Gremlins in the Machine.?

[GregT]

Hi Richard,
you told me previously that you didn't engineer "The Collection", so I guess I don't feel so bad
about mentioning something I heard on one of the tracks. "From Russia with Love"..or FRWL as I've heard it called..
one of my all time favourites...appears to have picked up a split second of mysterious "chatter" from another source
during the recording process..
When Matt sings the words "But Oh, you haunted me,so" a voice , not unlike the TV Chipmunks can be heard.
It's one of those things that doesn't worry you if you can't hear it, but now i know that it's there...you guessed it.!
You might like to have a listen to the track and let me know just what it might be, and what could have caused it.
Greg

[ROBERT M.]

Yes Greg, I have heard that noise before on FRWL

[ROBERT M.]

Hi again Greg.

If you haven't bought these two albums yet...........The Rare Monro, and............the 2on1 CD These Years/ The Late Late Show, are two of Matts finest releases and a must for any Matt fan .........indeed the Late Late Show part of the 2on1 release, is just pure Matt in his most awesome ballad mode, truly superb

[Rmoore]

Ah, Now not many people notice that one.

For this track Johnnie Spence recorded a 'Tack Piano' which is basically a piano with Tacks in it's hammers to give the piano a metallic sound almost like a Balalaika or perhaps a Dulcimer. However to give the effect of the strings being played very fast (something that cannot be done easily on a piano) the recording was made at half speed and played down an octave. When played back at the original Speed the pitch is raised and the speed doubled. This is known as 'Wound Up Piano' and a trick George Martin would use on a few occasions most notably (with a normal piano not a tack) on the Beatles In My Life. In the middle section of the song "i've seen faces....." There is no piano playing and what you can hear on the CD is George Martin saying something to Johnnie Spence - It's too indistinct to say what - which of course is now sped up and chipmonk like.

This should have been mixed out but was missed on both the Stereo and (less noticeably) Mono single versions. Other re-masters (including my own on the new Greatest) have attempted to remove this, but this would only be completely possible with the original 4 track tape (which went missing in 2006 - but that's another story) So for the time being we can only lessen it's effect.

Hope this helps!

Richard

[GregT]

Richard,
you ARE indeed 'The Man'.... I'm impressed.
Greg

P.S. Thanks Robert..your comments have also been noted