Multitrackstar

January 12, 2010 4:23 PM

Multitrack a cappella (mostly) videos feature the same person layering multiple harmonies to sing a song. The results can be incredible: "Thriller" in 64 voices, "You Rock My World" in 38 voices, "Baby on Board" from the barbershop quartet episode of The Simpsons, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", falsetto-tastic "Amazing Grace", "Poker Face", ...

..."Eye of the Tiger", "Hello Goodbye", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (bonus karaoke style!), "Go The Distance" from Hercules, The Knight Rider theme, "Hide and Seek", "Scarborough Fair", "Friends" from The Flight of the Conchords, Backstreet Boys' "Everybody", and more! [previously]

Bonus: Trombone, Cello

posted by spiderskull (43 comments total)

Why am I afraid of this before I've even clicked the link?
posted by Skygazer at 4:25 PM on January 12, 2010

Awesome! Check out Loucapella - For the Longest Time.
posted by Chuckles at 4:34 PM on January 12, 2010

Eh... the few I clicked on were impressive in their scale but were painfully out of tune... these things tend to be, though. Anyway, my favorite example of the multi-track thing is Knights of Cydonia.
posted by Nattie at 4:35 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

great post!!!!! this stuff is going to keep me busy for a while.... then I'll slink in a corner bemoaning my lack of talent!

amazing grace is beautiful!
posted by HuronBob at 4:36 PM on January 12, 2010

Pomplamoose - Single Ladies

Don't make me sing this part of the song, the lyrics are so bad so we're going to skip ahead, to sing the single ladies part instead.
posted by bitslayer at 4:49 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

...or on second thought, I guess I'm a little off topic.
posted by bitslayer at 4:52 PM on January 12, 2010

I agree with nattie. Have a listen to elliott smiths 'i didn't understand' for a truly beautiful a cappella track
posted by chelegonian at 5:00 PM on January 12, 2010

If you're one of the 12 people who haven't seen this yet:

Beaker, Beaker, Beaker, Beaker, Beaker and Beaker do Ode to Joy.
posted by Malor at 5:04 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

...the few I clicked on were impressive in their scale but were painfully out of tune...

It's true. Check out that Kurt Schneider kid -- he has really good pitch.
posted by sentient at 5:07 PM on January 12, 2010 [7 favorites]

er, the one singing is Sam Tsui. Kurt Schneider produces, apparently.
posted by sentient at 5:10 PM on January 12, 2010

my favorite example

Final Cut Pro… If God doesn't give you the skills, we will.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:11 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, most of these folks aren't really professionals, so think of it as an online open mic night. I really like the effort, and I think it's a creative use of YouTube and cheap webcams. Maybe I have a higher tolerance to missed pitch.
posted by spiderskull at 5:13 PM on January 12, 2010

Imogen Heap, Just For Now
posted by spacewrench at 5:32 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Man, I love this shit. I keep meaning to give my own multi-me recording-and-video a shot one of these days, though in terms of scope it'd probably be more along the lines of the stuff Pamplamoose is doing than the several-dozen-large Brady Bunch approach.
posted by cortex at 5:33 PM on January 12, 2010

no one does this better than Dokaka!
Iron Maiden: The Trooper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFRJswNzuaY&feature=related
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 5:39 PM on January 12, 2010

My random opinions:

"Thriller" - disappointingly weak. He's just not a good enough singer to pull this off.

"Hello Goodbye" - also underwhelming.

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - well done, but not especially revelatory since it sounds so much like the familiar Tokens' version.

"Hide & Seek" - nice blend of bass and countertenor (falsetto) voices. He seems to have deeply internalized both the 16th- and 21st-century dimensions of this song. Good balance between being faithful to the original and deviating from it (more the former than the latter, which I prefer in a cover). Of course, Imogen Heap does it herself. Live.
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:04 PM on January 12, 2010

Because I'll never have the dedication to actually do this, the coolest possible application of this that I can think of would be to pick something like Amazing Grace and every year, record one part. Keep adding parts to it, harmonies and backup on the same vocal line.

In the end, 20-year-old you would be doing a duet with 90-year-old you, with 70 other yous singing as well, each voice ever so slightly different as you change over time.

And you tell no one, and have it played at your funeral.
posted by Decimask at 6:08 PM on January 12, 2010 [12 favorites]

I'm surprised nobody did a cover of Styx' "Too Much Time on My Hands"
posted by Lukenlogs at 6:13 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Why are so few of them doing the traditional barbershop songs? I found Sincere and Lida Rose from Music Man and that's about it.
posted by DU at 6:24 PM on January 12, 2010

How can you have left out the Ghostbusters theme?
posted by Brainy at 6:24 PM on January 12, 2010

Livin On a Prayer, or the Hideous Secrets of Hock Streedlefork, performed by Patrick van Slee and Matthew Gossage. I saw it on a DVD of short films years ago and today it still cracks me up. Mrs. Intermod and I break out into spontaneous "whoa-oh!" choruses from time to time.
posted by intermod at 6:40 PM on January 12, 2010

Molly Lewis doing "Poker Face".
posted by potch at 6:48 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I must have heard Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" hundreds of times before it dawned on me that he was trying to use multitracking and and two nearly undifferentiated vocal styles to convey the idea of two separate people having some kind of dialogue. To me both voices are just him. Mind you if I'd been listening on purpose I'd probably have noticed sooner, but it was more a case of not being able to get away from it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:49 PM on January 12, 2010

If the guy singing Baby on Board actually could sing as a tenor, bass, baritone, and whatever range the lead is supposed to be, then it would be pretty sweet.
posted by kenko at 7:04 PM on January 12, 2010

Why are so few of them doing the traditional barbershop songs?

There's a TON of barbershop tags... although yeah, not a lot of actual barbershop songs.
posted by spiderskull at 7:26 PM on January 12, 2010

spacewrench's Imogen Heap link is the first one I checked out and the best of the bunch, IMHO.
posted by intermod at 7:38 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Why are so few of them doing the traditional barbershop songs?

I'd guess because barbershop isn't considered very cool by a lot of people. But check out Simon Rylander (goes by FineyLeee on YouTube). He does multitrack barbershop tags primarily, but also has an album of barbershop songs available for free from his website. Not the most traditional songs, but still.

The absolute, head-and-shoulders-above-everyone-else, king of multitrack barbershop recordings is Tim Waurick. There aren't really any full songs of his available for download, because he makes his living recording and selling them to barbershop groups to help them learn their music. But there are several samples on his website, and you can hear from them that his recordings have a level of artistry, precision, and just pure awesomeness that exceeds probably 99% of the groups that ever use them to learn their music. And he does it with minimal software-enhanced pitch correction, unlike many others. He does men's and women's arrangements, because he has freakish vocal range and skill, which can be seen with his quartet here and here. Many people have tried to convince him to release an album. Maybe one day he will.
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:43 PM on January 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

Talented amateurs are well and good, but...
posted by kersplunk at 8:03 PM on January 12, 2010

Why are so few of them doing the traditional barbershop songs?

This youtube group should keep you busy.

My father sings barber shop. (Has done since before WWII). He put me on to The Big O, who's done some nice multi-track tags on youtube.

There's a TON of barbershop tags... although yeah, not a lot of actual barbershop songs.

Papaw H says a BHQ performance is all about the tags. You can do just about anything in the middle -- including be boring and/or screw up -- but you have to start out together and end with a creative tag. Tags are what BHQs borrow and steal from each other, the way guitarists do with riffs.
posted by Herodios at 8:15 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

HOLY CRAP.

How did I not know this exists?

Eeeee John Williams!
posted by Salieri at 8:31 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

Awesome post, thanks for a very enjoyable lost hour.
posted by Long Way To Go at 8:33 PM on January 12, 2010

The leader of my college Renaissance choral group included a multitracked performance of Tallis' Spem in alium in his senior recital - he's a countertenor, and managed the top and bottom-range parts by recording very early in the morning and then again while down with a cold.
posted by heyforfour at 8:50 PM on January 12, 2010

kersplunk -- I take your Beatles and raise you ONE (1) Pet Sounds a cappella
posted by spiderskull at 8:56 PM on January 12, 2010

How did I not know this exists?

The artist, Corey Vidal, has a Facebook page. (His website has very little content, but a memorable URL.) His initial posting of this video triggered a DMCA complaint by Warner Music Video, which YouTube responded to by deleting his account. He appealed, and won.
posted by zarq at 9:15 PM on January 12, 2010

Here is pretty much my favorite Youtube multitrack ever. Rather than being a cappella, he provides his own accompaniment (using improvised instruments when necessary) - and the result sounds better than the original.
posted by NMcCoy at 9:27 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

In a similar vein, there's Kutiman's Thru-You, entirely composed of other people's youtube videos. (previously)
posted by hades at 1:29 AM on January 13, 2010

I don't play World of Warcraft, but this guy's multilayered WoW chants are really amazing:

http://shadeofaranchant.ytmnd.com/

http://gruulchant.ytmnd.com/

http://firemawchant.ytmnd.com/
posted by Jinkeez at 4:21 AM on January 13, 2010

How did I not know this exists?

It'd be more impressive to me if he were actually singing; he's lipsynching to a vocal track made up of four other people's voices. It's still kind of neat, but it lost a lot of its charm for me after I found that out.
posted by EarBucket at 5:09 AM on January 13, 2010

Strong Bad-filter!
posted by spamguy at 7:15 AM on January 13, 2010

It works for large-scale music, too, like this virtual choir singing music by Eric Whitacre.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:14 AM on January 13, 2010

I really, really wanted to like Thriller, but he's so flat on the melody that it pains my soul. Ack. I'll need to rest a bit before trying more links.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:52 AM on January 13, 2010

Holy crap, Hide and Seek is amazing. Totally redeemed the post. Thanks so much! I'm such a sucker for a good vocal harmony.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:02 AM on January 13, 2010

It's still kind of neat, but it lost a lot of its charm for me after I found that out.

Yeah, my enthusiasm was tempered a bit when I discovered that last night. Oh well.

Cruel world, why do you taunt me so?
posted by Salieri at 5:49 PM on January 13, 2010