For those that are astute Christians, and even those that aren’t, the presence of sin in the context of music, no mater your flavor, both lyrically and in the industry, is common knowledge. To many it is an understood truth, a fact of the day in which we live. To others it is the subject of study and constant analysis, helping others to know what to avoid and what’s “acceptable.” We have Christian pundits, reviewers and watchdogs that alert the religious leaning public to new releases that are heretical and sometimes scandalous. We have email lists and magazines, blogs, flogs and news servers all dedicated to the preservation of purity in the every growing artistic expression of music. The bottom line is clear, however, no mater your personal preferences or stomach (or lack thereof) for morality and all its perversions: sin has been in the music business for a long time.
But in audio?
Any brief study of music history will turn up some fascinating results, the most striking of which being that our culture’s speedy and self-indulging propensities have not only influenced our lust for 60-second meals and instant product downloads, but also a shortening of our attention span. I’m not the first to point out that our mind’s tolerance and enjoyment for 30-minute pieces of music (Bach) have been replaced with 3-minute pieces of–errr–”music” by [insert band name here]. But what if our face paced, hedonistic culture produced something we didn’t expect: a degradation in sound quality.
Sure, I know what you’re thinking. “Duh, MP3′s are a compressed format.” But so are CD’s. Any avid collector of vinyl will tell you there’s absolutely no comparison when it comes to real sign waves (just ask our Associate Pastor, Christian Fahey). The industry standard, commonly referred to as “The Oven,” is still a Studer 24-track, 2″ tape machine (sadly becoming a dinosaur).
But that’s not what I’m talking about. What if the very way that producers mixed was changing? What if the way we’re processing sound is detrimental to the human brain, responsible for “fatigue” all in the name of “getting your attention”? It’s my belief that the influence of sin in music does not just stop with the raunchy music videos or graphic lyrical content. It’s now affected how we make music in the recording and reproducing process. For the true artists, it’s much worse. It would be like exchanging a painter’s brush with a Q-Tip and asking him to create a fine work of art. Maybe. Perhaps. But why give him a $.05 ear cleaning utensil when he could have had his $56.00 fine-haired brush?
Because it’s not really about beauty anymore. It’s largely about money. A Q-Tip is easier to mass produce. So is a mixing style that does not allow for real music to be heard anymore.
For further reading, I encourage you to check out this article entitled The Death of High Fidelity by Robert Levine. You’ll get the technical read there, but I thought I’d provide you with the spiritual one first.
The fact is, it’s we the consumers who are advocating the pursuit of lesser means of production. We keep buying what they keep producing. And there’s no condemnation here; the average listener has no idea what they’re hearing. But, like anything else, from what that hard-core singer is really saying to what all those little acronyms actually mean on a teenager’s MySpace, we need to be educated. So consider this your first lesson on “the art of mixing” if you haven’t been aware before.
Here’s to a new generation producing music that’s beautiful again. A special salute to my father, Peter Hopper, as well as to Gary Hedden of GHL Audio, who have continued strive for true beauty in their trade, resistant to the trends of pop-culture. Let the verses be soft and the choruses be loud! (And death to over compression!)
Thanks for spending some time with me today.
CH
I love good sounding audio. But more to the point, when I mix music at our church- not to be boastful or anything, but I usually get a lot of complements on the way my mixed audio sounds. I ignore all the lessons in getting the levels just right and all the usual style of mixing and put my mind into the same gear as when I’m playing the music myself. I come at it with technical understanding, true, and thus do get the levels just right, but to really produce excellence there has to be that musical understanding as well, sometimes that particular person needs to quieter then another and other times no, sometimes you need a good strong bass presence and other times more emphasis on the guitar, and even then sometimes you need to fine-tune the sound of the guitar for the particular melody. For me, mixing music is like a weird kind of paintbrush that allows me to paint soundscapes that have a unique beauty in and of itself, in addition to the actual music itself. Half the music is in the mixing I think. One of the places I really divert on from the other sound crew members is the highlighting of groups of people rather then picking a person out as the lead singer, the difference is astounding and I love it. Mixing music is a liquid art form rather then a science, though there certainly some principles to the art. It requires a flexibility and often needs to be adjusted to fit the feeling of the music etc. I really feel that the mixing is “the unseen instrument.” that makes or breaks a song.
The most exciting part is when the mixing itself becomes an act of worship. Because, that’s really what it’s about even before serving the musicians.
(Sorry for borrowing your soapbox… *sheepishly steps off soapbox.*)
Chris;
Bravo! Bravo! I just heard the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimel Center in philly, I was so blown away sitting in a building designed totally for sound. The thought came to me while I was there that I have heard way to much “procesed” music, and I have lost a little bit of respect for real music and real sound. By the way make a trip to the Kimmel Center a must go, unbelievable architecture, unbelievable sound.
Shane;
I lead worship at Pleasant Hill Worship Center in MD.
Your comment is so well said that I am going to print it and give it to our sound guys. I have been trying to encourage them to view the mix as a breathing, sometimes changing unit. I just haven’t been saying it that well.
Which, by the way is why in response to the last post, is why I don’t post more often.
Thanks;
Matt Harris
Yes! Yes! Yes! This is good, C. (And thanks for the kind vinyl plug
I don’t imagine the music of heaven now and the music we will create in the eternal state will be compressed and sterile. And it will be beautiful. This is an impressive post. Well done!
Great post Christopher.
I think that the truth is that our “face paced, hedonistic culture” has led to degradation in far more than just sound quality. I think that it has led to a lack of excellence in all aspects of culture today.
Excellence has been replaced by convenience and as a result we have more material (movies, books, song etc.) than ever before but the vast majority of it has no real discernible value. Most of, if not all of the works of today, could not hold a candle to the classics of yesterday.
God placed inside of us these incredible gifts of creativity to express and to communicate but due to our lack of stewardship of His gifts, due to our lack of hard work, we have far to often produced to a standard lower than we are capable. Even worse is that most people will never even realize that what they are reading, watching and listening to is not as good as it was meant to be.
That we would as a generation stop pursuing convenience and start pursuing excellence. It will be harder and it will require more commitment on our part but it will be worth it when we begin to create art that is able to stand the test of time, that is able to truly affect culture, because lets face it, what we have been creating up to now hasn’t gotten the job done.
Just some of my thought.
Love ya
Nate
The music industry over-producing an artist, this can’t be. Why would a billion dollar industry create a product that would indoctrinate their whole consumer base into buying whatever they feed them. A brilliant tactic, if you only care about money and losing integrity is but a trifle casualty in an endeavor to fulfill ones lust and greed. Brilliant just brilliant!!
P.S. That may be a little harsh.
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Wow that article is a great read, and I like your thoughts Christopher. I can’t wait till we get in that new building and will be able to do so much more! I love mixing!
No comment….don’t listen to music….heh heh.
Actually, I quite agree. Even with other arts, like writing, peeople have become far too obsessed with mass producing stuff or getting it all done quickly and it completely ruins the quality of all the work. Books are actually becoming just as corrupted and as low-qualitied as music (acutally i have listend to some…)
They are boring and completely unentertaining, with hardly any imagination at all put into them, all in the name of making money.
Anyway, great thoughts! Maybe you should put them on local news, or maybe write a song about them and see if people actually realize what the song is saying….ha ha
I’ve been saying this for years, although, grant it, not in such detail. Having had classical musical training and experience, I have alway believe that modern, pop culture music (Whether Christian or secular) has always lacked true excellence in its lyrics, musical sense, and perspective.
There are very few artist that I will purchase music from anymore. All the rest just seem to mimic all the rest. And for those of you who are familiar to the worship style of music available. It can be the same or worse. As the Apostle Paul says, “This should not be.”
There is a statement a pastor of mine says (though I don’t think he coined it) that I think is appropriate. “The good is always the enemy of the best.” I would agree to the idea that music, with all of it’s components (audio quality included) is simply a fruit of a decaying tree known as sin. “An apple does not fall to far from the tree.”
“I would agree to the idea that music, with all of it’s components (audio quality included) is simply a fruit of a decaying tree known as sin.”
That’s a much more fluid and concise way to say what I said. Sa-weet!
CH