Overdubbing, Proof that technology cannot improve the performance, but it can enhance the memory. | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Once again I am heading out to Chattanooga for Thanksgiving with my brother and my family. This year will not be much different from past years with the exception that many of the family members are no longer here in except in spirit. I suspect we will still sing a few songs and reminisce about the old days. We will also hopefully be extending the musical family tradition to another generation with the sixteen month old grandson and a new addition that is expected in January 2017. Memories are nothing more than an overdub of the past with a twist of bittersweet whimsy. - Bobby Tony

    Once again, I find out I was a better sound engineer than a musician and singing talent. Garbage in Garbage out (GIGO) is still alive and well in my living room makeshift recording studio.

    If you have your own recording studio, you can spend hours experimenting and over dubbing yourself with background vocals, instruments and harmony. One of the early originators of overdubbing was Les Paul in the 1930's. The picture to the right is of Les in his home studio with his array of equipment. In the 1950's with the availability of less expensive reel to reel stereo tape recorders allowed the average amateur to record with overdubbing.

   Les Paul invented Sound on Sound recording using this machine by placing an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording. He eventually enhanced this by using one tape machine to play back the original recording and a second to record the combined track. This preserved the original recording.

Les Paul Wiki
    In the mid 1960's, I tried Les's technique. It consisted of recording multiple tracks and then assembling them into a final composition where it appeared that all the music was recorded at the same time. It could be argued that my method was also "destructive" but it was fun.

    I began to experiment with the technique for our little folk group (see that post here), which was loosely based on the Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary. None of us was accomplished musicians or singers. In an effort to increase, the tonal quality would tape the songs on a Sony two-track reel-to-reel recorder. Then I would record on another two-track recorder an accompanying harmony version with the guitar capo up one octave.

    The basic idea is to lay down a rhythm track first, then add some instrumental accompaniment and finally add the vocals to the musical tracks. It was then that I should have noticed that I was more of a technical nerd than a behind the microphone entertainer. I spent many long hours in the basement of my parent house recording and re-recording songs and tracks. The basement was a full daylight basement with the walls being concrete block. The echo of the sound off the blocks added to the slight harmonic distortion that I thought I was looking for. This picture to the right is from a Polaroid Swinger camera which I hope explains the poor quality.

    One of the main problems with overdubbing is that each time you re-record a track you lose something in quality. That is similar to the use of JPG in photography. Each time you edit a JPG there is additional compression taking place and consequently a loss of quality. Since I was limited to one tape recorder with two tracks, the procedure was to record on one track then over dub on the second track. Below is a picture of the Sony recorder that I had which indicates the state of the art at that time.



    Mixing both tracks, back to a single track provided the ability to have multiple overdubbing, which eventually would end up as a stereo two-track compilation. To do this cheaply you had to create a patch cord which could be used in the output of the recorder and spliced with a microphone into the other channel. This allowed you to sing or play with yourself. Repeated overdubbing was possible but at each level of playback, the quality diminished as mentioned above. A severe lack of talent limited my ability to actually create any meaningful recordings.

    I bought a Heathkit stereo mixer kit that allowed the mixing. I also found a used reel-to-reel tape recorder, which gave an additional two tracks to work with. I am not sure this picture is the same kit I built but it is a general representation of the layout.



    Eventually I came to realize that I need to add some blankets hanging from the ceiling to the floor to reduce the echo effect. At one time I had hours of tape and a few songs. The tapes were of course lost over the course of the years and when various groups of that era began to release their "Basement Tapes," I of course made a search for the old masters in the basement. I never found them. Suffice to say that the tapes were probably over dubbed with more important things.

    My high school buddies and I used to hold our New Year's Eve parties in hotels around Atlanta. The beauty of that was you could rent several rooms and they would rent you a suite or conference room as well. It served purpose of allowing parting without the need to drive under the influence. Those parties lasted well into the mid 1970's. We would pre-record the songs of the era in a carefully choreographed progression starting with the slow build up to the Credence Clearwater, and other fast paced songs, then ending with the Johnny Mathis to do what the booze did not do. I have a strong suspicion that that is how my "Basement Tapes" were destroyed by overdubbing Joe Cocker, Credence, Three Dog Night and others, but that is another story altogether. (Would you believe I have an article already written about the parties?)

    They say that lightning does not strike twice in the same place, but I recently bought a new Tenor guitar and decided to recreate the overdub experience using the new computer software that allows mixing multiple tracks into one masterpiece. I found out the same things that I learned fifty-one years ago in the basement.

• I have no musical talent
• Mixing and overdubbing will not improve the result of a poor performance.
• New equipment makes the process of creating junk easier.

    I currently use Gold Wave software to try and enhjance audio of the family recordings for my Grandpa's Diary digital project. Of course, the secret to any decent recording is the quality of the original recording. Like digital photography, you can fix some things after the fact and some enhancements can improve poor quality, but the axiom GIGO is still true.

    One other interesting thing was reinforced by the most recent session. I found out that one of the reasons that I was not and never will be an accomplished musician. You see to be a competent musician you must be precise and be able to repeat a string of music measures multiples times over and over. Most music other than jazz is a group musical notes and measures repeated for every verse broken by the chorus, which is a slight variation. Because I am easily bored, I find repetition of the same chords boring after two verses. I learned Arlo Guthries' Alice's Restaurant but never was able to get past the intro. That is my excuse for why I never was a contender in the music business. It might also explain why I was never a good carpenter, painter, photographer, well, I think you get the point.

    I may have discovered something that I can do that does not repeat itself. Writing is something that can flow from my mind to my fingers. I know that many of you will say that I repeat myself in the writing also, but I challenge you to find a duplicate article on BCN. There may be a few paragraphs, pictures, themes, and phrases, but not a duplicate article. I know, because I keep a spreadsheet with keywords and titles just to be sure that I don't repeat articles. Even if you do find a duplicate article I have an excuse. "Old Men Tend to Repeat Themselves."

   I know that there is a dwindling number of readers at this point wondering if I am going to post an audio of the recent studio session with myself. The answer is no. I accidentally hit the delete button and yet another milestone of my life is gone. Wait!!! I think I heard the faint sound of applause there for a second. Naw that can't be.

    Below are some of the family pictures which illustrate how music was always a part of our life. It also illustrates that you can enjoy playing music without being a professional as long as it is a labor of love. Most of the instruments are still in my brothers inventory including the xylophone which is behind me in the basement picture above. I have added another instrument this year as seen above, but Thomas Wolfe was wrong when he wrote "You Can't Go Home Again." You really can!



   Did I mention that "Old Men Tend to Repeat Themselves?"

“Child, child, have patience and belief, for life is many days, and each present hour will pass away. Son, son, you have been mad and drunken, furious and wild, filled with hatred and despair, and all the dark confusions of the soul - but so have we. You found the earth too great for your one life, you found your brain and sinew smaller than the hunger and desire that fed on them - but it has been this way with all men. You have stumbled on in darkness, you have been pulled in opposite directions, you have faltered, you have missed the way, but, child, this is the chronicle of the earth. And now, because you have known madness and despair, and because you will grow desperate again before you come to evening, we who have stormed the ramparts of the furious earth and been hurled back, we who have been maddened by the unknowable and bitter mystery of love, we who have hungered after fame and savored all of life, the tumult, pain, and frenzy, and now sit quietly by our windows watching all that henceforth never more shall touch us - we call upon you to take heart, for we can swear to you that these things pass.” ― Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again