Heaviness in Metal Music Production (HiMMP)

自从1970年黑色安息日的首张同名专辑以来，金属音乐一直在寻求更大的重量。尽管表演变得更加极端，但音乐的沉重得益于音乐技术的无数进步，促进了扭曲的吉他和超现实的鼓表演的密集墙壁。从文化和音乐学的角度，到以职业和实践为基础的制作研究，缺乏对录音和混合形式中的沉重是什么的理解。在一个即将存在半个世纪的音乐流派中，这项研究可能会对我们对该流派的基本特征的理解产生重大的全球影响。目前，缺乏音乐制作知识和教育材料，使感兴趣的人能够了解顶级制作人是如何捕捉、操纵和呈现等同于重的各种品质的。这个项目将研究七个专门从事不同子流派的领先金属制作人如何定义重，以及他们如何在混合录音时处理和控制重的构成方面。它将分析制作人对沉重的理解，他们的个人方法，以及音乐材料的特征如何影响他们的混合决定。这将导致一个从系统的实证分析中衍生出的重量级理论。该项目主要采取了七个连续的步骤：1)在汇编了现有的关于重音的研究后，这个团队-由两名金属音乐制作人，一名实践者，一名音乐学家-将根据之前的风格分析，创作一首金属歌曲，其中明确定义了三个不同亚流派(末日金属、交响乐力量金属、现代极端金属)的部分。3)这首歌将按照专业标准录制。为提供多种制作选择，将使用多种录制技术录制多个放大器/机柜设置和用于样品加固的干净鼓点。4)该实验将与一家英国生产商进行中试。5)对主要制作人的风格进行分析，为实验和数据分析提供依据。6)录制的歌曲将由7家领先的金属制作人混音。制片人向团队展示他们的结果，然后就所采取的方法进行深入采访。混合和采访将用多个摄像机和屏幕截图拍摄。7)视频文件和采访将允许分析制片人的个别混合方法。他们将揭示这些亚流派是否需要不同的制作方法，以及不同的金属亚流派是否存在沉重的总体特征。这些数据将展示主要制作人如何处理金属曲目的混合，从而以一种对音乐制作人有用的学习资源的方式记录这一过程。对制作人组合的分析将是他们个人对沉重的理解的听觉展示，表明实现沉重的可能性的广度--或缺乏这种可能性。这些分析将为金属音乐制作中的沉重理论奠定基础，填补金属音乐研究、音乐学和唱片制作艺术领域的知识空白。这些发现将发表在一本研究专著中，两篇发表在金属音乐研究和流行音乐上的参考文章，一篇以实践为导向的文章，发表在Sound on Sound上，并在两个国际会议上发表。所有项目材料，包括歌曲的乐谱、原始录音、7个MIX项目文件、制作人会议和采访的编辑视频都将在项目网站上提供。这些资源提供了真实的、第一手的文件，展示了为一首完整的歌曲制作高端金属音乐所涉及的关键决策过程和技术。没有纸质杂志、视频服务或商业教育提供商提供类似的资源。

Since Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album in 1970, metal music has been on a quest for greater heaviness. Although performances have become more extreme, the music's heaviness has benefited from numerous advances in music technology, facilitating dense walls of distorted guitars and hyperreal drum performances. From cultural and musicological perspectives through to vocational and practice-based production studies, there is a lack of understanding of what heaviness is in a recorded and mixed form. In a music genre that is approaching its half-century of existence, this research is likely to have significant global impact on our understanding of the genre's fundamental qualities. At present, there is a deficit of music production knowledge and educational material that enables those interested to understand how top producers capture, manipulate and present the various qualities that equate to heaviness.This project will examine how seven leading metal producers specialising in different subgenres define heaviness, and how they process and control the constituent aspects of heaviness during the mixing of recordings. It will analyse the producers' understandings of heaviness, their individual approaches, and how the characteristics of the musical material influence their mixing decisions. It will lead to a theory of heaviness derived from systematic empirical analysis. The project takes seven mainly sequential steps:1) After compiling existing research on heaviness, the team - consisting of two metal music producers, one also a practitioner, one a musicologist - will 2) compose one metal song with clearly defined sections of three contrasting subgenres (doom metal, symphonic power metal, modern extreme metal) based on previous stylistic analysis. 3) The song will be recorded to professional standards. To allow multiple production choices, multi-amplifier/cabinet setups and clean drum hits for sample reinforcement will be recorded with a variety of recording techniques. 4) The experiment will be pilot-tested with a UK producer. 5) The styles of the main producers will be analysed to inform the experiment and data analysis. 6) The recorded song will be mixed by 7 leading metal producers. The producers present their results to the team, followed by in-depth interviews on the approach taken. The mixing and the interviews will be filmed with multiple cameras and screen-capture. 7) The video documentation and interviews will allow analysis of the producers' individual mixing approaches. They will reveal whether the subgenres require distinct production approaches and whether there are overarching features of heaviness across diverse subgenres of metal. The data will show how leading producers approach the mixing of a metal track, thus documenting the process in a way that is useful as a learning resource for music producers. The analysis of the producers' mixes will be an audible demonstration of their individual understandings of heaviness, showing the breadth - or lack thereof - of possibilities of achieving heaviness. These analyses will form the basis for a theory of heaviness in metal music production filling a gap in knowledge in the disciplines of metal music studies, musicology and the art of record production. The findings will be published in a research monograph, two refereed articles in Metal Music Studies and Popular Music, one practice-oriented article in Sound on Sound, and presented at two international conferences. All project material including sheet music of the song, the raw recordings, the 7 mix project files, the edited videos of the producers' sessions and interviews will be available on the project website. The resources provide authentic, first-hand documentation demonstrating the crucial decision-making processes and the techniques involved in high-end metal music production for a full song. No print magazine, video service nor commercial educational provider offers comparable resources.