Overproduction is the excessive use of audio effects, layering, or digital manipulation in music production

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

.

Uses of the term

It is not always clear what critics mean by "overproduction," but there are at least a few common uses of the term:

• A reference to heavy use of audio processing effects such as reverb, delay
  Delay (audio effect)
  Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
  
  , or dynamic range compression.
• A reference to heavy layering or multitracking
  Multitrack recording
  Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
  
  ; in the context of pop and rock music, this may refer to the addition of elements such as chorused vocals
  Chorus effect
  In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
  
   or backing strings
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
  .
• A reference to heavy use of pitch correction
  Pitch correction
  Pitch correction is the process of correcting the intonation of an audio signal without affecting other aspects of its sound. Pitch correction first detects the pitch of an audio signal , then calculates the desired change and modifies the audio signal accordingly...
  
  , time correction, or quantization
  Quantization (music)
  In digital music processing technology, quantization is the process of transforming performed musical notes to an underlying musical representation that eliminates this imprecision. The process results in notes being set on beats and on exact fractions of beats...
  
  .
• A reference to records overseen by a producer who "imposes" his or her own distinctive "sound" or techniques on a band or artist; Phil Spector
  Phil Spector
  Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
  
   is one producer frequently accused of this kind of "overproduction."

All four of these meanings share the idea that a record producer or mastering engineer has made "unnecessary" additions or changes to a record in the production process, and in doing so has decreased the quality or enjoyability of the music.

Context-dependence of the term

The meaning and use of the term overproduction can vary based on the aesthetic

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

 preferences of the critic who uses it and the genre

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

 conventions of the record in question. A critic with a background in indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

, for example, may have a very different idea of overproduction than a critic with a background in electronic dance music

Electronic dance music

Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

. Similarly, some critics might fault a rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 record for overproduction if it seems too rhythmically "tight" or quantized but not apply the same criticism to a techno

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

 record, due to the different conventions of the two genres and the different sets of expectations that listeners bring to them.

In general there is little consensus among music critics or producers about when the use of an effect or production technique becomes excessive. For this reason, some producers consider the term unhelpful, confusing, and subjective.

Current trends

The extensive use of dynamic range compression has recently been bemoaned by critics as part of a "loudness war

Loudness war

The loudness war or loudness race is a pejorative term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness.The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles...

". In August 2006, folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 musician Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 criticized modern recording techniques, saying that modern records "have sound all over them" and that they sound like "static." Those responding to Dylan's comments seemed to assume that he was referring to the trend of increasingly compressed music.

In spite of the decreasing cost and increasing availability of professional or near-professional recording software and techniques, musicians and producers in some genres consciously set themselves against the idea of "overproduction" and attempt to make music with a rough or "lo-fi"

Lo-fi music

Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...

 sound; examples of this trend can be found in indie rock, trip hop

Trip hop

Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...

 and black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

.