Production processes of pop music arrangers in Bamako, Mali ''

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Production processes of pop music arrangers in Bamako,

Mali ”

Amandine Pras, Toby Bol, Kierian Turner, Emmanuelle Olivier

To cite this version:

Amandine Pras, Toby Bol, Kierian Turner, Emmanuelle Olivier. Production processes of pop music

arrangers in Bamako, Mali ”. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 2019. �hal-03057587�

Audio Engineering Society

Convention Paper 10296

Presented at the 147

Convention

2019 October 16–19, New York, USA

This Convention paper was selected based on a submitted abstract and 750-word precis that have been peer reviewed by at

least two qualified anonymous reviewers. The complete manuscript was not peer reviewed. This convention paper has been

reproduced from the author's advance manuscript without editing, corrections, or consideration by the Review Board. The AES

takes no responsibility for the contents. This paper is available in the AES E-Library, http://www.aes.org/e-lib. All rights

reserved. Reproduction of this paper, or any portion thereof, is not permitted without direct permission from the Journal of the

Audio Engineering Society.

Production processes of pop music arrangers in Bamako, Mali

Amandine Pras

1,2

, Kierian Turner

, Toby Bol

, and Emmanuelle Olivier

2,3

Digital Audio Arts program, Department of Music, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Centre Georg Simmel, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris, France

National Centre for Scientific Research, France

Correspondence should be addressed to Amandine.Pras@uleth.ca

ABSTRACT

Bamako, economic capital of Mali in West Africa, saw the recent multiplication of digital studios based on

Cubase 5, FL Studio, cracked plugins, a MIDI keyboard and a small cabin with a cheap condenser microphone

and a pop-filter. From videos and screen captures of recording sessions in three of these studios, we analyzed the

creative process of four DAW practitioners from the beginning of the beat production to the mastering of the track.

We also examined their interaction with the singers and rappers. Our analyses showed that young Malian DAW

practitioners constantly revisit their MIDI arrangement and vocal recordings with advanced editing techniques.

Locally successful, they have quickly developed a notoriety that enables them to be directive with their clients.

1 Introduction

We are conducting a digital ethnography of DAW-

based studios in Bamako, a West African city that

embraces a rich and diversified music culture [1] with

internationally renowned touring artists such as afro-

pop singer-songwriter Salif Keita, Ivorian reggae

singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, traditional Wassoulou

musician Oumou Sangaré, kora player and hip-hop

musician Sidiki Diabaté, or rapper Iba One. These

famous musicians are signed on international labels.

While their tracks are recorded and edited in Bamako

studios, they are mixed and mastered abroad. In this

paper, we examine the studio practices of four DAW

practitioners who produce their tracks with singers

and rappers entirely in Bamako. Our contribution thus

highlights a growing community of young studio

practitioners and fills a gap in the Audio literature that

has until now focused on wealthy countries.

The globalization of DAWs reached Bamako about

ten years ago, more recently than in other parts of the

Global South due to the nationwide economic and

political challenges in Mali. Our fieldwork revealed

that there is no formal audio program in the country,

and that the studio workshops that used to be taught

by foreign sound engineers stopped with the coup

d’État in 2012. Therefore, the upcoming generations

rely on their local networks to learn the basics of

studio installation, and on YouTube tutorials to gather

information on how to use their DAWs. To

understand more clearly how these young

professionals acquire knowledge, and how it is

transferred among the local audio community, we

selected four DAW practitioners in their 20s and 30s

with a range of years of experience.

The lack of official studio equipment distributors also

challenges the development of the local recording

Pras, Turner & Olivier  Pop music production in Bamako 
 
AES 147th Convention, New York, USA, 2019 October 16–19 
Page 2 of 10 
industry.  Productive  nevertheless,  this  industry 
illustrates  the  ways  Malians  cope  with  restrained 
access  to  modern  goods.  Mostly  without access  to 
banking,  Malian  studio  owners  cannot  purchase 
software licenses so they crack them and remain on 
outdated versions for years. For instance, most digital 
studios  we  have  visited  thus  far  feature  a  used 
computer  with  Windows  XP  and  Cubase  5.  Their 
family and friends might bring new sound interfaces 
(e.g. Motu, Edirol, Tascam) back from France or the 
USA,  or  they  find  MIDI  keyboards  (e.g.  Yamaha, 
Medeli) and microphones by luck on used markets or 
through  businessmen  who  buy  them  in  China  or 
Dubaï. Music tracks are released through video clips 
available  for  streaming  on  YouTube  and  local 
platforms such as Bamada-City. Live music events 
are funded by sponsors and by the members of the 
audience who give bills to the performers during the 
show in an ostentatious way [2]. DAW practitioners 
charge singers and rappers for studio sessions, or they 
co-produce the sessions with them, in which case they 
attend  the  shows  as  live  engineers  and  receive 
royalties  from  the  performers’  revenues.  In  this 
business  paradigm,  we  investigate  how  DAW 
practitioners interact with their clients. 
Our  approach  incorporates  an  Audio  Engineering 
expertise  into  ethnographic  methods.  As  “DAW-
based engineering is a practice that first and foremost 
involves working with chunks of digital data known 
as samples” [3], we analyze the creative process of 
four  DAW  practitioners  in  layering  and  editing 
samples and vocals [4]. We complement this analysis 
with interviews of the studio practitioners, as well as 
with visits to local art institutions and organizations 
that contribute to the music industry of Bamako [2]. 
This methodology enables us to identify idiosyncratic 
and  locally-shared  studio  practices  in  the  city  in 
keeping with Eliot Bates’ report on studio practices in 
Istanbul [5], and to draw connections between these 
practices and the near absence of audio education in 
the  country.  We  also  compare  DAW  practitioners’ 
interactions  with  their  clients  with  the  model  of 
producers’  artistic  involvement  during  recording 
sessions used in a great variety of musical genres in 
Canada, France and USA [6]. Finally, we explain how 
in Bamako, artistic direction skills outweigh  sound 
engineering skills in achieving a successful business, 
which inspires new perspectives for our industry [7]. 
2  Profile of four DAW practitioners 
In this section we detail the background of four young 
Bamako-based DAW practitioners, namely arranger 
Aboubacar Sidibé also known as Pap Junior and his 
studio  assistant  Abass  Coulibaly  (Figure  1); 
beatmaker Issa Sanogo also known as Backozy Beats 
Design  (Figure  3);  and  engineer  Issa  Traoré  also 
known as Ken Lagare  (Figure  6). The information 
below was collected in July 2018 and 2019. 
 
Figure 1. Abass (left) assisting Junior (right) 
Aboubacar Sidibé also known as Pap Junior (born in 
1987) started his music career as a guitarist who was 
particularly original in his use of a multi-effect pedal. 
He  opened  his  studio  around  2007  when  he  was 
studying law. His project was building a live studio 
where  he  could  record  several  musicians  playing 
simultaneously.  After  graduating,  he  observed 
recording  sessions  at  Bogolan,  a  studio  funded  in 
2002 by French engineer Yves Werner and Malian 
guitarist  Ali  Farka  Touré  that  used  to  host 
internationally-renowned  artists  such  as  Bjork  [8]. 
Bogolan features a good collection of microphones, a 
main room and two cabins with treated acoustics, and 
a control room with two Yamaha O2R console desks. 
At the time of  Junior’s  observations, the recording 
producer  was Eliézer Oubda,  a renowned producer 
from Burkina Faso who trained the first generation of 
West African DAW practitioners and live engineers. 
Eliézer helped Junior install his studio by treating the 
acoustics of his vocal cabin (Figure 2) and showed 
him how to install cracked software – before, Junior 
had to buy their installation in a Cyber. Junior had to 
renounce his live studio since the owner of the space 
was  afraid  that  the  noise  would  disturb  the 
neighborhood, so he developed a DAW-based studio 
that he has maintained since working full time as a 
custom officer. 

Pras, Turner & Olivier Pop music production in Bamako

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Figure 2. Vocal cabin with acoustic treatments in

Pap Junior’s studio

Abass Coulibaly (born in 1993) is finishing an

engineering degree in Biology. Without any music

background, he was trained as a studio assistant by

Junior and took over the management of the studio

since Junior has become too busy with customs.

Besides observing Junior’s studio sessions, Abass has

mainly learned his MIDI programming, editing and

mixing skills through YouTube tutorials. He

explained that he compares tests of new tutorial

techniques with his old mixes to see whether or not

the new techniques are worth using. He recently

changed the speakers of Junior’s studio to have “a

better input.”

Issa Sanogo also known as Backozy Beats Design

(born in 1994) opened his DAW-based studio in 2017

after graduating from a Master’s in English. He

quickly gained notoriety as a beatmaker and has

specialized in hip-hop production although he can

work in a great variety of pop genres. Baba Keita

(Figure 3), another DAW-based studio owner who

has a background as a radio broadcaster helped him

set up his studio without any acoustic treatment.

Backozy keeps observing sessions in other digital

studios such as Studio D Music that belongs to Balla

Diabaté, brother of Sidiki. He also learns a lot by

doing as he produces one track after the other, “up to

seven per day” according to him. He now makes some

of his income by producing beats for Malian rappers

in France.

Issa Traoré also known as Ken Lagare (born in 1989)

studied music at the Institut National des Arts and at

the selective Conservatory Arts and Crafts

Multimédia Balla Fasseké Kouyaté in Bamako. He

performs keyboards, djembe, balafon and tamani on

stage. He started using a DAW in a friend’s studio in

2008, and he opened his own studio named

Authentique in his living room in 2012 (Figure 6).

Before graduating, he interned for a month at Bogolan

with sound engineer Yaya Diarra in 2017. This

internship complements the regular observations of

recording sessions in many digital studios of Bamako,

a training that he still pursues – he happened to assist

a part of the session that we documented in Junior’s

studio (Figure 4). Ken recently moved his home

studio to a dedicated space for music production with

rudimentary acoustic treatment. He hopes to continue

improving his audio engineering skills and become an

important sound engineer and instructor in Mali.

Figure 3. Baba Keita (back) and Backozy (front)

3 Methods

3.1 Data collection during recording sessions

In Nov. 2017 and July 2018, we documented the

creative process of three recording sessions from the

first interactions between the DAW practitioner and

their client to the mastering of the tracks. The sessions

include 1) the recording of reggae singer Ali Badara

Dembélé also known as General Ballody in Junior’s

studio with Abass and Ken as assistants; 2) the

recording of rapper Bessé in Backozy Beat Design

studio; and 3) another recording of General Ballody

in Ken’s Authentique studio. We filmed these

recording sessions with two video cameras: One

followed the DAW practitioners’ actions and the

other captured the interactions between the DAW

practitioners and the performers (Figure 4). We also

collected computer screen captures with BSR Screen

Recorder that we were given by Junior's friend, but

unfortunately could not use this software for the

session at Backozy Beat Design studio because it was

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not compatible with the operating system. The audio

of the sessions was recorded with a Blumlein stereo

Royer SF12 microphone that was placed behind the

DAW practitioner, directed towards the center of the

speakers to represent what they heard throughout the

sessions. We interviewed the four DAW practitioners

before and after the recording sessions with a Tascam

DR-100 portable recorder. We collected further

information in July 2019 in additional interviews to

help explain what we could not understand from the

analysis of the data collected previously.

Figure 4. Pap Junior (center), General Ballody (left)

and Ken Lagare (right)

3.2 Data analysis and video editing

For each of the three sessions, we synchronized the

video layers from cameras and screen captures on the

stereo microphone audio track in a Premiere Pro

project (Figure 5). Each project is organized in

sequences that correspond to specific parts of the

sessions, i.e. development of the instrumental (beat),

recording of the chorus vocals, etc. Then, we added

markers throughout all Premiere Pro sequences to

identify new events in the production process and to

discard the moments when nothing related to the

production of the track happened, e.g. phone calls,

breaks, computer crashes. An in-depth investigation

of every new event enabled us to understand the

DAW practitioners’ arrangement, editing, mixing and

mastering practices. We also analyzed transcriptions

of all human interactions during the sessions to

understand their coaching approaches. Finally, we

edited short video versions of the complete sessions

to highlight their skills and the main steps of their

creative process in our conference presentations.

Figure 5. Synchronization of three video layers and one stereo soundtrack to analyze sessions with markers in a

Premiere Pro project

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4 Results

4.1 General observations

Beside Junior’s recordings of his electric guitar, the

instrumentals of the three tracks that we observed

were made entirely of MIDI programming and vocal

recordings. Overall, we noticed that the four DAW

practitioners give tremendous attention to the

instrumental (or beat) arrangement. For instance, they

constantly change their choice of virtual instruments,

edit their MIDI programming, add and remove layers

of instruments, mute and unmute specific repetitions

of samples. They refer to this process as

programming before recording the vocals, and as

mixing after recording the vocals since they revisit the

instrument arrangement depending on their editing of

the vocals. They rarely open the mix window of

Cubase and they only use the automation to fade out

the end of the tracks. Instead, when they hear that the

vocals are not supported enough or masked by the

instruments, they adjust the arrangement to draw out

the vocals. We therefore refer to them as arrangers

for the rest of the paper and we argue that their

arrangement techniques partly substitute what is

commonly considered mixing, i.e. balancing,

panning, EQing and compressing multiple sound

sources to create a stereo track.

The four arrangers use the VST acronym (Virtual

Studio Technology) to designate effect plugins, and

the word plugin to designate instrument plugins. We

saw the same VSTs and plugins across the digital

studios that we visited. Their sets of VSTs include the

built-in effects of Cubase, a few popular Waves

plugins such as the V-series, API or SSL hardware

emulations, and outdated plugins such as the T-Pain

Effect. Their collections of plugins (samplers) include

Nexus, Kontakt, Steinberg Halion One etc. They set

their DAW templates so that several VSTs are already

active when they create a new track. Most often, they

quickly adjust VSTs settings with factory presets that

they like to use for specific instruments or vocals.

While they sometimes open an EQ to try a different

preset or to adjust the original preset, we noticed that

they almost never adjust compressors, and that they

spend most of their VST actions adjusting autotune,

delay and reverberation effects. For all three sessions,

the mastering process lasted only a few minutes and

was based on effect settings that they always use.

Figure 6. Fanta Djeli Diabaté and Ken Lagare

The studio owners were deeply involved in the artistic

direction of their tracks. All three decided on the

structure of the verses and on the number of vocal

layers in the choruses. While they always considered

their clients’ comments, they were assertive in

justifying their arrangement choices, and quite

directive when coaching singers and rappers between

takes. For instance, they commented on the

performances without holding anything back, e.g.

“It’s good but do it again! Do it again!”; “You need

to be more serious!”; “Well, now you need to make

variations”; or “Give me another one like this”

(session of Backozy with rapper Bessé). We also

noticed that the performers did not hesitate to give

feedback on the arrangement ideas and on the general

result of the track. Moreover, other musicians in the

room felt free to provide their input on a take and how

to improve it. In the next three sections, we detail the

flow of the three recording sessions to identify

nuances among these arrangers’ practices.

4.2 Recording of Ballody at Junior’s studio

The session took place within three days: Nov. 26,

2017; July 11 and 20, 2018. Abass assisted the first

session (90 minutes) that mainly focused on writing

and recording some of Ballody’s vocals. Junior

attended the entire session and served as a coach for

Ballody, helping him to write his vocal lines. This

session ended with the recording of a spoken word

part in French that conveys a message of peace, which

gave the track its name: Mali (not released yet). The

second session (270 minutes) consisted of Junior

writing and recording various electric guitar lines,

mixing, editing vocal lines from the previous session,

recording overdubs of Ballody’s vocals for the parts

Pras, Turner & Olivier Pop music production in Bamako

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that did not turn out well, and writing and recording

several MIDI instrument parts. Junior thus acted as

the recording and mixing engineer as well as the

arranger. For the last portion of the second session,

Ken took over the engineering job to record backup

vocals with Fané Bella Traoré (Figure 7). The third

session (150 minutes) consisted of writing and

recording more MIDI layers and electric guitar lines,

mixing, and mastering. The last instrument that was

added was a guitar part, only two minutes before

Junior and Abasss started mastering the track, which

took 11 minutes. Abass assisted this final session by

recording some of the MIDI instruments on the keys.

He tracked the guitar lines and did the majority of the

mixing and arranging, coached by Junior.

Figure 7. Fané Bella Traoré recording vocals

The mix of the track was built progressively through

the recording of new layers of vocals, guitars, and

MIDI instruments, with all these elements heavily

intertwining. Throughout this process, effects were

added and taken out. Specifically, a lot of EQs were

used on the tracks, mostly with factory presets.

However, we noticed that Abass used some EQs to

change the sound of some of the tracks drastically,

e.g. he boosted 20dB at 60hz and 11dB at 2khz on one

of the guitar tracks. Towards the end of the third and

final session, the balance of the track was constantly

shifting as they were still adding new MIDI

instruments, experimenting with different levels for

each instrument, and changing the effect settings that

they were using on pre-existing parts. Indeed, as they

added in new parts, they modified certain sections to

This track was released on Aug 28, 2018, on the local

streaming platform Bamada City: http://www.bamada-

city.com/kouloula-besse-djougouya-55078

improve the transitions between the old and new

elements. Arranging is evidently the focal point

throughout these sessions as it started in the first

session and was present leading up to moments before

the final master was bounced.

We observed that the writing and recording processes

were fully collaborative between Ballody and Junior,

and that the mixing and mastering processes followed

a similar model with Junior coaching and providing

feedback to Abass while he was operating the DAW.

During the process of recording the vocals, Junior

would give feedback between takes and during

Ballody’s improvisations of different iterations of the

vocal lines. This mode of interaction then shifted with

Ballody acting as a coach for Junior when he was

recording guitar and MIDI instruments. Interestingly,

the arranger-client business relationship seemed to

disappear during this process.

4.3 Recording of Bessé at Backozy’s studio

The session took place within two days: July 7 and 9,

2018. Karim Traoré also known as Bessé (machete in

Bambara) went to Backozy Beats Design studio to

record a tradi-trap track named Djougouya

(selfishness). While Bessé started singing the chorus

line that draws from the song Bakari Dian that was

recorded in 1970 by Super Biton de Ségou, one of the

emblematic Malian orchestras, Backozy clapped the

rhythm and took note of its tempo (Figure 8). He then

setup MIDI tracks on Cubase and loaded instrument

samples in FL studio that he recorded in Cubase using

his MIDI keyboard. This technique of pairing two

DAWs requires a Rewire plugin.

In the first session (95 minutes), Backozy layered

improvisations of Afro-Beat rhythmic patterns

followed by a melodic instrument that matched the

vocal line. He then coached the rapper’s

performances for the chorus and the first verse. His

artistic direction focussed on capturing the correct

melody in the appropriate register. To help Bessé, he

muted the instrumental parts that were difficult for the

rapper to sing over. As soon as several layers of

vocals were tracked, Backozy quickly adjusted the

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EQ, Reverb and T-Pain effect autotune plugins that

were already set by default on the vocal tracks. He

pitch-corrected the vocal lines even further with the

Vari Audio tool in Cubase. Simultaneously, he also

edited and mixed the arrangement by using track

groups to either trim, extend, copy and delete

samples. He then added creative variations in the

arrangement to keep the listener engaged, and to

make the track danceable. He also removed parts that

seemed to clash with the vocals.

Figure 8. Bessé (left) and Backozy (right)

Instead of settling on the initial arrangement of the

instrumental, Backozy transposed some melodies to

higher or lower registers and kept experimenting with

different virtual instruments. For instance, the first

time he recorded the main melody, he used a marimba

sample, intended to sound like a balafon, which he

eventually changed to a multiple trumpets sample. He

edited vocals instantly after recording rather than

waiting for the end of the session. This efficient

process may explain how he is able to go through “up

to seven sessions per day.” At the end of the first

session, Backozy quickly mastered the work-in-

progress to send it to Bessé via WhatsApp so that he

could prepare the next session.

In the second session (120 minutes), Backozy

coached the rapper’s performances for two more

verses, and revisited his instrumental to create the

final mix and master. The editing of the instrumental

seemed to take up most of the time as he kept

modifying rhythmic and melodic samples around the

vocals. Aside from improving the arrangement,

processing the vocals and adjusting levels, his mixing

process consisted of opening EQs in which he

automatically applied some factory presets such as

low cut (50 Hz roll off) and boosted high frequencies

manually as if to achieve some clarity in the sound.

This may explain why most of the song, aside from

the bass, tends to sit in the high frequency range. Once

the mix was complete, Backozy opened a bounce of

the track in Samplitude for mastering. He applied the

EFX compressor plugin with the minimum attack,

maximum release, default ratio and default threshold

settings, and an output gain of 16dB. Once the track

was rendered, he exported the master in mp3 to send

it to Bessé via WhatsApp, which does not accept

larger files. Bessé subsequently shared this mp3 file

with his sponsors and fans also through WhatsApp.

4.4 Recording of Ballody at Ken’s studio

The session took place in the space of two days:

July 5 and 12, 2018. General Ballody arrived at

Authentique without any lyric or composition idea.

The first session (180 minutes) started with five

minutes of improvisation, with Ballody singing and

Ken playing the keys. Then, Ken opened a new

session in Cubase and they started jamming on a

reggae beat (Figure 9). Singer Fanta Djeli Diabaté

who is also Ken’s wife joined them by singing a

counterpart. Ballody came up with lyrics inspired by

our presence in the studio. Named Musoya (women in

Bambara), the track has not yet been released.

Figure 9. Ken Lagare and General Ballody

After recording several layers of rhythmic harmonies

on his MIDI keyboard using built-in samples, Ken

programmed the drums. Then, he updated his keys’

harmonies with a different rhythm. Once they both

agreed on a base for the loop, they started tracking

vocal performances without a predefined structure.

Ken coached Ballody with detailed feedback and

through sung demonstrations. Discussions about the

composition and Ballody’s writing sessions for which

the instrumental loop kept playing back in the studio

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interrupted the vocal takes (Figure 10). Throughout

the process of programming MIDI and recording

vocals, Ken edited the different samples and takes,

chose new virtual instruments and set some delays

and reverberation on the vocals using settings that he

likes for male voices. At the end of the first session,

Ken and Ballody coached Fanta Djeli Diabaté’s

backup vocals. Finally, Ken completed the editing of

what they had recorded without opening any VST

plugin or mix window.

Figure 10. General Ballody writing in the studio

The second session (210 minutes) consisted only of

postproduction. It started with Ken improving the

arrangement, primarily by muting samples to create

variations and also through subtle changes in the

MIDI programming and choice of virtual instruments.

Thirty minutes later, he balanced some levels in the

mix window for about three minutes, alternating these

level adjustments with changes in the editing and

MIDI programming. Then, he kept revisiting his

arrangement and adding new parts until 120 minutes

into the session when he opened the mix window

again for another three minutes before going back to

his increasingly detailed editing.

Past 180 minutes of the second session, Ken tweaked

the group of vocals by adjusting the RVerb, delays,

and API 500 EQ with the Voice preset that he would

adjust manually later in the mixing process. He also

added the Cubase built-in EQ to cut the low-end,

boost 2dB at 3kHz and 4dB above 15kHz. He then

worked on the reggae rhythmic base to which he

applied the Cubase built-in multiband compressor

with the Picked Acoustic Guitar 2 preset. For the rest

of the mixing process, he used this preset as well as

other presets from the same plugin on most tracks.

However, he adjusted it manually for two parts of

keys, the snare and the toms. For the bass, he

experimented with different presets of the built-in EQ

and compressor. A bit later, he tried different presets

of the L316 Maximizer on the Master group. Then, he

tuned some parts of the vocals with Antares and kept

revisiting the editing and arrangement, which he had

not stopped doing while working with VST plugins.

Finally, he used the L3LL Ultramaximizer to master

the track in stereo in Cubase. Ballody was present

throughout the entire postproduction process, dancing

and giving feedback on the progress.

5 Discussion

Our observations show that young Malian arrangers

create their tracks progressively by layering

instruments and vocals, and that they keep revisiting

their arrangement throughout the entire production

process, until a very quick mastering. Their mixing

practice is entangled with the writing, layering, and

producing components of the track, which suggests

that they focus more on the creative and musical

aspects than they do on the balance and sonic aspects.

Their fast, detailed and musical editing techniques

allow them to achieve results within a few hours that

sound fairly close to international standards. This is

impressive given the fact that none of them have

received formal training in audio engineering yet.

Besides Junior who studied directly with a renowned

sound engineer named Eliézer Oubda, these arrangers

have mainly learned from observing the recording

sessions of their peers, and from watching YouTube

tutorials – it should be noted that they do not watch

these tutorials in their native language, which means

that they learn primarily by imitating DAW gestures

from the tutorials. Although they have not assisted

many experts before opening their own studio, their

approach to learning by observing and copying

gestures is comparable with the apprenticeship model

of the analog era, which is interesting when digital

audio is taught in a huge number of formal music

technology programs around the world today [7].

Our session analyses reveal some limitations in these

arrangers’ acoustic and technical knowledge. For

instance, they seem confined to the plugin factory

presets or extreme settings when EQing and

compressing vocals or instruments. We suggest that

they do not enjoy the same freedom with signal

processing as they do with MIDI programming and

Pras, Turner & Olivier Pop music production in Bamako

AES 147th Convention, New York, USA, 2019 October 16–19

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editing. Also, some of them told us that they wished

more Malian instruments would be available as

samples in their plugins. For instance, they often use

marimba samples to emulate balafons. Backozy

sampled a sound effect once, but none of them have

sampled Malian acoustic instruments yet. These

observations indicate the current limitations of the

globalization of digital audio technology. While the

arrangers we interviewed think that their outdated

licenses and lack of expensive hardware prevent them

from achieving the same production levels as their

Western counterparts, we know that their DAW

setups have a similar potential in terms of sound

quality and digital creativity than most DAW-based

studios elsewhere. However, the economic gap shows

in terms of the near absence of technical education

and a low level of general education in Mali, both

playing an important role in enabling greater freedom

in manipulating digital tools.

The lack of local knowledge in signal processing may

explain why albums of internationally renowned

Malian musicians are mixed and mastered abroad.

Besides creating a humiliating situation for Malian

studio practitioners, the internationalization of the

mixing stage impacts the music's authenticity. For

instance, Junior told us that adding reverberation on

certain recordings of the traditional instrument n’goni

could be perceived as a lack of respect for a specific

spiritual music practice. However, this kind of

cultural misunderstanding keeps happening as

foreign mixing engineers are not aware of the

meanings and traditions of Malian music practices.

This example illustrates the paradox of a rich and

diversified local music culture and an emergent

digital studio culture that is not yet in line with the

globalized but still foreign and primarily Western

recording industry.

The paradox detailed above has most likely generated

the advanced editing techniques that we observed in

Bamako studios, with arrangers making the DAW

their own to create modern Malian music. These

techniques accompany their approaches to artistic

direction. While detailed arrangement practices have

been identified in other places, e.g. in Istanbul [3], it

should be noted the young Malian arrangers we

observed also manage their studios, produce and

engineer their recording sessions entirely. They have

proven to be efficient as artistic directors and

performance coaches. According to the model of

producer’s artistic involvement during recording

sessions that was designed for a great variety of

musical genres in Canada, France and USA [6], the

level of young Malian arrangers’ involvement varies

from the “Direction” level that follows the client’s

vision to the “Artistic collaboration” level for which

the client’s and the producer’s visions become one.

These levels correspond to the highest two levels of

producer’s involvement, which makes the young

Malian arrangers’ business model close to that of the

record producers’ in the analog era.

In Bamako's digital studios, phones keep ringing with

new clients’ calls, and we saw that many performers

pass by, wait inside or outside the studios, sometimes

until late at night, which attest for the arrangers’ local

notoriety. These findings provide us with a fresh

vision for the digital recording industry. The business

success of Malian arrangers suggests that focusing on

musical matters through a collaborative process may

increase the value attributed to studio work by

musician clients.

6 Conclusion and future research

This research contributes to new knowledge about

recording studio practices of a young and growing

community of DAW practitioners’ outside of

privileged areas. Our findings show that strong

editing and artistic direction skills can bring studio

owners to succeed, despite their limited resources and

their near absence of technical education. We will

enhance our first findings by analysing more sessions

from Bamako studios. To address the near absence of

specialized education that we identified during our

fieldwork, we will conduct observations of the

learning process of Ken Lagare when attending the

Audio Recording Engineer Practicum at the Banff

Centre in Alberta, Canada. Subsequently, we want to

follow his practice and role as educator once he is

back home. In a near future, we also aim to work

further with Eliézer Oubda, who is playing a crucial

role in developing audio engineering education in

West Africa (but not in Bamako anymore). This work

calls for further investigations of studio practices and

access to audio education in the Global South in order

to expand the perspectives on the 21

digital

recording studio.

Pras, Turner & Olivier Pop music production in Bamako

AES 147th Convention, New York, USA, 2019 October 16–19

Page 10 of 10

Acknowledgements

The first (AP) and the last (EO) authors collected the

data in Bamako. We would like to thank warmly

Mamadou Kossinantao for assisting our fieldwork,

Soumaïla Camara for transcribing and for translating

the dialogues of the recording sessions from Bambara

to French, and all the studio practitioners and

musicians who participated in this digital

ethnography for welcoming us in their studios, for

giving us some time, and for letting us attend their

recording sessions with cameras and microphones.

We would also like to thank Adam Patrick Bell,

Siham Azzam and Mina Tahmouresie for

contributing to the analysis of Bessé and Backozy’s

session, and Terri Hron for her English language

review. This research was funded by AP’s Explore

and Insight Development grants from the Social

Sciences and Humanities Research Council of

Canada, and by EO’s mission at the French-Malian

Laboratoire Mixte International Macoter.

References

[1] R.T. Skinner, Bamako Sounds: The

Afropolitan Ethics of Malian Music,

University of Minnesota Press (2015).

[2] E. Olivier, “Contraintes et débrouilles. Une

enquête sur la musique numérique à Bamako

(Mali)”, in P. Le Guern (ed.), En quête de

musique. Questions de méthode à l’ère de la

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(2017).

[3] E. Bates, Digital Tradition: Arrangement and

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[4] A. P. Bell, Dawn of the DAW: The Studio as

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[5] E. Bates, “Technological Encounters in the

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