OOPS

No, not a mistake. Out Of Phase Stereo.

It's a process that Beatles fans have been doing for years. Take a stereo track, invert one of the channels, and output in mono. The center drops out, and what remains is usually instrumental, and it's usually a mystery. You usually lose the vocal, either entirely or it gets really buried.

I OOPSed the entirety of The Seldom Seen Kid, just for kicks.

Elbow is an interesting band to OOPS, because they already have an interesting sonic texture. Running TSSK through the OOPS process produces something... different. "Starlings" basically strips down to a rock steady beat with the orchestra chiming in from time to time. "The Bones of You" loses the vocal, but the backing vocals, heavily distorted and vaguely druggy, are brought to the fore. "Tower Crane Driver" sounds like it's a message from Mars. "Some Riot" is reduced to the instrumentals, with some heavy reverb, but! You can also hear Guy Garvey's intake breathing. "One Day Like This" is recognizable, except that Garvey's vocal sounds like he recorded it in a bathroom down the hall, and the big surprise is that there are finger snaps in the song. Very little of "Friend of Ours" remains as most of that song is recorded in the center.

Anyone else OOPS an Elbow track, just for fun?

Interesting! I've used the process occasionally on pre-1970s tracks to knock the vocals out, but I'd almost forgotten about it until now. I've never tried it on Elbow, will have to give it a go and post up the results so non-music geeks can have a listen!

nerrrrrrrrrrrrrdddddddsssssssssssss

Who rattled your cage?! Thanks for bumping the thread and reminding me I was going to do this though.

Not rattled, the smile was supposed to turn the 'insult' into a friendly joke. Now that i think about it though, shouting nerrrrrrdddd is a bit of an in joke with me and my friends so may not translate

allyngibson wrote:

Take a stereo track, invert one of the channels, and output in mono.

You do what now?

ha, no worries Steve, I'm used to being called a "nerd" anyway!

Mollyb wrote:

allyngibson wrote:

Take a stereo track, invert one of the channels, and output in mono.

You do what now?

There's a wikipedia article about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_inversion although it's too nerdy even for me! Basically you get the left-hand channel, perform a phase inversion on it, and mix it with the right-hand channel. It's just a funny bit of audio fuckery.

And if the two channels were identical (i.e. it was a mono track) then they would cancel each other out and the music would completely disappear as if by magic.

I understand what to do.......but don't think I'm confident enough with electrics to start messing with my stereo.

You don't need to worry about electrics, you can do it on your computer! Just bung a load of mp3s or wavs into Audacity...

Huh! Interesting....... I must have a go at this so! Cool cheers.

I want to hear these!

I would love to hear the results of this process...seems quite interesting!

Has anyone managed to OOPS anything yet?

Been insanely busy but might have a go this week.

The only thing i've ever OOpsed - was upside my head, oops up side your head, i said oops up side your head....(one for the circa 40 year olds)

Yes, but did you all sit on the floor and pretend to row a boat??

I did (only once, mind you)

Yeah - Under 14 disco when i was about 12 or something.
It was a step up from the Can Can and the birdy song