Damn! Wow! This music hit me right between the eyes. Vocals are exquisite, and the music is FAT! I’ve loved Jeff Lynne’s music for years and this is like his glory days have never faded. 😊 Love it!
And go ahead and laugh 🤪 but I loved ABBA’s recordings as well. Benny and Bjorn’s techniques/ideas were really something-and those delicious female vocals…YUM!! (And soooo nice to look at 🥰
Kudos on your work and attention to detail on vocal stacks. 100% with you on the impact of panning. I've been recording 'record-correct' covers of some of my favorite artist's tracks for a while now and panning is a major part of getting this right...especially with background vocals.
This came in my feed watching ELO's live show '78. This is my kind of stuff - stacked vocals! Love it! Thanks for breaking this down and showing how all the greats made this happen. Child of the 70s/80s myself, what a time to grow up with those rich sounds. Now in the 2020s, what a time when we now have it in our hands to make those same rich sounds. Thanks for putting this up!
Daaaamn Bobby! WOW, what a ridiculously dense project that looked like! Good on ya for taking that on! Cool topic this one Bobby thx for the video man!
Great video 👍🏻. I would imagine you're likely a fan of the band Jellyfish who were also great at stacked harmonies, which some of this tune reminded me of. And the mention about more interesting chord changes is right on the money, very valuable discussion.
@@MrGuitarmikegyes!! I’ve listened to a lot of the off-shoot projects from the jellyfish guys. There was also a guy from Nashville called Owsley. His first record was great. It has a song on it called Coming Up Roses. Fantastic!
Roy Thomas Baker vocal stacking: 8 hard left 8 hard right 8 center 8 half way left - out of phase 8 half way right - out of phase (Out of phase vocals cancel the bottom mud) Voila!! Queen & Cars BGVs.
Ya man, I saw an interview with Brian May and he mentioned that they did so many takes, the oxide would be falling off the tape. Also, I believe they would dump a stereo mix to another 2-inch, do all the vocal work, mix the vocals to a 1/4 inch, then fly the stereo stacked vocals back onto the original master 2-inch with multiple tries making sure they nailed it. They would be two generations down, but with full bodied vocal stacks the tape hiss would be hardly noticeable, and have, of course, all that juicy saturation!
Great stuff as always, Bob! Would love it if you were to dive into the ELO process some more some time. Btw, I'm gonna see them live in a couple weeks and I'm STOKED!
Awesome! One thing both Lynne and Queen embraced, were the 7th and augmented chords, of course, which is a big part of the sound. And while we're in that neighborhood, let's not forget Yes.
You use autotune to lock in the vocals and get the sound, but I think Jeff used a couple of vocoders and was simply able to lock-in with his own voice. There was a very old BBC documentary in the early 1990s that showed his recording techniques in his massive house. The guy has an ear for sound and is constantly analysing ..there is a lot to learn from the guy.
Hey. I listened to a lot of pop or pop rock in my youth that had more complex chord changes. Queen, ELO, Steely Dan, Gino Vannelli, EWF, Etc. When I write stuff for my own project it tends to graviate to these kinds of chord changes that I just find a bit more interesting. Spend some time with these bands and you will hear the difference and you will start to incorporate these types of chords in your music. I’d also include Elton John, Jellyfish, Wings, Crowded House, and some Beatles to that list.
Gotta watch till the end for that quip! Cracked me up how familiar that chuckle was when you found that untuned vox note lol.. been there! 😂 Love the retro feel of what you're doing here.. very inspirational doc! Cant wait to try this.. 😎 Have a great week and hope the tooths feeling better 👍🙏🕊️✨
Hello Bobby!....your video is very very interesting!!!.. stacking voices in this way sounds good and as you say, it should be accompanied by a good chord progression, especially minor chords or passing chords. A technique that reminds me of Phil Spector and his wall of sound or the production style of Alan Parsons or David Mutt Lange... But Lynne created his signature along with his own style and listening to your tracks it is impossible not to remember "I'm alive", "All over the world" to name a few, and not to forget that Jeff did all the vocals on the album "Balance of Power", and also to have everyone singing for the wonderful Traveling Wilburys backing vocals! Congratutions for your tracks with the Lynne style ...well done! Greetings from Chile!
Great breakdown, thank you. It's subjective of course, but in my opinion most of these vocals didn't need tuning at all, you did a great job. The only part that actually sounded too far out of tune to me was 11:40, which you already acknowledged was simply out of your range and couldn't be helped. Personally I think the whole thing would sound perfectly great with almost no tuning at all. Kudos to you for the writing - the arrangement and harmonies are spot on. I grew up in the 1970s and I love those old ELO songs :)
Hey. Wouldn't it be fab of you did a video on these and other chord changes! What are the chord changes? How do you squeeze a 4th part into your background vocals? Thank you. This was an excellent video!
Thanks Kenny. My advice would be to do what I did. Spend a lot of time listening to Queen, ELO, Jellyfish, Crowded House, old Elton John, Wings, etc. These artists we always stretching the harmonic content and writing interesting chord changes with easy melodies on top. Not necessarily easy to sing but easy on the ear. I would also include EWF, and Steely Dan on that list. More jazz type chords but within pop and pop/rock songs. Spending time with those bands allowed my ear to hear things the way they did and expand my chordal vocabulary. It’s really not that difficult. Just listen and listen and listen!
They sound like awesome tunes and vocals, Doc. I was a bit dismayed that you only touched on actual harmony at the end. It’s nice to know about panning, mono, tuned vs. untuned, etc. But what are the actual elements of the Jeff Lynn sound? You seemed to nail it quite well. You have some cool oblique vocal parts, some breathy vocal sounds, and some interesting slides/smearing. I’d love to hear you break down the actual parts, how you arrived at them, and their relationship to the underlying chords. Speaking of mono, one of my favorite songs of all time (not just doo wop/harmony, but among the best records *ever*)- The Flamingos “I Only have Eyes for You.” Individually, a lot of parts that are theoretically “wrong.” But the delivery, the room, the echo chamber reverb, the interesting harmonics that arise from a well-done mono mix; it all comes together to make a jaw dropper. Imho, in any event.
Those vocal harmonies and arrangements definitely capture the vibe of that style, and some of the lyrics are amusing. Where can the full song be heard?
I was literally waiting for this topic to be covered. Thanks dr Bob. I would appreciate some hints from the music theory side. Is there particular scheme which notes to use?
I experiment with all types of notes and stacked in different configurations. This type of music doesn’t really have a standard type blocking of notes. Just be patient, and enjoy the process of experimenting. It’s a lot of singing and trial and error until it sounds right to your ear. Have fun with it!
Hey Drew. I don’t have a set group of intervals and here is why… I may try 2 or 3 different stacks and experiment which one sounds the best for the song and for my particular voice. We could both sing the same parts and you may sound great but I don’t. Many people don’t understand that just because you’ve stacked a bunch of harmonies on a part doesn’t mean it’s the best sounding stack. Experiment different intervals with your particular voice and your ear will tell you what sounds best.
Excellent love doing vocal stacks ,has to be my favorite parking of the recording process .Killer job Doc. !!! Do write and record a new song every week ?
Thanks I appreciate it. I usually wrote several songs a week. Most are not anywhere near this complex and are for or with other artists. This happens to be my own project so I can be as over indulgent as I want! Haha
Hey Bobby, great stuff as always. Can’t wait to give this a go. If you don’t mind me asking, what plugin were you using to tune that really high vocal. Cheers 🥂
This is so cool, I love your tune and production. I was under the impression Queen and ELO used a lot of compression (Billy Joel too, especially on My Life backgrounds), do you feel that is the case?
In general I just kind of try what I think sounds good. I experiment a lot and also with some notes that run in a cool way. Lots of things don’t quite work but I stay patient with the process.
Such an honest, big-picture thought to mention the harmonic nature of the chord changes will permit that type of sound, rather than just a production technique. For fun: how do you deal with the plosives, and how would they have dealt with them back before RX? MB compression and good mic technique?
I love the breakdown of the vocals. If you don’t mind me asking when you recorded the untuned vocals, did you just turn down the speed of the vocals by a few milliseconds. Cheers.
You sounded like The Offspring on the raw tracks. I just gotta figure out this noise thing when I use that many tracks. Sure you are just adding noisy plugins to busses. Who knew music (drums) would be a lifelong commitment.
Thanks. As a said in the video this is very raw and just a look at how I’m making my way through a ton of complex vocals. Nothing has been eq’d, compressed, mixed, and no FX yet. Thanks for watching Mars!
Damn! Wow! This music hit me right between the eyes. Vocals are exquisite, and the music is FAT! I’ve loved Jeff Lynne’s music for years and this is like his glory days have never faded. 😊 Love it!
And go ahead and laugh 🤪 but I loved ABBA’s recordings as well. Benny and Bjorn’s techniques/ideas were really something-and those delicious female vocals…YUM!! (And soooo nice to look at 🥰
Kudos on your work and attention to detail on vocal stacks. 100% with you on the impact of panning. I've been recording 'record-correct' covers of some of my favorite artist's tracks for a while now and panning is a major part of getting this right...especially with background vocals.
Great comments!!! Totally agree!!!
This came in my feed watching ELO's live show '78. This is my kind of stuff - stacked vocals! Love it! Thanks for breaking this down and showing how all the greats made this happen. Child of the 70s/80s myself, what a time to grow up with those rich sounds. Now in the 2020s, what a time when we now have it in our hands to make those same rich sounds. Thanks for putting this up!
Wow thanks! Yes we are extremely fortunate that this type of music was the soundtrack to our younger years!
Excellent analysis of Jeff Lynne's work.
Thanks Joel!
Jeff is a genius. Vocally and musically.
Agreed Charles.
Wow!!!! Jeff Lynne meets Queen! Very impressive ochestral choir parts! The high pitched almost sound like trumpets. Awesome!
Thanks Henry! Def some Queen in there too!
Daaaamn Bobby! WOW, what a ridiculously dense project that looked like! Good on ya for taking that on! Cool topic this one Bobby thx for the video man!
Great video 👍🏻. I would imagine you're likely a fan of the band Jellyfish who were also great at stacked harmonies, which some of this tune reminded me of. And the mention about more interesting chord changes is right on the money, very valuable discussion.
Absolutely!!!!! Spilt Milk is to DIE FOR!!
@@BobbyHuffThe “Lickerish Quartet” project that Roger, Eric & Tim did more recently is brilliant too.
@@MrGuitarmikegyes!! I’ve listened to a lot of the off-shoot projects from the jellyfish guys. There was also a guy from Nashville called Owsley. His first record was great. It has a song on it called Coming Up Roses. Fantastic!
@@BobbyHuffThere is no arguing this point. It is a mathematical certainty.
Roy Thomas Baker vocal stacking:
8 hard left
8 hard right
8 center
8 half way left - out of phase
8 half way right - out of phase
(Out of phase vocals cancel the bottom mud)
Voila!!
Queen & Cars BGVs.
Love it!!! Huge fan of Roy!! That would be a LOT of bouncing considering they only had 24 tracks.
Ya man, I saw an interview with Brian May and he mentioned that they did so many takes, the oxide would be falling off the tape. Also, I believe they would dump a stereo mix to another 2-inch, do all the vocal work, mix the vocals to a 1/4 inch, then fly the stereo stacked vocals back onto the original master 2-inch with multiple tries making sure they nailed it. They would be two generations down, but with full bodied vocal stacks the tape hiss would be hardly noticeable, and have, of course, all that juicy saturation!
Wow Bob, they sound great! Another Dr. Bob gem. Another great teaching for the Dr. Bob University curriculum. Thank you!
Thanks Tim!!
Dr Bob's got a magic XLR cable: one jack is in 2024 and the other jack's in 1976.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Man those lyrics..... are freaking brilliant!
Hahaha! Thanks I appreciate it.
Super cool, thanks Bobby! Would be amazing if you would consider a video about how to EQ, compress, and add effects to get that finished sound.
Great idea! I will!
Fantastic. Your last example sounds just like lesser known prog group Magellan. Awesome.
I just went and listened to a few of their songs. UNBELIEVABLE!!! I can’t believe I’ve never heard of them. Thanks for the recommendation!!!!
Tons of work here, Dr 💙💛
Agreed! There is no quick way around this. Might as well just enjoy it and stay patient. All of my heroes are patient!
Outstanding! Some of your best work yet.
Wow, thanks!
love this. would love to see you do something similar with 10cc's style!
Noted!
I'm looking forward to the finished product of this one! Nice Work!
You and me both! Hahaha! A TON of singing!
Good that you bounced the main track as I see the tape going transparent here!!
Hahahaha!! I had to bake my computer…
Great stuff as always, Bob! Would love it if you were to dive into the ELO process some more some time. Btw, I'm gonna see them live in a couple weeks and I'm STOKED!
Wow! Enjoy the show!!!!
Very cool Jeff Lynne vocal sound thanks so much.
Thanks for listening
Awesome! One thing both Lynne and Queen embraced, were the 7th and augmented chords, of course, which is a big part of the sound. And while we're in that neighborhood, let's not forget Yes.
Totally agree!!!
You use autotune to lock in the vocals and get the sound, but I think Jeff used a couple of vocoders and was simply able to lock-in with his own voice. There was a very old BBC documentary in the early 1990s that showed his recording techniques in his massive house. The guy has an ear for sound and is constantly analysing ..there is a lot to learn from the guy.
Absolutely!!! Yes they did use vocoders in a really cool way.
Love it. Wow, you really nailed the sound. Somebody loaned me an 8-track ELO tape in 1978 and I was sold. :)
They are amazing!
It was really hard work, with all those vocal harmony, you dd a great job.
Thanks a lot! It’s a LOT of work but super fun to hear it materialize into what I had hoped for.
Please tell us more about those chord progressions! Great work!!!
Hey. I listened to a lot of pop or pop rock in my youth that had more complex chord changes. Queen, ELO, Steely Dan, Gino Vannelli, EWF, Etc. When I write stuff for my own project it tends to graviate to these kinds of chord changes that I just find a bit more interesting. Spend some time with these bands and you will hear the difference and you will start to incorporate these types of chords in your music.
I’d also include Elton John, Jellyfish, Wings, Crowded House, and some Beatles to that list.
@@BobbyHuff Thank you very much, good tip!
We're not worthy!! 😮
That's fantastic work.
Thanks so much girl!
Another great video, thanks Bobby. Really interesting and informative.
Glad you enjoyed it
Great work
Thanks for watching!
Gotta watch till the end for that quip! Cracked me up how familiar that chuckle was when you found that untuned vox note lol.. been there! 😂
Love the retro feel of what you're doing here.. very inspirational doc! Cant wait to try this.. 😎 Have a great week and hope the tooths feeling better 👍🙏🕊️✨
Thanks Owl!! Missed that tuning note didn’t I!!! Haha
Great video. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Sounds really good. Almost a vocoder effect.
Yes agreed!!! ELO used those!
Thanks for the post! 😎👍
You bet
Very cool dude ;-)
Thanks for the visit
@@BobbyHuff No worries....you got some awesome content ;-)
I requested this! Thank you!
Hope you like it!
Hello Bobby!....your video is very very interesting!!!.. stacking voices in this way sounds good and as you say, it should be accompanied by a good chord progression, especially minor chords or passing chords.
A technique that reminds me of Phil Spector and his wall of sound or the production style of Alan Parsons or David Mutt Lange...
But Lynne created his signature along with his own style and listening to your tracks it is impossible not to remember "I'm alive", "All over the world" to name a few, and not to forget that Jeff did all the vocals on the album "Balance of Power", and also to have everyone singing for the wonderful Traveling Wilburys backing vocals!
Congratutions for your tracks with the Lynne style ...well done!
Greetings from Chile!
Thanks for the kind comments! Greetings of Hendersonville Tennessee!
Excellent video. A lot to take in.
Glad you liked it!
Great breakdown, thank you. It's subjective of course, but in my opinion most of these vocals didn't need tuning at all, you did a great job. The only part that actually sounded too far out of tune to me was 11:40, which you already acknowledged was simply out of your range and couldn't be helped. Personally I think the whole thing would sound perfectly great with almost no tuning at all. Kudos to you for the writing - the arrangement and harmonies are spot on. I grew up in the 1970s and I love those old ELO songs :)
Thanks a lot. I love all kinds of music but for doing my own thing I lean towards the sound of radio in the late 60's, 70's, and a touch of 80s.
Really appreciate your videos. Thank you.
Glad you like them!
Hey Bob, that's great!
Thanks Dave!
Hey. Wouldn't it be fab of you did a video on these and other chord changes! What are the chord changes? How do you squeeze a 4th part into your background vocals? Thank you. This was an excellent video!
Thanks Kenny. My advice would be to do what I did. Spend a lot of time listening to Queen, ELO, Jellyfish, Crowded House, old Elton John, Wings, etc. These artists we always stretching the harmonic content and writing interesting chord changes with easy melodies on top. Not necessarily easy to sing but easy on the ear. I would also include EWF, and Steely Dan on that list. More jazz type chords but within pop and pop/rock songs. Spending time with those bands allowed my ear to hear things the way they did and expand my chordal vocabulary. It’s really not that difficult. Just listen and listen and listen!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOB!!!! Nice job as always! Thanks my friend!!
Thanks a lot JAAAAAAAAVVV!
Nice work !!!
Thanks for watching!!
Freaking amazing man
Panning, whether a little or a lot, is a universally under-utilized function. Staging baby, you've got to have proper staging!
Another great video.
Thanks Paul!
And it all goes away listening in mono, which most devices nowadays are
They sound like awesome tunes and vocals, Doc. I was a bit dismayed that you only touched on actual harmony at the end. It’s nice to know about panning, mono, tuned vs. untuned, etc. But what are the actual elements of the Jeff Lynn sound? You seemed to nail it quite well. You have some cool oblique vocal parts, some breathy vocal sounds, and some interesting slides/smearing. I’d love to hear you break down the actual parts, how you arrived at them, and their relationship to the underlying chords.
Speaking of mono, one of my favorite songs of all time (not just doo wop/harmony, but among the best records *ever*)- The Flamingos “I Only have Eyes for You.” Individually, a lot of parts that are theoretically “wrong.” But the delivery, the room, the echo chamber reverb, the interesting harmonics that arise from a well-done mono mix; it all comes together to make a jaw dropper. Imho, in any event.
Those vocal harmonies and arrangements definitely capture the vibe of that style, and some of the lyrics are amusing. Where can the full song be heard?
Thanks Wayne. I will be releasing my solo stuff soon called Light Zoo. I will let everyone on the channel know.
I was literally waiting for this topic to be covered. Thanks dr Bob. I would appreciate some hints from the music theory side. Is there particular scheme which notes to use?
I experiment with all types of notes and stacked in different configurations. This type of music doesn’t really have a standard type blocking of notes. Just be patient, and enjoy the process of experimenting. It’s a lot of singing and trial and error until it sounds right to your ear. Have fun with it!
3:43 Nice Turn Around, bright eyes! 😉
Haha! I don’t know what that means??
@@BobbyHuff Check out Total eclipse of the heart. Great vid btw!
Great stuff. What are the harmony intervals please? Both in this example and generally, Dr??
Hey Drew. I don’t have a set group of intervals and here is why…
I may try 2 or 3 different stacks and experiment which one sounds the best for the song and for my particular voice. We could both sing the same parts and you may sound great but I don’t. Many people don’t understand that just because you’ve stacked a bunch of harmonies on a part doesn’t mean it’s the best sounding stack. Experiment different intervals with your particular voice and your ear will tell you what sounds best.
Absolutely awesome! Can you imagine how many hours they spent bouncing all those tracks? Tape was probably smoking by the time they were done.
Totally agree. We have it easy!
A++
Thanks!
Excellent love doing vocal stacks ,has to be my favorite parking of the recording process .Killer job Doc. !!! Do write and record a new song every week ?
Thanks I appreciate it. I usually wrote several songs a week. Most are not anywhere near this complex and are for or with other artists. This happens to be my own project so I can be as over indulgent as I want! Haha
@@BobbyHuff God bless you , you’re a hard workin man. I wish i was that productive .
Hey Bobby, great stuff as always. Can’t wait to give this a go. If you don’t mind me asking, what plugin were you using to tune that really high vocal. Cheers 🥂
Hey thanks man! It was the tuner inside of Cubase that basically emulates Melodyne.
First. Man these sound great!
Thanks Scott!
This is so cool, I love your tune and production. I was under the impression Queen and ELO used a lot of compression (Billy Joel too, especially on My Life backgrounds), do you feel that is the case?
Very nice! I may have missed it but what is your approach to the harmonies for the stacked parts. Are you using thirds, fifths or something else?
In general I just kind of try what I think sounds good. I experiment a lot and also with some notes that run in a cool way. Lots of things don’t quite work but I stay patient with the process.
Such an honest, big-picture thought to mention the harmonic nature of the chord changes will permit that type of sound, rather than just a production technique.
For fun: how do you deal with the plosives, and how would they have dealt with them back before RX? MB compression and good mic technique?
Thanks Daniel! Great comments.
Have you released that first track? The one that starts at 1:33…That’s something I’d like to actually listen to in full. Sounds awesome.
Thanks! Not yet but I will be releasing this stuff soon and will let everyone know!
I love the breakdown of the vocals. If you don’t mind me asking when you recorded the untuned vocals, did you just turn down the speed of the vocals by a few milliseconds. Cheers.
Nice! I would like to hear this whole song. Where can I listen?
Soon all of these will be released! Thanks for inquiring!
You sounded like The Offspring on the raw tracks. I just gotta figure out this noise thing when I use that many tracks. Sure you are just adding noisy plugins to busses. Who knew music (drums) would be a lifelong commitment.
Wow, if you’re using waves plug-ins, make turn the 50 and 60 hz buttons off. They make a lot of noise.
I'm hearing some Queen
Nice video. Can’t pick out a lot of the lyrics though
Thanks. As a said in the video this is very raw and just a look at how I’m making my way through a ton of complex vocals. Nothing has been eq’d, compressed, mixed, and no FX yet. Thanks for watching Mars!