I usually listed to an oldies station on the way to and from work. I’ve always heard Phil Spector’s recording technique referred to as the “wall of sound” and just recently also discovered that it had been patented. There is a definite audible difference between Spector’s recordings and other “standard” recordings. Does anyone know exactly how he did it, or is this some sort of trade secret?
This may well be a WAG, but bear with me in case I am halfway right…
The BBC made an excellent series called Dancing in the Street, which documented some of the major evolutions in pop/rock music since its emergence in the 1950’s.
One of the episodes lokked in part at Phil Spector’s influence, and included a couple of short interviews with musicians and sound tech’s that he worked with.
The consensus on the “Wall of Sound” appears to be the number of musicans used in the studio. Instead of using one examle of each instrument, three or more were used, in the same room, recording into the same microphone. This apparently led to a crescendo of sound that interacted with each instrument, so that the total effect was more than the sum of the parts.
For example, imagine three pianos in close proximity playing an identical phrase loudly and simultaneously. Not only is there an effect achieved between the sound intensity and the room dynamics, there is also the resonance induced in each piano caused by the sound pressure from the others.
Unfortunately, there was almost no detailing of just what the sound tech’s did, other than an obvious use of reverb techniques. Perhaps the true answer lies there.
Considering that, maybe there’s an alternate answer. If you take the SAME instrument and mike it with three different microphones, you could take advantage of the minor pick-up differences and then spread it out in the mix to possibly get the same effect.
Yes, you could do that but it wouldn’t sound like a Phil Spector production. Cramming lots of musicians into the studio and not mic-ing them individually is what makes the Wall of Sound the Wall of Sound.
Any old hack sound engineer can make a multi-track recording. It takes a genius to cram the Ronettes and a 20 piece orchestra in a 20’ x 20’ studio and come out with 2:30 of sonic art.
Another interview with Phil or someone that worked with him(I can’t remember which) said it was also the echo, if you got the timing of the echo down that helped to create that mass of sound that Phil Spector was famous for. Part of the effect was also generated by the number of musicians, as was alluded to before, he would have three pianos on almost all of his sessions, the fact that he only worked in mono and he also used a lot smaller room then you would expect. I’ve seen pictures of some of the sessions and it is incredibly crowded.
As an aside I would love to see a movie of his life, he may have been a sonic genius but boy the man was nuts. When he was working with the Ramones he would take a loaded pistol into the studio and he would wave it around when he was recording, and he would have private concerts with Ronnie in his house with her being lit by a single spot light. But he does deserve credit, anyone who could work with Sonny Bono and get him to do good work has to be a genius.
Keith
Euty:
Layered multi-tracking had only been invented (discovered) a couple of years before Spector had started to use it. Spector picked it up and ran with it. He Layered intrument upon instrument and voice upon voice yet always letting that domininant voice and melody come out to carry the listener.
I think it was especially inspired when one considers the quality of the radios of the time–ones that would lose the specifics of the sound yet spector found a way that they would let the essense through, truly inspired.
A wonderful history of rock ‘n’ roll is out in book form and it spends some serious time on Spector and the “Wall of Sound”. It is called “Rock 'n Roll” and it is best in the audio book form because it actually gives audio examples of what the author is talking about. I had a late night at the office so I can’t remember the author of the book, sorry.
Ronnie Spector’s autobiography, “Be My Baby” goes into the topic rather well also. You can also see the progress of Phil Spector’s irregular behavior.
In a variety of different sources, Paul Simon, Frankie Avalon and Sonny Bono have all talked about being members of the Wall of Sound. Bono (Sonny) bragged about being kicked out of it because it was claimed his voice was not musical enough. Bono actually started in the music business as an office boy for Spector (as least that was what Bono claimed).