Wall of Sound

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Would someone please explain to me how Phil Spector's Wall of Sound technique works? Thanks, Sean.

― Sean M. Hall--Western Neighborhoods Project (Piano Man), Sunday, 9 February 2003 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Lots of orchestra.

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 9 February 2003 03:09 (twenty-two years ago)

stings usually fill in any holes making it like a wall.

― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 9 February 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ohhh thanks a lot guys!

― Sean M. Hall--Western Neighborhoods Project (Piano Man), Sunday, 9 February 2003 04:44 (twenty-two years ago)

don't forget "multitracking" which is a key step in the process.

― Aaron A., Sunday, 9 February 2003 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

how?

― chaki (chaki), Sunday, 9 February 2003 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

well...having ripped it off for some commercial music this morning, I can tell you how *I* did it:

lots of reverb
tambourine
horns (and lots of bari sax)
strings
tympani
piano
tubular bells
minimal drums and bass

It came out well enough that the client thought it sounded "60s", which is supposedly what they wanted.

― dleone (dleone), Sunday, 9 February 2003 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

hey dom, is that job as cool as it sounds?

― colin mcelligatt, Sunday, 9 February 2003 06:57 (twenty-two years ago)

To do it properly you need about 20 musicians (strings, brass, bass, 3 pianos, 4 guitars, 2 drummers, 2 percussionists, maybe 4 backing singers) all playing live in a room, with loads of spill into each others mics. The main vocals were either done in a vocal booth or overdubbed after.

― doctorb, Sunday, 9 February 2003 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

You make commercial music, Dominique?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 9 February 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool? Well, it can be fun -- sometimes it's not so fun reigning in my ideas to fit into whatever it is they want. I'm not really the best pro music writer because I tend to kind of brush off what they say they want with what I want to hear. But so far, no one's called me on it.

Sundar, I guess so. I haven't done tons, but I did some for Pier 1 and two (!) different rehab clinics. First ever rehab spots with krautrock for backing music too.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 10 February 2003 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Earlier I had asked a few of Spector's colleagues from the golden years how he went about constructing the Wall of Sound. Among them was Jeff Barry, the co-writer of Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me and Be My Baby, who outlined the modus operandi.

"It was basically a formula," Barry told me. "You're going to have four or five guitars lined up, gut-string guitars, and they're going to follow the chords, nothing tricky. You're going to use two basses in fifths, with the same type of line, and strings. There would be six or seven horns, adding the little punches, and there would be the formula percussion instruments - the little bells, the shakers, the tambourines. Then Phil used his own formula for echo, and some overtone effects with the strings. But by and large there was a formula arrangement to create a formula sound."

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,888876,00.html

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 February 2003 02:30 (twenty-two years ago)

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