the size and cost of equipment that was made with tubes or discrete transistors.

FIGURE 23.5
The beginnings of the home recording revolution. (a) Early multitrack home recording system. (Courtesy of Tascam, a division of TEAC America, www.tascam.com) (b) Mackie 8-bus analog mixing console (Courtesy of Loud Technologies, Inc., www.mackie.com) and ADAT 8-channel digital recording system. (Courtesy of Alesis, www.alesis.com)

Advances in digital hardware and software have brought about new developments in equipment and production styles that have affected the ways in which music is created. Integrating cost-effective yet powerful production computers with digital mixing systems, modular digital multitracks, MIDI synths/samplers, plug-in effects and instruments, digital signal processors, etc., gives us the recipe for having a powerful production studio in our homes, bedrooms, or even on the bus. Such laptop and desktop music studios have made it possible for more and more people to create and distribute their own music with an unprecedented degree of ease, quality, cost effectiveness and portability.

The people at New England Digital paved the way for integration of music and digital audio production with the Synclavier system (Figure 23.6a)—a high-end system that pushed the envelope of digital audio and gave the production community an accurate taste of the future. It was Digidesign, however, that was the first to envision and create a cost-effective “studio-in-a-box” (Figure 23.6b). This conceptual spark, which started a present-day goliath, helped create a system that would offer the power of professional hard-disk-based audio at a price that most music, audio and media producers could afford. (It’s important to realize that previous to this, digital systems like Synclavier started at over $100,000!) His goal (and those of countless others since) has been to create an integrated system that would link together the many facets of audio, MIDI and visual media, via the personal computer. Years later, this dream has totally transformed music and audio production.

FIGURE 23.6
The dawn of the DAW revolution. (a) The New England Digital Synclavier system. (b) “Sound Designer,” the first cost-effective digital audio workstation, was released by Digidesign in the late 1980s. (Courtesy of Avid Technology, Inc., www.avid.com)

When it comes to understanding the tools, toys and techniques of our trade, I’ve always felt that there are a lot of benefits to be gained from looking back into the past—as well as by gazing into the future. A wealth of experience in design and application has been laid out for us. It’s simply there for the taking; all we have to do is search it out and put it to good use.

On a final note about the past, I’d like to invite you to visit my personal site and browse through the free online booklet “The History of Recorded Sound” (www.davidmileshuber.com/hrs). Here, you can follow the timeline of recording from its beginning to recent time, so as to get a better idea of how the tools, techniques and toys have developed using text, pictures and linked videos (Figure 23.7). I hope you enjoy and benefit from it!

FIGURE 23.7
The History of Recorded Sound—a free online booklet. (www.davidmileshuber.com/hrs)

TODAY

“Today” is a really difficult subject to talk about, since new equipment comes out on a monthly basis. However, it safely goes without saying that the following concepts and tools help to sum up the “teens” at the dawn of the twenty-first century:

■ retro tools and toys

■ plug-ins

■ apps

■ the Web

■ touch technology

FIGURE 23.8
The retro and the virtual. (a) The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. (Courtesy of Shadow Hills Industries, www.shadowhillsindustries.com. Used with permission) (b) The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in for the Apollo and the UAD effects processing card. (Courtesy of Universal Audio, www.uaudio.com © 2017 Universal Audio, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission)

One of the cooler by-products of this digital age is an upsurge in “retro-future” trends in music and technology. This comes to us in two ways: first, digital makes us long for the bygone sounds, feel and look of older retro tools (Figure 23.8a). These tube and retro-transistor boxes can be comfortably integrated into either the traditional recording studio or the most up-to-date DAW project studio, so as to give us “that sound.” Secondly, these retro devices can be modeled and made into plug-ins (Figure 23.8b) that have much or all of the sound of the original, which can then be integrated into any DAW system—all at a cost that is usually a fraction of the original hardware version.

One of the more important aspects of today’s retro-reverence is a newfound respect for tried-and-true techniques in recording. It’s a new understanding that old ideas are not outdated but are tried-n-true techniques and tools that can coexist with newer ones to make a musical statement. Instead of recording drums in your bedroom, you might try recording them in a larger music room or your local gym that has live acoustics, using both close and distant mic techniques to get a bigger, fuller sound. You might even go further, by adding a plug-in or impulse response reverb that simulates the acoustics of a famous recording studio—your imagination, experience, willingness to learn and your ears are your only limit.

On the toys side, plug-ins have been and will continue to be at the heart of modern music and audio production innovation and for good reason, it allows us to integrate the latest and greatest effect, sound, mutilation or enhancement that has just arrived on the scene. They seamlessly integrate with our system to breathe new life into our music—all in a way that often ranges from being cost-effective or free.

On the mobile front, apps bring the on-the-go iWorld and the studio together, they allow our phone or pad to integrate with our production lives in a way that’s extremely portable and cost-effective. We can use our phone or pad to:

■ wirelessly control and mix our DAW in an ever-growing number of ways

■ call up the latest recreation of a synth in software form (in a way that can be easily integrated into our system via MIDI, etc.)

■ control and mix our live performances from on-stage or from the middle of the performance floor

■ compose a song on a plane or on the beach and import the tracks directly into your DAW to continue on with the creative process

… there’s almost no limit to what is possible or what will be possible.

Of course, the ever-present mover and shaker of everyday modern life is the Web. Cyberspace made the creation of this book much easier for me as a writer (search engines and company sites make research a relative breeze) and, of course, social media needs no introduction, being a major force in communication, self-expression and inter-connection.

Although many of the music share sites that contain ripped downloads of major releases have been shut down, the biggies (such as iTunes and Google Play) have sprung into megabuck action. Personal and indie music sites have allowed upstart and established artists to directly sell their music, inform their fans about upcoming tours and publish fanzine info to keep their public begging for more. In fact, from a philosophical standpoint, I feel that the trend toward the breakdown of the traditional music industry isn’t all bad news. I’m definitely not alone in thinking that this shift has taken the overall power out of the hands of a few and has given it back to the indies and the individual “many.” You might even say that the shift toward downloadable distribution has taken music production back into the home, where it began over a hundred years ago, when family members gathering around the parlor piano. Now, instead, we slip into our project or bedroom studios and play our hearts out—it’s often all part of the same story of self-expression being told through a different medium.

Lastly, let’s touch on a powerful innovation that’s become increasingly affordable and accessible: “Touch.” As it stares back at us from our cell phones, iPads, car dashboards and beyond, touch technology has become an interactive part of almost every aspect of our daily lives and for good reason, it seamlessly integrates the virtual world with our physical world through the tactile feedback loop of several of our major senses.

The world of recording is definitely being revolutionized through the sense of touch. Companies like Slate Digital (Figure 23.9) have focused on the idea of cost-effectively integrating the DAW with the user through the use of a touch screen and specially designed mixer software that makes the “hands-on” process easier and more intuitive. Likewise, large-scale consoles are also getting on the touch bandwagon for mostly the same reason—ease-of-use, instant tactile control and visual feedback. For us users—it’s a beautiful thing.

FIGURE 23.9
Slate MTx and MTi touch controllers. (Courtesy of Slate Media Technology, www.stevenslate.com)

TOMORROW

Usually, I tend to have a decent handle on the forces that might shape the sounds and toys of tomorrow, but it’s getting increasingly harder to make specific predictions in this fast-paced world. Today, there are far more choices for gathering information and entertainment than by simply reading a book or watching TV. Now, we can interact with others in a high-speed, networked environment that does far more than let us be just spectators; it lets us participate and share our thoughts with others, which hopefully leads to increased knowledge, creative discourse and personal growth. This idea of inter com munication through the web has changed the face of business, communi cation, and recreation toward an e-based, on-demand commerce.

As I write this, digital audio has and will continue to become more portable, more virtual and more powerful. For example, I have a killer laptop production system that fits snuggly into my audio backpack, an iPad that lets me produce and perform my music wirelessly and my smartphone can practically cook eggs for breakfast. Although my main studio involves keyboards, synths and music controllers of various types, I’ve definitely welcomed the continued march toward quality virtual instruments and useful plug-ins that seamlessly integrate into my main or laptop DAW. I think I’ll always marvel at a computer’s ability to be a chameleon (in its many incarnations)—one moment it’s a music production system, next it’s a video editor, then a word processor, then a graphic workstation, then a partridge in a neon pear tree that’ll let you talk to a buddy across the world. This aspect of technology frees us to be creative in an amazing number of ways that’s truly an astonishing joy.

HAPPY TRAILS

Before we wrap up the ninth edition, I’d like to take a moment to honor one of the greatest forces driving humanity today (besides sex)—the dissemination and digestion of information. Through the existence of quality books, trade magazines, university and institute programs, workshops and the Web, a huge base of information on almost any imaginable subject is now available to a greater number of aspiring artists and technicians than ever before. These resources often provide a strong foundation for those who are attending accredited schools as well as those who are attending the street school of hard knocks. No matter what your goals are in life (or in this business of music), I urge you to jump in, read and surf through pages—keep your eyes and ears open for new sounds, ideas, technologies and experiences. The knowledge and skills you gain will always be well worth the expended time and effort.

On a final note, I’d like to paraphrase Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata,” who urges us to “keep interested in our own career, however humble, as it’s an important possession in the changing fortunes of time”. Through my work as a producer, musician, writer and educator, I’ve been fortunate enough to know many fascinating, talented and fun people. For some strange reason, I was born with a strong drive to have music and production technology in my life. By “keeping interested in my own career” and working my butt off (while having several brushes with extreme luck), I’ve been able to turn this passion into a successful career.

To me, all of this comes from following your bliss (as some might call it), listening to reason (both your own and that of others you trust) and doing the best work that you can (whatever it might be). As you know, thousands of able and aspiring bodies are waiting in line to make it as an engineer, a successful musician, a producer, etc. So how does that one person make it? By following the same directions that it takes to get to Carnegie Hall—practice! Or as the T-shirt says, “Just do it!” Through perseverance, a good attitude and sheer luck, you’ll be led through paths and adventures that you never thought were possible. Remember, being in the right place at the right time, simply means being in the wrong place a thousand times—“Showing up in life is huge!”

Have fun along the way!

FIGURE 23.10
David Miles Huber, 4-time Grammy nominated artist/producer, practicing a music set in a Brussels airport restaurant. (www.davidmileshuber.com)