Shadows Recording Technique

[GAJ52]

Having recently imported the UB Hank backing track 'Theme for Young Lovers' into Cubase Studio 5, I thought I would try and find out the tempo and align the bars and beats lines up with the audio file. The tempo turned out to be 130.76 BPM and all the beats lined up perfectly with the drum track.

I then thought I would try and load a Shads recording of this tune into the same project so I could compare the two. I used the recording from their Life Story album. Having lined up the first bar, the end bar was slightly longer by about half a beat so I had to shorten the file by this amount. Once completed it lined up perfectly and when played together you could hardly here a difference.

This got me thinking how the Shadows recorded their songs because it was note perfect following a one tempo. Unless Brian's drumming was time perfect to the millisecond they must have used a click track or metronome during the recording. Just wondering if anyone has any inside information on this.

Glen

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Glen,
I don't have inside information but if you try the same thing with any older Shadows or other older track I think you would find that the tempo would not follow exactly a strict one such as in recording software. This makes me think from what you are saying that the Life Story version of Theme For Young Lovers (if it is not the original version) would have had a click track. This would also have made it convenient to add sequenced parts to the recording, if that was indeed done.
Regards,
Charlie

[bobtimmins]

The Life Story CD are the re-recordings issued after they left EMI

Bob T

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Bob,
Thanks for that, I am not sure exactly when that was, perhaps it was possible that click tracks were in use at that time?
Regards,
Charlie