FROM THE FABULOUS 50'S

Lester Paul is said to have invented both the electric guitar, and the overdub technique, using two tape decks to build up symphonic arrangements of guitar and choruses of his wife, Mary Ford's voice.

A related method is multitracking, where a single tape deck manages many recorded tracks. A combination of these two methods, delicately practiced on four and eight channel decks, was an integral part of the musical and cultural revolution of the 1960's.

With more channels available, the overdub method is mostly abandoned. Fidelity is lost in overdub, (generational loss) and once the tracks are mixed, no changes are possible.

Today, true multitracking is the rule. 492 Cafe uses ProTools LE, an industry standard hardware and software package that allows for many tracks to be automated.

HOW IT'S DONE

Using a solo synchroinized recording of a Singer/Guitarist as an example, typically we first record the guitar part, then the vocals in a second pass. Then we can experiment with more tracks, new ideas, effects (virtually ALL pop songs use effected vocals) ...all without committing to anything.

WHY BOTHER?

There are two major aesthetic camps in recording. the first one (historically speaking) is to attempt to "capture" live performance. This is the discipline that brought us the sophisticated microphone techniques pioneered in classical music recording. Two to five mics was typical for a full symphony orchestra, and the goal was often to reproduce the sound of the concert hall in your living room.

Here, we're doing something completely different, using the studio as an active part of the compositional process. So one point of all this is to get tracks that are very clean. There will be no "bleeding" of one instrument onto another track. (That's one of the problems associated with live mult-mic recording.)

One powerful advantage to this is that the we can "slice and dice" the pieces with great versatility and precision.

This technique is almost never preferred by jazz performers! ...But the best session musicians can (and do) stoop to multitracking...for a suitably large "scooby snack."

PLAYING WITH MULTI-TRACK

REMIX ARTISTS! My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the terrific multitracked album by Brian Eno and David Byrne. The original tracks (presented with post-fader levels) are available for free download!