Last week we wrote about "Campus Hootenanny," an awesome collegiate a cappella compilation LP from the 60s. (That post here.)Well, another must-have bit of a cappella history popped up on eBay. There's been a lot of controversy in a cappella circles about studio effects on albums. Well, it may have started back in 1984 with the Bubs's album "Clue." Bill Allen, a Bub alum, was the engineer on this LP.
The effect in question: The record opens with a song called “Grazin’ in the Grass." Bill recorded the group saying the word “Pow” a few times. “I had them linger on pow,” Bill says, in a story told in Pitch Perfect. “Powwwwwww.” The Bubs were recording on 1/4 inch tape. Bill spliced the tape—literally. He took a pencil and scrubbed the mark, laid it on the splicing block and cut it with a razor. He flipped the tape, and played it back. And so the Powwwwww became a wwwwwwwwoP. “That’s how we got the big crescendo that starts that track,” Bill says.
A cappella fans, "Clue" is up for sale on eBay. Click here to bid!
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