Soul spaces: How acoustics influence the music production process and the recordings that result.
Matthew B. Zimmern · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2010
Spaces in modern recording studios are quite different than those of 40 years ago. While today it is common for recording facilities to have various multi-purpose, acoustically designed spaces, many recordings from the middle of the 20th century were often captured in a single room, one that was not constructed with acoustical principles in mind and often times featured acoustical deficiencies. Soul music production practices of the late 1960s were researched, and an original composition was recorded in two different ways: by using past recording techniques and by using contemporary musical practices. Through listening to audio examples of the same song recorded in two different spaces, the sonic qualities of the different recording environments will be discussed, as well as how the different production techniques affected the recording, musical, and aesthetic attributes of the resulting audio recordings.