[Frank Stearns]

Brassplyer writes:

Chicago's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" Is the basic ambience of the
lead vocal achieved largely by being in a very dead, anechoic booth?

What would you do to achieve this kind of sound?

Not sure what you're really trying to get...

This vocal is a little buried, but every so often you can hear the room tone pop
through. Sounds like an overdub in an empty studio, no baffling behind, with
ceilings a little lower than optimal -- you can hear those short-duration slaps from
surfaces not all that far away, such as the ceiling and the walls behind. (And no,
that's not the reverb; that's a little weird in and of itself.)

Long ago I read the history of the production of this album and durned if I can
remember all the details. But the band had just signed, given a producer they'd not
worked with before, and it was cut rather hastily -- IIRC; corrections/updates
encouraged.

Remember, this was done in the very early 70s; production techniques were a little
raw (which some people like). All in all not a bad album from a "new" band in that
genre.

However, to me, sonically, this album suffers; possibly not a great console (early
op amps, perhaps? 40-50 transformers in the signal path from microphone to final
mix?). Perhaps the tape machine had been poorly aligned or was an early Scully or
MCI rather than a Studer or Ampex. The spectral balance is good, but it just feels a
little "strangled" to my ear (and I do have the original, not just this Utoob
version).

If you want a dry sound, get a good microphone in a good room, with high ceilings,
deadening baffles behind the vocalist. Then you can add various delays and reverbs
in post (some perhaps quite short in duration) to get what you want.

Frank
Mobile Audio

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