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Hits without clicks: analysing the record production of Nile Rodgers
Abstract
"The rhythm track was always played completely live, without a click track, and we'd select one particular take. No song that we ever, ever, ever recorded was compiled from different takes. We knew which take was it because that's the one we kept, and then we'd overdub onto that. There are no alternative takes on anything. If we weren't satisfied with a take, it didn't live. […] So, there is only one 'Le Freak'.”
Nile Rodgers on Chic's record production technique
(Sound on Sound, April 2005)
This study explores the forms of tempo management and control deployed in pre-MIDI disco-era musicianship. As a low-tech music style founded on rhythmic regularity, disco-based styles sought to capture and present performances with temporal continuity and consistency, but without the practical advantages (and potential aesthetic shortcomings) that electronic timing mechanisms afforded. Record productions by Nile Rodgers are an interesting case, since they typically utilised a core group of musicians to record the rhythm section and also eschew the use of a metronome and compiled performances (i.e. post-production editing between multiple takes to form a single backing track). By examining, computationally, the tempo evolution of a five key Nile Rodgers recordings, we investigate how this aspect of the performance was creatively expressed through collective human determination alone. Further, we consider whether the approach to production created different expressive outcomes in varying collaborations/styles over time.
Method
Five tracks were chosen for tempo analysis. Each of the selected tracks achieved the number one position on the national charts in either the US or UK (or both), so can be regarded as having a comparable level of commercial success and popular appeal. However, the context of each recording varies in one or more respects, including: the recording artist; whether Nile Rodgers acted as producer (or just songwriter and guitarist); the membership of rhythm section musicians; the track's specific sub-genre (aside from being in style is broadly characterised as dance); the year of recording:
Each track was analysed using the following steps:
Bar and beat level events were detected automatically using the Sonic Visualiser audio analysis tool and Bar and Beat Tracker VAMP plugin
Any errors in event detection or metric placement were corrected manually
Structural time points (reflecting the musical composition of the track) were added manually
Tempo values were computed and plotted in MATLAB according to three metrical levels of abstraction:
beat level tempo values
mean bar tempo values
mean section tempo values
Results and Discussion
Beat level analysis (above) illustrate that differences in tempo evolution are evident between pieces. The nature and implications of these contrasting contours are analysed individually in the following plots.
The analysis reflects the consistency in tempo that is a key aesthetic expectation for pure disco tracks. The small standard deviation indicates that, despite being unregulated by any form of electronic device or editing processes, the track's tempo remains stable throughout. However, there are notable shifts between verse (which increase in average tempo progressively through the track) and chorus (which remains consistent at 120bpm throughout the first half). An instrumental section and coda (which would serve as a moments of more focussed on intense activity on the dance floor) show a noticeable increase in tempo of 121pbm.
The soul influence in this track is reflected in the more pronounced changes in tempo and a standard deviation of over 1bpm. Again, there is a clear and consistent alternation in mean tempo between verse and chorus. In this piece, there is particular musical contrast between these sections, in which the verse is founded on an unstable and resolved non-diatonic harmony that manifests as something in between a key change and temporary chord suspension. To transition in and out of these sections, a temporary metrical modulation to a single bar of two beat duration is used and accompanied by notable drops or leaps in mean tempo, resulting in a push/pull effect that underpins the the structural progression. The second half is again characterised by a tempo profile (more regular, but gradually decreasing) that would be more conducive to focussed dancing.
A repeating relative relationship between the core structural components (break, verse and bridge) also occurs in this piece, but with a gradual upward trajectory in mean tempo that is more suggestive of its rock-oriented sub-genre (which tends to reflect quite progressive musical development). However, the standard deviation is close to the previous piece, so overall the changes in tempo are of a similar magnitude. Again, the latter part of the piece stands out as a showcase for more intense dance floor activity, with a higher overall mean tempo and noticeable peak in tempo for the percussion-oriented breakdown section.
The wider tempo range and larger standard deviation in this instance is attributable to the middle 8, which is an a capella section with no percussive or regular continual rhythmic content. If this section is disregarded, both the changes in mean tempo between section and resulting standard deviation show a very consistent pulse with no discernable pattern related to the musical structure. This contrasts with the earlier piece and could be accounted for by the change in rhythm section for this production, the fact that it was recorded within the early days of MIDI produced commercial music and growing aesthetic for strict metrical pulse, or the lyrical content (which connotes the notion of a passive, consumerist automaton). The aim and effect appears to have been to create the most consistently regulated tempo from start to finish (excluding the middle 8), although still maintained entirely by human instinct and collaboration.
The final piece provides a reference point for that is almost certainly played to a metronome, or heavily edited into a strictly quantised, sequenced production. The nature of the style, the fact that Rodgers was not in the role of producer (only guitarist and writer) and the minute standard deviation suggest that any variations merely reflect error in the automated beat detection, rather than expressivity in performance. This example verifies the fine degree of human variation and apparent control that is evident in all four of the previous examples.
Conclusion
Systematic analysis of mean tempo to musical structure has shown the fine degree of control and manipulation disco-era musicians were able to exert by using tempo as an expressive device to support effective record production. Further exploration of these findings – with reference to existing literature on perceptual thresholds and responses to micro changes in tempo – would enhance interpretations and understanding of their musical significance.
Bibliography
Chew, Elaine, and Clifton Callender. "Conceptual and experiential representations of tempo: Effects on expressive performance comparisons." International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013.
Kilchenmann, Lorenz, and Olivier Senn. "Play in time, but don't play time: analyzing timing profiles of drum performances." Proceedings of the international symposium on performance science. 2011.
Stark, Adam M., Matthew EP Davies, and Mark D. Plumbley. "Real-time beat-synchronous analysis of musical audio." Proceedings of the 12th Int. Conference on Digital Audio Effects, Como, Italy. 2009.
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