Post
by Anthony Caruso » Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:05 pm
Like someone said, big question, but I get what you mean...here's my experience...
INSTRUMENTS - changes depending on producer, but mostly coming from: MPC2000XL (beat stuff), Korg Triton/Yamaha Motif/Roland Fantom (instrument sounds), Korg MS2000/Micro Korg/Various Moog/Juno-type units (synth sounds). These are the staples of what I have seen, and everyone uses them differently. Some use drum sounds off the Motif and never use an MPC. Some use more standalone synths like Moogs or Junos as opposed to the "all-in-one" Triton/Motif solution. Some use strictly software synths and drums like from Logic or Ableton. I've even seen major label pop tracks done in Frooty Loops. The common thread here is that the resulting sounds are all clean, strong and consistent. Usually recorded DI from the units, the sounds are almost "compartmentalized" right out of the unit and all sound up front and crisp. Musical performances are often quantized, but I have seen bad asses like Chad Hugo and Eric Hudson just play it free, yielding a better feel, IMHO. And the addition of just one "real" instrument, like live bass or guitar, can often give an otherwise synthy track some life.
VOCALS - Almost always tuned, whether hard-core like T-Pain/Chris Brown, or more subtle. Even good singers like Christina Aguilera get tuned. Especially backgrounds, when they are all tuned they get that smooth almost synth-y sound because you don't get the normal harmonic-beating from a naturally inconsistent human performance. AutoTune specifically has the synthier sound, while Melodyne or Waves Tuner plug in can be more natural. And stack them high, most of the time verses will have a lead, a double and triple for certain words and phrases (panned left and right). Any harmonies or other backgrounds will at least be doubles, if not tripled and quadrupled, panned out. Stacked background tracks are also usully time-aligned using something like VocAlign or just by editing. This also adds to that smooth sound. Effects are less easy to "formul-ize", but reverbs, delays, stereo field effects, stereo modulation effects etc are all valid. Whatever gets the vocal big and glossy. Many times heavier on big verbs and delays in the hooks than the verses. Compress hell out of vocals. Waves RVox is used a lot, but everyone has their favorite.
So, yeah, points being the music is usually the very crisp, almost pre-processed sound of direct recorded keyboards or from software synths. Vocals are tuned and timed, bright and glossy, and multiple takes of the same part are stacked and panned to make it sound big. Like anything, there is no formula, all producers have their comfortable gear/software and playing style, but these couple points seem to be fairly universal for that modern radio pop sound. And don't forget to pay attention to arrangement and writing, these play a huge part in pop and there are definitely devices that keep popping up (the filtered drum break, putting an additional, heavier snare on the hook parts, basic song structure 8 bar intro, 8 bar verse, 8 bar hook, 8 bar verse, 8 bar prehook, 16 bar hook, 8 bar bridge, double hook and out!).
