ABSTRACT

By studying how pop records are made one begins to appreciate the level of creativity involved. The technologies used to produce pop records are both hugely varied and in a state of almost continuous development and refinement. The strong link between pop music and an ever-developing technology ensures a continually evolving 'sound' in pop, while the presence of an often extensive team behind the production of a pop record undermines the notion of a single artist/creator, and hints at the range of procedures involved in the production process. This chapter looks at some of these procedures in more detail. Producers of pop music records were among the first to champion the new digital technologies. Multitrack recording, signal processing, musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) sequencing, and sound synthesis and sampling are the four essential techniques which dominate the creative processes involved in the production of pop music.