Def Leopard "Foolin" Isolated Vocals

Def Leppard's first album was one of producer Mutt Lange's many masterpieces, with layer upon layer of stacked parts that fit perfectly together. Here's the isolated vocal track from "Foolin',"one of the hits from that album. Here's what to listen for (the quality isn't that great, unfortunately).

1. The lead vocal is compressed pretty hard, but it works perfectly in the context of the mix.

2. The vocals have an interesting gated reverb effect that blooms and then cuts off instead of the normal decay that you'd hear. Some mixers and producers used to refer to this as the "cloud" sound.

3. You don't think of Def Leppard as a keyboard oriented band but there sure are a lot of synths on this song, especially the low synth on the B sections and coming out of the solo.

4. Listen to the stacked background vocal harmonies at 4:10. It almost sounds like the background vocals on The Cars early albums.

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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Def Leppard "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" Isolated Guitar

Def Leppard is one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and their recordings are great examples of excellent production, thanks to producer Mutt Lange.

Here's an isolated guitar track from a hit off of the band's second album (High n' Dry) called "Bringin' On The Heartbreak." There are a number of things to listen for (it starts at 1:05):

1. You need headphones to hear this because it's barely audible, but at :55 you can hear the intro guitars on the left and someone giving the count ("one, two, three four") on the right side.

2. The verse begins at 1:05 with a doubled clean guitar that's spread left and right. Listen to how precise the picking is.

3. On the beginning of the B section at 1:55 there's a distorted guitar only on the right side, which turns into a big double distorted guitar spread left and right at 2:00. Once again, listen to how precise the picking is.

4. The chorus is interesting in that it's only a single note line. This is the same in every chorus.

5. Check out how the rhythm of the 3rd B section changes to increase the intensity.

6. Listen through to the end to hear a part that didn't make the record.

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