The Wall of Sound is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector in the 1960s. The intention was to exploit the possibilities of studio recording to create an unusually dense orchestral aesthetic that came across well through radios and jukeboxes of the era. Spector’s arrangements called for large ensembles, with multiple instruments doubling or tripling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer tone.
About Wall of Sound in brief
The Wall of Sound is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector in the 1960s. The intention was to exploit the possibilities of studio recording to create an unusually dense orchestral aesthetic that came across well through radios and jukeboxes of the era. Spector’s arrangements called for large ensembles, with multiple instruments doubling or tripling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer tone. Reverb from an echo chamber was also highlighted for additional texture. By 1979, the use of compression had become common on the radio, marking the trend that led to the loudness war in the 1980s. In the mid-1950s, Spector worked with Brill Building songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller during a period when they sought a fuller sound by using up to five electric guitars and four percussionists. He characterized his methods as \”a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids\”. The sum of his efforts was officially designated as the Wall ofsound by Andrew Loogham, who coined the term within advertisements for the 1964 single Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”. Songwriter Barry Barry described the formula as large and monotonous, and described Spector as ‘by and large, a monosyllabic, monotone, monochromatic, and monochrome producer’ The process is almost the same for most of Spector’s recordings, starting by rehearsing the musicians for several hours before recording.
The backing track was performed live and overdubally recorded on a monaurally a drum kit; a bass drum was recorded on the live track; and a monaural bass bass was recorded live and recorded on an overdub bass drum; a monorphone was recorded and recorded live on the backing track. The recording was achieved by taking a demo tape of the song and playing it back over the studio’s speaker system to overdub another performance over it. The end product was a cacophony, with stacked harmony vocals that could not be heard clearly. The combination of large ensembleles with reverberation effects also increased the average audio power in a way that resembles compression. The result was a sound that was unique in the field of sound production for popular music. The Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who used the formula extensively, said the formula was ‘all a definite sound. It was a case of augmenting, augmenting. It all fit together like a jigsaw’ The Wall of sound was first used on the self-penned 1957 single \”Don’t You Worry My Little Pet\”, performed with his group the Teddy Bears. It has been described as ‘one of the most influential records of the 20th century’ by music critic Marshall Leib. The formula was developed at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles because its exceptional echo chambers were used to create the sound. The Wrecking Crew was a group of musicians who later became later became known as The Wall Of Sound.
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This page is based on the article Wall of Sound published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 20, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
