Posted by Allen Chandler on October 7, 2014, 9:26 pm
Hi Larry
I was wondering how Jim dubbed English lyrics to some of his Afrikaans songs. Did he sing to the original tracks and dub the English words at the proper time in the song? I've listened to Ek Verlang Na Jou and I'm Crying Again and the music is exactly the same.
Re: Afrikaans songs
Posted by Mike Slater on October 7, 2014, 11:01 pm, in reply to "Afrikaans songs"
I'm sure Larry could answer this one, but it sounds to me like they are the exact same takes. The versions with the English speaking lines included were probably "punched in" to the original versions.I think I have heard a few alternate vocals of a few of these songs though.
Re: Afrikaans songs
Posted by Larry Jordan on October 8, 2014, 2:55 am, in reply to "Re: Afrikaans songs"
Jim did not wear headphones, nor did anybody else at RCA Studio B in those days. One of their old time engineers told me he set up speakers "out of phase" (don't ask...it's too technical!) and did a playback and Jim sang to it. His vocals were recorded on three track equipment with his voice generally in the center. So they could mute that on the original "take" in places where they wanted him to sing English lyrics during playback. The challenge was that Jim had to try to match the same tonal quality in his voice with the original recording.
They captured Jim's re-sung English lyrics and then substituted them in a remixed version of the song so it would have more commercial appeal to English only audiences.