Tomorrow Never Knows

[Vlad_77]

Hey all,

I need some help please. I am in a British invasion act and 40 percent of the music we cover is from The Beatles. We want to cover Tomorrow Never Knows and I am mystified as to how to recreate the "seagull" sound in the song's opening. Sir George Martin had recorded McCartney's voice, sped up the recording then reversed the tape.

I would really like to get as close as possible to that sound and if any instrument can do it I believe the Kronos is the answer.

Obviously I don't want to sample the sound. Even if I wanted to I would have no way to isolate the sound from the drums and bass.

This is driving me crazy. We cover Pink Floyd and no worries, same with other great British bands but The Beatles music between 1966 and 1968 is REALLY tricky soundscape wise.

Any ideas would be very welcome. Luckily we're working on a trio of Pink Floyd tunes but we want to get Tomorrow Never Knows done by March.

Here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjvdZm-Tu8

Thanks all!!

[StephenKay]

Samples of bird calls? I bet you could find one that sounds close to that.

[GregC]

Hey all,

I need some help please. I am in a British invasion act and 40 percent of the music we cover is from The Beatles. We want to cover Tomorrow Never Knows and I am mystified as to how to recreate the "seagull" sound in the song's opening. Sir George Martin had recorded McCartney's voice, sped up the recording then reversed the tape.

there are several distinctive sounds on the tune. If you have all those covered, except for the altered sea gull sound thats very impressive.

[kronoSphere]

If one day I would make a cover of "Tomorrow never knows" I would make it a little bit different and, in a kind of hommage, I would use many reversed sample of some Beatles songs.

[Vlad_77]

Samples of bird calls? I bet you could find one that sounds close to that.

Hi Stephen,

I tried that but still haven't found a sample that's really workable. Most of the seagull samples also have waves and wind. But I'll keep trying. I can't accept that our modern and very powerful instruments can't create this sound.

Best,
Vlad

[Vlad_77]

If one day I would make a cover of "Tomorrow never knows" I would make it a little bit different and, in a kind of hommage, I would use many reversed sample of some Beatles songs.

That is a nice idea. Giles Martin already did something like that. He fused Within You and Without with Tomorrow Never Knows.

This song is an amazing experiment that stands up as well today as in 1966. Not many outside of Beatles and/or prog rock fans know the song and I really want to be as faithful as possible to it. That said, I might be tempted to try tour idea! Some cool songs that could fit would be Rain, She Said She Said, Because, and Cry Baby Cry.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

[Vlad_77]

Hey all,

I need some help please. I am in a British invasion act and 40 percent of the music we cover is from The Beatles. We want to cover Tomorrow Never Knows and I am mystified as to how to recreate the "seagull" sound in the song's opening. Sir George Martin had recorded McCartney's voice, sped up the recording then reversed the tape.

there are several distinctive sounds on the tune. If you have all those covered, except for the altered sea gull sound thats very impressive.

Hi Greg,

I agree. But this song deserves the extra work in trying to be as faithful as possible to the original cut on Revolver.

With many of the other sounds I can at least hear a basis from which to proceed. But this studio trick of Sir George Martin's is a bit of a bear.

So what I'm doing now is going through a crap ton of patches on Kronos - and Jupiter 80 - to see if there is something close enough to work with.

Best,
Vlad

[enigmahack]

Try this if you haven't already:

http://oldclevelandboy9259.podomatic.co ... 6_01-07_00

[Vlad_77]

Try this if you haven't already:

http://oldclevelandboy9259.podomatic.co ... 6_01-07_00

A million blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wagnergrad96]

. We want to cover Tomorrow Never Knows and I am mystified as to how to recreate the "seagull" sound in the song's opening. Sir George Martin had recorded McCartney's voice, sped up the recording then reversed the tape. !!

I'm pretty sure that was just random tape loops, not Paul's voice, but it would be mighty impressive if you could figure out how to get that sound.

Why don't you look for various bootleg mixes of the song and just sample it? I'm sure there's got to be something like that floating around. There are so many different beatles bootlegs.

[Vlad_77]

. We want to cover Tomorrow Never Knows and I am mystified as to how to recreate the "seagull" sound in the song's opening. Sir George Martin had recorded McCartney's voice, sped up the recording then reversed the tape. !!

I'm pretty sure that was just random tape loops, not Paul's voice, but it would be mighty impressive if you could figure out how to get that sound.

Why don't you look for various bootleg mixes of the song and just sample it? I'm sure there's got to be something like that floating around. There are so many different beatles bootlegs.

If you go to the link you'll find a really fascinating story about the song and what The Beatles and George Martin did to get all these great sounds.

I did come across a few ideas on synthesizing these sounds but I think I am going with what I found in that link and a little magic (hopefully) on Kronos and he Jupiter 80; the song player in the Jupiter is much more than just a scratch pad.

Thanks all for the help and the advice! I really appreciate it. The Beatles are my favorite band and he we are, 47 years after they broke up and their impact on music is and I hazard always will be profound.