The Beatles recording technique questions (1 Viewer)

[Serpico]

Just in case any of you shelled out for that really posh recording diary recently I was wondering...
1. Did the beatles record to a click track? I was watching the anthology and they played the demo versions of A Day in the Life and Strawberry Fields and they started both with just Lennon on acoustic guitar then built everything on top. Must have been a nightmare if he hadn't recorded to a click.
2. What mics were mostly used on the vocals? Generally any info on the vocal recording techniques used post Sgt Peppers. I know they double tracked a lot and then used ADT a lot but any other info appreciated.
Ta.

 

[dudley]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0517581825/?tag=thumpedcom-20

 

[Pantone247]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0712662081/?tag=thumpedcom-20

Revolution in the Head is amazing too, and I'm not a huge Beatles fan by any strech. Great read.

1. I doubt it, I'd say either to a guide acoustic track, or just cut it live in the same room. So many of those later songs were cut from various takes, Strawberry Fields (I think, could be something else) ends up a fraction of a tone out of tune with how it starts such was the speeding up and chopping and monkeying around done to the tapes. Happiness is a Warm gun was a total cut and paste job... imagine being the fella putting the blade through the tape..

2. Not sure but the safe money is on a Neuman U87

 

[Unicron]

Strawberry Fields (I think, could be something else) ends up a fraction of a tone out of tune with how it starts such was the speeding up and chopping and monkeying around done to the tapes.

I bought this month's Q because of the songwriters feature in it (it's pretty good) and Strawberry Fields Forever was in a songwriter's top 10. The article describes what you just said happening.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

They mostly used U47s for vocals I think.
Certainly there's the 'John Lennon' U47 in Abbey Road to this day.

 

[pissypants]

Don't have the fancy book but read some other stuff.
Apparently they had a metronome miked up in a cuboard somewhere in abbey road.

Vocal microphones and techniques for recording vocals were multiple and varied, as john lennon had an aversion to "that same bloody vocal sound". Techniques extended to bizzarre practices such as submerging a microphone into a water-filled milkbottle and having lennon sing into the hole at the top.

Of course - someone who has the sexy book will have all the answers.

 

[cephalopod]

Yeah, what Pantone said..revolution in the head..it set the music of the Beatles on fire in my mind again..excellent book..and ye know what..they have never been equalled

 

[cephalopod]

the seagully sounds on Tomorrow never knows are Paul laughing..and Lennon recorded the vocal lying on his back

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

To hell with all your wussy Beatles books.
This here's the real deal :

http://www.recordingthebeatles.com/

 

[Goodbye]

Ahem:
From the first post by serpico "Just in case any of you shelled out for that really posh recording diary recently I was wondering..."

also http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=53918


sayin'

 

[snakybus]

Generally Lennon's vocals were double tracked, and the tracks then placed slightly out of phase with each other. It thickened up his vocal, which he was always very self conscious about.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Oh yeah.

 

[Pantone247]

Ahem:
From the first post by serpico "Just in case any of you shelled out for that really posh recording diary recently I was wondering..."

also http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=53918


sayin'

ZINGO STARR!

 

[Pantone247]

According to R.I.T.H. it wouldn't always be double tracked, it'd be the same take but out of phase with itself, shifting it a few milli-seconds. To do this they'd have to bounce it to another tape machine, put that tape out of alligment, and play it back on to the master over the main voice.. with all that bouncing and tape machiine being different the speed would wobble about a tiny about, thus the weirdness. The called it ADT, Automatic Double Tracking.

the bits I've read about it on line seem to agree it's much more then just tape delay and much more then just phasing, but no-ones seems to know exactly what the magic voodoo that makes it so deadly really is.

Generally Lennon's vocals were double tracked, and the tracks then placed slightly out of phase with each other. It thickened up his vocal, which he was always very self conscious about.

 

[ogy]

it wasn't just that it was just delayed, the amount of the phase difference was varied up and down in small amounts. if you have a delay plug-in that has a modulation option and you set it to a very short delay with a modulation amount of <1hz you get the idea.

 

[dudley]

Ahem:
From the first post by serpico "Just in case any of you shelled out for that really posh recording diary recently I was wondering..."

sayin'

perhaps that is why i linked him to a cheap book instead of the uber pricey one

 

[Goodbye]

Look back Dud. I was responding to Red Tapes post.

 

[dudley]

never look back, gotta keep moving forward

 

[Pantone247]

ZINGO STARR!

seriously guys, ZING-O-STARR... I'm giving you comedy gold here

 

[Goodbye]