Hail to the Theif: Vocals

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I have recently been listening to "Hail to the Thief" by Radiohead with more and more intensity, and the vocals sound even more rediculously amazing each time I listen. Along with Thom's voice (of course), the vocal tracks really float and just cut through the mix while not taking over anything. Does anyone know the way/what they used to record them? And in 2+2=5, when Thom says, "Scream and shout," would that be an example of analog distortion? Anyways, I just thought that would be interesting to know.
 
Yorke uses a lot of multitracking on this cd, and the song you reference has him singing the whole melody an octave higher, as well as a few doubled tracks in there. I'd say there's at least 6 vocals on that song. And the 'Scream and you can shout' line sounds to me like he just sang to loud on a take and liked the sound. That first verse is all close miced with Thom singing rather quietly, and on that line he gets a bit loud overloading the mic.

At least I think. I wasn't there.

That cd is so good. Wow.
 
Darrell Thorp, the engineer who I believe won a grammy for that album, mixed an album for one of my friends, and he told me that Darrell used mostly EV RE20s on Thom and I think Shure SM7 as well. Secondhand source, so take that into consideration. It does sound like Thom is singing into dynamic mics though, especially on the later albums like Amnesiac, Kid A and Hail to the Thief.
 
Thats so funny, i was listening to 2+2=5 when i stumbled across this.

Are you sure thom didn't use an effect on the "scream and you can shout" part?
 
I dunno man, but that song is AMAZING. That album really is amazing as well. It really shows Radioheads brilliance, not just 'being weird.' As they have 'Scatterbrain', you know, just perfect; but also have all of the 'weird songs.' They are just going SOO many directions all at once, its just amazing.

Ok, new Q.

I was listenin to Kid A and in 'Everything in its right place,' when it goes into the 'Yesterday I woke up suckin a lemon,' or whatever part, are they doing Preverb or something. What is the effect they are doin with his voice, cuz its awesome.
 
I think on some of the later albums (I hear it on Kid A and Amnesiac) they have been experimenting with the over and under tones of Thom's voice. Like using pitch correction as an effect to detune his voice instead of using it to fix incorrect notes. He layers a lot of vocal tracks, and I think they use this technique to change the harmonics on some of the tracks. I hope I am explaining this right. I don't have a lot of experience with it, so maybe someone else has a better explanation. In any case, I think this may be what you're hearing. That is a very cool part of that song.
 
But there are like little parts before he says each thing, that sound like reverb - but backwards. I dunno, Radiohead is just amazing.
 
Backwards reverb isn't too tough. Just take the part that you want backwards reverb on, and reverse it in Cubase or Logic or whatever, and then apply a reverb to it. Reverse the part again and you're vocal part is forwards while your reverb is "backwards". You'll have to do some experimenting with the reverb to get the right sound, but it can be cool if you use it right.
 
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