Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

i'm convinced that that's where their perfect, pristine sound came from: George Martin's knowledge of recording. if you listen to the Stones, Kinks, Who, Faces, and other albums of the time... they just didn't have what the Beatles had... another dimension.

Not to mention Geoff Emerick...

I thought the show was "ok" not great, but not bad. I enjoyed seeing the old EMI console, and a protools rig next to it. When Paul strapped on his hofner, he made a few under the breath comments that were fairly amusing, the one new song he played in the style of Blackbird was quite good. The Mellotron was cool. Ok, I thought it a good show... I guess... lol. My wife was fairly bored watching it, but I noticed her emotional response to Blackbird. The soundtrack of our lives.. I wonder if Paul ever regrets not reuniting, now that the chance is gone for ever.

i second the "Geoff Emerick" comment!

Kevin I wholeheartedly agree. George brought an incredible amount of recording experience to their music. He was also a risk taker in the sense that he was not afraid to experiment on company time.

Don't forget he is also a gifted musician himself. That is an unusual quality in a producer. Even today.

Geoff Emerick does deserve a lot of credit also. So I am in agreement there.

I had heard somewhere that Pepper WAS recorded on 4 track but it was my understanding it was more than one 4 track, like once the 4 tracks were full (after bouncing 1 & 2 over to 4. Used to be you couldn't bounce to an adjacent track, but who knows w/ that set-up.)they went to another machine and bounced what they had onto 2 tracks of that machine, which became the master. Any reference to it in
the BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS book?

Steve, there is a mention of only one four track in Lewisohn's book. There isn't, as far as I can read, the mention of a second one.

Steve I do not recall them using two machines either, but that's not to say that they did not.

I do know that it is extremely difficult to synchronize two machines. One of the studios I recorded in tried that using a variable speed controller. It was difficult to achieve because voltage regulators in each machine even of the same brand and model were not made to such precise tolerances to achieve that particular result. Naturally that small difference in voltage affected tape speed, albeit minutely.

Brian, I meant as a straight transfer to the second machine, not syncing them up- so they'd have all the tracks from the first machine, dump 'em onto the second machine (1 track for mono, 2 for stereo) and fill the rest of the tracks up on deck #2.

Yes after reading your post again I see now that is the thought that was being conveyed. The problem with that approach is that you always lose some of the quality of the original recording when you do that. A sound engineer can tell you what frequencies roll off and why, all I know is that it does happen.

There are probably ways to compensate but that would have to be a planned event. Again I am not saying that they did not do that. Indeed if they did do that then their mastery of the recording process was vastly unique and obviously brilliant.

I'm doing that (sort of) right now. I record on an analog 8-track tape machine, send all of that over to a digital 8-track machine, fill all that up, then send all that into another 8-track machine with CD making capabilities. I'm finding that if I record all the drum, percussion, and bass parts on the tape machine the sound is actually warmed up by the time it gets to the last machine.

The story of mixing Strawberry Fields requires two 4 tracks, I believe. They had an electric version and a orchestral version, at different tempos and one half step apart. They played around with the speed on one of the machines and got the time to sync in key.

I believe George Martin actually sped up one machine and slowed down the other. When Pepper was recorded, four-track was a sign of high tech. Eight tracks came along not much later. I seem to recall that Hendrix made Electric Lady land on one of the first 24-track machines, but it might have been that he ping-ponged an eight track to get 24. My band made its first few recordings on a three track that used 1/2-inch tape. Bass & drums on one track, guitars on one track, vocals overdubbed on three.

Emrick's book comes out this month. Should be a great read!