Recording Abba

[BrettB]

Don't get me wrong, I am everything but an Abba fan, but I'm recording this song for this band that has this Abba touch and I wondered if there were any articles on line about the recording of the Abba singles.

Anyone ever read something about their recording tricks?

 

[Benreturns]

ummmm... when recording waterloo they thought it sounded a bit empty and shite so they double tracked everything and on one set of each instrument they lowered the pitch/key by nearly a semitone which give the song a more 'heavy' kinda feel. Any good?

As much as you dont find me listening to Abba and more to The Beatles 'et al' i must say they were a fuckin top group.

Great songwriting/performance/production. Too often dismissed as cheesy pop - theres a hint of genius in the songs.

 

[Richard Monroe]

So what's the problem with ABBA? For over five years, they were the #1 industry of Sweden, beating out Volvo for the biggest percentage of the GNP. I'll trade bank accounts with them anytime.-Richie

 

[Bulls Hit]

They also delayed the doubled tracks to fatten the sound

 

[Rokket]

I think the biggest part of their sound is in the vocal harmonies. They have to be tight to work like they did. I guess the fact that they were all married to each other at some point had something to do with it. I listened to them when they were near the end of their peak, right as disco was dying. I never told my AC/DC or nothing else friends that I did. My wife loves to listen to them now. I will listen when she doesn't think I am...

 

[Scrubucket7]

my teacher always tells me that "ABBAS NUMBER ONE!"

 

[mattamatta]

I have never recorded ABBA.

 

[SawkenDotCom]

I thought it was a law in the music industry that you had to affix "Swedish Supergroup" whenever you referred to the group.

Maybe that's just in the world of writing.

 

[XLR]

I think the biggest part of their sound is in the vocal harmonies.

Jeez, yeah. Their vocals are like 4 parts done on instruments they're so well in tune and in rhythmically tight.

I never cared a lot for what I thought was an overdone production style - the Swedish Wall of Sound - but I sure admired their musicianship.

Especially like the song Fernando. Always gets me.

Tim

 

[Raver]

Abbbbbbbba

I saw in a interview with Bjorn and he said that they tried to intro the song with the chorus as getting the hook going in the beggining grabs the ear right away and a good hooky intro with harmonised guitar and piano was a good start as well.
And funny enough Bjorn sais that they tried to keep with a limited amount of chords so they would not loose the feel of the songs.

Also the other thing was that the chorus should crsendo like build to a peak.

Sounds like Rave music today.

Abba rock

 

[sweetnubs]

You could easily reproduce the sound of Abba. Simply purchase a chalkboard and scratch your fingernails on it.

 

[true-eurt]

Good is good ..no matter how corny it may seem...I bet they laughed...ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK...geeze.......wish I had thought of the chalkboard thingie....I coulda afforded that!!!!!!

 

[XLR]

Chalkboard? I hadn't thought that but maybe I haven't listened to enough of their stuff. The things I heard I'd describe more as dripping with artificial sweetener.

Good is good ..no matter how corny it may seem

That nails it I think. It's like the thing with Barry Manilow... his songs are out of style and overly sentimental (talk about artificial sweetener) but he said in an interview I read that his real talent was arranging. He said he thought of himself as an OK singer and composer but a really good arranger. I can't argue with that.

Tim

 

[true-eurt]

thanks for the green Tim.....says I've been too friendly in the past 24 hrs, or I'd hit cha back............... And right on about Manilow..I think I read somewhere he suffered from a hernia....from too much laughing...

 

[DrainDamage]

TRIPLE Tracking

The secret to ABBA sound is TRIPLE tracking, using the vari-pitch.

It was revealed in the Mama Mia! documentary they have been aring recently.
Bjorn (or was it Benny?) is in the studio with their old engineer, pulling up tracks.

They would record the whole band (bass, drums, guitar, piano) once,
then record the band as a double, with the vari-pich slightly high
then record the band as a triple with the vari-pitch slightly low.

It's the MONO mixing of these that give you the ABBA sound.

I've tried this with acoustic guitar, and it sounds great. More interesting than mere "chorus" effect on a machine.

- Three takes, doubling what you have played.
- Vari-Pitch high and low (to taste)

 

[DrainDamage]

Tuning

also very important, when Triple-tracking, that everything be tuned really well.

I tried this with acoustic guitar, and found the more-perfectly the guitar was in-tune to start with, the better the "triple-track" chorus effect.

Vari-pitch amount is subject to taste. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot.