The Shadows' multi-track recording

[iefje]

The Beatles' multi-track recording for all their studio recordings has been documented in great detail. From about the "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" albums on, they started to overdub extensively, a lot of the times using a second or even a third 4-track recorder to add all the desired parts for a song. I wonder how much tracks The Shadows used on their recordings. Does anyone know? I do remember having read a scan of an article about their latest single "Rhythm & Greens" and how that was recorded.

[MartcasterJunior]

I think if you listen to Shadows recordings that came out around the same time as Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, there's no doubt that the band (or, at the very least, the engineers) were picking up tips from what else was going on in Abbey Road. Listen to something like Maroc 7 and there's a *ton* of stuff going on there: multiple lead and bass lines, double-speed guitar, fuzz, extra percussion, the orchestra...that's a lot of stuff to squeeze into only 4 tracks. I'd love to know how they arrived at that final arrangement. Was it all worked out up front or did they just make it up as they went along?

For me that's what defines that era and why I like it so much. If anything I actually prefer it to some of what The Beatles were doing because, with being primarily an instrumental band and still under pressure to deliver something commercial, The Shadows were tied to tunes with melodies and so couldn't go off in the same wildly experimental direction that The Beatles did.

Matt

[Iain Purdon]

Matt is right. If you listen to Shad tracks in stereo, especially with headphones, you can detect multitracking quite easily. It was an evolutionary process.

[Fenderman]

I believe the Beatles used a process called 'bouncing down' to mix 4 tracks into 1 or 2 so they could add more overdubs, they used this process from Revolver onwards, so the Shadows probably did the same. EMI got 8 track in summer 1968 so bouncing down was probably used less after then as there was more tracks to play with.

[RayL]

'Bouncing down' is almost as old as magnetic tape recording - it certainly predates The Beatles by more than 10 years. Famously, Les Paul had many hits in the 1950s from playing all the parts himself and bouncing down to achieve the final mix.

When using magnetic tape, the problem with bouncing is noise build-up. Every bounce adds a generation and with that comes a bit more noise. In this country, Joe Meek was a pioneer in recording multiple tracks while using as few bounces as possible. Read Creative Music Production by Barry Cleveland. He describes how, with only single-track and two track tape recorders, Joe could achieve a mono master tape blending thirteen individually processed tracks with only one bounce - twice if you count the mixdown.

EMI were very slow to use multi-track recorders i.e. those with more than two tracks. Ampex in the USA had a three-track from 1958.

Until digital recording came along (Ah! Joy! Multiple tracks and multiple bounces without noise build-up!), Dolby A noise reduction was the standard 'fix' as tape recorders reached 24 tracks on two-inch wide tape, but Dolby A was not available in the 1960s so great care had to be taken to minimise noise. What Norrie Paramor and George martin and their colleagues could not have imagined was the way that these days digital techniques are used to reduce tape noise when those old tapes are 'remastered' for CD.

[Didier]

The first 4 tracks recorders (Studer J37) arrived in Abbey Road in 1964. Before that 1 track or 2 tracks EMI made BTR recorders were used, but dubbing was also sometimes used.

Didier

[Paul Childs]

As far back as The Boys, if you listen to it carefully, it sounds like Hank did it in two goes. You can hear where it overlaps slightly in places.

[Uncleboko]

And would Cliff have benefitted from the "parallel mixing" trick?

[Fenderman]

I thought EMI had 4 track by 1960 but was only used by MOR artists such as Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey or classical recordings.
Most pop groups had to make do with twin track until 4 track was installed in EMI studio 2 in late 1963.

[JimN]

The Beatles' multi-track recording for all their studio recordings has been documented in great detail. From about the "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" albums on, they started to overdub extensively, a lot of the times using a second or even a third 4-track recorder to add all the desired parts for a song. I wonder how much tracks The Shadows used on their recordings. Does anyone know? I do remember having read a scan of an article about their latest single "Rhythm & Greens" and how that was recorded.

"Revolver" was issued in 1966 (fifty years old this year). In the same year, the Shadows' LP "Shadow Music"' sleeve-notes conveyed the information that (for instance) Brian Bennett was playing piano on Fourth Street, but he is clearly playing the drums as well. Likewise, Hank is credited with twin-track guitar on one song (The Magic Doll, committed to tape October 1965) and three-track guitar on another (March To Drina, December 1965).

The orchestral part on A Sigh (Un Sospiro) will also be a (stereo) overdub, conducted by Norrie Paramor when the Shadows' basic track for the song was already complete (recorded May 1965 in Lisbon) and almost certainly without the group present.

The same year, the Thunderbirds Theme featured Hank on six-string bass and on his "ordinary" electric guitar, though the same trick had been employed in the recording of Stingray back in January 1965. Fly Me To The Moon from the "Shadow Music" LP (another May 1965 session) has both electric and acoustic instruments in the lead guitar part.

This all predated "Revolver", but none of it was new. There are at least two overdubs on The Boys (1962), one on It'll Be Me (also 1962) and double-tracked lead guitar on both versions of Foot Tapper (er... 1962).