Complexity and Creativity in the Studio Music Production Process: A Systemic Perspective

This article proposes to investigate the process of music production in the recording studio in analogy to complex systems. Given its collaborative nature, the inherent stages of such music production (planning, recording, editing, mixing and mastering) may be understood as a series of subsystems whose interactions produce novelties that are considered here as emergent properties. Therefore, given the different stages of the music production process from a systemic perspective, this article explores the figure of the artist, the roles of the agents involved, and the creativity and interplay between both technical and aesthetic actions within the recording studio. As a result, the analogy of the music production process in terms of complex systems highlighted the difficulty in establishing distinctions between technical and artistic actions within the studio. At the same time, this analogy allowed an approach to creativity, not as something individualized, but as an emergent element of an intricate network of interrelationships inherent to collaborative processes. We conclude that any action within the studio creates a type of chain reaction whose impact cannot premeditate the final outcome of a work. Thus, the unpredictable arises during the process in the form of novelties or emergent properties whose interrelationships and interactions with other elements contribute to the configuration of the musical piece.