As the artist intended: Understanding the craft of music with The Recording Academy

Based on our annual State of Sound consumer research, we know that more people than ever before want a premium experience when they are listening to their favorite artists. Enabling consumers to hear their music in stunning lossless quality is one of the key reasons behind the creation of the Snapdragon Sound technology, which allows music to be enjoyed exactly as the artist intended with wireless earbuds, headphones, and speakers. We recognize how dedicated the P&E Wing is to the state-of-the-art of audio recording, and were proud to be a platinum sponsor of The Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® 15th Annual GRAMMY® Week Celebration which took place on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, at The Village Studios in West Los Angeles. 

At the event in Village Studios, we sat down with Maureen Droney, Vice President, Producers & Engineers Wing at The Recording Academy. We discussed her background, her role within The Recording Academy’s P&E Wing, the importance of sound quality for recording artists, and the value technology suites such as Snapdragon Sound bring to the music industry.

Josh Spoelstra (JS): Tell us about yourself; how did you make your start in the music industry, and what are you proudest achievements?

Maureen Droney (MD): My history is not a straight line! Like most music engineers, I started out wanting to be a musician. I played flute (kudos to Lizzo for making flute cool!) and guitar. When I lived in San Francisco, I busked on the street, played some club gigs as part of a jazz and classical trio, and, I was in a poetry and music band — three poets, percussion, bass, two guitars, keyboards, a violin — and me with flute.

I wasn’t a great musician, but I had fun. Our band had a tape machine to record rehearsals, and I learned a bit about recording. Then, I got a job at a corporate audio-visual company, where I travelled around the U.S. setting up audio visual presentations. I still loved music, and after I gained more audio knowledge, I started knocking on recording studio doors in San Francisco, hoping to get a job. Ultimately, I got very, very lucky, and was hired as an assistant engineer at the best recording studio in SF. It’s long gone now, but it was a great place that hosted great artists. I got to work on all different kinds of music from Carlos Santana to Herbie Hancock, Metallica and so many more. And, I got to work with and learn from some of the best engineers and producers in the business. By the time the studio closed, I was an engineer. I went independent, and also went back to school to earn an audio-related degree in Broadcast Communication Arts. Meanwhile, I continued working freelance in various studios in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In my spare time, I also began writing about music recording for various trade magazines, interviewing engineers, producers, studio managers, and audio manufacturers, learning more all the time. I ended up as the L.A. Editor for Mix magazine, a position I enjoyed for many years. For a while, I also worked in management and production with a 10-piece touring band. It was Tower of Power, known for their horn section, and I kept my hand in with audio by recording the TOP horns when they needed an engineer. I also worked in management for the House of Blues Studios that were in Los Angeles, Memphis, and Nashville.

I have a checkered history! But somehow, all the different things that I had done in music and audio and the skills I acquired along the way led me to the job I have now, working with my favorite people — producers and engineers.

JS: What is the role of the P&E Wing within The Recording Academy? And what is your role within the organization?

MD: The members of the Producers & Engineers Wing work together to shape the future of music recording. As a Recording Academy membership division, the P&E Wing advises The Recording Academy on technical matters related to recording and addresses matters of concern to producers, engineers, remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related professionals.

What our members have in common is passion for both the creative and technical sides of recorded music. Whether it is rock, classical, jazz, EDM, rap, hip-hop, country, R&B, pop, or any other genre or style. P&E Wing members know that the sound of a recording helps communicate emotion and bring a song to life. As the legendary producer Phil Ramone once said, “Our work creates the beautiful marriage between music and technology.”

Currently home to approximately 3000 members, the P&E Wing is now an international network. Sound quality, development of new technologies, technical best practices, education in the recording arts, and advocacy for the rights of music creators are all part of the P&E Wing mix.

My title is Vice President/Producers & Engineers Wing. My job is to serve and protect the interests of people working in the craft of recording.

JS: Just how much emphasis do artists and producers put on sound quality?

MD: I have not been a “producer” per se, nor have I been a mastering engineer, although I know many of them quite well and have sat in on lots of mastering sessions. I can tell you, however, that the sound quality of their recordings is of the highest importance to most artists, producers, and engineers. They work hard to capture or create the sounds that they want to use to express their music. Ideally, the result of the care they put into their work makes it through the distribution chain to the ears of the listeners.

Producers, artists, and engineers — either in control rooms and studios, or on headphones — are using sound to communicate the emotions they want to express in their music. After all, music IS sound. A440 played on a piano is a physical sound wave moving at 440 cycles per second! 

JS: Following that, how important is it to you that an album or track you have worked on is heard by listeners the way you intended in the studio?

MD: It is desperately important. And these days, it can be a struggle for people to get their music out sounding the way they want it to be heard. There are a lot of electronics and algorithms involved in the process of streaming music distribution, and all these things can have negative effects on the sound quality. Also, people are listening in different ways — stereo, immersive, on speakers and sound bars, and all kinds of headphones. What’s a poor music mixer to do?

Bluetooth and wireless are very important for convenience, but they can be problematic with dropouts, distortion, interference, miss-matched codecs, etc. That’s why Snapdragon Sound is so exciting!

JS: How have Snapdragon Sound and The Recording Academy P&E Wing worked together? 

MD: It has truly been exciting to learn about Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound, the work that Qualcomm is doing, and the findings from the State of Sound report. I always say that the work that our members do is a calling, not a job. They care passionately about the sound of the recordings they make. However, these days convenience is of the utmost importance to consumers. For music listeners to have the convenience of listening wirelessly, combined with better and clearer sound is of paramount importance to those who work in the recording business. Features like active noise cancellation, lossless audio, and lower latency help bring the true sound of the recordings they work so hard to create to consumer listeners. 

JS: How important is it that technologies such as Snapdragon Sound are allowing general consumers to get premium audio experiences as the artists and producers intended?

MD: I would say it is vitally important. You know, historically cathedrals and concert halls were designed to allow the full resonance of the music that was played or sung in them to be heard. The music industry’s transition from analog to digital began about 30 years ago, largely because the perception was that it was more convenient. It was, but also, a lot was lost sonically in the original move to digital recording. Digital has dramatically improved since those early days, even die-hard critics like Neil Young now like hi-res audio. But how music is currently distributed still, in general, does not sound as good as it can. Technologies such as Snapdragon Sound can help us finally achieve the kind of sound quality that truly communicates — on a physical and emotional level — the full intentions of musical creators.