Journal of Music Production Research - Current Issue

This article explores how the use of metaphors and multimodal mental imagery opens diverse creative pathways in the collaborative process of record production. The dual functionality of metaphors in record production informs this function. On the one hand, they are sound descriptors; on the other hand, they are tools for verbally articulating the experiential facets of multimodal mental imagery. The article addresses a practice-based study of the recording and mixing of the song ‘Noen ganger’, mixed for playback in Dolby Atmos and stereo. It demonstrates how a single articulated metaphor triggered several artistic consequences via a creative loop of imagery, metaphors, sound production and processing, leading to the recording’s final soundscape and aesthetic output. The article argues that metaphors may bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete, helping us to both understand and interpret elusive artistic ideas involving mental imagery and transition those ideas into recordings. It also explores how methods such as log writing can bring otherwise tacit aspects of mental imagery and metaphorical understandings out into the open.

This article explores the intricate relationship between human musicianship and machine music through the lens of ‘machine aesthetics’ – a concept that encompasses both music derived from machines and music that mimics these expressions. Machine aesthetics gains particular relevance in contexts where musicians replicate effects typically achieved with drum machines, samplers and digital audio workstations. By examining live performances that closely mimic the sonic elements of machine music, we aim to provide a nuanced understanding of this aesthetic. Drawing on Barry Brummett’s theoretical framework from Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics (1999), which categorizes machine aesthetics into ‘mectech’, ‘electrotech’ and ‘chaotech’, we clarify some often-conflated concepts and apply the framework to music analysis. We suggest that integrating these concepts into analyses can enhance our understanding of the causal and imaginative relationships between musical expressions and machines. This exploration underscores the interplay and dynamically perceived boundaries between human creativity and machine-driven elements in music, which continue to enrich and redefine contemporary music practices.

Brain–computer interfacing (BCI) offers novel methods to facilitate participation in music production, providing access for individuals who might otherwise be unable to take part (either due to lack of training or physical disability). This article describes the development of a BCI system for conscious or ‘active’, control of parameters on an audio mixer by generation of synchronous MIDI Machine Control messages. The mapping between neurophysiological cues and audio parameters must be intuitive for a neophyte audience (i.e. one without prior training or the physical skills developed by professional audio engineers when working with tactile interfaces). The prototype pilot system, dubbed MINDMIX (a portmanteau of ‘mind’ and ‘mixer’), was subsequently evaluated by neophyte and experienced music producers across utility and mapping congruency. Neophyte participants rated the system higher in utility than experienced participants, whilst both groups rated mapping congruency similarly. Assuming a degree of synonymy between utility and usefulness, and between congruency and intuitiveness, this suggests that whilst the system might be useful for the neophyte audience, experienced users are likely to exhibit a preference for existing technology over the MINDMIX system. In the future, specific evaluation of discrete mappings would be useful for iterative system design.

This article explores the evolving landscape of recording engineering in response to changing industrial models. As recording engineers encounter challenges in unconventional spaces and diverse formats, particularly those faced by travelling engineers, adapting swiftly to new recording environments becomes crucial. Our investigation delves into the intricate relationship between recording engineers and the facilities they navigate, with a specific focus on the creative engineering process. Employing actor-network theory, we categorize our exploration into place, facility networks, and time to study the reflexive interactions of engineers with recording environments. Our research involves four participants – three experienced engineers doubling as educators and one early-career student engineer. Each scenario sets two engineers against each other in distinct environments, with six recording sessions (two per studio) over a three-day period, imposing a four-hour time limit to gauge their engineering process. Employing both in-session and post-session interviews, we apply our three categories to better understand how recording engineers creatively adapt to diverse scenarios, shedding light on their dynamic relationship with evolving recording landscapes.

Despite its claustrophobic image, the recording studio is clearly structured as a focus, a central hub that enables and organizes collective activity: the actors involved therein tend to interconnect and form social networks which act as the basis for the creativity systems of record production. By focusing on the Italian recording industry in the analogue era (1965–99) – a crucial period for the renewal of spaces, working methods and professional roles – this research examines the activity of national recording studios, integrating their geo-historical mapping with the methodologies of social network analysis. The diachronic overview reveals the primacy of three ‘music worlds’ revolving around the poles of Milan, Rome and Bologna: three extremely different contexts in dimensional, professional, economic and artistic terms, whose conventions shape their social and creative practices. From these three networks it is possible to trace the dynamic cartography of a scalable and complex system: not a simple snapshot of the analogue era, but rather a perspective through which it is possible to reconsider the cultural, economic and technological processes currently operating inside (and outside) the recording studios.