In 1974 10CC recorded their third album, "The Original Soundtrack".
On that album there was a song that would not only be one of the greatest songs ever recorded, it also was a production masterpiece, way ahead of its time.
The song is, of course, "I'm Not In Love" written by Eric Stewart and co-writer, Graham Gouldman.
A prominent feature of the song are those amazing, ethereal choral parts.
Since this was pre-digital times, there have been a lot of discussions and theories about how these fantastic voices were produced.
Eric Stewart, explains: "It was Lol that came up with the idea of making tape-loops, that would run endlessly. So, we spent three weeks recording three guys, just singing 'ahhhhhh', on to Strawberry Studios 16-track Studer tape machine. Each note had 16 tracks of three people singing, giving me 48 voices for each note of a chromatic scale. That's 13 notes x 48 voices which gave me 624 voices to play with in my mix"
The 16 tracks notes were then individually mixed down to 1/4 inch tapes that were then looped, from the stereo Studer machine, using mike-stands with rollers to tension tape-loops properly, and then recorded back to the 16 track, so that each note was on a separate track on the 16 track Studer Tape recorder.
Eric Continues: "The four of us then actually got around the control desk, and started to change the notes of each chord as it was changing within the song, moving the notes up and down with the faders, but while this was changing, I also had a constant background of all the 13 voice notes sizzling away just underneath the stereo mix-down. This is where the ethereal sound of 'I'm Not in Love' was developed from".
These choirs are unique. There's simply nothing else like them! The combination of voices and the way they where produced have given them a sound that's truly one of a kind.
Now, SampleTekk, in cooperation with Eric Stewart of 10CC, are very proud to announce the upcoming release of the virtual instrument, The INIL Choir, thus taking one of the most famous analogue samples into the digital era.