Does this verbiage about tape delays mean anything to you?

brassplyer

Well-known member
I was reading the Wikipedia article about Paul Simon's song "You Can Call Me Al".

At some point there's the quoted paragraph below. What would "tape delays" have to do with making vocals more clear for mixing purposes?

"After the song's completion, it was mixed at The Hit Factory alongside the rest of Graceland, at an average of two days per song.[3] Simon's vocals on the song are rather quick-paced, which made them difficult to mix over the numerous instruments in the backing track. After much work on the track, Simon's long-time engineer Roy Halee used tape delays feeding separately into the two audio channels, which made the vocals clear."
 
The intent behind the method, and how that method actually works is not clear. It is an explanatory paragraph that does little in the way of explanation.
 
A well implemented delay can actually clarify a voice. I think it exploits the training our brains have undergone with a lifetime of hearing people speak indoors where there's always a hint of echo. Some CB radios would be equipped with an echo function which, though widely misused, could really help with intelligibility if used correctly.
 
Since he mentions the numerous instruments and the fast pace of the vocals...I would expect the delay allowed for some separation between vocal and instruments and their timing to the beat...just not sure from the comment, which he delayed, the instruments or the vocal.

Speaking of Simon...there is also a tracking method he likes to use, that has never been quite clear to me, also based on something I once read.
It was something about him just running the backing tracks and NOT necessarily starting the playback from the beginning...rather it was more like some loop thing, but this was done tracking to tape. I never quite made sense of it, what he was doing exactly...but the point was something to do with not having that "start REC" thing going on, where everyone waits in anticipation, but more about just losing the anxiety and you just keep it going and track the vocals without thinking about them.
Kinda like a band jamming where they just keep playing and there is no start/end.
Never figured out what he was talking about. :D
 
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