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Overdubbing (also known aslayering)[1] is a technique used in audio recording in which audiotracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more available tracks of adigital audio workstation (DAW) ortape recorder.[2] The overdub process can be repeated multiple times. This technique is often used with singers, as well as with instruments, or ensembles/orchestras. Overdubbing is typically done for the purpose of adding richness and complexity to the original recording. For example, if there are only one or two artists involved in the recording process, overdubbing can give the effect of sounding like many performers.[3]
In vocal performances, the performer usually listens to an existing recorded performance (usually throughheadphones in arecording studio) and simultaneously plays a new performance along with it, which is also recorded. The intention is that the finalmix will contain a combination of these "dubs".[4]
Another kind of overdubbing is the so called "tracking" (or "laying the basic tracks"), where tracks containing therhythm section (usually including drums) are recorded first, then following up with overdubs (solo instruments, such askeyboards orguitar, then finally vocals). This method has been the standard technique for recordingpopular music since the early 1960s. Today, overdubbing can be accomplished even on basic recording equipment, or a typicalPC equipped with asound card,[4] usingdigital audio workstation software.
Because the process of overdubbing involves working with pre-recorded material, the performers involved do not have to ever have physically met each other, nor even still be alive. In 1991, decades after her fatherNat King Cole had died,Natalie Cole released a "virtual duet" recording of "Unforgettable" where she overdubbed her vocals onto her father's original recording from the 1960s. As there is no limit in timespan with overdubbing, there is likewise no limit in distance, nor in the number of overdubbed layers. Perhaps the most wide-reaching collaborative overdub recording was accomplished byEric Whitacre in 2013, where he edited together a "Virtual Choir" of 8,409 audio tracks from 5,905 people from 101 countries.[5][needs update]
Perhaps the earliest commercial issue of recordings with overdubs was byRCA Victor in the late 1920s, not long after the introduction of electricmicrophones into the recording studio. Recordings by the lateEnrico Caruso still sold well, so RCA took some of his early records made with only piano accompaniment, added a studio orchestra, and reissued the recordings.[citation needed]
A foreshadow of overdubbing can be seen withSidney Bechet, an American jazz musician who made a pair of famous overdubbed sides in 1941 entitled "The Sheik of Araby" and "Blues of Bechet". The multi-instrumentalist recorded the clarinet, soprano, tenor saxophone, piano and the bass and drum parts for both songs, and then he recorded each track separately on top of one another to create two single tracks. The recordings were then issued as "Sidney Bechet's One Man Band".[6]
The 1946Disney animated filmMake Mine Music includes overdubbed duo and trio performances byNelson Eddy as an opera singing whale.[7] The 1950 Disney filmCinderella used multiple tracks for vocals for the song "Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale".
In 1948, experiments mixing sound effects and musical instruments made byPierre Schaeffer at the Radio Télédiffusion Française experimental studio in Paris led toÉtude aux Tourniquets, the first avant-garde composition using recording as a composition technique, recorded, and mixed directly onacetate records as tape recorders were not yet available. Similarsound collage experiments had been made byEdgard Varèse in the 1920s, but Varèse, also a French composer, wrote scores later played live by musicians. As from 1949, Schaeffer composed and recorded on acetates withPierre Henry (Symphonie pour un homme seul, 1950), who also recorded with Varèse in 1954. Together, they used some of the earliest tape recorders available in the early 1950s.
The invention ofmagnetic tape opened up new possibilities for overdubbing, particularly with the development ofmultitrack recording withsel-sync. One of the first known commercially released overdubbed recordings was "Confess" forMercury Records byPatti Page in 1948, although this overdubbing was done with acetate. With the popularity of this recording, Page recorded "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming" using the same overdubbing technique.[8] The vocals were listed as "Voices by: Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page".[citation needed]
Les Paul was an early innovator of overdubbing, and began to experiment with it around 1930.[9]: 213 He originally created multi-track recordings by using a modifieddisk lathe to record several generations of sound on a single disk,[10] before later using tape technology, having been given one of the firstAmpex 300 series tape recorders as a gift fromBing Crosby.[11] His 1950 #1 hit, "How High The Moon", performed with his then-wifeMary Ford, featured a then-significant amount of overdubbing, along with other studio techniques such asflanging,delay,phasing andvari-speed.[9]: xxii–xxiii [12]
Les Paul's advancements in recording were seen in the adoption of his techniques by artists likeBuddy Holly. In 1958, Holly released "Words of Love" and "Listen to Me", which were composed with overdubbing for added instrumentation and harmonies.[13]
Peter Ustinov performed multiple voices on "MockMozart", in a recording produced byGeorge Martin.Abbey Road Studios had no multitrack recorders at the time, so a pair of mono machines were used. Martin used the same process later for aPeter Sellers comedy record, this time using stereo machines andpanning.[citation needed]
Ross Bagdasarian, also known as David Seville, combined overdubbing with tape speed manipulation to create "The Chipmunk Song," performing the voices of all three Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, recorded to a half-normal-speed playback of the instrumental backup; and conversing with the singing rodents in his own voice, recorded at full speed.
Overdubs can be made for a variety of reasons. One of the most obvious is for convenience; for example, if abass guitarist were temporarily unavailable, the recording can be made and the bass track added later. Similarly, if only one or two guitarists are available, but a song calls for multiple guitar parts, a guitarist can play both lead and rhythmguitar. Overdubbing is also used to solidify a weak singer;double tracking allows a singer with poor intonation to sound more in tune. (The opposite of this is often used withsampled instruments; detuning the sample slightly can make the sound more lifelike.) The effect is used to give one singer a fuller sound. They would effectivelyharmonize with their own vocals, like achoir but with just one voice.
Overdubbing has sometimes been viewed negatively, when it is seen as being used to artificially enhance the musical skills of an artist or group, such as with studio-recorded inserts to live recordings, or backing tracks created bysession musicians instead of the credited performers. The early records ofthe Monkees were made by groups of studio musicians pre-recording songs (often in a different studio, and some before the band was even formed), which were later overdubbed with the Monkees' vocals. While the songs became hits, this practice drew criticism.Michael Nesmith in particular disliked what overdubbing did to the integrity of the band's music.[14] Additionally, in working with producerButch Vig,Kurt Cobain had expressed a disdain for double-track recording. Vig had to reportedly convince Cobain to use the recording technique by saying, "The Beatles did it on everything. John Lennon loved the sound of his voice double-tracked."[15]
OnRaffi's 1988 live special, "Raffi in Concert With the Rise and Shine Band", the overdubbed backing track played over the closing credits turns out to be the re-recorded instrumental of the song, "Just Like the Sun", taken from this 1987 album, "Everything Grows".[16]
In December 2023Paul McCartney put the concept of overdubbing in the spotlight by re-releasing anunderdubbed version of thePaul McCartney and Wings albumBand on the Run. The underdubbed tracks highlight the bare-bones nature of the album's original recordings made in theEMI Records studio in Lagos, Nigeria before additional instruments were added in London.[17]
Paulinho da Costa's song "Ritmo Number One" from his 1977 albumAgora uses a base track withsurdo (big bass drum) and percussion, overdubbed with 8 percussion tracks (repique,pandeiro,congas,tamborims,a-go-go,cuíca,bell tree,reco-reco).
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