Vocal Effects on 'Fine Time'

Can anyone tell me what devices Bernard Sumner uses to make his voice go all deep in 'Fine Time'?

Thanks James

Boss VT-1 vocal transformer I would think.

Either that or singing lessons from Barry White.

I'm going to say it was done using varispeed on the multitrack deck. If you speed up the music, record the vocal as normal, when you slow the tape back down, you'll have a slow, pitched down vocal withe the music playing back properly. Varispeed was and still is a common studio "trick"... less so with digital audio but still possible. You can achieve similar effects with a pitch shifter, but it doesn't sound quite as smooth. anyhoo... that's my best guess without being there.

Bentley wrote: I'm going to say it was done using varispeed on the multitrack deck. If you speed up the music, record the vocal as normal, when you slow the tape back down, you'll have a slow, pitched down vocal withe the music playing back properly. Varispeed was and still is a common studio "trick"... less so with digital audio but still possible. You can achieve similar effects with a pitch shifter, but it doesn't sound quite as smooth. anyhoo... that's my best guess without being there.

But surely if you speed the music up, you'd have to speed the vocals up to keep up? Or am I being a complete thicko?

When the entire multi-track is sped up, you can record on an additional track against the faster music(faster playback=higher pitch). If you record a passage at this time is for example, a spoken phrase at normal pitch, when you slow the deck back down, the music will be back to normal but the recorded spoken voice will be deeper in pitch. I wish I could come up with a better explaination but am laid up in bed with an injury and my mental clarity is effected by the pain medications. ;)

Lots of cool varispeed and pitch tricks around...

NO Regret wrote: But surely if you speed the music up, you'd have to speed the vocals up to keep up? Or am I being a complete thicko?

yes,yes, thats it. :cracker jack:

Bentley wrote: I'm going to say it was done using varispeed on the multitrack deck. If you speed up the music, record the vocal as normal, when you slow the tape back down, you'll have a slow, pitched down vocal withe the music playing back properly. Varispeed was and still is a common studio "trick"... less so with digital audio but still possible. You can achieve similar effects with a pitch shifter, but it doesn't sound quite as smooth. anyhoo... that's my best guess without being there.

Well we know that with Ian....

how about when they did Fine Time live? Just taped vocal? Or a harmoniser like they used to use with Ian?

Live it'd either be taped or with a harmonizer I'd suspect. I'd almost go with taped(sampled) since Fine Time is sequencer driven but that's also mean he's be miming the part. My thought on the varispeed is that the sound on the album is so smooth is sounds less like a harmonizer. Just speculation on my part.

fookit it's oldmonkey again wrote:

Bentley wrote: I'm going to say it was done using varispeed on the multitrack deck. If you speed up the music, record the vocal as normal, when you slow the tape back down, you'll have a slow, pitched down vocal withe the music playing back properly. Varispeed was and still is a common studio "trick"... less so with digital audio but still possible. You can achieve similar effects with a pitch shifter, but it doesn't sound quite as smooth. anyhoo... that's my best guess without being there.

Well we know that with Ian....

how about when they did Fine Time live? Just taped vocal? Or a harmoniser like they used to use with Ian?

I'm with Bentley

A good example of fecking about with the speeds is "is it luck" by Primus.