A Study On The Art And Technology Of The Art Of Modern Rhythm And Blues

This is a master degree thesis which studying in the contemporary R&B mixing techniques. Mixing is a critical step in audio production and it plays a decisive role in eventually music listening. However, the mixing engineer ought to not only master the mixing techniques steady, but also get deeper understanding of the music style itself. In this thesis, the writer combined the contemporary R&B style and mixing techniques together, analyzed and classified the sound characters of contemporary R&B style, then inquired into the methods to realize these characters. Finally, a systematic operation rules and techniques were obtained, it has a guiding significance for researching recording and mixing techniques of other styles to some degree.The first chapter brings up the question. By listening to a large number of classic contemporary R&B songs, the write concluded three main questions about the mixing relationships, the tone color and sound field questions between lead singer vocal accompaniment; the blend between drum section and other low frequency part; the sound field process of accompaniment parts. Then the writer set up the accurate direction of mixing by concluding the general characteristics of contemporary R&B songs based on these three questions.Chapter2is sound analyses part. Based on two classic western R&B songs’ mixing techniques, the writer studied the whole project files and analyzed the sound with sound tone color analysis, sound amplitude analysis and sound phase analysis. We can get plenty of mixing techniques and the mastering of music styles of mixing engineer.The third chapter is about practicing. The writer employed the mixing skills of contemporary R&B songs with a Chinese song The Most Beautiful Accident. By summarizing the western R&B songs and analyzing it, the writer had a deeper and clearer understanding of mixing this song, problems could be solved at leisure.In the fourth chapter, the writer demonstrated mutual influence between contemporary R&B mixing and other style mixing. The developments of recording techniques and mixing techniques impact the aesthetics of listeners and the close connection with other styles, look to the bright future of Chinese R&B songs.