Akil Yearwood

The Beatles Sergeant Peppers Album was the most ambitious

album of the bands career and at the time. Sgt. Peppers was
groundbreaking due to the use of music technology and it was a
concept album.
Sergeant Peppers was the first album to use more than four tracks
which was enabled by strapping together two four track tape
recorders. If more than four tracks were needed, the engineer
would put more than one instrument or sound on each microphone
and then bounced down the tracks. However, once this has been
done, individual tracks cant be edited separately from each other.
The Beatles themselves were keen experimenters and innovators
with instrumental technology using devices such as a tape based
keyboard sampler and effects like the wah-wah pedal and fuzzbox.
Three good examples where The Beatles used technology is With a
little help from my friends, Good Morning and Fixing a hole.
With a little help from my friends is in Eb major and the vocals
were by Ringo Starr. It is a standard pop song structure: 2 verses,
refrain followed by a bridge, 3rd verse and bridge and final verse.
The technique used in this track is stereo technique. Stereo
technique is a method of capturing stereo sound. Stereo was quite
new at the time of this album as it was used after World War II.
Stereo sound is directed through two or more speakers so that
surrounds the listener. The use of this technique in the production of
the track placed Ringos vocal fractionally to the left of the stereo
image and balanced this with the bass placed fractionally to the
right to create a surround sound.
Fixing a hole is often thought that The Beatles is referring to drug
use but is actually about Paul McCartneys recently purchased house
in Scotland. The house was in disrepair and needed a bit of fixing.
This song makes use of various recording and sound techniques.
Double tracking is used in the track which is used on the lead guitar
played by Harrison. Double tracking or vocal doubling is an audio
recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with
their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or
"bigger" sound than can be obtained with a single voice or
instrument.

Akil Yearwood
Panning effect is used in the track by making the guitar extreme
right, vocal and bass central and drum kit and harpsichord left. This
makes the overall song unbalanced. Panning means to move a
signal from the left to the right of a stereo field, or vice versa. Refers
to moving an audio signal left or right in the stereo spectrum. Also
called the balance control. All stereo audio mixers have panning,
and most software sequencers allow you to set and change panning.
And finally, another self-evident application of recording technology
occurs in the song Good Morning, which includes a whole array of
animal sounds towards the ending. The animals in this section are
intended to increase in wildness as the passage.
Other technological innovations in this song include the creation of
an aggressive instrumental sound by close microphone placement
and heavy compression of the ensuing signal. The song is also
innovative in regard of its rhythm and meter with, continual changes
between 4/4,3/4, and 5/4 time signatures. The song ends as it began
with clucking chicken sound effect, cleverly placed so that it segues
into the guitar on the next track.
To conclude, The Beatles were very innovative and creative in their
use of recording technology by using different sounds and effects in
the album. The album itself was original as it was the first album to
use more than four tracks in the production of the album making
this a groundbreaking album that revolutionised music for the
future.