Ticky-ticky chan-chance
One of the few good things that can be said for 5.1 remixes is that they give nerds the opportunity to fiddle with the components of the original sound. You can remove vocals, as we've seen here before, and you can also invert the stereo phase.
Er, invert the what? Technically, I haven't a clue what it means either (although I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to explain the process in mind-warping detail). The result, though, is that what was originally loud becomes quiet and vice versa. Vocals and synth riffs are reduced to just the ghostly presence of the reverb, while backing vocals and rhythm guitars are in ya face.
Anyway, here come ABBA with their phases in a twist: Bjorn and Benny's BVs are way up front - "ticky-ticky chan-chance" is now the main melody - while Agnetha and Frida are reduced to a distant, rather chilling echo return.
The intro is now my Great Bit of the week. And it turns out that Bjorn was doing some quite creditable country picking throughout. Who knew?
Cute, huh? I imagine this is what pop music must sound like in one of string theory's parallel universes. Or something.
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That must be the very same parallel universe
where I really love Radiohead's music.
This is wonderful. Small world.
This is...
...brilliant.
Any more?
There are so many songs I'd like to do this to.
I've had a look on You Tube...
...and there are loads of Abba tracks. The only others I found were 2 Beatles tracks: Free As A Bird and Birthday. Neither of which were a patch on Take A Chance on Me.
Oh, go on, then
How's about a drop of Soo-pah-pah, Troo-pah-pah?
The harmony vocals are particularly yummilicious. And the chorus so much funkier than the original mix.
It comes as no surprise that...
...these songs have endured and remain something of a high watermark for pop music. They were so well put together.
They were the Fjab Fjour. . .
(and Stig Anderson was Georg Mjartin).
Over the last 30 years I've never once felt the slightest guilt about the pure pleasure I get from their invariably top-notch pop.
Anyone for Tommy Roe's "Dizzy"?
Because that's what the chorus of "The Name of the Game" turns out to be, in disguise (achingly fab BVs again):
I love the synth bass too - so that's where Dave Stewart got his career from.
Out of phase
As a relative none techy - two similar signals which are played together but out of phase from each other will cancel each other out, and effectively they'll both disappear. In stereo a lot of the sound usually comes out of both speakers (like the lead vocals for example) so if you reverse the phase of the two channels, the two similar signals become out of phase with each other and hey presto, they disappear. Backing vocals might only come out of the right or left speaker, so bingo, they are still there.
Next week: humbucking pickups!
Nerdy query
shouldn't that be, "reverse the phase of ONE channel"?
Also, if I plug my loudspeakers in back to front, will my neighbours only hear the backing vocals, leaking through, as if from a parallel universe, while I'm left listening to control room chit-chat?
Help
Well it could be either one or both channels I guess - karaoke machines work like this by playing a reverse phase image along with the original has the effect of cancelling the sounds in the middle which is where the vocals typically are.
Someone techy take over!
I believe...
that that is how them there fancy pants noise cancelling headphones work. Take the outside noise, invert the phase, play it into the headphones along with the actual music, hey presto - background mutter & mumble disappears.
I've read somewhere that some of the remix DJs do something similar to get a cappella-ish vocal tracks off existing songs where there's no genuine a cappella mix available. Basically the opposite of what Twang was describing, by removing the panned stuff and keeping only what's bang in the middle, ie lead vocals.
No, I don't pretend to understand it, but if you end up with something like GHP's Essex Doves, I don't care how they get there.
Sidebar fact
Bjorn came up with the backing vocal hook when he was trying to get rid of stitch while jogging.
Minority view
I lasted 10 seconds - to me they sounded like cheesy rubbish then and they do now. A minority view I realise. Even worse being able to hear the backing vocals so clearly. Sorry chaps/esses, I don't get it.
Blessed
are the cheesemakers.
If it ain't broke...
don't fix it. And I love Abba...
See, this is what I love
about the internet.
OOPsing lovely sounds of Abba there.
I still have a crush on Agnetha...
Aren't those harmonies just the business?
I was was thinking of trying a mash of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy" with "The Name of the Game" myself, keys permitting, but since you're here. . . .
(Hey, if Matthew Ryan is taking requests, you never know.)
Thread of the week Archie.
Fantastic.
I was pretty sniffy about this lot back then, until a mate, who's girlfriend had forced him to listen to "Arrival" countless times, bravely said to me, "They're pretty good actually", at no small risk to his 4th form credibility.
One listen to a full album's worth and I had to agree.
I've ordered the double CD retrospective, and it's going in the car the moment it arrives. I might even do a weird out-of-phase copy as well.
Mucho grassy whatsit.
Always loved Abba
Never admitted it in school at the time of course, but they were terrific, and Benny/Bjorn wrote some fantastic stuff.