Talk:Wall of Sound

This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

	Record production portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Record Production; a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's documentation of Record Production articles. Questions or comments related to record production and related articles are welcome at the project's talk page. Anyone interested may join the project: add your name to the list of project members!Record ProductionWikipedia:WikiProject Record ProductionTemplate:WikiProject Record ProductionRecord Production articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Professional sound production Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Professional sound production, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sound recording and reproduction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Professional sound productionWikipedia:WikiProject Professional sound productionTemplate:WikiProject Professional sound productionProfessional sound production articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

The Beatles Low‑importance

This Beatles-related article is within the scope of WikiProject The Beatles, which focuses on improving coverage of English rock band The Beatles and related topics on Wikipedia. Users who are willing to participate in the project should visit the project page, where they can join and see a list of open tasks.The BeatlesWikipedia:WikiProject The BeatlesTemplate:WikiProject The BeatlesThe Beatles articles

Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

To-do list:

For WikiProject The Beatles

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Articles on each Beatle tour (Category:The Beatles concert tours). See: Missing articles.
Expand : The Lost Lennon Tapes, notable radio series which has spawned many bootlegs. Apple Records See also: Adopt an article
Stubs : See: Category:The Beatles song stubs
Update : Pics/Graphics wanted: Kenwood.
Verify : Beatle wives
Other : Project: Add {{WikiProject The Beatles}} to the talk pages of all Beatles-related articles. Send a newsletter to members, canvas for new members and coordinate tasks. Enter articles assessed as stubs onto this list, also list articles needing cleanup and other work here.

This article does not yet have a related to do list. If you can think of any ways to improve the article, why not create one?

Pop music Mid‑importance

	Pop music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pop music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to pop music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Pop musicWikipedia:WikiProject Pop musicTemplate:WikiProject Pop musicPop music articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

It is requested that one or more audio files be included in this article to improve its quality.
Please see Wikipedia:Requested recordings for more on this request.

WTF??[edit]

This is trash, the real wall of sound is the kinda thing used in metal, not some crap by this spector guy... I think this should have something to do with the technique of instruments used, not just reverb shit... That would cover the REAL wall of sound

  You sir win the award  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.241.232.122 (talk) 04:26, 31 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you live to be older, you may someday understand, but you probably won't. As Heinlein once wrote, "the Meth is a harsh mistress". Wall of Sound preceded metal (you douche). Also, check out the Grateful Dead's PA from the mid-70s. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.200.32.170 (talk) 09:12, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Examples?[edit]

anyone have any song examples by artists that really use this type of orchestration?

I know Trent Reznor uses the reverb-room method for his percussion. Instead of putting a drum machine directly through an artificial reverb effects machine, he'll take a drum machine and some speakers in a room, put a microphone somewhere else in the room, and then record it. Just about every synthesized drum you hear in a Nine Inch Nails track is actually a recording of that drum synthesizer being played in the location of some room. --69.234.183.71 20:06, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Wall of Sound (disambiguation)[edit]

I deleted this because it is simply 100% wrong: "The same term (more commonly known as "sheets of sound") was also frequently used to describe the improvising style of tenor sax player John Coltrane, particularly his way of running through scales rapid fire—the individual notes blurring into a larger pattern." Wall of Sound, Sheets of Sound, two totally different things. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.200.32.170 (talk) 09:14, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There are several meanings of Wall of Sound. there is a well known music label called "Wall of Sound" that promotes mostly electronic music - i actually expected to find a page about that label when i searched for "wall of sound" in the wikipedia. therefore, i would start an disambiguation for "Wall of sound".

anyone with me? --Abdull 11:46, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Can you describe your meaning of wall of sound? If it's a sound technique, it would fit onto this page. It's also used a lot for "avant garde" / experimental bands. Sonic Youth, for instance. I think it generally means solid, continuous sounds (i.e. drones).

Hey there, yes disambiguation is a good idea. Many fans of the Grateful Dead know the "Wall of Sound" to be the band's massive (and primitive) collection of onstage amplification tools used to produce, well, a wall of sound at concerts. This was used where there weren't house monitors available. (Please see the article "Grateful Dead" in Wikipedia.

Yes the wall of sound was the Grateful Deads huge P.A. they took on the road in the 70s.

As for merging, I don't like the idea. People will talk about the Wall of Sound whenever Phil Spector comes up (and on his page) but the technique is quite famous in music lore and people will want to know what "it" is, not necessarily only who the inventor is.

Thank you, Jon Anderson March 16, 2006 8:34pm (Tokyo time).

Examples of the wall of sound: Weezer - the blue album, the Rentals - Return of the Rentals, My Bloody Valentine, M83

Wall of Sound (disambiguation 2) :-([edit]

Unfortunately, there is a 21st century meaning of "Wall of Sound" that has hardly anything to do with Phil Spector (it'd rather OFFEND the quality of his work!) but with mastering as loud as possible, see also Loudness_war. Maybe it could be added to Disambiguation page directly or to THIS page. Well, I'm as reluctant as mastering gurus like Bob Ludwig - answering a "make it louder!" request with: Do you REALLY want that? Seriously? - that is, not fire it on the page without asking first. -andy 80.129.89.152 02:43, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Examples?[edit]

I think it would be helpful to include some famous examples of this technique. But I don't know enough about this myself to add any... David Bergan 19:02, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"By My Baby" by The Ronettes and "Da Doo Ron Ron" by The Crystals were among the first canonical Wall of Sound songs to be major hits. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" is one of the earilest well-known non-Spector tunes to also use the technique.

"I Guess I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" by the Beach Boys or really the entire Pet Sounds Album. George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album also has the wall of sound in a big way. They Hey-dey of the Wall of Sound was the early 60s Motown hits that Phil Specter did with his distinct sound which was classifed as the Wall of sound. Brian Wilson and Lilywhite are probably the two biggest producers who ripped off the production technique.

-On that note- not sure if "Dancing Queen" is accurate. Does it use so much echo and room miking as Spector did? Again, it's important to note that "Wall of Sound" doesn't just mean "a ton of instruments." It refers to the way those instruments are echoed and processed to form a giant mass of sound in which you can't necesessarily pick any of the rhythm players out- in ABBA, on the other hand, i feel like the guitars and pianos may be many but are also individually well-balanced. Just a thought.

Why aren't there more (any?) examples of "wall of sound" records actually produced by Spector? After all if this idiom is credited to him, shouldn't this article list more of his work as examples? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.112.164.155 (talk) 02:51, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Merge with Phil Spector?[edit]

Discussion moved to Talk:Phil Spector#Merge. Hyacinth 12:03, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Modern Implementations?[edit]

It would be interesting to know if the Wall of Sound technique is being reproduced with modern digital techniques and, if so, what those might be.

The "wall of sound" concept really only describes the birth of layering as multitrack recording developed (due to Les Paul.) Spector was the first one to widely employ this technique with impunity and the term originates WITH him and ought not be associated with the heavily biased and contentious discussions of "loudness wars" aka the practice of overlimiting final recordings in the MASTERING stage, because Wall of Sound is a MIX concept and this represent "definition creep" and belongs on urban dictionary, not wikipedia, due to lack of historical depth and lack of widespread usage. In addition to layering the use of reverberant spaces, tape delays, etc can be considered a part of it, basically you are talking about three dimensional mixing or spacial mixing, which came into its own even more with the introduction of stereophonic recording and producers like Alan Parsons. This article needs a cleanup from a real engineer.

I'm currently researching, and building a wall of sound template using Logic as my DAW, There are a few teething problems, but, if anyone would like a copy of the template please email me: thompsom15@roehampton.ac.uk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.115.182.182 (talk) 16:09, 14 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Xmas phil spector.jpg[edit]

Image:Xmas phil spector.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 08:23, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Let It Be album[edit]

I think it's inaccurate to say that Spector's 're-production' of Let It Be is any kind of example of the wall of sound, let alone 'the most famous use' of it.

There's an particular 'feel' to a wall of sound record, which these recordings don't have. The overdubs are standard horn and string arrangements, penned by arranger Richard Anthony Hewson and recorded in a straightforward way.

I suggest removing this part of the article unless someone can come up with a citation to back up the idea that the retouched 'Let It Be' songs were meant to be wall of sound arrangements. The mere fact that Spector's name is on the record isn't enough. Domino42 (talk) 03:10, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just did this, using quotation from original LP sleeve. 99.93.246.124 (talk) 21:40, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Megalomanic conundrum[edit]

The section on recording techniques contains some very wacky turns of phrase - megalomanic conundrum, vocal protagonism - rewrite? Bitbut (talk) 13:50, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Uncited other musicians and producers[edit]

I've marked the growing list of acts that are purport to use wall of sound production. For these to be included in the article, we need to find reliable sources that use the term (wall of sound) when describing these efforts. Without references, this material is original research and/or fancruft. --Kvng (talk) 21:27, 4 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unrelated concept[edit]

I removed the "see also"-section, linking to loudness war, as I fail to see any relation between these concepts whatsoever. Devanatha (talk) 23:24, 14 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is not an article[edit]

but a promo for Spector/WoS. Utterly disgraceful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.68.94.86 (talk) 15:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What do you suggest to improve it?--Ilovetopaint (talk) 23:29, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A little too much repeated early[edit]

The end of the intro repeats about 70% of the quote from Layering. Perhaps this could be "pared down" to the minimum so that we don't (deja vu) read the same thing twice in the same article.2600:8807:4800:463:3D25:DF12:49E2:D9BE (talk) 21:17, 2 February 2020 (UTC)Dfoofnik not logged in)[reply]

The use of the term "critical shorthand"[edit]

The article uses "critical shorthand" in the second paragraph: "Critical shorthand usually reduces the Wall of Sound inaccurately to a maximum of noise.", and then again later: "It has been inaccurately suggested in critical shorthand that Spector's 'wall of sound' filled every second with a maximum of noise". The article fails to define what this term means and the answer is not easily obtainable from a search engine or dictionary search; it seems to be an obscure term used in academia. Ericobnn (talk) 22:41, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

removed from lead, clunky, it's trying to say critics of the method thought 'Wall of Sound' = 'Maximum noise.' Acous mana 20:43, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]