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I've always had a special love of vocal harmony, and over the years I've been consistently amazed at the way vocal expertise has developed exponentially. It's reached the point where it's hard to get my head around the sheer technical and musical brilliance of what I'm hearing. I've been listening to a sublime tribute arrangement and performance of 'Lady be Good' by the New York Voices, adapted from Ella Fitzgerald's original recording.

Question: At about 1:52 into the track they have blended Ella herself doing her famous scat solo into the recording. Since Ella's original track was created well before multi-track recording was even thought of, how did they do it? You can compare the two tracks via the following links. Please don't download them, as their purpose is purely academic, not to infringe copyright.

*** LINKS DELETED ***

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.


Cheers,

Geoff

I'm sorry, but if what you posted is copyrighted I'm nervous about allowing the links when all that stands between them and a download is "please don't." If you had it on a player perhaps that wasn't so easily downloadable it wouldn't bother me.

Sorry James, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I'll see what I can do about organizing a player. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in contributing to this thread, PM me.

Cheers,

Geoff

Well, I listened before James took the links away (man, am I quick on the draw), and sounds to me like all they're doing is playing on top of the old track. Ella is far and away the loudest thing on the old recording except for the brass, who can clearly be heard in the NYV track. The new rhythm section is just covering up the old one.

Since you're a fan of this stuff Geoff I'm sure you know these guys, but others might be interested to hear the Hi-Lo's.......

http://www.singers.com/jazz/hi-los.html

with arrangements by the incomparable Gene Puerling, who later formed Singers Unlimited.......

http://www.singers.com/jazz/singersunlimited.html

It's great stuff, isnt it?

Gavin
PS Welcome back James. You dont give up easily, do you?

Hi Gavin,

I wondered if they may have matched the sounds and feel of the band in the Ella version and used those sounds as a baseline for the NYV recording. If the instrumental match was spot on, they could have edited in the Ella recording for the duration of the solo. I also wondered if they may have got hold of something like an echo tape, or a mono safety copy of the vocal from somewhere, until I realized that the brass on the Ella recording has a different reverb sound to the NYV. However they did it, the result is bloody wonderful, and I'm in awe of the skill levels they've achieved.


Cheers,

Geoff

chamelion wrote: I wondered if they may have matched the sounds and feel of the band in the Ella version and used those sounds as a baseline for the NYV recording. If the instrumental match was spot on, they could have edited in the Ella recording for the duration of the solo. I also wondered if they may have got hold of something like an echo tape, or a mono safety copy of the vocal from somewhere, until I realized that the brass on the Ella recording has a different reverb sound to the NYV. However they did it, the result is bloody wonderful, and I'm in awe of the skill levels they've achieved.

I dont think they could possibly match the sound Geoff, to the point where you wouldnt hear an edit. Think of all the variables...mikes, (well, on the old recording, mike, probably ) rooms, players, instruments.....yoikes! I think they just laid Ella's track in underneath theirs.

Any difference we hear (and I did hear it too) is probably due to time stretching (the Ella recording is a good bit faster, no?), eq-ing the old rhythm section out to whatever extent possible, another layer of compression, all that stuff, wouldn't you think?

Gavin

Strangely enough at Brigham Young University in the '70s, scientists took an old recording, some old famous singer from Rudolph Valentino times, and separated the voice from the track with extreme digital processing. It was never duplicated again and is rarely known. They did offer downloads in the late '80s once I remember.

When I searched the archives I didn't even find it. Anyway, it can be done.

gavspen wrote:
Since you're a fan of this stuff Geoff I'm sure you know these guys, but others might be interested to hear the Hi-Lo's.......

http://www.singers.com/jazz/hi-los.html

It's great stuff, isnt it?

Yeah Man!
I was raised on The Hi-Lo's music, as my Dad was a huge fan of theirs.

Tim wrote:Yeah Man!
I was raised on The Hi-Lo's music, as my Dad was a huge fan of theirs.

Hi-Los They used to scare me...

I remember a bit of it from university... It seemed so hard to master. I would have to get back to it seriously....