Fadeout
A fadeout ( English for "hide") is a sound engineering concept and sound effect , the gradual volume reduction of describing (usually repeated several times) musical operation until its complete extinction. The amplitude is continuously reduced .
history
It is difficult to determine which recording was actually the first to be faded out technically. It also depends on what should be considered a fadeout. During the first music recordings , either the sound source was moved further and further away from the microphone or the input volume of the microphone was reduced. The American Fife and Drum Corps played The Spirit of '76 on the recording, which was registered for copyright on May 19, 1905, and moved away from the microphone at the end. This gives the listener the impression that the band is passing him by. The orchestral piece The Planets by Gustav Holst from 1916 was also one of the first music titles whose end was faded out. The choir of the piece was placed in a separate room that was connected to the auditorium by an open door. At the end of the piece the door was slowly closed so that the choir could be heard less and less and at the end it fell silent. Beyond the Blue Horizon , recorded by George Olsen on September 5, 1930, is considered the first "board fade", ie a fadeout controlled by the mixer.
Fadeouts are often used in pop music. They help airplay the radio - DJs to shorten the playing time of the music piece as support, by talking about the fadeout, thus preventing a complete listening experience. One of the first fadeouts in pop music is Open the Door, Richard! by Jack McVea , produced by Ralph Bass in October 1946 .
Two unusual fadeouts protrude from the standard fades. The Beatles hit All You Need Is Love (recorded on June 25, 1967) contains the eighth two-part invention by Johann Sebastian Bach , the English folk song Greensleeves , Glenn Miller's In the Mood and hooklines from the Beatles pieces in the coda with a slow fadeout She Loves You and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Another is built into Elvis Presley's hit Suspicious Minds . During the recordings on 23 January 1969, at the American Sound Studio appearance by Elvis Live in to the real: the producer Felton Jarvis decided to an unusual early fadeout after 3:36 minutes of playing time (4:22 minutes total playing time) Las Vegas to reproduce. The fadeout, which lasts about 15 seconds, leads to a fadein that returns to the normal volume level of the song.
Importance in pop music
In pop , rock and hits in particular , the fadeout is used as a creative stylistic device for pieces of music for which the composer has not intended a definitive final turn. Instead, the volume level gradually decreases to complete silence . It is a sound effect that has no relation to acoustic reality, for example at live concerts . In addition, the fadeout lacks spatial connotation, which gives the listener the impression that the music is withdrawing from the listener. The only experimental study to date on the effect of the fadeout was able to prove that the version of a piece with fadeout compared to the version with an arranged ending - the so-called cold end - in a tapping task with listeners to continue the pulsation sensation after the physical end of the piece at 2, 4 seconds leads. This is known as the Pulse Continuity Phenomenon .
A successful fadeout is technically difficult to achieve, as it has to start at the right time and then follow a non-linear pattern (larger volume reduction at the end). It often starts with the repetitive refrain (hence the musical expression "chorus to fade", i.e. fading refrain ) and prevents the listener from having to repeat the refrain several times at the end.
Bland
In contrast to the fadeout , the fade in does not hide the recording, but fades it in . So it begins with complete silence, and then increases in volume continuously until the final level is reached. It rarely occurs in music recordings. In the case of mixing processes, on the other hand, soundtracks - imperceptible to the listener - are often faded in. The first recording with a fadein is Eight Days a Week by the Beatles, recorded on October 6, 1964. Initially, the recording had a classic beginning, only from take 6 the fadein was introduced into the recording sessions and retained until the best take 13.
literature
- Thomas Görne: Sound engineering. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig by Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-446-40198-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Théberge: Fade-In. In: John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing (Eds.): Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Volume 2: Performance and Production. Continuum, London a. a. 2003, ISBN 0-8264-6322-3 , p. 132.
- ^ Timothy Warner: Pop Music. Technology and Creativity. Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution. Ashgate, Aldershot et al. a. 2003, ISBN 0-7546-3131-1 , p. 32 .
- ^ Reinhard copyz, Friedrich Platz, Silvia Müller, Anna Wolf: When the pulse of the song goes on: Fade-out in popular music and the pulse continuity phenomenon . In: Psychology of Music . 43, No. 3, 2015, pp. 359–374. doi : 10.1177 / 0305735613511505 .
- ^ Mark Lewisohn : The Beatles Recording Sessions. The official story of the Abbey Road Years. Hamlyn et al. a., London 1988, ISBN 0-600-55798-7 , p. 49.