Plummer, Robert (2019) How can sound engineers working in large format recording facilities participate in collaborative creativity and experience “creative immersion”? (MA(R) thesis), Kingston University, .
Abstract
Record production is often seen in musicology as a combination of two or three (often the songwriters’ and producer’s) persons’ creativity, and often not analysed from a collaborative viewpoint. When looking at technical staff on recordings, the producer often takes centre stage. The creative role of the studio engineer is mostly overlooked, yet highly important. A studio engineer’s practices influences the creativity of all of the participants of a recording session, regardless of how creative those practices may be. This research sheds light on the engineer’s effect on the creativity of the recording session including the best practices and workflows to ensure the highest creative output. Included in this research are four case studies of professional studio sessions which I engineered at Visconti Studio. Visconti Studio is a professional recording facility residing at Kingston University’s “Hill Campus”. Having professional practice based research on an area of musicology which is still in its infancy is invaluable. Using existing frameworks, and my own model, I take a look into the case studies, analysing the creative output and the practices that led to such creativity. The recording engineer may not just facilitate creativity, but also be invited into the collaborative process. In this research I demonstrate how, and when, an engineer may experience being collaboratively creative, but also how they may achieve the highest form of this, creative immersion. Building upon the works by authors such as Samantha Bennet, Simon Zagorski Thomas, Toby Seay, and Michael Paul Stavrou, and integrating my professional experience, I am able to offer valuable insight and knowledge which has, until now remained untapped.
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