{"id":880,"date":"2011-07-03T10:40:31","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T10:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2012-05-28T05:01:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T05:01:08","slug":"lateral-dynamics-processing-in-experimental-hip-hop-flying-lotus-madlib-oh-no-j-dilla-and-prefuse-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/lateral-dynamics-processing-in-experimental-hip-hop-flying-lotus-madlib-oh-no-j-dilla-and-prefuse-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Lateral Dynamics Processing in Experimental Hip Hop: Flying Lotus, Madlib, Oh No, J-Dilla and Prefuse 73"},"content":{"rendered":"

This paper is part of a broader ongoing effort to elucidate signal processing as musical communication.1<\/sup> In it, I draw an aesthetic distinction between three species of lateral dynamics processing which regularly recur in modern experimental hip hop, specifically, side-chain pumping, ducking and envelope following.\u00a0 I explain how these techniques relate on a procedural level, even as they serve different musical functions; and, finally, I consider why so little is written about these techniques in current research on popular music recording practice.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I do not suggest that the techniques I examine below are revolutionary, nor that they are unknown by recordists working in genres other than hip hop.\u00a0 In fact, my point is precisely the opposite: the techniques I survey in this paper are as common as \u201ctapping\u201d and \u201cpower chords\u201d once were in heavy metal.\u00a0 This makes their absence from academic research on popular music practice, including popular music recording practice, all the more conspicuous, in my opinion.2<\/sup> It is precisely this absence the following study was designed to elucidate.<\/p>\n

Side-Chain Pumping<\/h3>\n

The most obvious lateral dynamics processing technique in the hip hop lexicon is so-called “side-chain pumping.\u201d\u00a0 To create this effect, recordists side-chain compressors set to process tracks with obvious sustain information to rhythmically active tracks like, most commonly, kick drum and snare.\u00a0 The volume of the side-chained track thus lowers and, then, pumps back to its original level each time the amplitude of the trigger registers above the threshold on the compressor, at a rate determined by its attack and release settings.\u00a0 This process creates the regularized rhythmic flexing known as “side-chain pumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Figure 1.\u00a0 From top to bottom:\u00a0 (i) a synth pad side-chained to (ii) a kick drum playing straight quarter notes, and (iii) the resulting pad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Example 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Example 1. Dabrye’s “Air” remixed by the author to emphasize side-chain pumping.\u00a0 Side-chaining commences at precisely 12 seconds into the track, after the first two iterations of the kick.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hip hop recordists tend to use the side-chain on their compressors to buttress the groove, regularly transforming a pad, or ambience, into a rhythmic upstroke.\u00a0 Flying Lotus (FlyLo), for instance, makes regular and overt use of the side-chain on his compressors for this very purpose.\u00a0 A clear example of the celebrated producer’s extroverted approach to the side-chain can be heard on “Tea Leaf Dancers,” track one on his debut e.p. for Warp Records.\u00a0 Side-chained in its entirety, every component of \u201cTea Leaf Dancers”, including Andrea Triana’s lead vocal, pumps dramatically under the kick drum each time it sounds; and FlyLo does precisely the same on his remix of Madvillain’s “Shadows of Tomorrow (feat. Quasimoto)”.\u00a0 Lone, a well known British DJ, takes a similar approach on Ecstasy and Friends, side-chaining each track under the kick on all but one cut.\u00a0 Other celebrated champions of the side-chain include J-Dilla and Samiyam, and, to a lesser extent, Madlib, Dibiase, Prefuse 73 and Oh No.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[audio: https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Eg12_Ho_ARP2010.mp3]<\/p>\n

Example 1.2\u00a0 A quick tour of Side-Chain Pumping In Modern Experimental Hip Hop.\u00a0 In order, excerpted tracks are: Flying Lotus, “Tea Leaf Dancers”; Lone, “To Be With Someone You Really Dig”; J-Dilla, “The Diff’rence”; Madvillian (Madlib), “Shadows (FlyLo Remix)”; and Samiyam “Fishsticks”<\/em><\/p>\n

Ducking<\/h3>\n

Though neither as common, nor immediately apparent, as side-chain pumping, ducking abounds in modern experimental hip hop.\u00a0 While ducking clearly resembles side-chain pumping in procedural terms, the techniques are aesthetically distinct.\u00a0 As noted, side-chain pumping alters the dynamic contour of tracks and, in the process, transforms pads and ambience into rhythmic upstrokes.\u00a0 Ducking, on the other hand, increases the textural density of tracks, and extends their temporal envelopes.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

To duck a signal, recordists can insert any number of tools into the signal chain.\u00a0 These include: (i) dedicated duckers; (ii) side-chained compressors with their makeup gain set for a substantial negative value; and (iii) noise gates with their ducking function engaged.\u00a0 The ducking mechanism is then laterally oriented such that it triggers based on the amplitude of whichever track recordists want to dynamically \u201cduck under.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most common candidates for this treatment in hip hop are echoes and reverberations generated by lead vocal lines.\u00a0 Using whichever ducking mechanism they prefer, hip hop recordists routinely duck reverb and delay lines under the dry vocal tracks used to generate them.\u00a0 Ducked echoes and reverberations thus emerge at an unobtrusive volume whenever vocals are present, but pump to the dynamic fore the second they disappear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Figure 2.\u00a0 From top to bottom:\u00a0 (i) a kick drum and (ii) its ducked delay line<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>[audio:https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Eg2_Ho_ARP2010.mp3]<\/p>\n

Example 2. Dabrye’s “Air” remixed by the author to isolate ducked delay on MF Doom’s vocal track.<\/em><\/p>\n

The introduction to Danger Mouse’s “Lazer Beam”, track three on From Man To Mouse, provides an exceptionally clear illustration of this technique at work on a hip hop track.\u00a0 So, too, does Jay Da Flex\u2019s dubstep remix of the Wu Tang Clan\u2019s \u201cDeep Space\u201d, MF Doom\u2019s lead vocal on Dabrye\u2019s \u201cAir\u201d, and any cut from Mos Def\u2019s most recent release, The Ecstatic.\u00a0 That said, it is FlyLo who once again makes most overt, and experimental, use of the device.\u00a0 The celebrated producer routinely invokes ducked echoes on lead vocal tracks, in conjunction with erratic stereo panning, to create the texturally dense \u2014 if not over-saturated \u2014 soundstage which characterizes his most recent vocal productions.<\/p>\n[audio:<\/a>https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Eg22_Ho_ARP2010.mp3]\n

Example 2.2 \u00a0A quick tour of Ducked Delay In Modern Experimental Hip Hop.\u00a0 In order, excerpted tracks are: DJ Danger Mouse “Lazer Beam”; Wu Tang Clan “Deep Space (Jay Da Flex Remix)”;\u00a0 Mos Def “Speedball”; and Flying Lotus “Table Tennis”, “Testament” and “Roberta Flack (feet. Dolly)”<\/em><\/p>\n

Envelope Following<\/h3>\n

Another common lateral dynamics processing technique in hip hop is envelope following, that is, the deliberate refashioning of one amplitude envelope to mimic \u2014 or, at the very least, to closely resemble \u2014 another.\u00a0 To achieve this, recordists use keyed gating.\u00a0\u00a0 This entails laterally orienting a gate so it only stops attenuating signal when the amplitude of the key registers above its threshold.<\/p>\n

A common candidate for envelope following in hip hop is the kick drum.\u00a0 Recordists insert a noise gate into the signal chain for a low frequency oscillator set to generate signal somewhere in the second or third octave, between roughly 40 and 90 Hertz.\u00a0 The gate is then keyed to the kick, and its threshold adjusted, such that the low frequency only sounds in unison with the kick, buttressing its every iteration with added bass components (albeit offset by the attack and hold settings on the keyed gate).\u00a0 Clear demonstrations of this \u201cbuttressing\u201d technique can be heard throughout hip hop in general, but especially clearly on recent releases by FlyLo, Prefuse 73, J-Dilla, Samiyam and Hudson Mohawke.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Figure 3.\u00a0 From top to bottom:\u00a0 (i) a synth pad keyed to (ii) a kick drum playing straight quarter notes, and (iii) the resulting pad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Eg3_Ho_ARP2010.mp3]\n

Example 3. Dabrye’s “Air” remixed by the author to include keyed gate buttressing kick drum with added bass components.\u00a0 Example 3 begins with the buttressing tone isolated for four measures.\u00a0 Once the track begins, however, buttressing only commences at 16 seconds into the track, after the first two iterations of the kick.<\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Eg32_Ho_ARP2010.mp3]\n

Example 3.2\u00a0 A quick tour of\u00a0 Envelope Following in Hip Hop.\u00a0 In\u00a0 order, excerpted tracks are:\u00a0 J-Dilla, “Sycamore”; Wu Tang Clan “Knuckle Up (Matt U Remix)”; Flying Lotus, “Grapesicles (Samiyam Remix)”; Hudson Mohawke, “Polkadot Blues”<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary & Recommendations<\/h3>\n

Though this paper is by no means exhaustive, the techniques I survey in it recur constantly in modern experimental hip hop productions.\u00a0 Side-chain pumping, ducking and\u00a0 envelope following are as foundational in experimental hip hop as \u201cpower chords\u201d and \u201ctapping\u201d once were in heavy metal.\u00a0 Yet they remain conspicuously absent from the lion’s share of research on the genre; and, for that matter, they remain unnoticed in research on popular music recording practice at large.<\/p>\n

Lacunae are to be expected in a field as young and diffuse as popular music studies.\u00a0 However, the present paucity of research on specific signal processing techniques signals the field\u2019s institutional basis much more than its nascent state, in my opinion.\u00a0 Insightful and challenging studies of signal processing have indeed emerged in the last two decades, but these studies usually address the analytic priorities and concerns of disciplines that remain completely uninterested in musical technique per se, like cultural studies, sociology, media studies, cultural anthropology and political-economics.4<\/sup> If it is mentioned at all in these studies, signal processing usually only registers as a site for social, cultural and industrial struggle; only a select few researchers offer much in the way of musical and technical details about the process.5<\/sup> Not surprisingly, then, signal processing has failed to register as a fundamentally musical concern in the vast majority of published research on popular music practice.<\/p>\n

Though one might reasonably expect technical manuals, trade journals and audio-engineering textbooks to “fill-in\u201d the missing musical information I note, most do not address straightforwardly musical topics.\u00a0 Texts in this category usually only sketch the technical capacities of modern recording technologies, and provide a basic psychoacoustic rationale for a few core uses, or they rehearse broad procedural chronologies for certain historically significant recording sessions, without considering the larger aesthetic paradigms that recordists deployed their musical practice to service.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

Even as musicologists and music theorists turn their analytic attentions to pop records, they remain largely fixated on musical details that can be notated (ie., pitch relations, formal contour, metered rhythms, harmonic design, and so on).\u00a0 This is especially ironic given that so many analysts ostentatiously reject notation as an analytic tool now.7<\/sup> No matter how avant-garde their methods, in other words, most musicologists and music theorists remain fixated on the very same musical details they have always analyzed. They simply disagree over how best to interpret those details now.8<\/sup> Recording Practice itself, that is, musical practice of recording technology, continues to register in a very small, albeit growing, collection of articles and books.<\/p>\n

The need for a research program designed to illuminate Recording Practice as musical practice is urgent.\u00a0 As Albin Zak (2001: 26) explains, “record making is a recent art form, and many of its artistic roles belong to no prior tradition…. we know what songwriters do, but what about sound engineers?\u201d\u00a0 Scholars have tried to answer this very question using what seems like every disciplinary and interdisciplinary tool available, and yet Recording Practice in-and-of-itself remains stubbornly absent from the lion\u2019s share of published research.\u00a0 In my opinion, it will remain absent until a unified \u201cdisciplinary\u201d approach to analyzing record making (and not just records) finally emerges, an approach that conceives, and explains, musical practice of recording technology \u2014 say, tweaking the release time setting on a side-chained compressor or a keyed gate \u2014 as musical communication per se.\u00a0 Records present listeners with music; this much we know.\u00a0 Until analysts can connect that music to a concrete corpus of embodied procedures, though, Recording Practice itself is likely to remain the geeky “gearslut” of musical study \u2014 a crucial species of modern musical communications which analysts routinely devalue as nothing more than a technical support, something like scaffold-building, for the “true arts” of performance and composition.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Jay Hodgson<\/p>\n

University of Western Ontario<\/p>\n

jhodgs5@uwo.ca<\/p>\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

1<\/sup> Other publications in this broader research project include: Hodgson 2010a and 2010b; and a forthcoming monograph from Wifrid Laurier Press, scheduled for publication early in 2012.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> See the concluding section of this paper, headed \u201cSummary & Recommendations,\u201d for a more detailed description of this \u201cconspicuous absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

3<\/sup> Of course, this distinction is not terribly meaningful for a great many practicing recordists; side-chain pumping is a species of ducking, many argue, and nothing more on the matter needs to be said.\u00a0 Yet side-chain pumping and ducking are not merely aesthetically different.\u00a0 A crucial procedural difference between the two techniques can \u2014 and, from an analytic perspective, should \u2014 be made. As Alexander Case (2007: 183-184) explains: \u201cnot available on most compressors, range sets a maximum amount of attenuation, useful in many gating effects.\u00a0 In the case of ducking, it is likely that the music should be turned down by a specified, fixed amount in the presence of the…. voice.\u00a0 No matter the level of the voice, the music should simply be attenuated by a certain finite amount based on what sounds appropriate to the engineer, perhaps 10-15 dB.\u00a0 [Side-chain] compression would adjust the level of the music constantly based on the level of the voice.\u00a0 The amplitude…. would modulate constantly in complex reaction to the level of the voice.\u00a0 Compression does not hit a hard stop because compressors do not typically process the range parameter.\u00a0 Therefore, look to noise gates for the ducking feature.\u201d<\/p>\n

4<\/sup> To be clear, this is not a criticism of interdisciplinary studies of popular music recording practice.\u00a0 It is, in my opinion, simply a reiteration of Meintjes (2005, 27) observation that \u201csociology and media studies have led the way in generating discussions about studio-based creativity,\u201d albeit stated here for a very different purpose.\u00a0 A sample of studies which clearly demonstrate this interdisciplinary orientation would have to include: Meintjes (2005); Doyle (2005); Taylor (2001); Sterne (2003); Hennion (1989); Th\u00e9berge (1997) and Porcello (2005); among many others.<\/p>\n

5<\/sup> A sample of these \u201cselect few\u201d would have to include work by: Zak (2001); Case (2007); Th\u00e9berge (1997); Moorefield (2005); Moylan (2007); Chanan (1995); Walser (1995); Lacasee (2000); and Zagorski-Thomas (2005); among others.<\/p>\n

6<\/sup> Case (2007), Moylan (2007), Izhaki (2008), Stavrou (2003), Swedien (2009), Emerick (2006) and Mixerman (2010), for instance, are welcome exceptions to this rule, though I would hardly consider Stavrou\u2019s (2003), Swedien\u2019s (2009), Emerick\u2019s (2006) and Mixerman\u2019s (2010) work anything more than technically detailed memoirs and artistic manifestos.<\/p>\n

7<\/sup> See Brackett (1995) for a demonstration of what I mean by \u201costentatiously rejecting notation as an analytic tool,\u201d and a great explanation of a now common rationale<\/em> for doing so.\u00a0 Another helpful article in this respect is Fales\u2019 (2005) \u201cShort-Circuiting Perceptual Systems: Timbre in Ambient and Techno Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

8<\/sup> Again, this is not meant as a criticism but, rather, as a straightforward observation about the goal of these kinds of analyses.\u00a0 Some of the most helpful research on popular music recording practice falls under the heading of \u201cbroad procedural chronology,\u201d in my opinion, including: Ryan and Kehew (2008); anything in Richard Buskin\u2019s \u201cClassic Tracks\u201d series in SoundOnSound Magazine as well as Buskin (1991); Martin (1979); Kealy (1979); Millard (1995); and Cunningham (1998); among others.<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/h3>\n

Brackett, D. (1995) Interpreting Popular Music.\u00a0 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Buskin, R. (1991) Inside Tracks: A First-Hand History of Popular Music from the World\u2019s Greatest Record Producers and Engineers.\u00a0 New York: Avon Books.<\/p>\n

Case, A. (2007) Sound F\/X: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Studio Effects.\u00a0 Boston: Focal Press.<\/p>\n

Chanan, M. (1995) Repeated Takes: A Short History of Recording and Its Effects on Music.\u00a0 New York: Verso.<\/p>\n

Cunningham, M. (1998) Good Vibrations: A History of Record Production, 2nd Edition.\u00a0 London: Sanctuary Publishing.<\/p>\n

Doyle, P. (2005).\u00a0 Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space In Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960.\u00a0 Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.<\/p>\n

Emerick, G. with Hornsby, B. (2006) Here, There and EverywhereL My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles.\u00a0 New York: Gotham.<\/p>\n

Fales, C. (2005) \u2018Short-Circuiting Perceptual Systems: Timbre in Ambient and Techno Music\u2019. In Greene, P. & Porcello, T. (Eds.) Wired For Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures.\u00a0 Hanover: Wesleyan\u00a0University Press, pp. 156-180.<\/p>\n

Hennion, A. (1989) \u2018An Intermediary between Production and Consumption: The Producer of Popular Music\u2019. In: Science, Technology and Human Values 14, 1, pp. 400-424.<\/p>\n

Hodgson, J. (2010a) Understanding Records: A Field Guide To Recording Practice.\u00a0 New York: Continuum Press.<\/p>\n

Hodgson, J. (2010b)\u00a0 \u2018A field guide to equalisation and dynamics processing on rock and electronica records\u2019.\u00a0 In: Popular Music. 29, 2, pp. 283-297.<\/p>\n

Hodgson, J. (forthcoming) Navigating the Network of Recording Practice: Notes on the Ontology of Recorded Musical Communications.\u00a0 Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press.<\/p>\n

Izhaki, R. (2008) Mixing Audio.\u00a0 Boston: Focal Press.<\/p>\n

Kealy, E. (1979) \u2018From Craft to Art: The Case of Sound Mixers and Popular Music\u2019. In: Sociology of Work and Occupations.\u00a0 6, 1, pp. 3-29.<\/p>\n

Lacasse, S. (2000) \u2018Voice and Sound Processing: Examples of Mise en Scene of Voice in Recorded Rock Music\u2019. In: Popular Musicology Online. [Online] May 6th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Avaliable at: http:\/\/www.popular-musicology-online.com<\/a>\/ (Accessed: May 2011).<\/p>\n

Martin, G. with Hornsby, B. (1979) All You Need Is Ears.\u00a0 London: Macmillan.<\/p>\n

Meintjes, L. (2005) \u2018Reaching Overseas: South African Sound Engineers, Technology and Tradition\u2019. In Greene, P. & Porcello, T. (Eds.) Wired For Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures.\u00a0 Hanover: \u00a0 Wesleyan University Press, pp. 23-46.<\/p>\n

Millard, A. (1995) America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound.\u00a0 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Mixerman. (2010) Zen and the Art of Mixing.\u00a0 Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books.<\/p>\n

Moorefield, V. (2005) The Producer As Composer.\u00a0 Cambridge: MIT University Press.<\/p>\n

Moylan, W. (2007) Understanding And Crafting the Mix: The Art of Recording, 2nd Edition.\u00a0 Boston: Focal Press.<\/p>\n

Porcello, T. (2005) \u2018Music Mediated as Live in austin: Sound, Technology, and Recording Practice\u2019. In Greene, P. & Porcello, T. (Eds.) Wired For Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures.\u00a0 Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, pp. 103-117.<\/p>\n

Ryan, K. & Kehew, B. (2008) Recording The Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create their Classic Albums.\u00a0 Houston: Curvebender Press.<\/p>\n

Stavrou, S. (2003) Mixing With Your Mind: Closely Guarded Secrets of Sound Balance Engineering Revealed. Australia: Hyde Park Press Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n

Sterne, J. (2003) The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n

Swedien, B. (2009) In The Studio With Michael Jackson.\u00a0 New York: Hal Leonard.<\/p>\n

Taylor, T. (2001) Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, And Culture.\u00a0 Berkeley: University of California Press.<\/p>\n

Th\u00e9berge, P. (1997) Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music\/Consuming Technology. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.<\/p>\n

Walser, R. (1995) \u2018Rhythm, Rhyme and Rhetoric in the Music of Public Enemy\u2019. In: Ethnomusicology. 39, 1, pp.\u00a0 193-217.<\/p>\n

Zagorski-Thomas, S. (2005). \u2018The US vs. The UK Sound\u2019.\u00a0 In: Proceedings of the Art of Record Production \u00a0 Conference. [Online]. 2005.\u00a0 Available at: http:\/\/www.artofrecordproduction.com<\/a>\/ (Accessed: November 2009).<\/p>\n

Zak, A. (2001) The Poetics of Rock: Making Music\/Cutting Tracks.\u00a0 Berkley: University of California Press.<\/p>\n

Discography<\/h3>\n

Dabrye, Air (LP, CD). Ghostly International: 2006.<\/p>\n

Danger Mouse, From Man To Mouse (electronic). Self Release: 2007.<\/p>\n

Danger Mouse & MF Doom as Danger Doom, The Mouse and the Mask (LP, CD). Epitaph: 2005<\/p>\n

Danger Mouse & MF Doom as Danger Doom, Occult Hymn (LP, CD). Adult Swim: 2006<\/p>\n

Dibiase, Machines Hate Me (CD). Alpha Pup Records: 2011.<\/p>\n

Dibiase\/P.U.D.G.E. L.A. Series #1 (electronic). All City Dublin: 2010.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, Reset (12\u2019\u2019, EP). Warp Records: 2007.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, 1983 (LP, CD). Plug Research: 2006.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, Los Angeles (LP, CD). Warp Records: 2008.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma (LP, CD). Warp Records: 2010.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, L.A. EP 1X3 (12\u2019\u2019, EP). Warp Records: 2008.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, L.A. EP 2X3 (12\u2019\u2019, EP). Warp Records: 2008.<\/p>\n

Flying Lotus, L.A. EP 3X3 (12\u2019\u2019, EP). Warp Records: 2008.<\/p>\n

J-Dilla, Donuts (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2006.<\/p>\n

J-Dilla, The Shining (LP, CD). Barely Breaking Even: 2006.<\/p>\n

J-Dilla, Jay Stay Paid (LP, CD). Nature Sounds: 2009.<\/p>\n

J-Dilla, Donut Shop (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2010.<\/p>\n

Hudson Mohawke, Polyfolk Dance (12\u2019\u2019, EP). Warp Records: 2009.<\/p>\n

Hudson Mohawke, Butter (LP, CD). Warp Records: 2009.<\/p>\n

Lone, Ecstasy & Friends (LP, CD). Independent Release: 2009.<\/p>\n

Madvillain, Madvillainy (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2006.<\/p>\n

Madlib, Madlib Medecine Show Vols. 1-12 (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2010-2011.<\/p>\n

Mos Def, The Ecstatic (LP, CD). Downtown Records: 2009.<\/p>\n

Oh No, Dr. No\u2019s Oxperiment (LP, CD).\u00a0 Stones Throw Records: 2007.<\/p>\n

Oh No, Dr. No\u2019s Ethiopium (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2009.<\/p>\n

Oh No & Alchemist as Gangrene, Gutter Water (LP, CD). Stones Throw Records: 2010.<\/p>\n

Prefuse 73, One Word Extinguisher (CD). Warp Records: 2003.<\/p>\n

Prefuse 73, Preparations (CD). Warp Records: 2007.<\/p>\n

Prefuse 73, Everything She Touched Turned To Ampexian (CD). Warp Records: 2009.<\/p>\n

Samiyam, Rap Beats Vol. 1 (LP, CD). Self-Release\/Brainfeeder: 2008.<\/p>\n

Various Artists, Wu-Tang Clan Meets the Indie Culture Vol 2 (CD). Babygrande Records: 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This paper is part of a broader ongoing effort to elucidate signal processing as musical communication. In it, I draw an aesthetic distinction between three species of lateral dynamics processing which regularly recur in modern experimental hip hop, specifically, side-chain pumping, ducking and envelope following. I explain how these techniques relate on a procedural level, even as they serve different musical functions; and, finally, I consider why so little is written about these techniques in current research on popular music recording practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-editorials-provocations","tag-conference-paper","author-jay-hodgson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}