I need some harmony

[5thumbs]

 

[JohnW63]

Why do I hear a 12 string? The black guitar is the one.

 

[fronobulax]

Why do I hear a 12 string? The black guitar is the one.

I do too but not always. If we accept, and there is no reason not to, that the audio has not been enhanced and that all musicians are visible in the video, the answer probably lies in string choice or a non-standard tuning or a chord voicing that is not the common or expected voicing. Less likely but possible is that the guitarists deliberately made choices that gave that effect when played together.

 

[Midnight Toker]

A common old school effect combo to simulate a 12 string is a pitch shifter w/ some slap back delay. They now make pedals specifically for 12 string simulation that do both, like the Digitech Mosaic pedal. That's what I'm hearing, moreso than an actual 12.

 

[dreadnut]

Here's some fine old harmonies from Emmylou Harriss, Linda Ronstadt, and Ricky Skaggs.

 

[JohnW63]

This one is always a good harmony song.

 

[JohnW63]

This version of Yes' "Leave it" is all acapella .

 

[awagner]

Why do I hear a 12 string? The black guitar is the one.

Maybe Nashville tuning?

 

[Bernie]

Anyone can identify the two guitars played by the Indigo Girls ? They look like Martin OMs (or 000s) it seemed to me, but big markers on the fretboards usually imply OMs or OOO-40s and up (41, 42 and 45) that normally have the name in abalone inlay and capital letters, which is not the case here...

 

[Bernie]

There is this group that does a lot of CSN & Y covers which I think is good... Very close to the originals and tasty. Found them 2 days ago... www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcj9E8bb24 or www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6k_kkAlSsg . Great vocal harmonies along with excellent instruments playing...By the way, anyone would know what electric guitar is being played within 2nd video ? Gibson, but which one if that is...

 

[Midnight Toker]

Still blows my mind how these kids could NAIL their harmonies through a crap PA w/ no monitors in a auditorium full of girls at glass breaking screaming level!! Ringo says he couldn't hear any vocals whatsoever...and always went by physical cues...mostly from George.

Just otherworldly! Still madly in love with all the early Beatles stuff!! (If I had to move to a secluded island and could only take 5 Beatles records with me. they would ALL absolutely be pre Sgt Pepper!!

 

[HeyMikey]

Still blows my mind how these kids could NAIL their harmonies through a crap PA w/ no monitors in a auditorium full of girls at glass breaking screaming level!! Ringo says he couldn't hear any vocals whatsoever...and always went by physical cues...mostly from George.

Just otherworldly! Still madly in love with all the early Beatles stuff!! (If I had to move to a secluded island and could only take 5 Beatles records with me. they would ALL absolutely be pre Sgt Pepper!!

With you 100%. None better than early Beatles harmonies. So tight, yet so loose and effortless. That’s what playing hundreds upon hundreds of club gigs gets you. That and incredible talent.

 

[fronobulax]

Still blows my mind how these kids could NAIL their harmonies through a crap PA w/ no monitors in a auditorium full of girls at glass breaking screaming level!! Ringo says he couldn't hear any vocals whatsoever...and always went by physical cues...mostly from George.

Just otherworldly! Still madly in love with all the early Beatles stuff!! (If I had to move to a secluded island and could only take 5 Beatles records with me. they would ALL absolutely be pre Sgt Pepper!!

With all due respect to the folks who are going to immediately decide I have said something non-positive about the Beatles and respond defensively, what do we know about the provenance of this recording? Specifically is the audio live and unprocessed in any way or has an original recording been cleaned up and enhanced in some way? I do not doubt that the Beatles could have nailed the harmonies under adverse conditions since even I personally have gotten lucky and done that occasionally. My question is merely whether this is an unadulterated example of that?

Two examples of why I ask are because we have discovered that many of the famous performances on broadcast TV of the 60's were merely lip synching. There were some genuine live recordings and the detective work to figure out which ones are which is interesting. Several songs on Zappa recordings from the 70's sound like they are live, in concert, but the album release was sliced together from the best parts of multiple concerts. (Roxy Live and Elsewhere comes immediately to mind since I know people will react to the mention of Frank ;-) )

 

[geoguy]

Did someone mention CSNY covers?

 

[Midnight Toker]

With all due respect to the folks who are going to immediately decide I have said something non-positive about the Beatles and respond defensively, what do we know about the provenance of this recording? Specifically is the audio live and unprocessed in any way or has an original recording been cleaned up and enhanced in some way? I do not doubt that the Beatles could have nailed the harmonies under adverse conditions since even I personally have gotten lucky and done that occasionally. My question is merely whether this is an unadulterated example of that?

Two examples of why I ask are because we have discovered that many of the famous performances on broadcast TV of the 60's were merely lip synching. There were some genuine live recordings and the detective work to figure out which ones are which is interesting. Several songs on Zappa recordings from the 70's sound like they are live, in concert, but the album release was sliced together from the best parts of multiple concerts. (Roxy Live and Elsewhere comes immediately to mind since I know people will react to the mention of Frank ;-) )

In the days of "live TV", lip syncing a tv performance was commonplace for everyone. This Beatles performance is not the case. All the audio/video 100% matches up.

The original audio source has undoubtedly been enhanced, but the actual performance itself is 100% original and hasn't been tampered with. I can assure you of this. On one of my external hard drives full of live music, I have a folder containing 12gb worth of live Beatles recordings...pretty much every live Beatles recording known to exist. (and 12 GB is a LOT considering their typical early shows came in under a 1/2 hour in length!) One recording after another shows them consistently nailing their harmonies despite their hardly being able to hear themselves, much less one another. Some shows are more rushed than others, and they vary greatly in recording quality, but on the whole, they always performed very well and never had any serious flubs.

As for Zappa, it is pretty well known to fans/collectors that as soon as 16 track recorders were mobile enough to take on tour, he'd record entire tours, having his band play to a click track solely for the purpose of being able to mix and match individual tracks from various night's performances, and Frank was very open about it. IMO this in no way detracts from the legitimacy of their being authentic "performance recordings". Even Led Zeppelin's live album How The West Was Won (from Long Beach and LA 72 tour) contains a lone dubbed in organ track on the song Thank You from their Southampton University multitrack recording from 73 as the original mellotron track was way out of tune.

If you want examples of real doctored live albums, go no further than Kiss Alive, which is basically drums, some bass, and crowd noise w/ all vocals and guitar being rerecorded in a studio. Or Judias Priest' Unleashed In The East where all vocals were overdubbed in a studio. Or James Brown, where most of his live albums contain some tracks recorded entirely in studio w/ added reverb and audience noise dubbed on top.