The Evolution of Sound in Recording: Why Older Songs Sound Warmer vs. Modern Pop
Why do modern pop songs sound artificial and cold while older songs sound natural and warm? It's a common sentiment, but the perception that modern recordings are "artificial and cold" is often based on a narrow comparison to older recordings from a specific era. This article delves into the trends and technologies that have made some contemporary music sound different, but also emphasizes that there is no universal rule and many artists continue to create warm-sounding music.
The Loudness War
Pop Music vs. The Loudness War: Pop music has always been about making songs louder, a trend often referred to as the 'loudness war.' Fine-art musicians and folk artists, whether acoustic or electric, largely eschew this trend. In the 1940s and 1950s, the technology to make songs louder was limited. A song that was recorded too loud could cause the record needle to jump off the record, a problem that was common in those days. In the 1960s and 1970s, analog compressors improved, allowing for more compression. However, even these were considered tame by today's standards.
Compression in the 1970s and 1980s: Compression to make things sound louder didn't really take off until the 1980s and 1990s with the invention of multi-band digital compressors. These allowed mastering engineers to squeeze the dynamic range of audio to extremes that couldn't be imagined in previous decades. Popular artists like Metallica faced the negative effects of this. An example can be seen with Metallica's "Death Magnetic."
Auto-Tune: The Pitch Correction Tool
Auto-Tune and Its Effects: Auto-Tune, a trademark of Antares, is a pitch-correction software that was the first to automatically correct the pitch of vocals or other monophonic sounds. Prior to Auto-Tune, there were other pitch correction tools, like the Eventide H3000, that required a more manual approach. Today, the term "Auto-Tune" is commonly used to refer to any software that corrects pitch.
Deliberate Glitching and Its Popularity:_After Auto-Tune was released in 1997, an engineer for Cher experimented with the pitch correction's glitch effect. Cher's record company initially wanted to use the glitch to make her voice sound robotic, but Cher insisted on it and released "Believe" with the deliberate glitch. This trend has gained popularity, with artists like T-Pain often using the glitch effect to create a robotic sound. However, it is important to note that the effect is not the intended use of Auto-Tune and it is not something all uses of the software aim to achieve.
Analog Tape vs. Digital Recording
Tape vs. Digital: Graces vs. Overloads: From the development of the first multitrack tape deck by Les Paul and Ampex in 1957 until the widespread adoption of digital recording, analog tape dominated the recording industry. Analog tape had the advantage of handling hot signals gracefully, producing "tape compression" which some producers intentionally used. However, digital recording overloaded at 0dBFS and produced an unpleasant distortion.
Tape Compression and Its Sound: Tape compression is a process where the signal is pushed too hard and the tape gently clips, producing a warm and pleasant sound. Some producers intentionally recorded at hot levels to achieve this effect. Digital recordings, on the other hand, often sound cold and lack the warmth that is commonly associated with analog recordings. Interestingly, there were some early digital converters that did not sound as warm, but this is not a universal attribute of digital recording. The perception that digital recordings are inherently colder might be influenced by the fact that digital recording has become more prevalent over time.
Conclusion
While some modern recordings do sound "artificial and cold," this is not a universal truth. Many artists continue to create warm and natural-sounding music. The trends of the loudness war, the use of auto-tune, and the shift from analog to digital recording have contributed to the perception that some modern recordings lack the warmth of older songs. However, it is important to recognize that these are trends and not immutable laws. Many musicians continue to work with the technology in ways that produce high-quality, warm-sounding recordings.
Further Reading: For a deeper dive into the making of Metallica's "Death Magnetic," read this article .