What is "wall of sound"

n. A popular music production technique, developed in the 1960s, in which a number of musicians perform the same instruments/parts in unison and the resulting sound is re-recorded in an echo chamber.

The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in the 1960s, with assistance from engineers Stan Ross, Larry Levine, and the session musician conglomerate known as " the Wrecking Crew". The intent was to create a dense aesthetic that came across well on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. As Spector explained in 1964, "I was looking for a sound, a sound so strong that if the material was not the greatest, the sound would carry the record. It was a case of augmenting, augmenting. It all fitted together like a jigsaw."

In order to attain the Wall of Sound, Spector's arrangements called for large ensembles (including some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars), with multiple instruments doubling and even tripling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer sound. Spector also included an array of orchestral instruments— strings, woodwind, brass and percussion—not previously associated with youth-oriented pop music, characterizing his methods as "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids". Larry Levine recalled, "I found out later that there were other engineers along the way who tried to duplicate the Wall of Sound by turning up all the faders to get full saturation, but all that achieved was distortion."

The intricacies of the technique were unprecedented in the world of sound production for popular records. Wrecking Crew guitarist Barney Kessel would note: "Musically, it was terribly simple, but the way he recorded and miked it, they’d diffuse it so that you couldn't pick any one instrument out. Techniques like distortion and echo were not new, but Phil came along and took these to make sounds that had not been used in the past. I thought it was ingenious." According to Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who used the formula extensively: "In the '40s and '50s, arrangements were considered 'OK here, listen to that French horn' or 'listen to this string section now.' It was all a definite sound. There weren't combinations of sound, and with the advent of Phil Spector, we find sound combinations, which—scientifically speaking—is a brilliant aspect of sound production."

The Wall of Sound was a music production formula created by Phil Spector in the 1960s.

Wall of Sound may also refer to:

Wall of Sound is an independent record label based in London, England.

The label was founded by Mark Jones in 1994 and started out producing electronic music genres such as big beat before diversifying into a broad range of musical genres.

The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead's live performances in 1974. It was the brainchild of audio engineer Owsley "Bear" Stanley. The Wall of Sound fulfilled the band's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system. The Wall of Sound was the largest concert sound system built at that time.

Wall of Sound was an American music website that provided news, reviews and information on musical artists. The site was launched and developed in the mid 1990s by Paul Allen's software and website company, Starwave, in Seattle, Washington. In April 1997, Starwave entered into a joint venture partnership with ABC News, which expanded the coverage of the company's internet services into the ABC domain. A year later, Wall of Sound – along with Starwave sites such as Mr. Showbiz, NBA.com and NASCAR Online – was part of a joint e-commerce initiative between ABC and ESPN.

The Wall of Sound offices were located in Smith Tower in central Seattle. The website was named after American producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production technique. Its editor was Erik Flannigan, who had previously written for The Rocket and co-authored a 1991 biography of Led Zeppelin.

The site's music reviews were often included in Metacritic's aggregate scores. A co-founder of Wall of Sound, Anders Wright served as news editor; over the same period, he also wrote for Mr. Showbiz and ESPN.com. Representing Wall of Sound in February 2000, Wright spoke out against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), protesting its exclusion of online music journalists from the Grammy Awards ceremony after the Los Angeles Times had published a series of articles alleging corruption within NARAS. In reaction to NARAS' apparent failure to recognize the growing importance of the internet, Alders said: "all they’re doing is making it harder for people to get information about the Grammys." Other regular contributors to the site included music critics Gary Graff and Daniel Durchholz, who together edited titles in the MusicHound album guide series.

By 2004, Wall of Sound was majority-owned by the Disney corporation. The website's URL currently redirects to ABC's Go.com portal.