Activities per year
Project Details
Description
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.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 1/09/20 → 31/08/23 |
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Activities
- 2 Invited talk
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Deconstructing Metal Music Production’s ‘Heaviness’ Aesthetic
Jan Herbst (Speaker) & Mark Mynett (Speaker)
3 Jun 2025 → 6 Jun 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Was macht (Metal) Music heavy? Empirische Studien im Schnittfeld von Praxisforschung, Netnographie und Musikanalyse
Jan Herbst (Speaker)
21 Nov 2023Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Datasets
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Heaviness in Metal Music Production
Herbst, J. (Creator) & Mynett, M. (Creator), University of Huddersfield, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34696/9s05-wv03, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/8gren2ma4kesvf5vwip2axzz1v8sawur and 6 more links, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/e6a7brjnrhaob75iakhp1inci4t3nsk5, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/hfqzp26ql5h99dsgossbomiumlfkneqm, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/kpkq2tld897wpce5imwldfnj9du5rg7b, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/22n7zgile9mhbs6grmn8y59me5v9jn44, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/nrhqu7pa8vkflnmwbkyw8e4zyz8hzn4j, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/g47kk5riyd1a26jzngz1e0vc8c0g8ygo (show fewer)
Dataset
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Engineering Conventions in Metal Music
Herbst, J. (Creator) & Mynett, M. (Creator), University of Huddersfield, 2022
DOI: 10.34696/4xwq-c211, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/hfqzp26ql5h99dsgossbomiumlfkneqm
Dataset
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Netnography What is Heavy in Metal
Herbst, J. (Creator) & Mynett, M. (Creator), University of Huddersfield, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34696/fseq-8w87, https://huddersfield.box.com/s/g47kk5riyd1a26jzngz1e0vc8c0g8ygo
Dataset
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Masters of the Art of Mixing: 8 Producers. One Song. Infinite Insights
Mynett, M. & Herbst, J., 1 Aug 2024, Sound on Sound, 8/2024, p. 52-61 10 p.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Contemporary Approaches to Metal Music Mixing and Production: Heavy Metal, Death Metal, and Metalcore
Herbst, J. & Mynett, M., 25 Sep 2023, (Accepted/In press) The Routledge Companion to Metal Music Composition. Burns, L. & Scotto, C. (eds.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis GroupResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Lorna Shore’s ‘To the Hellfire’: A study in heaviness
Herbst, J. & Mynett, M., 9 Jun 2023, In: Metal Music Studies. 9, 2, p. 189-213 25 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus)