More Carpenters Recreations

rob aylestone

rob aylestone

Moderator
I'm a bit mystified - a while back I put a video on youtube about the Carpenters use of complex backing vocals and it went a bit crazy - loads of questions. Most were positive, a few of course negative, but loads of questions. I thought I would do a follow up video with Goodbye to love - which has a crazily complicated almost choral section at the end. I edited the Cubase tracks to let people hear each new line and what it did.

If you hate the Carpenters, don't click because it's sugary, lush, sweet, nice and weird.

Incidentally, the original has one of the best rocky guitar solos on it - it should not have worked but listen to the original. Youtuve zapped it for copyright within 30 seconds - which sort of says I must have got something right?
 
Wow brother.... first off I love the Carpenters and their California story. You are a bad ass! love how you have done this...I'm rushed this morning so I can't give it the full listen but I am definitely going to! You frickin rock!
 
Thank you Rob, I enjoyed that very much. Some months back our PBS TV ran a special on The Carpenters, hosted by Richard, which I watched repeatedly over a period of three weeks or so. Richard explained their multiple vocal layering but didn't get into how deep they went.

One of several documentaries :

 
In many videos he simplifies it. When we did this we had two of us sitting in the studio, and I'm a sort of generalist - my friend Grant is a 'real' musician - concert pianist, but critically he has perfect pitch, so we set up a two bar loop, and then we listen really carefully and work out one of the lines and we record it as a piano sound. Then we do the next voice and so on. Sometimes - he goes mad because he can hear something in the background - and he says somebody is singing a Bb, and bashes that note on the keys and then we listen again and he's rarely wrong. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if it's Karen singing low or Richard singing high - but bit by bit you build up the song and often when you then look at the actual chord - it's just crazy! It should not make sense, but it always does. Even stranger, she often sings a very strange pronounciation of a word. Actually just wrong, but the BVs have a gentler version, sometimes even with a different number of syllables - this makes here lead jump out where it needs to. If you look for their song fun, fun, fun - listen to the way Richard sings "fast as she can now". In only yesterday she sings may-e-be instead of maybe - it's subtle but really clever. Richard never tells people all this stuff, but when you listen carefully, you hear all sorts of things. They are almost hidden, but if you'd have written a song and recorded it, you might have told the singer, make sure you come off before that next note or it will clash - but the carpenters often don't do this and it really works. They did a weird covers type blend with a DJ (the guitarist) on now and then, and their own spin on well known songs is so crafty! The only one I'm stuck on is Top of the World - and although I have a pedal steel, it's beyond me - and here pedal steels are very rare, and good players even more so!
 
rob aylestone said:
I'm a bit mystified - a while back I put a video on youtube about the Carpenters use of complex backing vocals and it went a bit crazy - loads of questions. Most were positive, a few of course negative, but loads of questions. I thought I would do a follow up video with Goodbye to love - which has a crazily complicated almost choral section at the end. I edited the Cubase tracks to let people hear each new line and what it did.

If you hate the Carpenters, don't click because it's sugary, lush, sweet, nice and weird.

Incidentally, the original has one of the best rocky guitar solos on it - it should not have worked but listen to the original. Youtuve zapped it for copyright within 30 seconds - which sort of says I must have got something right?
Click to expand...

The Goodbye to love solo would sound horrible on its own..terrible farty fuzz tone sound.. but it was so brilliantly played and mixed so well that it ended up just being perfect for the track IMVHO 👍
 
rob aylestone said:
In many videos he simplifies it. When we did this we had two of us sitting in the studio, and I'm a sort of generalist - my friend Grant is a 'real' musician - concert pianist, but critically he has perfect pitch, so we set up a two bar loop, and then we listen really carefully and work out one of the lines and we record it as a piano sound. Then we do the next voice and so on. Sometimes - he goes mad because he can hear something in the background - and he says somebody is singing a Bb, and bashes that note on the keys and then we listen again and he's rarely wrong. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if it's Karen singing low or Richard singing high - but bit by bit you build up the song and often when you then look at the actual chord - it's just crazy! It should not make sense, but it always does. Even stranger, she often sings a very strange pronounciation of a word. Actually just wrong, but the BVs have a gentler version, sometimes even with a different number of syllables - this makes here lead jump out where it needs to. If you look for their song fun, fun, fun - listen to the way Richard sings "fast as she can now". In only yesterday she sings may-e-be instead of maybe - it's subtle but really clever. Richard never tells people all this stuff, but when you listen carefully, you hear all sorts of things. They are almost hidden, but if you'd have written a song and recorded it, you might have told the singer, make sure you come off before that next note or it will clash - but the carpenters often don't do this and it really works. They did a weird covers type blend with a DJ (the guitarist) on now and then, and their own spin on well known songs is so crafty! The only one I'm stuck on is Top of the World - and although I have a pedal steel, it's beyond me - and here pedal steels are very rare, and good players even more so!
Click to expand...
I dont know a lot about Pedal Steel, there are some awsome players out there in the Country music genre. The guys I listen to are Jeff the skunk Baxter from Steely Dan and the Doobies and John McFee from Clover and also the Doobie Brothers, both very fine players 👍
 
rob aylestone said:
In many videos he simplifies it. When we did this we had two of us sitting in the studio, and I'm a sort of generalist - my friend Grant is a 'real' musician - concert pianist, but critically he has perfect pitch, so we set up a two bar loop, and then we listen really carefully and work out one of the lines and we record it as a piano sound. Then we do the next voice and so on. Sometimes - he goes mad because he can hear something in the background - and he says somebody is singing a Bb, and bashes that note on the keys and then we listen again and he's rarely wrong. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if it's Karen singing low or Richard singing high - but bit by bit you build up the song and often when you then look at the actual chord - it's just crazy! It should not make sense, but it always does. Even stranger, she often sings a very strange pronounciation of a word. Actually just wrong, but the BVs have a gentler version, sometimes even with a different number of syllables - this makes here lead jump out where it needs to. If you look for their song fun, fun, fun - listen to the way Richard sings "fast as she can now". In only yesterday she sings may-e-be instead of maybe - it's subtle but really clever. Richard never tells people all this stuff, but when you listen carefully, you hear all sorts of things. They are almost hidden, but if you'd have written a song and recorded it, you might have told the singer, make sure you come off before that next note or it will clash - but the carpenters often don't do this and it really works. They did a weird covers type blend with a DJ (the guitarist) on now and then, and their own spin on well known songs is so crafty! The only one I'm stuck on is Top of the World - and although I have a pedal steel, it's beyond me - and here pedal steels are very rare, and good players even more so!
Click to expand...
I get what you say. I am an accomplished guitar player and intermediate piano. I bought a nice E flat Alto Sax. I thought. . I have a good ear and good theory, how hard can it be? How wrong I was! Err .. what the hell does this button do? What does this lever do? Ahh god its impossible!! Ha ha. It is for now a lovely shiny expensive ornament in the corner of my music room 😅😉👍
 
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