Edwin Starr Singing in Triplicate?

[Paulmc]

Can anyone help?

I came by an old interview between Kev Roberts and Edwin Starr. 

In the interview, Edwin said something that intrigued me, he was talking about his early days. He said that he used to be friends with Sammy Turner (Platters) and that Sammy had taught him how to sing in Triplicate. He gave an example of a record called Splitter Splatter, he didn't mention the group. I would guess it was released by The Twisters or Sammy Turner and the Twisters (these could both be wrong).

Have searched the internet but cannot find this recording, can any one give any other examples of artists singing in triplicate. I don't seem to have come across this before.

Thanks in advance, to anyone that can point me in the right direction.

 

[Dylan]

Does it simply mean 3 singers are singing together and sharing the lead vocal between them and moving in and out of harmony roles ? Lots of groups must do this.

[Rick Scott]

Hi Dylan and Paul,

Always thought this was for example, Singer laying down the vocal then rewinding back and singing alongside the first recording, recording tha also, then repeating tha process for a third time hence now sung in triplicate, just like 3 singers sing the lead on a song together as a group.

P.J. Proby used to do a similar thing noticeably on his big pop hit  "Hold Me" 

I'm Pretty sure that Barry White and quite a few other singers used this technique to give the lead vocal a fuller group like sound.

I hope this is some help and understand what i am trying to say.

Rick

Edited January 31, 2018 by RICK SCOTT
more info

[Dylan]

Thanks for that rick different to my guess it’s actually one person laying down 3 lots of vocals for the same song.

would certainly add some depth to the song.

[Roburt]

You've got your facts a bit wrong. Edwin (when a young guy in Cleveland) was taught how to sing in harmony (with 2 other guys from his then group) by Sonny Turner (originally from Cleveland & a local group there) who was recruited to sing lead with the Platters in the 60's (all the Musicor tracks).

I interviewed Edwin about his time in Cleveland many years ago & he credited Sonny T with helping get his singing career started.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Roburt

[Paulmc]

Hi Roburt

Thanks for the update, looks like I got Sammy and Sonny mixed. I'll put that down to the recording.

I'm still looking for examples of singing in triplicate. I'm not sure what this technique involves and would like to listen to some examples if possible. From the interview he refers to a technique rather than just three persons signing in harmony. I'll stand corrected if I misunderstand.

The interview concurs with your understanding that Sonny Turner was the most significant with helping get his career going. I'll try and catch verbatim what he said and post

It tickled me, when he said that the idea for the intro of SOS, Stop Her on Sight came from the TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. I had a flash back of watching that TV program and the sonic pulses of the submarine. He also wrote SOS on the back of a shirt packet that was returned from the cleaners.

 

 

[Chalky]

I’ve never heard of a lead singing in triplicate.  I would imagine they meant over dubbing?

[Dylan]

Robert suggests or says it’s 3 people singing together not one so i’m Not sure either way.

 

google throws up nothing for singing in triplicate.

[Guest soash]

13 minutes ago, dylan said:

Robert suggests or says it’s 3 people singing together not one so i’m Not sure either way.

 

google throws up nothing for singing in triplicate.

You need to Google "three part harmony" to get the answers.

Also look at triads theory, and using the using the root, third and fifth notes of a chord.

With three voices, you can effectively sing a chord, rather than an individual note.

[Rick Scott]

1 hour ago, chalky said:

I’ve never heard of a lead singing in triplicate.  I would imagine they meant over dubbing?

Spot on Chalky, over dubbing, that is the word i was looking for but for the love of me could not remember it so tried to explain it as simple as i could. Something much used in the music industry.

[Chalky]

16 minutes ago, RICK SCOTT said:

Spot on Chalky, over dubbing, that is the word i was looking for but for the love of me could not remember it so tried to explain it as simple as i could. Something much used in the music industry.

Not soul but I remember an interview with Eddie Cochrane and how he over dubbed his guitar on one of the 45s. He couldn’t replicate it on stage. 

[Soulsides]

  @ the O.P.

It's called 'Double Tracking'

Or more often as Chalky said also simply known as 'overdubbing'.

It's used mostly for recording multiple vocal or guitar parts generally, it's also used to help bolster the mids and high frequencies and fatten up a mix especially in modern Rock where a lot of compression is usually applied to the music being recorded.

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Soulsides

[Dylan]

Overdubbing is something different to singing in triplicate.

 

its not the same thing.

 

soash had it right.

 

https://www.voicecouncil.com/how-to-harmonize-in-3-parts/

 

 

[Roburt]

With later studio multitrack recorders, one guy could sing all the parts on a cut (& even play all the instruments), laying down each in turn on a different track on the master tape (these went from 2 track, 6 track, 12 track, 32 track, etc as the equipment improved) ... BUT .. Edwin was talking about getting the start to his singing career (back in Cleveland) in the late 50's / early 60's. At that time he wasn't a solo lead singer but a member of his first harmony group (the Futuretones ... name inspired by that of Sonny's group, the Metrotones) . He gave me the same info when I interviewed him at the Jazz Café many years ago & also credited Sonny Turner for 'schooling' him & his fellow group members. He was talking about the period before he went into the army. At that time even the best most modern of studios only had 2 track machines. Of course you could 'overdub' on the same track, but you lost much of the strength (volume) of earlier efforts each time you went back & taped on top of the previous work.

My article on Edwin's Cleveland Years was published in a fanzine at the time but it has since been added on here. Just do a search of the Soul Articles section to see it all ... EDWIN STARR'S CLEVELAND YEARS.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Roburt

[Soulsides]

7 hours ago, Roburt said:

 At that time even the best most modern of studios only had 2 track machines. Of course you could 'overdub' on the same track, but you lost much of the strength (volume) of earlier efforts each time you went back & taped on top of the previous work.

That's both the beauty and the curse of the analogue tape format as a recording medium,,if you you can catch a good live performance within the first couple of takes you're mostly home and dry but the more you overdub the more the recording obviously degrades sonically.

There was only so many times you could 'bounce' the audio on those old 2.or 4 track recording consoles unfortunately.

I've actually been transfering some of the Soul and Funk records I own recently which have a lower quality of audio into these machines here which allow me to clean up and boost the signal by adding nicer sounding E.Q's, compression and effects like hard  stereo panning into the mix.These samplers also have a very cool vinyl simulator algorithm which does some pretty incredible things to drums and vocals especially....you can even add in a bit of some vinyl crackle if you want it! ..

I usually then master the recordings by mixing into or through this Yamaha 4 track recorder to either chrome cassette or a Sony Mini Disc player if I want a digital copy that I can also duplicate to cd or a laptop for example .

The end results have been really nice and it has brought some of these recordings a new lease of life in my opinion with a much nicer clarity of sound to them and which has also greatly increased my appreciation of these records too .

 

I do really genuinely love a lot of old,scruffy and emotionally raw sounding music,Northern Soul in particular but if the performers could have had access to even a tenth of the modern recording technology that I just have in my admittedly modest home studio then lord knows how truly amazing those records would have sounded.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Soulsides

[Still Diggin]

3 hours ago, Roburt said:

With later studio multitrack recorders, one guy could sing all the parts on a cut (& even play all the instruments), laying down each in turn on a different track on the master tape (these went from 2 track, 6 track, 12 track, 32 track, etc as the equipment improved) ... BUT .. Edwin was talking about getting the start to his singing career (back in Cleveland) in the late 50's / early 60's. At that time he wasn't a solo lead singer but a member of his first harmony group (the Futuretones ... name inspired by that of Sonny's group, the Metrotones) . He gave me the same info when I interviewed him at the Jazz Café many years ago & also credited Sonny Turner for 'schooling' him & his fellow group members. He was talking about the period before he went into the army. At that time even the best most modern of studios only had 2 track machines. Of course you could 'overdub' on the same track, but you lost much of the strength (volume) of earlier efforts each time you went back & taped on top of the previous work.

My article on Edwin's Cleveland Years was published in a fanzine at the time but it has since been added on here. Just do a search of the Soul Articles section to see it all ... EDWIN STARR'S CLEVELAND YEARS.

Marvin's 'Whats goin on' being one of most well known multitrack recordings in soul music, however it was also claimed to not have been intentional at the time. Morris Bailey used this to good effect on Charen Cotten's 'A little bit of love' on the Art logo, this allowed her to hit notes that did not exist on the Philomega and Perception release. However as Dylan points out I do not think this has anything to do with what Edwin Star had eluded to, this being more related to group harmony vocal interchange.