The first records were essentially documents of performances. It was essentially just a matter of sticking a microphone in front of a singer or a band and recording that performance, then preserving it and playing it back.
However, as technology began to mature and get a little more sophisticated, some record producers began to use that technology to influence and shape the way that music sounded on a record. An early pioneer was Les Paul, who worked with record cutters, record lathes, and early tape machines to do things like sound-on-sound recording and overdubbing, as he did with Mary Ford’s “How High the Moon.” This was the beginning of a whole new era for the music industry.
About 10 years later, a young record producer by the name of Phil Spector literally used the acoustics and electronics in the studio to create what he called a wall of sound in the record “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes.
The mid-1960s were when the idea of the record producer really started to mature. George Martin, working with The Beatles, used all kinds of electronic trickery to make their recordings sound really, really interesting. Whether it was the use of tape loops, interesting new musical instruments, or placement of microphones, everything was used to shape the sound of music.
Currently, music education, including online music education, offer music producers even more ways to play with sound and create new and interesting effects for recordings.
