At 10:39 AM -0500 12/23/06, Christopher Smith wrote:
PS - true studio anecdote about comb filtering:
I had hired a terrific trumpet player to dub two trumpet parts on
one of my studio projects. He was so incredibly consistent from one
take to another that there were comb filtering problems in the
unison sections, sounding metallic and unnatural. We could have
addressed this in many different ways (different mic, different room
damping, different positioning), but the easiest way was for him to
take his other (larger bore) trumpet to play the second trumpet
part. Just the change of bore (and make, from Bach to Schilke) was
enough to make the second trumpet part different enough in timbre to
eliminate the comb filtering.
I've done it with violin, but changing the mic and mic placement for
each take rather than changing the instrument. My own intonation(?)
took care of THAT problem!
True story: When the Hi-Lo's signed with Columbia, c. 1958, their A
& R guy apparently decided they should try some singles that were
less "arty" and more commercial. One of the tunes they recorded was
"Whistlin' Down the Lane." Instead of an instrumental half-chorus
they whistled a half-chorus. After the first take, the producer
said, "No, no; I want you all to whistle." They were, so perfectly
in tune that it sounded like one person! They finally recorded it
with two of them whistling a quarter tone off!!
Second true studio anecdote:
Vocal overdubs on a pop tune, the same woman (a wonderful singer)
was recording all the parts, sometimes several passes on each part.
It was starting to sound weirdly unnatural, like that moment in the
Matrix movie when suddenly there are hundreds of copies of Smith
inhabiting the universe.
Again (and dating myself in the process), overdubbing a vocal group
not to sound like more singers but to achieve a "brighter" sound
(don't ask me to figure out the acoustics!) was first done, to my
knowledge, in the '50s by whoever was engineering The Four Freshmen
(and obviously involved going from one tape machine to another and
losing a generation of quality in the process, pre-punchin
technology, much like Les Paul at about the same time). My own
group, The Four Saints, tried it, liked the effect, and used it for
almost all our studio recordings until the end of the '60s. I also
used it with my college groups in the '80s with good effect. This is
quite different from overdubbing to add additional parts, which I
also did from time to time, and which the Christian group "Glad" did
regularly. (In live performance they sang along with a DAT of the
additional voices.)
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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