Wall of Sound?

[Armistice]

I was just reading an article in the Saturday paper about Phil Spector recording some band called Starsailor and the article mentioned the famous "Wall of Sound".

At this point it struck me that I've been hearing this term for 20 or more years, but I really have absolutely no idea what it actually means, and as a home-reccer, who's supposed to be more knowledgable about things audio than a music journo, I'm appalled at my ignorance!

What is it, exactly?

Cheers

[MightyOne]

Check out George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass". Aside from being an outstanding album, I've heard it described as being a Phil Spector Wall of Sound record. Triple and quadruple tracked parts, chorusy, reverby, smells old.

"All Things Must Pass" is a great listen anyway--I've heard it described as the best Beatle solo album and while I can't give my own opinion on this, as my exposure is limited, I can say it's very pleasent.

And then there's Phil Spector's production on the Beatles "Let it Be"--most notably the criticism regarding his heavy-handed production on "Across the Universe" and nauseatingly obscuring an othwise beautiful song as shown on the other version.

'"The Long and Winding Road".. duh duh duh'. Bleh.

Wow, I'm coming off as a total Beatles savant but I'm really not.

[chessrock]

The simplest explanation is "lots and lots of tracks."

Layered; busy. Opposite of sparse.

[Armistice]

Sounds like what I'm doing now.... curses, always been behind the times...

Thanks guys

[Benreturns]

Listen to Tina Turner's 'River Deep Mountain High' and the Ronnetts 'Be My Baby'
You must have heard those two songs anyway, they're classics. But look now further for the 'wall of sound'

[deemic]

How would anything like that differ from say , an Alan Parsons production like "Dark Side of The Moon" or his solo colaborations?

There are so many layers to that music that you can peel them away for years, listen after listen and you still hear something new everytime....

[lumbago]

I heard both Jeff Lynne and Justin Hayward describe it as feeding the left channel reverb into the right channel signal, and vice versa.

Similarly, on the early 60's hits, it meant having three drummers, two bass players, four pianists, 6 guitarists etc all recording at once on the same track.

Roy Wood (Wizzard - 'See my Baby Jive' from 1973 & ELO's first album "No Answer" from 1974) exemplifies how chaotic this approach can become.

[formerlyfzfile]

as multiple instuments doubling parts.

In other words, a guitar, piano, xlophone, horns, and strings all playing the exact same notes so that the stack of them together creates a wall of sound.

-mike

[rguagenti]

"Dark Side" is not necessarily wall of sound because you have a lot of intricate things going on within the music. I guess "Animals" is more of a wall of sound type. Very large, a lot of chords, not much in the way of solo or lead instruments. Heavy on the backbeat(real big kick drum sound).

Born To Run(the album) I have also considered a wall of sound type of recording. Big power chords underlined by saxes, organs, pianos, xylophones, etc. Heavy reverb on all instruments(listen to the piano intro on Backstreets).

Good style, but overbearing when overused.

[sonicpaint]

Chessrock has got this one right! The "wall of sound" was a term used when track after track were layered to achieve this wall of sound. A good example is the thick guitars on the Sex Pistols first album. A modern day example of this would be the guitars on the NickelBack album "Silver Side Up".

Later,
sonicpaint

[stonepiano]

Originally posted by deemic
How would anything like that differ from say , an Alan Parsons production like "Dark Side of The Moon" or his solo colaborations?

There are so many layers to that music that you can peel them away for years, listen after listen and you still hear something new everytime....

Hey, didn't Alan Parsons work as an engineer at Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles worked w/ Phil Spector?

I'm not trying to start up rumors bu maybe that's where he got that influence.

stone

[deemic]

Good point,

I do recall them being involved with that album in one capacity or another.