Hip Hop: Analog to Digital

This is a brief overview of my final research project for my Music Technology Capstone. It centers on the ways that analog and digital recording influenced hip hop and the producers creating it.

Hi everybody. My name is Schuyler Saunders. I’m a music technology student here at Mason, and my senior Capstone project is centered around how hip hop changed as it went from analog to digital recordings. So I really wanted to focus on here the, how the creativity of hip hop producers in specific changed as the technology changed. So I cover everything from turntables and records create, digging to going to samplers like the s sp 1200 and the MPC 60, and all the way into pro tools and the arrow of digital audio workstations as we know it today.

So to really understand this project, there has to be a solid understanding about the history of hip hop and where it came from. So it began in 1973 by a man named DJ Kool, who pretty much threw a party in his apartment complex and, you know, he was taking these old records and he was stopping them at the drum breaks where there was no singing or anything like that. And this would give a chance for the MCs or rappers of today to basically wrap on the, uh, wrap on these tracks, you know, rhyme whatever, and kind of just get the party jumping. And, uh, this is really what led to, um, the development of, of rap as like a, as an art form, you know, really crafting lyrics. And also on the other hand, it, it gave hip hop producers, you know, kind of an insight to what they could do with records. Um, but at this point it really was just, you know, taking records that were other people’s and then kind of stopping them at points and kind of mixing ’em up and splicing ’em together to make it sound, uh, sound full and fun for the party.

And so this whole process is really what started the hip hop era and led to producers all around the world and especially New York City to pretty much put their heads together and see how they could, you know, make this music their own, taking these records and using these sample machines and kind of just putting things together to make great art. And so, you know, this was good for a while, but then Pro Tools came about and it really just threw everything up in the air, you know, now you could record in your tracks through a computer instead of, you know, having to go to tape or to floppy disc or whatever. And so really the, the era of Pro Tools changed everything and a lot of producers didn’t know how to work with it and found themselves, you know, out of work if they worked at a studio or, you know, if they went to a studio and they didn’t know how to use it, you know, it, it, you couldn’t get by.

So it really changed the game a lot and it ushered in this new era of hip hop producers everywhere from the Alchemist to knowledge, just to name a few that really kind of trying to tried to mesh both worlds and to come up with something new that was creative and that still paid homage to the old styles, but brought hip hop to new heights that we’ve never seen before. So that’s the essence of my Capstone project. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me. And if you’re interested in learning more about the history of hip hop or the analog to digital world, I encourage you to reach out to me at Duvall Music, that’s D U V A L L music on Instagram and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you.