Technical Domain Acquisition

Educational programmes that relate to aspects of record production (such as sound engineering, music technology and music production) are a relatively new occurrence and the domain of rock record production has historically been acquired through either an informal apprenticeship system or a less formal, less-structured process of

immersion termed ‘enculturation’ (Green 2002). The traditional process of domain acquisition within the practice of sound engineering for instance, was often through apprenticeship. The apprenticeship system introduced a particular hierarchy of roles inside the recording studio beginning with runner or ‘tea boy’, then tape operative or ‘tape-op’, assistant engineer, engineer and finally record producer. To move up in the hierarchy, the preceding role would be considered by the proponents of the

chief engineer at the recording facility, before moving onto the next stage of the

apprenticeship. Engineer Darren acquired the domain in a predominantly informal way through undertaking different roles at different recording facilities beginning first through formal education:

Darren – When I was doing my course in music production I used to go in on

the weekends and use the studio. One of my friends that I’d made from

University had started a band and we’d decided to make an EP and I’d go in

on the weekends record them and then finish it off at home…I learnt a lot

about mixing and editing from spending hours at home.

Record Producer, Marc acquired the technical aspect of the domain entirely informally:

I started off just recording my mate’s band, and then other bands heard it and asked me if I’d record them, so I did. Me and a friend later set up our own studio in the 1980s, it was quite a crude system but we did everything, wiring the studio, setting up, the engineering recordings and it all went from there really.

Marc’s initial experiences of recording in a studio as a musician helped in acquiring technical knowledge of the domain:

Marc – Choosing the equipment to use in our studio came from recording in

different studios in the 80s, I noticed that they had compressors and tape

echoes and things like that because at that time there wasn’t an awful lot of

literature about what engineers were doing in studios with compressors so

used to talk to a couple of mates who knew a bit about those things and I

think it got to the point where I experimented a bit…From recording bands I

kind of slipped into the role of engineer and people used to say “Oh he’s a

I’m a creative person but at the time I suppose I couldn’t see that being an

engineer was also being creative.

Marc also acquired his knowledge of audio electronics and equipment informally through experimentation, trial and error:

I guess I’ve always been fascinated with electronics and especially audio equipment, I’ve always been fascinated by it since I was probably mid-teens something like that and I did mess around when I was a kid with tape-to-tape. I didn’t realise that it was going to be a forerunner for what I do now…I like to think that I think in signal flow rather than anything else.

Darren also undertook an apprenticeship in an assisting role learning the domain from this perspective:

Darren – The initial success with the band I’d worked with got me work assisting and

engineering in studios in Liverpool and London. So, I was doing bits of

assisting in bigger studios and engineering in smaller studios and then

eventually started getting more engineering work.

Through continuing involvement with engineering studio productions Darren became immersed into the recording studio context:

When I first started engineering at this studio [Elevator Studios, Liverpool] I was working part-time but there was a month booked out fully so I quit my job at that point and worked straight out for that month and for that first six months I was quite often doing 10 hours a day. I’m producing more and more now but the engineering roles and production roles can overlap quite a bit at times. Producing on the Alterkicks EP got me work assisting in here [Elevator

studios] and I did a couple of sessions in London as well in Olympic studios so I was doing bits of assisting in bigger places and also getting bits of

engineering in smaller places and then producing bits at home…that way I eventually got more engineering work in here.

In a similar fashion Marc also became immersed into the technical aspects of record production inside the recording studio:

The mate I set the studio up with was more of a musician and I was the one who was more technically fascinated by the recording process really, so the engineering was always my responsibility and I learnt engineering through, just experience, over a long period of time.

Marc however discussed the haphazard nature of his technical domain acquisition and knowledge of some of the technical processes in the recording studio were acquired through trial and error:

I’d try stuff out like EQ and if it sounded good then I stuck with it but I suppose that was all part of the learning curve of trial and error…No one’s ever shown me how to mix I’ve just experimented a lot and I’m still not sure if I can mix (laughs).

More contemporary forms of technical domain acquisition include educational programmes that relate to sound engineering in both technical and vocational

institutions (i.e. FE and HE Colleges and Universities) where potential engineers can learn about the processes, practices and related areas of the domain of sound

engineering in a more formal, structured educational environment. This was the case for Darren:

I studied a course in music production and I was introduced to things like microphones, microphone construction, cables and wiring. We also did projects in the recording studio, things like recording bands and we were shown things like how to mic up a drum kit and a guitar amp.

Some of the other participants had also studied educational programmes in music technology or music production, which addressed aspects of the technical domain of record production:

Jess – As part of my A-Level in Music Technology I did some recording with my

tutor and then I learnt how to mix my songs. We used Cubase at school and

then ProTools at University. At college we had analogue tape and that taught

us recording in a very specific way.

Mike – I attended a music technology course at college which covered a broad range

of subjects from studio recording to sequencing. I first started recording at

college. We were mainly taught about microphone placement, recording

software, use and maintenance of cables etc. Later, in university I learned

more in depth mixing and mastering techniques, advanced composition and

arrangement techniques and also studied the societal impacts of various

genres of music.

In addition, some of the participants acquired the technical aspects of the domain informally through recording at home:

Rory – I started recording at school with my friends…I’ve got a really distinct

memory of using Audacity when I was 14 or 15, around the same time I

started playing music with my school friends, and just experimented with

plug-ins and kind of electronic sound, starting with a noise from a guitar and

making it sound not like a guitar. That was about the same time I was

recording songs with my friends. It escalated from there, I got a portable

recorder and then I got an interface with my laptop so I’ve recorded quite a lot

with friends and made three EPs and lots of bits of pieces here and there but

we were always recording; we were recording more than we were playing. So

that’s where I got interested in balancing sound and creating that overall

putting a compressor across the drum bus, re-amping and stuff I didn’t have

access to really like Protools and outboard gear.

Jess – Me and a friend performed a song on Ashford High Street and my Dad

helped us to record that because he always said it’s good to hear yourself back

before you go on stage. He had a little home set up with Cubase and some

middle of the road microphones and I suppose it was actually through him.

Again, he was a songwriter and as a teenager he produced his own little

album so I grew up with him playing piano at night when he got home from

work. During then weekends or whatever he’d go into his little home studio,

just like a tiny set up in his study, and he’d keep making music. He kept

recording stuff and I think my older sister was the first one to actually record

something with my Dad and then, after hearing that, I asked to record with

him.

The musicians in this study suggested that although technical knowledge was useful in order to perform on a record it wasn’t entirely necessary. As a result, they hadn’t learnt the necessary technical knowledge to the extent Marc and Darren had, however, some of the performing musicians had gained some technical knowledge from studying related educational programmes, recording at home, or from their experiences inside the recording studio. This knowledge helped the musicians to alter their performance practices in response to the use of recording technologies inside the recording studio such as microphones and headphones. The engineer and the record producer had predominantly acquired the technical elements of the domain and, through his

residency at Elevator studios, Darren had also acquired intimate knowledge of Elevator studio’s layout, the studio equipment and some of its inner workings such as signal routing. As shown in Chapter 7, this technical knowledge was employed throughout the task of engineering inside the recording studio and contributed to maintaining the flow of the recording session. Record producer Marc’s technical knowledge was also employed throughout the process, particularly in the later stages of production where he also undertook the task of engineering.