The Art of Recording
November 19, 2016 12:53 PM   Subscribe

Soundbreaking is an 8-part documentary series about the art of producing records, featuring both legendary and lesser-known producers like Quincy Jones, Linda Perry, Don Was, RZA, Brian Eno, Questlove, and of course George Martin.

Episodes focus on different aspects of musical sound, such as the human voice, the electronic revolution (electric guitars, synthesizers), and the beat.

PBS is streaming Soundbreaking this week at their website.
posted by kristi (24 comments total) 59 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've been watching this and raving about it to anyone and everyone who will listen. I'm a bit of a sucker for this kind of thing, but this one is organized in a different way from other "making music in the studio" documentaries, and it draws long and strong lines across the history of recording for each of its subjects. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

One note: The PBS site only has episodes available to the general public (and probably US only) AFTER they have aired on the network, so right now they only have the first 5 episodes. If you are a PBS station member and have logged in using your membership to the PBS website, you can view the entire series.
posted by hippybear at 12:58 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Watched the first episode last night. Fantastic!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:16 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I caught the "Electric Revolution" episode the other night and, honestly, I was kind of underwhelmed. I guess I was hoping for more nuts-n-bolts about how electronic sound reproduction came to be (i.e. early experiments, the invention of electronic recording, etc.) and then a more historical and technical overview. But, it really wasn't much more than "The guitar couldn't be heard in the big bands, so Gibson made an amp" and then film clips of famous artists playing guitars and, then, "Bob Moog built a synth" and then clips of people playing synths. And a lot of sound-clippy interviews.

So...I dunno. It was cool to see performance clips I'd never seen, I guess.

And no mention at all about Kraftwerk when it came to synths? Really?
posted by Thorzdad at 1:18 PM on November 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


It's not a technical documentary about the nuts and bolts about recording music. It's a history documentary about the sweep and development of studio work and how music evolved as the result of advances.

It reminds me of James Burke, really.
posted by hippybear at 1:28 PM on November 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


This is extremely relevant to my interests, so if anyone knows of a legit way to watch this in the UK, I would love to know.
posted by parm at 1:36 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


does okay with genre-defining studio and production changes. i was hoping for some sketchy stuff, too: gated-snare, too-much-reverb, compression overkill, mastering for earbuds...even the autotune segment kinda ignored the downsides.
posted by j_curiouser at 2:00 PM on November 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


it's a good show. my 85 year old mom likes it. Now she finally knows who all the Beatles were.
posted by philip-random at 2:03 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I also thought it was going to be a bit more tech/details focused. I watched the one on vocals, and while it was entertaining, it seemed like we just spent a lot of time talking about how great Adele and Christina Aguillera are, which I kind of already knew. I'd like to hear more from producers about the construction - what makes this song so great? what choices did we make that took this song to the next level? - that kind of thing.
posted by Think_Long at 2:36 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


They also played too many clips of Amy Winehouse, going "No, noo, no..." in that episode.

I know her career was too brief, but couldn't they find some more material to feature, if they're going to place her in the pantheon of Great Recording Artists?

It literally makes her talent appear to be of the one-note variety.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 2:44 PM on November 19, 2016


We've been enjoying this series.

It's not recording 101, or secrets of the masters, or even "Art of the Recording"; it's sort of a historical overview of recorded popular music, discussion of both musical and technical trends and influences, and what went into the making and production of many of the groundbreaking tracks.

I'm finding the series has a nice mix of stories about artists, producers, trends, technologies, game-changers, and there were a number of items that filled in some gaps in my knowledge - example: Nile Rogers on being 'tight', and how the Steve Dahl "Disco Sucks" revolt ended the career of his band Chic. They also discuss how Stevie Wonder broke away from the Motown mold, and the involvement of Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil were in his "synth" phase and next records.

I don't share the above criticisms of the Vocals episode; in particular they stressed how important it was to actually be a great singer (eg Sinatra), create the right conditions for the artist to sing in, and how a technically perfect take is almost always inferior to an emotionally committed performance.

The PBS shows "Nature" or "Cosmos" won't make you a scientist; likewise this series won't make you Phil Spector or Don Was. But it's interesting and inspirational.
posted by Artful Codger at 3:32 PM on November 19, 2016


The PBS shows "Nature" or "Cosmos" won't make you a scientist

Cosmos made me an electronic and experimental music enthusiast at the precocious age of 12. Oh, and also I love science.
posted by hippybear at 4:01 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I have not had a chance to watch yet, but I assume that this was featured in the autotune episode.
posted by incster at 4:30 PM on November 19, 2016


what went into the making and production of many of the groundbreaking tracks
i disagree. this precise element is what's missing.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:37 PM on November 19, 2016


Oh, I dunno. Their breakdown of the creation of Tomorrow Never Knows seemed to pretty much describe exactly what went into producing that track.

It's a bit hit or miss with such details, I do admit.
posted by hippybear at 4:41 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


and.....We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to right restrictions.

Damn it.
posted by davebush at 4:44 PM on November 19, 2016


and.....We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to right restrictions.

Praise be for the electronic miracle that is the Kodi box.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:17 PM on November 19, 2016


My girlfriend watches PBS almost every evening so I've caught most of this. I forget which episode it was but they let Ben Harper explain how a talkbox works and he completely got it wrong. He said that the tube "shoots electricity" into the singer's mouth and the performer goes through "agony" while using it... from all the electricity. I was livid at how preposterous this was and couldn't believe that this got though the edit.

The tube of a talkbox just carries air pressure sound waves that are then shaped by the performers mouth into vowel sounds.
posted by dagosto at 8:51 PM on November 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Thanks for this, these kind of shows are the perfect shows for me. Just watched the first two. Didn't learn anything I didn't already know, but I still love watching this stuff.
posted by chococat at 9:49 PM on November 19, 2016


I've seen it earlier this year, and as I've commented somewhere around here (on the FPP about 12-inch dance records), "it drifted off someplace else before it got interesting".

It's a fun show for people who don't know much about what's behind the recordings, but otherwise it becomes a little frustrating when it mentions something that looks an interesting story, but always goes back to something basic.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:06 AM on November 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


To the folk who've (fairly) criticised the series as being occasionally variable in depth and quality, what alternatives do you recommend?
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 2:10 AM on November 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


The thing about Soundbreaking is that it is a somewhat unique documentary series because it focuses on production/engineering without focusing on just one band. It's just harder to make an engaging story out of anoraky tech talk than it is to talk about people, which may have been the reason for them to avoid going too deep on anything. The BBC has a few music quality music documentaries, but most are based on a scene and/or the performers than the tech.
It's likely there's a few of them over at YouTube and Vimeo done by said anoraks, like this often linked Amen Break piece (and on the TB-303, both by Nate Harrison), here a contemporary video on early sampling, or Grandmaster doing his thing. Also, The 808 Movie, dropping in a few weeks.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:50 AM on November 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the Ben Harper talkbox segment was very much WTF. I think that was the only glaring error that I saw.

Similar to other commenters, there were spots that were frustratingly vague, or where they omitted an artist/producer/technique that I thought should have been included... but that sort of objection springs from the fact that many of us here have some experience in the field.

As someone whose last professional involvement (on the technical side of audio production systems) was some 20 years ago... I'm enjoying the fresh perspective, as well as the flashbacks.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:15 AM on November 20, 2016


The documentary Tom Dowd and the Language of Music was something I found interesting in this field.
posted by dglynn at 8:29 AM on November 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm a musician and do a lot of recording, so these kind of documentaries can be a little basic, but so far (I'm just a few episodes in), Soundbreaking is really good. If you can get through all the frenetic editing and mashed-together interviews by people talking about KIND OF similar things in the first episode, it starts to get deeper and spend more time on things.

"To the folk who've (fairly) criticised the series as being occasionally variable in depth and quality, what alternatives do you recommend?"

If you're looking for stuff that's a bit more technical (while still having lots of great stories about the making of a specific album) the "Classic Albums" series is fantastic. Unfortunately, as far as Netflix goes, none of them are streaming (they're on DVD), but you might be able to find them elsewhere. There are also large chunks of the hour-long episodes available on youtube. In each one, they go into the studio with the original tapes and and bring up individual tracks and talk about interesting things, occasionally even alternate takes (The Steely Dan Aja one has some great stuff like this — here's a great section about the guitar solos in "Peg": https://youtu.be/PQMRrJG_QC0?list=PLEC47A94720462CE4). Plus, there are lots of interviews with the various people involved. Even if i can't stand the band, I've never found one of these unwatchable.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:41 AM on November 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


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