Any idea who was the male lead singer?

This must be one of the earliest and best x-over records to be played.

Ed

Any idea who was the male lead singer?

This must be one of the earliest and best x-over records to be played.

Ed

Richard 'popcorn' Wylie and Tony Hestor wrote it, i always assumed it was Popcorn Wylie on vocals..?

Edited August 1, 200619 yr by Matt Male

Popcorn and his daughters

What you on about, crossover??? You can't get much more northern than that.

I asked a question recently about this and the other Popcorn Wylie productions of the time - who was the drummer? On Sister Lee, Down In The Dumps etc. I now think, after watching Standing In The Shadows again at the weekend, that it's Richard Pistol Allen doing a bit of moonlighting.

Must be the same guy (Popcorn) on the spoken intro to "Mighty lover" by the Mighty lovers, that shares the same backing track.

Must be the same guy (Popcorn) on the spoken intro to "Mighty lover" by the Mighty lovers, that shares the same backing track.

But thats a deep bass voice isn't it, I don't think it's Popcorn

But thats a deep bass voice isn't it, I don't think it's Popcorn

Dunno, Tony says it's popcorn and his daughters on cool off, which sounds to me like the same guy.

Both deep bass voices, and in the same sort of vocal style.

The guy has a deep voice, whoever he is, but it's not THAT deep! No-one is. Have a careful listen and you can hear that the vocal was slowed mechanically. In other words, you record the track, play it back at a slightly faster speed to record the vocals, then you master the disc at the correct tempo and the voice is magicly deeper. It was a common technique in the 60's, but usually employed in reverse, that is the vocal was recorded at a slower tempo and key, then speeded back up to the correct pitch. It was an analogue form of pitch shifting if you like.

Never forget hearing that one on the great sound system at Blackpool Mecca. And it's right, you can't get more Northern.

Now pass me a bottle of coke...

PS Once called my girlfriend a "fine foxy thing". She's still laughing now!

Edited August 1, 200619 yr by Dayo

The guy has a deep voice, whoever he is, but it's not THAT deep! No-one is. Have a careful listen and you can hear that the vocal was slowed mechanically. In other words, you record the track, play it back at a slightly faster speed to record the vocals, then you master the disc at the correct tempo and the voice is magicly deeper. It was a common technique in the 60's, but usually employed in reverse, that is the vocal was recorded at a slower tempo and key, then speeded back up to the correct pitch. It was an analogue form of pitch shifting if you like.

Never forget hearing that one on the great sound system at Blackpool Mecca. And it's right, you can't get more Northern.

Now pass me a bottle of coke...

PS Once called my girlfriend a "fine foxy thing". She's still laughing now!

you got off lightly, i said to your girlfriend, "hey, you over there, will you get me a drink of ... pop" and she twatted me!!!!!

quote name='Dayo' post='324931' date='Aug 1 2006, 05:53 PM'] The guy has a deep voice, whoever he is, but it's not THAT deep! No-one is. Have a careful listen and you can hear that the vocal was slowed mechanically. In other words, you record the track, play it back at a slightly faster speed to record the vocals, then you master the disc at the correct tempo and the voice is magicly deeper. It was a common technique in the 60's, but usually employed in reverse, that is the vocal was recorded at a slower tempo and key, then speeded back up to the correct pitch. It was an analogue form of pitch shifting if you like.

Never forget hearing that one on the great sound system at Blackpool Mecca. And it's right, you can't get more Northern.

Now pass me a bottle of coke...

PS Once called my girlfriend a "fine foxy thing". She's still laughing now!

Edited August 1, 200619 yr by jasonion

The guy has a deep voice, whoever he is, but it's not THAT deep! No-one is. Have a careful listen and you can hear that the vocal was slowed mechanically. In other words, you record the track, play it back at a slightly faster speed to record the vocals, then you master the disc at the correct tempo and the voice is magicly deeper. It was a common technique in the 60's, but usually employed in reverse, that is the vocal was recorded at a slower tempo and key, then speeded back up to the correct pitch. It was an analogue form of pitch shifting if you like.

Is this what was known as "compressing"? I've heard the term used when say the bass needed a boost when all you had was a four track,or is that something else entirely?

So speeding it up should give you..

Great idea. Probably somewhere in between, but yes, that's how it was done. Sounds more like a real human at any rate! Thanks for that

I'll try a little experiment with compression and post a couple of soundfiles - maybe later today if I get time.

DelTee asked what compression was. I'll try and make it simple. Many people think of compression when they convert a wav file to an mp3, you compress it to a smaller more manageable sized file.

When sound engineers talk about compresion they mean something else entirely. A compressor or limiter in the studio refers to a box of tricks (or software these days) that acts as an automatic volume leveller.

There is only so much volume you can record onto any medium before you run out of headroom and get distortion - a ceiling if you like. What a compressor does is looks at the peaks or spikes in volume and squashes them down lower. After that's done, you can turn the whole thing up and it sounds louder. In other words, there is now less difference in volume between the loudest parts and the softest parts.

Individual instruments like a bass guitar, or vocal, can be compressed, and so can complete mixes. The result is a louder, punchier performance under the same ceiling. This is one reason why your favourite records never sound quite the same on the radio as they do at home. Radio stations all employ massive compression in the signal path to reduce the dynamic range of their output and make them sound loud on the dial.

I'll try and show you what I mean. I'm posting two soundfiles. It's the same track by the Fascinations. It's come from the master tape and I'd bet a pound to a penny this version (take8) was never mastered or compressed. It's great but sounds kinda loose.

I've taken the same track and compressed it, admitedly in a rather crude way, but trying to emulate analogue compressors of 60's.

The compressed one sounds louder - right? And tighter, and perhaps more punchy? Have I just turned up the volume? No. It's the compressor that's squashed the louder bits, allowing me to turn the gain on the whole thing up. A touch of plate reverb and it'd be ready to cut to disc.

Hope that all makes sense!

Fascinations_NOT_compressed.mp3

Fascinations_with_compression.mp3

Edited August 3, 200619 yr by Dayo

Thanks for that Dayo

Any idea who was the male lead singer?

This must be one of the earliest and best x-over records to be played.

Ed

Hi All,

Some will already have this info but here is the post from another forum from the sister of John Lucas.

She says...:

"I have talked to Richard Popcorn Wylie about the Mighty Lover song, and he agreed that it was indeed The Mighty Lovers group (Popcorn gave them that name.), who recorded that song. It was later, that the same cut was re-issued under the name of the Ideals. I can definitely say that the voice of the bass singer on both the Ideals and the Mighty Lovers is John (Luke) Lucas, and the lead singer on both the Ideals and the Mighty Lovers is in fact none other than Lloyd Robinson".

Kinda from the horses mouth type thing. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dave

www.theresthatbeat.com

www.hitsvillesoulclub.com