Multitrack Recording
In 1955 synchronized overdubbing let one player build a whole band in layers.
Related
Time and place
Redwood City, California, 1955. Ampex added the Sel-Sync playback head, so one machine could play existing tracks while recording a new one.
What happened
Earlier overdubbing filled a whole reel and copied it through a second machine, losing quality each pass. Sel-Sync let the record head serve as a playback head and kept old and new tracks in step. In 1957 Ampex built an eight-track machine for Les Paul, who layered guitar, bass, drums and voices onto one reel. In the 1960s four- and eight-track machines entered major studios.
What changed
Recording shifted from capturing a performance to building a work. Drums could be recorded alone and voices stacked. Producers, engineers and arrangers gained power, and the studio became an instrument. Arrangements escaped the limits of live performance, while overdubbing and stereo mixing became standard craft.
Listen to the turn
Battle 01 is a game cue, its instruments recorded as separate tracks and stacked by scene; hear the low and high layers move independently. Dungeon 1 builds space from loops and timbre layers, and Boss 01 changes orchestration over one frame.
Related
The turn belongs to Contemporary; see the Electric guitar and the Record Label.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Grove Music Online, entry "Recording"（Oxford University Press），用于核对 Sel-Sync 与八轨机的年代
- Ampex Corporation, Sel-Sync 技术说明（1955），用于核对同步放音头的原理
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.