The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios during the 1960s. In the Music industry, a record producer or music producer has many roles among them controlling the recording sessions coaching and guiding the musicians organizing Harvey Philip Spector (born December 26 1940) is an American Record producer and Songwriter. Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles California.

Spector, working with audio engineers such as Larry Levine, created a dense, layered, and reverberant sound that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. Audio engineering is a part of audio science dealing with the recording and reproduction of Sound through mechanical and electronic means Larry Levine ( May 8, 1928 &ndash May 8, 2008) was an American Audio engineer, known for his cooperation with Phil jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device usually a Coin -operated machine that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media He created this sound by having a number of electric and acoustic guitarists perform the same parts in unison, adding musical arrangements for large groups of and orchestral musicians, and then recording the sound in an echo chamber. In Music, a unison () is an interval, the ratio of 11 or 0 half steps and zero cents. In Music, an arrangement refers either to a rewriting of a piece of existing Music with additional new material or to a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch such An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well When used literally the term echo chamber refers to a hollow enclosure used to produce echoing sounds usually for recording purposes

Description

To attain this signature sound, Spector gathered large groups of musicians (playing some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars) playing orchestrated parts — often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison — for a fuller sound. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder A steel-string acoustic guitar, is a modern form of Guitar descended from the Classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter louder sound In Music, a unison () is an interval, the ratio of 11 or 0 half steps and zero cents. As well, Spector arranged the songs for large groups of musicians playing instruments traditionally associated with orchestras (such as strings, woodwinds, and brass). In Music, an arrangement refers either to a rewriting of a piece of existing Music with additional new material or to a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch such A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a Spector himself called his technique "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".

While Spector directed the overall sound of his recordings, he took a relatively hands-off approach to working with the musicians themselves (usually a core group that became known as The Wrecking Crew, including session players such as Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Steve Douglas, Carol Kaye, Glen Campbell, and Leon Russell), delegating arrangement duties to Jack Nitzsche and having Sonny Bono oversee the performances, viewing these two as his "lieutenants. The Wrecking Crew was a nickname given to a group of Session musicians in Los Angeles California, who earned wide acclaim in the 1960s Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky 5 February 1929, Holyoke Massachusetts) is an US Drummer and Session musician Thomas J Tedesco ( July 3 1930 &ndash November 10 1997) was an American master Steve Douglas may refer to Steve Douglas (saxophonist Steve Douglas (radio personality, late-night radio personality from Denver Colorado Carol Kaye (born March 24, 1935) is an American musician best known as one of the most prolific Bass guitarists in history playing on an estimated Glen Travis Campbell (born April 22 1936 in Delight, Arkansas) is a Grammy Award, Dove Award winning and two time nominated Golden Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges on April 2 1942 in Lawton Oklahoma, United States) is a Singer, Songwriter Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( April 22 1937  &ndash August 25 2000) was an arranger producer songwriter and Academy Award Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono ( February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American Record producer, "

Spector frequently used songs from songwriters employed at the Brill Building, such as the teams of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The Brill Building (built 1931 is an office building located at 1619 Broadway in New York City, just north of Times Square. Eleanor Louise Greenwich known as Ellie Greenwich (born October 23, 1940, Brooklyn, New York) is an American pop Jeff Barry (born April 3, 1938) is an American pop music Songwriter, Singer, and Record producer. Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman, 9 February 1939, Brooklyn, New York) is an American Songwriter, and part of Cynthia Weil (born October 18 1940, New York) is a prominent American Songwriter. Gerry Goffin (born Gerald Goffin February 11 1939, Brooklyn, New York) is an American Lyricist. Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American Singer, Songwriter, and Pianist. Spector often worked with the songwriters, receiving co-credit for compositions. The first time Spector put the same amount of effort into an LP as he did into 45s was when he utilized the full Philles roster and the Wrecking Crew to make what he felt would become a hit for the 1963 Christmas season. A gramophone A Christmas Gift for You arrived in stores the day of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector is an album of Christmas songs, produced by Phil Spector, and originally released as Philles John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Events 498 - Kofi Aseidu- After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Recording techniques

Spector was already known as a temperamental and quirky personality with strong, often unconventional ideas about musical and recording techniques. Despite the trend towards multi-channel recording, Spector was vehemently opposed to stereo releases, claiming that it took control of the record's sound away from the producer in favor of the listener. Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of Sound, using two or more independent audio channels through a Symmetrical Spector also greatly preferred singles to albums, describing LPs as, "two hits and ten pieces of junk". Long play (LP record albums are 33⅓  Rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records generally either 10- or 12- Inches in diameter

In the 1960s, Spector usually worked at the Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles because of its exceptional echo chambers, essential to the Wall of Sound technique. Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles California. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West When used literally the term echo chamber refers to a hollow enclosure used to produce echoing sounds usually for recording purposes Microphones in the recording studio captured the sound, which was then transmitted to an echo chamber—a basement room outfitted with speakers and microphones. For the Marty Friedman album see Loudspeaker (album A loudspeaker, speaker, or speaker system is an electroacoustical The signal from the studio would be played through the speakers and would reverberate around the room, being picked up by the microphones. The echo-laden sound was then channeled back to the control room, where it was transferred to tape.

The natural reverberation and echo from the hard walls of the room gave his productions their distinctive quality and resulted in a rich and complex sound when played on AM radio, with an impressive depth rarely heard in mono recordings. Reverberation is the persistence of Sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed Monaural (often shortened to mono) sound reproduction is single-channel

Songwriter Jeff Barry, who worked extensively with Spector, described the Wall of Sound as:

basically a formula. Jeff Barry (born April 3, 1938) is an American pop music Songwriter, Singer, and Record producer. You're going to have four or five guitars line up, gut-string guitars, and they're going to follow the chords. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles . . two basses in fifths, with the same type of line, and strings. The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the The perfect fifth ( is the Musical interval between a note and the note seven Semitones above it on the musical scale . . six or seven horns, adding the little punches…formula percussion instruments — the little bells, the shakers, the tambourines. In a Symphony orchestra the horn section is the group of musicians who play the horn (sometimes referred to as the French horn a brass instrument descended The tambourine or Marine is a Musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame often of wood or plastic with pairs of small metal jingles Phil used his own formula for echo, and some overtone arrangements with the strings. But by and large there was a formula arrangement.

The Wall of Sound may be compared with “the standard pop mix of foregrounded solo vocal and balanced, blended backing”. Pop music as a genre features a noticeable rhythmic element catchy melodies and hooks, a mainstream style and conventional structure In Music, a solo (from the Italian solo, meaning alone) is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer In contrast, “Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' (‘one mike over everything’) invites the listener to immerse himself in the quasi-Wagnerian mass of sound:

…he buried the lead and he cannot stop himself from doing that…if you listen to his records in sequence, the lead goes further and further in and to me what he is saying is, 'It is not the song. . . just listen to those strings. I want more musicians, it's me.

– Jeff Barry, quoted in Williams 1974, p. 91

This can be contrasted with the open spaces and more equal lines of typical funk and reggae textures [for example], which seem to invite the listener to insert himself in those spaces and actively participate. Funk is an American musical style that originated in the mid- to late-1960s when African American musicians blended Soul music, Soul Reggae is a Music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s

– Middleton 1990, p. 89

.

Criticism

The Beatles' album Let It Be was re-produced by Phil Spector and is cited as a famous example of his "Wall of Sound". The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 Let It Be is the twelfth and final original album released by The Beatles. Paul McCartney claimed that the production had ruined the work, particularly McCartney's composition "The Long and Winding Road", and a "de-Spectorized" version of the album was released as Let It Be... Naked in 2003. Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942 is an English rock Singer, Bass guitarist songwriter Composer, " The Long and Winding Road " is a Ballad written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) that originally appeared on The Beatles Let It Be… Naked is a Remixed and Remastered version of the original session tapes from the 1970 Let It Be Album by George Harrison and John Lennon ostensibly favored the production style, continuing to use Spector on various solo projects. George Harrison, MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001 was an English rock Guitarist Singer - Songwriter, Author John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (born

Recordings produced by Spector for Leonard Cohen and Ramones have been subject to much criticism. Leonard Norman Cohen CC GOQ (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Quebec) is a Canadian Singer-songwriter The Ramones were an American rock band often regarded as the first Punk rock group Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man employed a grand Wall of Sound and was a direct departure from Cohen's usual stark acoustic sound. Death of a Ladies' Man is the fifth of Leonard Cohen 's albums The Ramones' End of the Century blended punk rock with the wall of sound in hopes of creating a more radio-friendly sound. End of the Century is the fifth album by the Ramones. It was produced by the famed Phil Spector and was released on February 4 Fans and members of the Ramones dismissed the album after its release. However, it contains some of their most well-known songs.

Other references

The term "wall of sound" first appeared in print in the New York Times on June 22, 1874, in a description of Richard Wagner's redesigned Niebelungen Theatre in Bayreuth, Germany, which placed the orchestra (for the first time, it seems) in an orchestra pit in front of the stage rather than behind the opera singers: "The mere sinking of the orchestra is, however, not the only innovation. Bayreuth ( pronounced) is a City in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb An orchestra pit is area in a theater (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage in which musicians perform Wagner leaves there, a space of eighteen feet wide, and extending the entire breadth of the stage (not merely of the proscenium) and extending up to the roof, perfectly free. He calls this the Mystic Space, because he intends that here the invisible 'wall of music,' proceeding from the invisible orchestra, shall separate the real (that is the audience) from the ideal (the stage pictures. ) If we may so express ourselves, the audience will perceive the scenes through an invisible wall of sound. "

The term became popularly used around 1945 to describe sound of the jazz orchestra led by Stan Kenton, with its booming trombone, trumpet, and percussion sections. Stanley Newcomb Kenton ( December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was a pianist who led a highly innovative influential and often controversial The same term (more commonly known as "sheets of sound") was also frequently used to describe the improvising style of tenor sax player John Coltrane, particularly his way of running through scales rapid fire—the individual notes blurring into a larger pattern. Sheets of sound was a term coined in 1958 by Down Beat magazine Jazz critic Ira Gitler to describe the new unique improvisational

Grateful Dead

The term "Wall of Sound" was also used to describe the enormous public address system designed by Owsley Stanley specifically for the Grateful Dead's live performances circa 1974. The Wall of Sound was an enormous Public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead 's live performances by legendary Audio engineer A public address or " PA " system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, Amplifier and Loudspeakers used to Owsley Stanley (born Augustus Owsley Stanley IIII, January 19, 1935) also known as The Bear, was an underground LSD chemist the first The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Wall of Sound fulfilled the band's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system. Raymond Scott nicknamed the vast array of homemade sequencers and synthesizers that took up a wall of his studio the "wall of sound". Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, 10 September 1908 &mdash 8 February 1994) was an American composer band leader pianist engineer

Other songs using the technique

Outside of Phil Spector's own songs, the most recognizable example of the Wall of Sound is heard on many hits recorded by The Beach Boys (e. The Beach Boys is an American rock band Formed in 1961 the group gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California Youth culture g. "God Only Knows", "Wouldn't it Be Nice", "Good Vibrations"). " God Only Knows " is the eighth track on the Pet Sounds album and one of the most widely recognized songs performed by American pop " Wouldn't It Be Nice " is the Opening track on the 1966 album Pet Sounds and one of the most widely recognized songs by the American " Good Vibrations " is a pop single by The Beach Boys. In the early 1960s, Brian Wilson used a similar recording technique. Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942 in Hawthorne, California) is an American Musician best known as the lead

"Be My Baby", a 1963 hit for The Ronettes, written by Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich and produced by Phil Spector, is often cited as the quintessential expression of the Wall of Sound^[1]. The Ronettes were a Girl group of the 1960s from New York City, best known for their work with producer Phil Spector. Jeff Barry (born April 3, 1938) is an American pop music Songwriter, Singer, and Record producer. Eleanor Louise Greenwich known as Ellie Greenwich (born October 23, 1940, Brooklyn, New York) is an American pop Harvey Philip Spector (born December 26 1940) is an American Record producer and Songwriter. The Ronettes version of "Sleigh Ride" - one of the better-known versions of the song - also heavily used the effect, while Swedish pop group ABBA used a similar technique in their earlier songs, including "Ring Ring", "Waterloo", and "Dancing Queen". The Ronettes were a Girl group of the 1960s from New York City, best known for their work with producer Phil Spector. " Sleigh Ride " is a popular light Orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson " Ring Ring " is a 1973 single by ABBA, which gave the group their big break in several European countries (although the rest of Europe, North " Waterloo " first called "Honey Pie" was the first single from Swedish pop group ABBA 's second album Waterloo, their first for " Dancing Queen " is the biggest hit single recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA, and as such is considered by many to be their Signature song Harry Nilsson's hit "Everybody's Talkin'," which became the theme song for Midnight Cowboy, used Wall of Sound-style production techniques.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's landmark Born to Run, which includes more than 30 guitar tracks, incorporates Spector's "Wall of Sound" approach. Born to Run is the third album by the American rock Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. The most recent example of the Wall of Sound technique was in Mariah Carey's holiday hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You". " All I Want for Christmas Is You " is a song by American singer Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, and recorded for Carey's fifth album Merry Devin Townsend is known for his extensive use of this technique in his works, which include metal band Strapping Young Lad and progressive rock/metal band The Devin Townsend Band. Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972 in New Westminster, British Columbia) is a Canadian Multi-instrumentalist musician Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian Extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995 The Devin Townsend Band was a Progressive metal band from Vancouver, Canada.

Shoegazing

Shoegazing, a style of alternative rock, is influenced by Wall of Sound. Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze or shoegazer) is a genre of Alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of Shoegazing emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and lasted until the mid 1990s, peaking circa 1990 to 1991. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Common musical elements in shoegazing are distortion, delay, and chorus effects, droning riffs and a "wall of sound" from noisy guitars. Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but underneath the layers of guitars is generally a strong sense of melody. In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming. Chapterhouse and Seefeel utilised both samples and live drumming. Chapterhouse were a British Shoegazing band of the early 1990s originally from Reading, Berkshire, England. Seefeel are a British Alternative rock group primarily active in the early to mid 1990s

Sources

Footnotes

1. ^ allmusic

Notations

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
• Williams, Richard (1974/2003). Phil Spector: Out Of His Head. Abacus. ISBN 0-7119-9864-7. Cited in Middleton (1990).