Re: OOPSing Weird Al?

Date: 05 Jul 2003 18:18:30 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.music.weird-al
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What Tommy Who is talking about is "OOPS" - Out Of Phase Stereo. It involves
inverting one audio channel and combining it with the other channel. It's the
same process used in karaoke machines, and if it were to be explained in
socratic terms, it would be this formula -
All in both left and right channels disappears
What is in left but not right channel, or in right but not left channel, is
enhanced.
I did a column on this in Goldmine a few months ago. It only works on true
stereo mixes (it doesn't work very well on rechanneled or fake stereo, and it
actually turns a monaural record silent).
The best part of OOPS is that you can hear instruments that were previously
buried in the mix, or vocalists that might be covered by the vocals.
A note - this should not be construed as a way to uncover "hidden meanings" or
"secret messages," as these OOPS recordings were never designed to be heard in
this format.
A song like "UHF" suddenly becomes an instrumental in OOPS.
On "One More Minute," the bass disappears, and you can hear Al's echo half a
beat behind the song.
On a simple two-track recording like "My Bologna," the recording becomes more
brassy, but Al's voice and the accordion are still distinct.
On "Amish Paradise," the only thing you hear are the violin strains at the
beginning of the record - Al's voice doesn't even appear until the refrain.
In fact, here's my column earlier this year from Goldmine on the subject of
Out-Of-Phase Stereo.
Chuck
Bill Cosby first introduced me to "OOPS." It was on an early comedy record,
where he said that doctors may use a lot of indecipherable terms in surgery,
but you know clearly when they say "Oops." Or for some collectors, it's what
they hear when some klutz scrapes the needle across the grooves of your
near-mint copy of Blood on the Tracks. At which point, of course, there would
be blood on your knuckles.
To some collectors, "OOPS" is actually an inventive way to listen to your
favorite stereo songs, creating an interpretation that would mystify even the
artists who originally recorded the song. There are plenty of sites devoted to
Beatles and Pink Floyd and Abba songs as heard in OOPS (a good place to start
is at http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/wgo.htm, for Beatles fans); and many of
these sites explain how to rewire your amplifier or turntable to get the magic
OOPS sound.
OOPS is an acronym for "Out Of Phase Stereo." It's the same technique used by
karaoke machines to eliminate the singer's vocals from a record, so that a
homegrown singer can have their own instrumental backing track. Remixers use
OOPS to create new extended dance tracks for remixes, while bootleggers use
OOPS to create spurious new "rare alternate mix" CD's.
This is how OOPS works. Imagine sound as a sine wave, oscillating back and
forth. Those vibrations create the sounds we hear. And as long as the source
sending the sound to the speakers is in synch, the sound is sweet. But if you
send an inverted signal and a regular signal to the same speaker, the sounds
cancel each other out - similar to combining a positive 23 and a negative 23.
In a normal home theater or stereo component assembly, there are two wires that
run from the amplifier to each speaker - a positive and a negative wire (the
negative is also the ground wire). Now imagine if you disconnect the ground
wires from the amplifier, and connect the negative points on each speaker with
the same wire, so that the speakers have one wire connected to the speaker, and
one wire connected to the opposite speaker. Now, instead of the power
returning to the amplifier and completing the circuit, the amplifier outputs
actually cancel each other out - erasing the sounds that would normally appears
in both speakers. Monaural recordings become silence; while stereo recordings
lose any vocals that were tracked for the center. Oh hell, go to this page
(http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/beatles/oops.htm) and all will be explained.
A word of warning, though - many amplifiers and electronic components do not
appreciate their connections rewired for OOPS. You can blow out a speaker, or
short-circuit your amplifier. Neither myself, nor Goldmine, nor Krause
Publications, are responsible for any damage inflicted on your electronic
equipment by your rewiring the speakers in violation of the manufacturers'
instructions. If you do want to experience that OOPS sound in a safer manner,
simply record the sound file into your computer, then use a program like
CoolEdit, Diamond Cut or Sound Forge, running the file through a filter like
"Vocal Cut" or "Left Minus Right."
If done properly, OOPS can enhance vocals that were previously buried in a mix
of instruments; accentuate instrumental timbre; and bring to the forefront a
whole new interpretation of a classic song. Heck, it may even clear up what
the singer was actually saying - was it really "cut loose like a deuce" or
"wrapped up like a deush," or whatever those lyrics were. And as an added
bonus, if the artist's vocals were originally centered in the mix, the finished
OOPS product will provide you with an instrumental karaoke-ready version of
your favorite songs, making you one Simon Cowell rejection away from
superstardom. Hearing an Out Of Phase Stereo mix done incorrectly, however, can
bring pain to the ears faster than Jim Rome saying, "Which call do I take
first, Jeff in Richmond or Willie in K.C...."
Naturally, I had to try this for myself, and see what mysteries awaited in the
grooves. I took a cross-section of 45's, LP's and CD tracks, and recorded them
into my computer. I used my trusty Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntable with a
Stanton 500 series cartridge, transmitted through a Radio Shack Optimus
receiver, into my Hewlett Packard Pentium 4 IBM compatible computer. Once the
analog sound files were digitized onto my hard drive, I used Cool Edit 2000 to
invert the left channel of the recording, then combined both left and right
channels into a monaural mix. Here's what I found:
The Beatles, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - most of the music disappears, but the
Beatles' vocals remain. You can hear John Lennon calling out "Ring!" after the
lyric "buys a twenty-carat diamond ring." You can also hear someone spell out
"Home - H-O-M-E" after the lyric, "In a couple of years, they have built a home
sweet home..."
Foreigner, "Waiting For A Girl Like You" - In OOPS, everything's wiped off -
the drums, the guitars, almost all of Lou Gramm's vocals - and all that's left
is Thomas Dolby's ethereal keyboards.
Styx, "Come Sail Away" - If you want Dennis DeYoung out of Styx, run this song
through the OOPS program. The pianos, guitars and synths remain, as well as
the background vocals, but Dennis' lead vocal has disappeared.
Boston, "More Than A Feeling" - One minute into the song, at the moment where
Brad Delp saw his Marianne walking away, the guitars go from loud
fuzz-distorted electrics to soft acoustics. Barry Goudreau's instrumental
guitar solo is punched way up.
AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top" - A fuzz guitar lover's dream. The
guitars take center stage on this song, while Bon Scott's vocals and the rock
bagpipes are almost non-existent.
Frank Sinatra, "Summer Wind" - the brass and horn stingers are clearer and
stronger.
Steam, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" - Lead and background vocals disappear
completely. The instrumental drum break has a minimalist tempo, hitting at
four beats per measure instead of sixteen beats per measure.
Village People, "Macho Man" - Are you aware that there was a whole orchestra
behind these six guys? Horns, a string section, even a guitar that played the
vocal melody? You can hear it in OOPS.
Bruce Springsteen, "Born To Run" - Is that a glockenspiel I hear in the mix,
tinging away as Springsteen croons about a death trap, a suicide rap?
Apollo 100, "Joy" - The Beethoven-esque harpsichord riffs disappear for the
first half of the song, replaced by a funky drum-and-guitar rhythm track. You
can even hear some Chicago-style horns about 2 minutes into the song.
Dawn, "Candida" - With Tony Orlando's voice almost wiped off, there are lots of
surprises in this song, including a Flamenco guitar in the refrain, and a
trumpet chorus that would make Herb Alpert proud.
Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Love's Theme" - With the drums removed, the entire
rhythm section is carried by a single chukka-chukka guitar riff.
Manhattan Transfer, "Operator" - You could start your own gospel chorus with
the OOPS version of this song, as the organ and piano are punched up.
Stevie Wonder, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," With most Motown stereo songs,
the rhythm track is in the left channel, the instruments are in the right, and
the vocalist is in the center. Which means, in the OOPS version of this song,
Stevie himself is almost invisible, while the original instrumental and rhythm
tracks are as strong as ever.
The Raspberries, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" - The hook refrain, "Hit
Record, yeah" is much clearer in the opening verses. The background vocals are
louder, as you can hear them actually echoing Eric Carmen's lead vocal.
The Clash, "Police On My Back" - Nothing but Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and some
very angry guitars. The drums have been removed.
Daryl Hall and John Oates, "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" - Drums and rhythm
track disappear, but the synth keyboards and guitar accents remain. When Daryl
sings the verses, the only thing you hear is Daryl and a solitary organ playing
the chords.
The 5th Dimension, "Aquarius" / "Let The Sunshine In" - Starts out normally,
but by the time they get to the refrain, it's just the voices, some rhythm
guitars and a tambourine. When the "Let the Sunshine In" part of the song
begins, the horns are more accentuated, yet the rest of the recording is the
5th Dimension voices, a piano and some hand claps. The ad-libbed lyric about
"open up your heart and let the sun shine on in now" has vanished.
Tracey Ullman, "They Don't Know" - Don't listen to this song in OOPS. Tracey's
main vocal is wiped off, but her echo can be heard - half a beat behind the
melody.
MFSB, "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" - Another track that sounds totally
spacey with the drums and bass removed. The violins now take the forefront.
Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Freddie Mercury has left the building, while the
rest of the band - piano, drums, guitar, Roger Taylor, Brian May, John Deacon -
remain intact. In fact, Mercury's voice doesn't even come back to the record
until he sings this cameo lyric, "So you think you can stone me and spit in my
eye..."
t.A.T.u, "All The Things She Said" - The girls' voices are almost nonexistent,
save for some echo effects on the refrain, and the words "This is not enough."
The hard guitars and drums are also eliminated. An acoustic guitar pops up in
one of the verse breaks.