Recording studio as musical instrument

The use of recording studios as a distinct musical instrument or compositional tool began in the early to mid 20th-century, as composers started exploiting the newfound potentials of multitrack recording. Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance. Following the advent of three-track tape in the mid 1950s, recording spaces became more accustomed for in-studio composition, and by the early 1970s, the "additive approach to recording" would be very common in rock music. The practice is sometimes described as "playing the studio". As of the 2010s, the idea remains ubiquitous in genres such as hip-hop, electronic music, and pop.

Before the late 1940s, musical recordings were created with the idea of presenting a faithful rendition of a real-life performance. Initially, the practice of "studio as compositional tool" was evident mainly in the realms of pop music, as only a minuscule number of classical composers took to this form of music-making. Popular recording conventions changed profoundly in the mid 1950s as new possibilities were opened by three-track tape, and by the early 1960s, it was common for producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, orchestration, unnatural reverb, and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and Joe Meek's use of homemade electronic sound effects for acts like the Tornados. In this time, a "gulf" would exist between experimental composers and "out-there" pop musicians, partly due to the role of the recording studio. Regarding this, composer Robert Ashley is quoted in 1966; "We can't be popular musicians, where the fairly exciting things happen. ... The one thing I like about popular music is that they record it. They record it, record it, record it, record it! The astute producer cuts out the magic from the different tapes (laughter) and puts them in a certain order and gets a whole piece. It's very beautiful, because it's really aural magic. ... We have to invent social situations to allow that magic to happen."

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