Spector mono to stereo back to mono ?

[antonyarcuri]

Hi,

I'm a student at Huddersfield Uni, at the moment I'm in my final year of studies and for my final major project I intend to recreate Phil Spector's wall of sound. I was just looking for some advice with a problem I have encountered in my research.

Spector used an echo chamber to record natural reverbs and I intend to do the same thing. The first question I am having trouble with is how Spector sent a mono signal to the chamber, recorded the reverb to his snare track in stereo, then converted this back to mono, splicing his source signal with the new wet signal.

In my project I intend to use analogue methods so taking the signal into a PC and creating 'fake stereo' is out of the question. At the moment I'm at a lost cause with this question. Any help you can give me will be much appreciated.

Secondly I was wondering if Spector recorded his band at once onto tape, how would the signal then be split so that only the snare could be sent to the chamber ?

Thanks for your time

Antony Arcuri

 

[jpmorris]

I know that he recorded things on a 3-track system and worked in mono, but I don't know the exact technique he used.

EDIT:

Maybe you've already come across this, but it may help:

"On the earlier records, which were recorded on three-track, two tracks were used for the instrumental backing - which was then 'bounced' down to one track. Another track was then used for the vocals, after which both tracks were then mixed down onto the third track, adding more echo or other effects."

--Electronic Music, Andy Mackay, P32

 

[lo.fi.love]

Mono to stereo to mono... it sounds like you might have some issues with phase cancellation if you're not careful. I suppose that can be remedied by clever mic placement. Have you considered this?