Recreating a sound from a Beatles recording......

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Capt.Ron

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I'm not sure if any forum members would be interested in the following conundrum, but thought I would ask since our/my technical skills with synthesizers and recording is limited.

I'm in a Beatles tribute band. We cover the entire spectrum of Beatles music with the help of a Roland XP-50 and Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. We also inject certain small bits from a laptop via ABLETON LIVE. We also have SONAR 7 and are fairly good with it. Anyway, we would like to cover the song "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles on the Revolver album. We can duplicate pretty much everything but the seagull type noises in the song. After some research, we know the original used tape loops, usually reversed and speed-ed up. Different sources say it was a guitar or a voice laughing. We've tried reversing the original clips and slowing them down, but we can't seem to get close to it and were wondering if anyone on the forum would like to give it a crack.

We've tried isolating the sample and filter/EQing the other frequency bands and just pulling the sample off the record, but we don't want to use copyright material and we can't isolate it to the point where we'd use it anyway. We could pay a bit of money as well. Remember that this will be used in a "live" performance and the brief sample triggered via ABLETON.

Kind regards, Capt. Ron:cool:
 
IMO...that's a reversed tape effect...but what was used to create the sound...????

Play it backwards...maybe you can make better sense of what the original sound was. :)
 
Consider sacrificing a real seagull each performance. Think of the publicity!

Sorry, can't be of any help to you whatsoever.
 
Armistice, will put it under consideration.....this could be huge:laughings:
 
They go into pretty good detail about the recording of "Tomorrow...." in the Anthology. When I went to Youtube to get the link, it said it's blocked in my country. :eek:

If you haven't already seen it, I'm sure you can find it if you search "Making of Tomorrow Never knows".

If I recall correctly, it's actual seagulls, but I might be wrong. If GrimTraveller sees this thread, he'll probably be able to tell us the answer.

I always thought it was Yoko. :eek:
 
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Did you know that seagulls in Australia make a different noise to UK seagulls?

Sorry a bit off track.

Alan.
 
In lieu of capturing a seagull and making it sing on commmand.... :)





Done.....
 
Capt.Ron said:
I'm not sure if any forum members would be interested in the following conundrum, but thought I would ask since our/my technical skills with synthesizers and recording is limited.

I'm in a Beatles tribute band. We cover the entire spectrum of Beatles music with the help of a Roland XP-50 and Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. We also inject certain small bits from a laptop via ABLETON LIVE. We also have SONAR 7 and are fairly good with it. Anyway, we would like to cover the song "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles on the Revolver album. We can duplicate pretty much everything but the seagull type noises in the song. After some research, we know the original used tape loops, usually reversed and speed-ed up. Different sources say it was a guitar or a voice laughing. We've tried reversing the original clips and slowing them down, but we can't seem to get close to it and were wondering if anyone on the forum would like to give it a crack.

We've tried isolating the sample and filter/EQing the other frequency bands and just pulling the sample off the record, but we don't want to use copyright material and we can't isolate it to the point where we'd use it anyway. We could pay a bit of money as well. Remember that this will be used in a "live" performance and the brief sample triggered via ABLETON.

Kind regards, Capt. Ron:cool:
Click to expand...
unless I'm mistaken the XP50 HAS seagull sounds in the 'C' bank of patches.
 
I think I might have a seagull patch in my mu50.

Also, Everything I recorded at uni has seagulls, but not intentionally.........Stoopid coast.
 
Are you sure they aren't French seagulls that flew across the English Channel just for this one recording session?

I'm in a Beatles tribute band, too, but we've made the decision not to use sampled sounds/FX - just us playing live. Our crescendos in A Day In the Life are sounding better and better. :)
 
Hey Lt.,

It sure does have some bird noises, but nothing like the tune I'm afraid. I'm actually having some luck singing the part and manipulating it......I think I will get close.....
 
I hear you....when you do this kind of stuff you need to choose a path. Some do a very narrow scope of the tunes, others try to do it all. We are somewhere in between I guess. We've had a 5th player join us for the bigger orchestral tunes. I'm not a big fan of sequenced music injected into a "live" show, but all the phrases we use are not dependent on rhythm/metering, so it works pretty well.......cheers....
 
Capt.Ron said:
We can duplicate pretty much everything but the seagull type noises in the song.
Click to expand...

I got The Beatles sound-engie Geoff Emerick's book here. (Here there and Everywhere.)

It says they are indeed "seagull" recordings combined with "distorted wineglasses" sounds. (whatever that may mean lol)
Played in different directions and speeds and then mixxed together.

Anyways... it's all a matter of editing,mixing and random luck :)
 
I'm assuming the wineglass sounds are the ones you get when you rub the rim of a wineglass with a wet fingertip. Then run that through distortion. Sounds to me like you guys are going to an extremely extreme length to duplicate something that you could easily get close enough without anyone noticing the difference.
 
60's guy said:
I tend to think that if someone were to post a track like that here at HR......everyone would hate it and say that it was too cluttered with noise.

That was then.....this is now.
Click to expand...


Possibly true.
That song, like many of the period, had the "psychadelic awakening" vibe, so they certainly fall into a pretty specific slot, no different than say...Doo-wop music.

Though I think "Tomorrow Never Knows" might be cool today, as there is a lot of retro appeal. Maybe done without as much "trippy" flavor, and with more of a Rock edge....the song's message could fit into a lot of time periods.
 
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