Dio "Holy Diver" Isolated Vocal

Time for another isolated track, and this one is the metal classic "Holy Diver" from Dio.

I remember Ronnie Dio from way back in the day as our bands used to share a bill together around New York (Ronnie was then the bass player with Elf). I ran into him years later out in Los Angeles and he was still as cool as ever. A great talent and gentleman and genuinely missed by everyone who knew him.

The sound isn't all that great on this video, but there are still a few things to listen for.

1. Listen for the nice long delayed reverb on Ronnie's vocal. The tone of it is shaped nicely as it blends seamlessly into the mix.

2. There's a lot of headphone leakage, and the compression is pretty heavy but still works in the track. There's also a fair amount of breath noises and pops that aren't too obvious because of the tone of the audio track.

3. There's a bit of sibilance from the compression, but it may be emphasized by the data compression on the video.

4. Take notice to the harmony vocals on the second verse and beyond to help the song develop.

5. Ronnie's pitch is excellent throughout. I'm told he didn't need to do a lot of takes or to punch in mistakes much. That's pure talent you're listening to.

6. There's a nice doubled rhythm guitar track in stereo during the solo section.

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Def Leppard "Rock Of Ages" Isolated Vocal

When Def Leppard's Pyromania album hit in 1983 it turned the band into superstars, and rightfully so, since the record was filled with hits (and selling more than 10 million copies in the US alone). One of the best was "Rock of Ages" and that's what we'll be looking closely at today.

Pyromania was produced by Mutt Lange, who has long been known as a perfectionist, and you can hear it in the isolated vocal track. Here's what to listen for:

1. The vocals are perfectly in tune and in the pocket (except for the doubles), and although the punches are pretty smooth (this was recorded back in the tape days), many of the vocal phrases are so on top of one another that the only way to sing them was via tight punching.

2. There's a lot of compression of the vocals so there's almost zero dynamics. That was a trademark of engineer Mike Shipley, and one he did very well.

3. The vocals are doubled primarily on the chorus and intro to the chorus, but on select other phrases as well.

4. Listen for the backwards vocals at 3:02.

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A-ha "Take On Me" Isolated Vocals

It's always cool to hear inside a song that you've heard so much over the years and today's isolated track is no exception. It's the lead vocal track from the new-wave classic "Take On Me" by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha.

The rotoscoped music video was a huge hit on MTV back when the song was released in 1985, but you still hear this record played a lot on the radio. Here's what to listen for:

1. The vocal range of singer Morton Harket is pretty evident, as he goes from his full voice in a lower register to a strong falsetto with ease (and no punches, as far as I can tell).

2. There's a lot of grunts, sing alongs and breaths between phrases, which we'd probably clean up if the song was recorded today.

3. Listen to the medium length delayed reverb. It sounds like it's band-passed using a technique like the Abbey Road Reverb Trick. The song was actually recorded at Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studios (sadly now defunct).

4. You can hear the the 100Hz test tone as the song begins at 0:21 if you listen on headphones.

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Madonna "Like A Virgin" Isolated Vocal

Madonna has become an iconic artist with hits across 4 decades, but one of the songs that broke her globally was "Like A Virgin," the single from her album of the same title.

The song was recorded at the old Power Station (now Avatar Recording) in New York City, was produced by Nile Rogers, Steven Bray and Madonna, and was also one of the first to use the then-new Sony 3324 digital recorder.

The song also featured the Chic rhythm section of Tony Thompson on drums, Bernard Edwards on bass, and Rogers on guitar. Here's what to listen for (the vocal starts at 0:12).

1. As with many other hits, the vocal is doubled on the last line of the verse, the chorus and the bridge for power.

2. There's a medium length delayed reverb that's very prominent on the vocal.

3. If you're listening on headphones, you can hear the low frequency breath pops from some of the plosives on the B's Madonna sings. I also think that some of them came from the mic stand being accidentally hit, but that's just speculation.

4. The vocal performance is very strong and surprisingly consistent. You might not think of Madonna as a particularly great singer, but here she does a fine job.

5. If you listen loudly with headphones you can hear the song count off at the beginning.

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Michael Jackson "Rock With You" Isolated Vocal

Here's a song that was considered one of the last hits of the Disco era. It's the isolated lead vocal from Michael Jackson's "Rock With You" from his 1979 Off The Wall album. The album featured 5 hit singles and went on to sell more than 20 million units worldwide. "Rock With You" went on to be a #1 hit in the US.

Here are some things to listen for. The recording is a bit distorted, but I'm pretty sure that came from the copy and not the original master, knowing how precise engineer Bruce Swedien (the Godfather of modern recording) is.

1. Notice the lead synthesizer when it enters in the intro. Bruce was always big on adding a first reflection by sending the recorded synth sound out into the studio and re-recording it. You can hear a bit of it here, plus a nice tape echo.

2.  Michael's vocal isn't too compressed. Yes, you can hear a little in certain places when he sings loudly, but listen to the softer parts where it's brought up with fader movement.

3. All the breaths are left in. This really makes the song as it injects the intimacy that puts it over the top. Many producers would probably eliminate them today in an effort to "clean the track up."

4. The synth solo is dry with the echo added half-way through the solo. Probably something you never noticed on the record.

5. If you listen closely, you can hear Michael's foot stomps in between phrases. Bruce once told me that Michael was always dancing when he sang, so he and producer Quincy Jones decided to play that up and give him a small wooden stage to sing on.

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Bruce Springsteen "Born To Run" Isolated Vocals

One of the things that we can learn from isolated tracks is what works in the context of a particular hit record. The reverb, compression, performance, and production all make a big difference in how we ultimately perceive the song. That's why this week's isolated track, the vocal on Bruce Springsteen's breakout "Born To Run," is so cool, since it readily exhibits all of those things. Here's what to listen for.

1. The vocal is very compressed, but it's not sibilant. What happens is that we can hear every breath and it just raises the passion of the performance. We might cut out those breaths today in a DAW (as is the norm), but we'd lose a lot of what really makes the performance work.

2. The reverb is delayed, long and dark. Once again, that's probably not what we'd add today since this sound is not in vogue at the moment, but it works very well here. You don't hear it in the track as reverb, and that's what reverb does many times - it just adds glue and a sheen to the mix.

3. Bruce doesn't double track his vocal until the end at 4:02, unlike so many other vocalists and songs of the time. He comes across pretty well without it though. In fact, when the doubling does occur on the outro it's rather startling. You could see how it wouldn't work in any other part of the song.

4. Listen for the not-so-obvious vocal punch at 1:21 where a breath is cut off, and the overdubbed count only on the left side at 3:05 before the last verse.

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The Doors "Light My Fire" Isolated Vocals

Here's an inside look at the song that broke The Doors from a local LA bar band into the national consciousness. It's the isolated vocals from "Light My Fire," from the The Doors first self-titled album. Here's what to listen for, beginning at 0:13. The vocal picks up again after the solos at 5:34.

1. Jim Morrison's vocal is positivity drenched in a long reverb that's slightly delayed. This may seem excessive, but it helps fill in the holes between the fairly sparse doors instrumental tracks of just keyboards/bass, drums and guitar.

2. Listen for the vocal double on the chorus ("Come on, baby, light my fire") and again on the last verse and outro.

3. The vocal is compressed a lot and you can hear every breath. This is the type of thing that might be taken out if recorded today, but it helps to give the vocal passion and urgency.

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The Beatles "Something" Isolated Vocal

The Beatle's "Something" is one of the most covered songs ever, and may be George Harrison's best song. That's why it's so cool to go back and have a listen to the isolated vocal track from this song from the iconic Abbey Road album. Here's what to listen for:

1. The vocal is very in tune, which can't always be said for vocals from this era.

2. You'll hear the nice Abbey Road Studios reverb all around the vocal, which is very mellow sounding due to the EQ they used.

3. The vocal double on the B section isn't too close. This could have been because it was either another take, or they just didn't care much about getting it close.

4. Listen for Harrison singing the guitar solo almost note for note. Doesn't this contradict a passage in engineer Geoff Emerick's book that states that Harrison played both the guitar solo and the vocal at the same time on the last track available? You can hear the guitar solo was already recorded from the headphone leakage.

5. The harmonies, as with all Beatle harmonies, is gorgeous even though it's only two part. Sometimes it's with Harrison himself, sometimes with Paul McCartney.

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The Doors "LA Women" Isolated Vocal

Here's the isolated vocal from a classic rock standard that's still played on AOR radio stations to this day. It's The Doors "LA Women" from their 1971 album of the same name. The song was recorded live at the band's rehearsal studio with singer Jim Morrison singing in the bathroom because of the nice ambience it provided. The band was also augmented with bassist Jerry Sheff (Elvis' bass player at the time and father of Chicago bassist Jason Sheff) and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno. Here's what to listen for (the almost 8 minute track is edited to just the vocal sections).

1. There's a nice dark (meaning no high end) slightly delayed plate reverb on the vocal that melts together with the vocal. Even though Morrison sang in the bathroom because of the ambience, most bathrooms are too small to have long decays like you hear on the song. It does provide a nice fullness to the vocal though.

2. There's a fair amount of distortion on the vocal when it gets loud, which was obviously left in because the performance is so good. Engineer/producer Bruce Botnick is one of the finest engineers of our time, but he knew when to fix something and when not to, and this wasn't the time for a fix. The performance should always come first as it did here. Chances are none of us has ever heard the distortion with the rest of the track playing on the radio anyway.

3. It's very cool to hear the leakage in the background. There's nothing like a band that cooks live!

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Bob Marley "One Love" Isolated Vocal

Here's the isolated vocal to one of the most iconic songs of the 70s that still resonates today as it plays on commercials everywhere. It's Bob Marley and The Wailer's "One Love" from their 1977 Exodus album. Here's what to listen for.

1. The vocal sound is very interesting. It's fairly thin sounding, but at 1:10 the vocal sounds very different, as it's much deeper and richer. It sounds like the line was the only one kept from a scratch vocal (since you can hear the leakage from the band) while the rest of the vocal was the overdub.

2. There's the typical delay that was used on most reggae records of the time, plus a little bit of a short reverb to smooth it out.

3. You can hear another vocal ad lib vocal along with the melody. Sometimes it Bob, sometimes it's Bunny Wailer, and on one occasion it even doubles the lead vocal.

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David Bowie "Moonage Daydream" Isolated Vocal

One of the most influential albums in the US in the early 70s was David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The album didn't sell a lot, but every musician had a copy and marveled at how innovative Bowie was. A few years ago I was lucky enough to co-write Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust, producer/engineer Ken Scott's memoir, which outlined his time working with Bowie. It was great fun listening to the stories and learning about how they recorded and mixed the album.

Have a listen to the isolated vocal track to a song off that album - "Moonage Daydream." Here are some things to listen for:

1. Bowie's vocals aren't perfect by today's standards, with a few notes here and there that he doesn't quite hit cleanly. That said, 99% of his vocals were only one take, according to Ken, who recorded and produced 4 Bowie albums. Also remember that we listened differently in those days, and tended not to concentrate on the details like we do today.

2. The vocal has a nice sounding medium decay EMT plate on it.

3. The choruses ("Keep your electric eye on me, babe.") are doubled the first two times. The third time there's only the lead vocal, and the fourth time a ping-pong delay is added, which was pretty innovative for the time, since all delay was accomplished through tape machines (in this case two of them with different delay times).

4. Listen through to the end for something not heard on the record.

You can read some excerpts from Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust about Bowie on the excerpts section at bobbyowsinski.com

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David Bowie "Space Oddity" Isolated Vocal

Here's one of the cooler isolated tracks if you're a David Bowie fan. It's the isolated vocal from his hit "Space Oddity."

As some of you might know, I co-wrote the memoir of Ken Scott (Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust), who engineered two Bowie records and engineer/produced 4 (include the seminal Ziggy Stardust). This is one that he didn't do however, because Bowie's producer at the time (Tony Visconti) hated the song and refused to work on it. Gus Dudgeon (who went on to fame producing early Elton John) stepped in and brought his own engineer.

Surprisingly, this song was a hit and brought Bowie to temporary prominence, but it also brought his career to a temporary halt, since "Space Oddity" was declared a "novelty." In fact, he quit the business for a short time afterwards, only to come back to record both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust in quick succession with Ken.

Ken has said that Bowie might have been the best vocalist he's ever worked with, as 99% of the vocals on all the albums he worked on were first take! Here are some things to listen for.

1. Bowie doesn't begin to sing the verse until :32, but you can hear him making mouth noises before that.

2. There are a few flat parts, but these are mostly at the end of phrases as he drops his breath, not that it ever bothered anyone before as you can't hear them in the track. Still, these are things we would have fixed today.

Katy Perry "Firework" Isolated Vocal

Here's the isolated vocal from Katy Perry's big hit "Firework," from her even bigger hit album Teenage Dream. First of all I should say that I'm a fan, as unpopular as that may be. She writes some really catchy songs, isn't afraid to take chances live on stage, and does have a pretty good voice. Any time someone can rack up the number of big hits that she has, there has to be some real talent behind it.

That said, this song is in some ways the best and worst display of her talents. Listen for:

1) Uggg, the autotune. It really makes the vocal sound terrible. The problem I have is I'm sure she could've sang this song perfectly well without it with a few more takes and some comping.

2) The compression. The vocal is absolutely crushed during the b-section and chorus.

3) The sound. Wow, the vocal really sounds strident during the chorus. Cuts through the song though.

4) The nice short ping pong echo on the vocal to give it some space. This technique of two different timed delays left and right is being used more and more in pop music.

While it sounds like I'm ragging on the song, it really does have a great melody, hook and arrangement. It just goes to show that something doesn't have to sound great by itself to sound good in the song!

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Chicago "25 Or 6 To 4" Isolated Vocals

Here's the last isolated vocal entry for the week, and this time it's "25 Or 6 To 4" by Chicago from the bands second album, also entitled Chicago. Chicago is always overlooked as one of the great American bands, and they're still going strong and sounding better than ever after 40 years. This track shows just how good they were even back then in 1970, because it's the little things that they do well that their contemporaries didn't at the time.

The track below consists of the piano, horns, sometimes a rhythm guitar and all the vocals. Be sure to listen for:

1. Bassist Peter Cetera's lead vocal is terrific. There's not a single bad note to be found.

2. The background vocals are equally good. Listen to how tight they are, especially the releases.

3. The vocals feature a long delayed and bright plate reverb that actually sounds much better on the horns than on the vocals. Of course, they usually only had one reverb to work with that had to work on everything back then, which wasn't actually as limiting as you might think.

4. The lead vocal is ever so slightly sibilant thanks to the compression, but you can't really hear the compressor working other than that.

5. The piano is playing a very disciplined simple patter. Robert Lamm is capable of playing more notes, but he stays in the pocket and does what's best for the song.

6. Terry Kath's rhythm guitar playing is outstanding. It's solid as a rock and used almost as percussion instrument, pushing the solo along to a peak. What a fabulous guitar player. He died far too young.

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"How Will I Know" Isolated Vocals

This week we're looking at isolated vocals, and todays feature is a 1985 hit by the late Whitney Houston called "How Will I Know," which was a huge MTV hit that helped push her to superstardom. Eventually Whitney went on to sell an incredible 170 million albums during her lifetime, far more than most people realize. Here are a couple of things to think about as you listen to this vocal track.

1) You can hear the compressor work a fair amount. There are a few parts where her breaths are exaggerated where you can hear the compressor pushing up the level. You can't hear it in the track with the music though.

2) The reverb is pretty long and there's really a lot of it on the vocals. It's a good sounding verb that's filtered so it doesn't have a lot of highs or lows so it fits the track well.

3) Whitney doubles herself in the choruses, sometimes very closely, sometimes not so much. It's a popular technique that many producers and vocalists use frequently.

4) You can't hear many of the actual punches, but some of the vocals are pretty are pretty much on top of one another, which happend a lot back in the days of limited tracks due to the limits of magnetic or digital tape.

5) Note the long delay on the vocals in the bridge, which sounds like it's about a full quarter note and timed to the track.

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Dio "Rainbow In The Dark" Isolated Vocal

For anyone who ever met him, Ronnie James Dio was not only a great singer, but a wonderful gentleman with a huge heart as well. We all still feel his loss and miss him. Here's an example of Ronnie's great voice on an isolated vocal track from his hit "Rainbow In The Dark" off of his 1983 Holy Diver album.

This sounds to be either the center channel from a 5.1 mix or  a center channel phase extraction, which actually can be a better learning tool than if it were off the multitrack. During the solo section you can hear the guitar solo enter, which is why a tell-tale sign that it's not directly from the multitrack.

Here's a couple of things to note as you listen:

1) Ronnie's voice is pretty compressed, but this is something that he really needs since he had such a  dynamic voice.

2) There's a good bit of a medium long plate reverb on his vocal. It doesn't sound like it's delayed.

3) He doubles the B section of the verse and then breaks into the harmony on the hook of the song. Some of the harmonies have different releases form the lead phrasing, which we probably wouldn't let pass today. That said, it never bothered me before when I listened to the song.

4) You can hear a punch out at the end of the high section vocal section of verse two.

Enjoy.

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"Space Oddity" - David Bowie Isolated Vocal

Here's the isolated vocal track to one of my favorite songs, David Bowie's "Space Oddity." The song was recorded in 1969 for the album of the same name, but it didn't become a hit in the US until 1972 after Bowie had already achieved some acclaim here.

Although everyone connects this song with Bowie's famous backing band The Spiders From Mars, the players on this recording were different. They included Mick Wayne on lead guitar, Herbie Flowers on bass (who would go on to play the famous dueling bass part on Lou Reed's "Take A Walk On The Wild Side,") Terry Cox on drums, and pre-Yes Rick Wakeman on Mellotron and piano.

Tony Visconti produced the album but felt the single was a gimmick, so he handed it off to protege Gus Dudgeon (who went on to great fame as Elton John's producer for his big albums like "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"). Here are some things to listen for.

1) Although the vocal doesn't start until about 40 seconds in, you can hear David make the sort of mouth noises that every vocalist does from time to time when bored.

2) There's a slight crack in his voice at the end of the first verse, which is probably the type of thing that wouldn't get by today without being replaced. That being said, the vocal is performed well and is remarkably in tune. Engineer/producer Ken Scott, who produced the next 4 Bowie albums after this one (including the exquisite "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars"), recently told me that over the course of 4 albums, every vocal that David recorded was a first take except for one that he intentionally wanted to sing the chorus a little differently. Remarkable!

3) This isn't what you'd call a "pristine" vocal sound, as it has a lot of fur (distortion) around around it as he begins to get loud. You can hear the compressor working as well.

4) If you listen closely, there's a bit of what sounds like print-through on the 3rd verse. Print-through is a phenomena of magnetic tape where a layers imprint magnetic information to adjacent layers. As a result, you get an echo-like effect with the print-through vocal occurring sometimes even before the main recorded vocal. This effect can be heard most famously on the bridge of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love."

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"Living On A Prayer" Bon Jovi Isolated Vocal And Keys

I'm not a big Bon Jovi fan, but "Living On A Prayer" is one song I do like. It's very well produced (by the late Bruce Fairbairn) and the vocals are killer. Living On A Prayer was the 2nd single from the band's breakout album Slippery When Wet, and went on to be a #1 hit world-wide. Here are a few things to listen for from when the song kicks in at about 40 seconds.

1) The keyboards that can be heard provide a nice window to the dynamics of the song. Listen how the keys build with a big chord and left hand at the end of each half-phrase, and then how it pedals on the B-section. Then listen how during the 2nd verse a little string line appears on top of the chords.

2) Say what you want about Jon Bon Jovi, but he does have some formidable pipes. Especially listen to the key modulation at 3:24, although it does sound like the vocals were copy and pasted in the outro.

3) As reader Justin Freund points out, rumor has it that the outro was speeded up so Jon could hit those high notes, which sounds perfectly plausible by the fact that each chorus of the outro jumps a little bit at the beginning. This is what would happen if it were a tiny bit shorter in length because of the speed change (don't forget this was recorded back in the days of tape before time compression in a DAW).

4) Listen how the vocal develops. The lead vocal is by itself in the verse, a harmony is added during the B section, and then doubled during the chorus.

5) The vocal is pretty drenched in reverb. Although it sounds pretty good, you probably wouldn't find that happening if the song was done today, since the trend is for everything to be drier.

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"Bark At The Moon" Ozzie Osbourne Isolated Vocal

Ozzie Osbourne gets more love as a celebrity than as a vocalist, but a listen to the isolated vocals from "Bark At The Moon" from his Bark At The Moon album proves that Oz has a better voice than ever given credit for. Here are some things to listen for.

1) The vocals are very well produced in that the vocal is pretty much in tune (there are a few places where he drifts out though), and the double is very recorded very close to the lead.

2) The sound of the vocal is pretty good. It's consistent without being too compressed, and has a nice medium reverb on it.

3) The keyboards that you hear along with the vocals are a bit of a surprise as they're pretty much buried in the final mix of the track. As with many rock tracks, the keyboards are there for support and add a bit of glue to the track that you can't get with distorted guitars.

4) It sounds like isolated vocals were obtained using the "flip the phase on the one of the stereo sides" trick since you hear so many other instruments along with the vocals.

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"Paparazzi" Lady Gaga Isolated Vocal

Here's another isolated vocal track from Lady Gaga. This time it's "Paparazzi," the fourth and final single from her debut album The Fame. The song was top 10 in most of the world, hitting #1 in Germany and the Czech Republic. Here are some things to listen for.

1) Gaga's vocal is very well recorded. It's very natural, not overly compressed and doesn't have a lot of sibilance.

2) The vocal on the verse of the song features a very short and delayed room reverb, which changes to a longer verb with a delay with more repeats in the chorus. This is a trick that you'll hear on many pop records, and one that we recently heard on Christina Aquilera's "Genie In A Bottle."

3) The treatment on the vocal on the bridge changes yet again as it's doubled and panned left and right. It also sounds like it's lightly chorused.

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