Vintage Beatles Vocals --- How did they get it ?

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johnnymegabyte

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When you listen to the early Beatles recordings, the vocals had some "depth" or "dimension", that gave them a fuller sounding voice, even on solo voice.

How did they create that sound for vocals ? ( George Martin produced / Abbey Road Studios )

How can one duplicate the vocal sound today, or has a technique ?
 
This is highly classified stuff I'm sharing . . . but I've heard it's in the harmonics.

That's the secret.
 
There was no one way. It totally depends on the song and period. George Martin did very little of the engineering of the Beatles, and this is where you need to look. George Emerick did a great deal of the engineering at Abbey Road in those days, and he had many tricks up his sleeve. Search for a book called "Behind the Glass", which has interviews with Emerick, Martin, and many other producers and engineers (Visconti, Parsons, etc), and a lot of hte Beatles tricks are in some of those interviews
 
chessrock is right.

The Beatles' vocals on their early recordings were done the old-fashioned way: The singers gather around one microphone and sing.

Depending on how well the singers blend and sing in tune, overtones are produced from the interaction of voices. Anyone who has sung in a choir (and listened) knows that this occurs. The same thing happens in old-time bluegrass vocals.

When the recording industry started having many tracks to record on, and we started recording vocals one singer at a time, it surely became easier to blend and EQ and process in the mix, but something was lost.

It certainly didn't hurt that John and Paul were very good singers, and that George blended well...
 
...or that they had been performing together 7 nights a week for years...
 
Talent wins out over technology every time....

They only had what today would be some cheap mics and a couple of 4-track tape machines hooked together.

But the guys behind the mics and the guys behind the boxes to the time to experiment and learn what they were doing.....
 
chessrock said:
This is highly classified stuff I'm sharing . . . but I've heard it's in the harmonics.

That's the secret.
Click to expand...

I bought that plug in last week. Just drop it on the tracks and instant Beatles sound. ;)

Actually Fairchild compressors could have been part of it too.
 
The engineer for the Beatles up to and including Rubber Soul was Norman Smith plus don't forget that they double-tracked the vocals alot.
 
I've heard that they made ample use of soar, and made sure that the tracks were always very, very green.
 
I've heard that they made ample use of soar, and made sure that the tracks were always very, very green.
 
They double-tracked a lot of their lead vocals -- and were very good at maching their own voice while singing it the second time.
 
all of the above...almost.

The Beatles did double a lot of their lead vocals. It was Geoff (not George...sorry cstockdale...but you probably knew that) Emerick that took over engineering duties after Norman Smith (remember "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?"...yes, THAT Norman Smith). Regarding gear...I wouldn't consider what EMI studios had as "cheap". Minimal is how I would describe it. Fairchild compressors, Neumann mics, a HUGE room...and the two four-track idea wasn't used until 1967. Most of their early recordings were tracked mono and mixed to a vinyl test pressing almost immediately..in the control room.

But talent absolutely wins out over all else, and between the band, the engineers and the producer, there was talent galore involved. It was a magical combination...probably why it would never happen again.

Geez...I don't think I even answered your question, but you get the idea from all of the posts.
 
Frequent doubling of the lead vocal as well as the ocassional slap back delay. And of course, incredible talent.
 
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