70's vocal sound.

[Ausrock]

OK Master................er.... I'm mean Rick, why specifically David Essex's "Rock On"...........I mean, why is it a stand out from countless other recordings?

[rick]

you know "rock on" was the first non zepplin track to come to mind or could have said trex or bowie or whatever, but nobody ever talks about rock on , its a classic, way over treated vocally and could have only happened in the seventies . before digital delays. btw it was 16 track and done really quickly

besides what if i had of said "bowie heroes" , then we would have needed a studio with the glass window overlooking the ocean with cracks in the glass window and a huge storm coming in from the coast of africa we would need to have the vocallist shitty for several weeks and then we would need to record his vocals from a room mic ten feet away in the chorus parts , of course in the height of the storm we would need the vocalist to really hit his career peak then we would be making something , might not be bowie but it sure would be something:)

check any rock history book
bowie was the seventies but hell thats sooooo.... covered ground

so david essex ...reports ...?

[Ausrock]

Hmmmmm............must get out Bowie's Pinups, vinyl of course........it's been too long since I've played it.

[Kris]

Vinyl Shmynl.

I can have the whole album on my laptop in 40 seconds from itunes.

ok,ok.... just stirring.

[rick]

you know for a guy looking for 70s studio vocal tricks , i thought "rock on" would have given so many away things to play with that we would have a dozen more responses.

there is nothing on "rock on" that even remotely resembles a "chord" - its a single note only one track at a time 16 trk recording
( you try that , i have its really hard !)
you have mci varisped tape machines doing tape loops and slap back echoes all over the place so the vocal is one pitch but the delays are a different pitch, massive 176 universal audio limiting on the vocals and neve limiting on the delays , herbie flowers playing bass " yes it IS a bass guitar" and david essex playing a upside down garbage can for the percussion loops .
no drums , no keys , no guitars, just a studio a bunch of tape loops and studio tricks and a massivily compressed ie ( squished) vocal track singing a melody ( of sorts...)


still sounds perfect on the radio , so to get back to the original thread

70s vocal in this case = much compression + tape delays ( and in this case varisped echoes )

[jkhuri44]

rock on doth soundeth awesomo!

but a very different 70's sound to the one i was looking for..

its really upclose, in your face, smooth, and bassy without being boomy

and its fun on headphones!!

hehe

[chris p]

Slightly off topic, but Essex also did City Lights, which had a reasonable hook, but apart from that, the other hit was the forgettable "We're gonna make u a star", wan't it? He also played Cavalry man in the original Wayne WotW as I recall.

[TimS]

He also played Cavalry man in the original Wayne WotW as I recall.

Absolutely right..
Big WOTW fan here..

Herbie Flowers also played bass on WOTW as well ;)

[heathen]

Slap back delays and plate or spring reverbs always come to mind when listening to the old stuff,

Rock on is a very refined example of these techniques. Where as the older Elvis stuff the effects are more often than not way overdone and not very refined, but ya gotta start somewhere.

The doors LA Woman always just throws me straight back to the 70's in my mind, instantaneously like a time machine.

[Henry]

I recorded the making of Imagine album off abc2 a few weeks ago. A U67 I believe, not sure what the desk was? Anyone know? Don't get more 70's than that. Phil Spector producing, I must say the Album sounds great to me.

[rick]

i have not seen the show ,but there is a console hawked about the vintage audio circles from time to time known as the lennon / IMAGINE board
i am pretty sure its a 500 series MCI

[mfdu]

a 500 series MCI? dang. that's what mixmasters had a while back - a 16 channel 4bus. mmmm. i was sooo close, too. i mean, i like my TAC, but it's only a fill-in until i can step up.

chris
mfdu