mamas and papas out of tune

[Paul L.]

Steve,

Back in the old days, on that other forum, you mentioned that the Mamas and Papas recordings were bounced way too many times, was it 8 times?!!!

I'm wondering if that's what makes their recordings sound so odd. A lot of times their voices are flat. Or when the strings come in, the instruments won't be in tune with their voices.

Is that what happened, or was it deliberate?

[Steve Hoffman]

Deliberate?

No. Not really. Just some non-professional singers that overdub a lot of parts, never doing each one the same twice.

That can cause a lot of intonation problems, compounded with the minute tape speed variations from machine to machine. Sometimes one is so close to a project one becomes deaf to the problems and only hears the good stuff....

So, they are what they are. Why they engineered it that way is Greek to me, but that's what they did.

The only other act of that era I've ever heard of that had that many bounces was Jan And Dean.

Hey, same studio....

[Uncle Al]

Michelle Phillips mentioned (I think it was on the VH-1 Behind the Music: Mama's and Papa's) that she knew she was the weak vocal link - and was actually frightened that John wanted her to sing solo at the opening of Dedicated to the One I love.

BTW - if you've never seen that program, you owe it to yourself to catch it on the bounce. What a story! I think it has enough humour, magic, love, betrayal, tragedy and pathos to support a major motion picture - all surrounded by some of the most "beautiful people" of the 60's music scene.

Well - I'd go see it anyway.

[sgraham]

To revive an old thread:

Originally posted by Paul L.
...when the strings come in, the instruments won't be in tune with their voices.

...was it deliberate?

I also noticed particularly that the strings are generally *quite* sharp. I half suspected that Lou Adler did it on purpose, since it was so consistent.

[Steve Hoffman]

No. Goofs and tape machine speed irregularities.

[David R. Modny]

There's a pretty famous story about some executive hearing the finished version of "California Dreamin'" and being appalled by how out of tune the flute solo was.

The other real biggie that *always* makes me cringe is when the backing track comes in, again, after the vocal track tag at the end of "Monday Monday". Now THAT's sharp!

[David R. Modny]

Speakin' of classic out of tune parts. How about the fingered acoustic bass at the beginning of Tim Buckley's "Buzzin' Fly"? Cringe...lol!

Great tune though!