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95-473: In music, the use of acoustic echo and reverberation effects has taken many forms and dates back many hundreds of years. Sacred music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods relied heavily on the composers' extensive understanding and use of the complex natural reverberation and echoes inside churches and cathedrals. This early acoustical knowledge informed the design of opera houses and concert halls in

190-545: A song plugger when occasionally assigned the task by Preuss, comparing himself to a "sheep among wolves". Preuss retired as head of Parlophone in April 1955, leaving the 29-year-old Martin to take over the label. Martin soon hired Ron Richards to be his A&R assistant. However, Martin had to fight to retain the label, as by late 1956 EMI managers considered moving Parlophone's successful artists to Columbia Records or His Master's Voice (HMV), with Martin possibly to take

285-706: A "fireproof" hit-making pop artist or group. In August 1964, Martin oversaw Judy Garland 's final studio recording session, with two songs from the Maggie May musical. By late 1962, Martin had established a strong working relationship with Brian Epstein , the Beatles' manager. Epstein also managed (or was considering managing) a number of other Liverpool music acts, and soon these acts began recording with Martin. When Martin visited Liverpool in December 1962, Epstein showed him successful local acts like Gerry and

380-464: A 4 September session, with the Beatles now featuring Ringo Starr on drums. The Beatles also re-recorded "Love Me Do" and played an early version of " Please Please Me ", which Martin thought was "dreary" and needed to be sped up. Though Martin was sure "How Do You Do It" could be a hit, the Beatles hated the song's style and Murray disliked the Beatles' recording of it. Additionally, Ardmore & Beechwood protested Martin's plan to issue an A-side that

475-590: A Beatles' fifth single, " I Want to Hold Your Hand ", only after Wood met Capitol president Alan Livingston in person, in New York, in November 1963 with an order from EMI chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood to do so. Martin alleged that when he and the Beatles travelled to New York to make their American debut in February 1964, Livingston kept Martin away from the press to minimize EMI's role (and promote Capitol's) in

570-589: A Royal Navy variety show; Martin played a self-composed piano piece. As he climbed rank in the Navy, Martin consciously adopted the middle-class accent and gentlemanly social demeanour common for officers. Encouraged by the pianist, teacher and broadcaster Sidney Harrison , Martin used his veteran's grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950. He studied piano as his main instrument and oboe as his secondary, being interested in

665-442: A commission on record sales. Wood offered him a 3% commission minus "overhead costs", which would have translated to an £11,000 bonus for 1964—though, in doing so, Wood revealed to Martin that EMI had made £2.2 million in net profit from Martin's records that year. "With that simple sentence, he cut straight through whatever vestige of an umbilical cord still bound me to EMI. ... I was flabbergasted", Martin observed. As Martin exited

760-635: A cover of the teen novelty song " Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini " and released it mere days after the release of the record in the UK, opening him to public accusations of piracy. Martin's version, recorded by 18-year-old Paul Hanford, failed to chart in Britain—though it performed well in several other countries and reached no. 1 in Mexico. Martin produced two singles for Paul Gadd in 1961. Later better known as Gary Glitter , at this time Gadd used

855-429: A few inches apart), which, on playback, created a gap that inadvertently produced the iconic "slap-back" effect. With the advent of digital signal processing and other digital audio technologies, it has become possible to simulate almost every "echo chamber" effect by processing the signal digitally. Because digital devices are able to simulate an almost limitless variety of real reverberant spaces as well as replicate

950-525: A good publisher, as he believed Ardmore & Beechwood had done nothing to promote "Love Me Do"; this led them to Dick James , a business acquaintance of Martin. Martin considered recording the Beatles' first LP as a live album at their home venue in Liverpool, The Cavern Club , and promoted this idea in an NME interview in late November. However, Martin found the Cavern unsuitable for recording during

1045-611: A junior A&R role at HMV under Wally Ridley . Martin staved off corporate pressure with successes in comedy records, such as a 1957 recording of the two-man show featuring Michael Flanders and Donald Swann , At the Drop of a Hat . His work transformed the profile of Parlophone from a "sad little company" to a highly profitable business over time. As head of Parlophone, Martin recorded classical and Baroque music, original cast recordings , jazz , and regional music from around Britain and Ireland. He signed singer Dick James , later

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1140-504: A large, vaulted 19th-century building originally constructed as a church and missionary school. Montreal's Church of St. Eustache is the favored recording venue of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and many others and is much sought after for classical recordings because of its unique acoustic characteristics. The distinctive reverberation on the early hit records by Bill Haley & His Comets was created by recording

1235-638: A locally popular dance band, the Four Tune Tellers. He was influenced at this time by George Shearing and Meade Lux Lewis . He also took up acting in a troupe called the Quavers. With money earned from playing dances, Martin resumed formal piano lessons and learned musical notation . Martin endured the London Blitz during this time, inspiring an interest in aircraft. Despite Martin's continued interest in music, and "fantasies about being

1330-484: A meeting on 13 February 1962 with Epstein, who played for Martin the recording of the Beatles' failed January audition for Decca Records . Epstein recalled that Martin liked George Harrison 's guitar playing and preferred Paul McCartney 's singing voice to John Lennon 's, though Martin himself recalled that he "wasn't knocked out at all" by the "lousy tape". With Martin apparently uninterested, Ardmore & Beechwood's Colman and Bennett pressured EMI management to sign

1425-668: A mid-December visit, and he decided to record the group in the studio instead. As Martin had predicted, " Please Please Me " reached no. 1 on most of the British singles charts upon its release in January 1963. "From that moment, we simply never stood still", he reflected. For the Beatles' first LP, Martin had the group record 10 tracks to pair with the A- and B-sides of their first two singles—for 14 tracks in total. They accomplished this in one marathon recording session, on 11 February 1963, with

1520-501: A number of their records. Their collaborations resulted in popular, highly acclaimed records with innovative sounds, such as the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band —the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year . Martin's career spanned more than sixty years in music, film, television and live performance. Before working with the Beatles and other pop musicians, he produced comedy and novelty records in

1615-603: A nurse during the First World War , treated him at home. In 1931, the family moved to Aubert Park in Highbury, where the Martin family first lived with electricity. When he was six, Martin's family acquired a piano that sparked his interest in music. At eight years of age, he persuaded his parents that he should take piano lessons, but those ended after only six lessons because of a disagreement between his mother and

1710-483: A public concert. It was absolutely magical. As a child, he attended several Roman Catholic schools, including Our Lady of Sion ( Holloway ), St Joseph's School ( Highgate ), and at St Ignatius' College ( Stamford Hill ), where he had won a scholarship. When World War II broke out, St Ignatius College students were evacuated to Welwyn Garden City . Martin's family left London, with his being enrolled at Bromley Grammar School . At Bromley, Martin led and played piano in

1805-460: A recording contract. In 1953, Martin produced Goodwin's first record, an instrumental cover of Charlie Chaplin 's theme from Limelight , which made it to no. 3 on the British charts. Despite these early breakthroughs, Martin resented EMI's preference in the early 1950s for short-playing 78 rpm records instead of the new longer-playing 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 and 45 rpm formats coming into fashion on other labels. He also proved uncomfortable as

1900-399: A recording studio". Both The Best of Sellers and its follow-up Songs for Swingin' Sellers (1959) were critical and commercial successes in the UK. Martin later became firm friends with Spike Milligan , and was best man at Milligan's second wedding: "I loved The Goon Show , and issued an album of it on my label Parlophone, which is how I got to know Spike." The album was Bridge on

1995-406: A very short delay between each repeat is often referred to as a " slapback " echo. This distinctive sound is one of the key sonic characteristics of 1950s rock and roll and rockabilly , and can be heard on the classic mid-50s Sun Records recordings by Elvis Presley and others. This effect was a result of the unintentional combination of the recording and monitoring tape heads (physically located

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2090-525: A vital German imprint in the past, it was then not taken seriously and used only for EMI's insignificant acts. Among Martin's early duties was managing Parlophone's classical records catalogue, including Baroque ensemble sessions with Karl Haas ; Martin, Haas, and Peter Ustinov soon founded the London Baroque Society together. He also developed a friendship and working relationship with composer Sidney Torch and signed Ron Goodwin to

2185-776: A young David Frost to share insider information on the shady business practices of A&R men such as Paramor; this scoop aired in an episode of London AR-TV's This Week public affairs programme in November, causing Paramor great embarrassment. In 1955, EMI purchased American recording company Capitol Records . Though this gave Capitol the right of first refusal to issue records in the US from EMI artists, in practice Capitol's head of international A&R, Dave Dexter Jr. , chose to issue very few British records in America. Martin and his EMI A&R colleagues became irate at how few British records were issued by Capitol, and how little promotion

2280-454: Is a complex mixture of direct sound from the source and its echoes and reverberations, audiences naturally found the totally 'dry' and reverberation-free sound of early recordings unappealing. Consequently, record producers and engineers quickly came up with an effective method of adding "artificial" echo and reverberation that experts could control with a remarkable degree of accuracy. Producing echo and reverberation in this form of echo chamber

2375-518: Is a river that runs through England and Wales. The album featured Milligan, Sellers, Jonathan Miller , and Peter Cook , playing various characters. Martin scored a major success in 1961 with the Beyond the Fringe show cast album, which starred Peter Cook , Dudley Moore , Alan Bennett , and Jonathan Miller ; the show catalyzed Britain's satire boom in the early 1960s. In early 1963, he produced

2470-531: Is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the listener. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, a building, or the walls of enclosed and empty rooms. The word echo derives from the Greek ἠχώ ( ēchō ), itself from ἦχος ( ēchos ), 'sound'. Echo in Greek mythology was a mountain nymph whose ability to speak was cursed, leaving her able only to repeat

2565-426: Is simple. A signal from the studio mixing desk—such as a voice or instrument—is fed to a large high-fidelity loudspeaker located at one end of the chamber. One or more microphones are placed along the length of the room, and these pick up both the sound from the speaker and its reflections off the walls of the chamber. The farther away from the loudspeaker, the more echo and reverberation the microphone(s) picks up, and

2660-650: Is to add colour and depth to the original sound, and to simulate the rich natural reverberation that is a feature of large concert halls. The development of artificial echo and reverberation chambers was important for sound recording because of the limitations of early recording systems. Except in the case of live performances, most commercially popular recordings are made in specially constructed studios. These rooms were both heavily insulated to exclude external noises and internally somewhat anechoic —that is, they were designed not to produce any internal echoes or sound reverberation. Because virtually every sound in everyday life

2755-516: The Associated London Scripts cooperative of comedy writers in the 1950s and 1960s, offering equal shares in the company to his A&R colleagues and expecting them to pay studio costs proportionate to their earnings. He named it Associated Independent Recording (AIR). Short of startup capital and with many of AIR's associated acts still under contract to EMI, Martin negotiated a business arrangement with EMI that would give EMI

2850-663: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop , to create two electronic singles, "Time Beat" and "Waltz in Orbit", which were released as records by the pseudonymous Ray Cathode. Martin also earned praise from EMI chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood for his top-10 1962 hit with Bernard Cribbins , " The Hole in the Ground ". He earned another top-10 hit with Cribbins that year, with " Right Said Fred ". Though Martin wanted to add rock and roll to Parlophone's repertoire, he struggled to find

2945-520: The right of first refusal on any AIR production. In exchange, EMI would pay a 7% producer's royalty on any AIR record by an artist not signed to EMI, and a 2% royalty on records by artists who were signed. A special arrangement was made for Beatles records, wherein AIR was to receive 0.5% of UK retail sales and 5% of the pressing fees EMI generated from licensing records in the US. Martin's departure from EMI and foundation of an independent production company

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3040-563: The 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Architects designed these to create internal reflections that would enhance and project sound from the stage in the days before electrical amplification. Sometimes echo effects are the unintentional side effect of the architectural or engineering design, such as for the Hamilton Mausoleum in Scotland, which has one of the longest reverberation times of any building. Developments in electronics in

3135-556: The 1950s and early 1960s as the head of EMI 's Parlophone label, working with Peter Sellers , Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins , among others. His work with other Liverpool rock groups in the early mid-1960s helped popularize the Merseybeat sound. In 1965, he left EMI and formed his own production company, Associated Independent Recording . AllMusic has described Martin as the "world's most famous record producer". In his career, Martin produced 30 number-one hit singles in

3230-459: The 1950s in music performance and recording. The Echoplex is a tape delay effect , first made in 1959, that recreates the sound of an acoustic echo. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by most of the notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after. While Echoplexes were used heavily by guitar players (and

3325-541: The Beatles in hopes of gaining the rights to Lennon–McCartney song publishing on Beatle records; Colman and Bennett even offered to pay for the expense of the Beatles' first EMI recordings. EMI managing director L. G. ("Len") Wood rejected this proposal. Separately, Martin's relationship with Wood became strained by spring 1962, as the two had strong disagreements over business matters and also Wood's disapproval of Martin's ongoing extramarital relationship with his secretary (and later wife), Judy. To appease Colman's interest in

3420-484: The Beatles recorded " Love Me Do " for a third time with Andy White playing drums, as well as the B-side of their first single, "P.S. I Love You", and a sped-up version of "Please Please Me". Starr was asked to play tambourine and maracas, and although he complied, he was definitely "not pleased". Due to an EMI library error, a 4 September version with Starr playing drums was issued on the British single release; afterwards,

3515-456: The Beatles recording a mix of Lennon–McCartney originals and covers from their stage act. Nine days later, Martin overdubbed a piano part to the song " Misery " and a celesta on " Baby It's You ". The resulting album, Please Please Me , became a huge success in the UK, reaching no. 1 on the charts in May and staying there for 30 consecutive weeks until replaced by the Beatles' second album, With

3610-547: The Beatles signed a five-year contract renewal in exchange. When Martin countered that EMI should raise the royalty without conditions. Wood grudgingly acquiesced, but Martin believed that, "from that moment on, I was considered a traitor within EMI". During Martin's tenure at Parlophone, he also maintained a rivalry with fellow A&R director Norrie Paramor , head of EMI's prominent Columbia label. Before Martin became one of Britain's most in-demand producers thanks to his work with

3705-429: The Beatles' first recording date on 6 June 1962. Though Martin later called the 6 June 1962 session at EMI's studio two an "audition", as he had never seen the band play before, the session was actually intended to record material for the first Beatles single. Ron Richards and his engineer Norman Smith recorded four songs—" Besame Mucho ", " Love Me Do ", " Ask Me Why ", and " P.S. I Love You ". Martin arrived during

3800-432: The Beatles' success. Martin and the Beatles resented Capitol's practice of issuing records often highly divergent from British record releases. These changes could include the album title, cover art, and songs included. In addition, Dexter frequently altered Martin's mixes of Beatles tracks by processing them through Capitol's Duophonic mock stereo system. Capitol's divergent treatment of Beatle albums did not cease until

3895-479: The Beatles, Wood directed Martin to sign the group. Martin met with Epstein again on 9 May at EMI Studios in London, and informed him he would give the Beatles a standard recording contract with Parlophone, to record a minimum of six tracks in the first year. The royalty rate was to be one penny for each record sold on 85% of records, which was to be split among the four members and Epstein. They agreed to hold

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3990-439: The Beatles, he was envious that Paramor had produced highly successful pop acts, such as Cliff Richard . He admitted to looking with "something close to desperation" for similar success. Martin also believed that Paramor's habit of forcing Columbia artists to record his own songs as B-sides (thus giving Paramor, who used more than 30 pseudonyms in this practice, a royalty on the single) was unethical. In March 1962, Martin met with

4085-519: The Fourmost in summer 1963 with a cover of one of John Lennon's earliest songs, " Hello Little Girl ", which reached no. 9. Their follow-up, released in November, was another Lennon–McCartney work, " I'm In Love ", which reached the top 20. Martin also agreed to sign the Beatles' Cavern Club associate Cilla Black . Her first record was a discarded Lennon–McCartney song, " Love of the Loved ". The record

4180-628: The New York-based Atlantic Records feature echo and reverb effects produced by simply placing a speaker and microphone in the office bathroom—a process also used by Producer/Engineer Bruce Botnick while recording The Doors for their 1970 album L.A. Woman . In the 1950s and 1960s, the development of magnetic audio tape technology made it possible to duplicate physical echo and reverberation effects entirely electronically. The Watkins Copicat , designed and built by renowned British electronics engineer Charlie Watkins in

4275-461: The Pacemakers and the Fourmost ; Martin urged Epstein to audition them for EMI. Gerry and the Pacemakers scored their first no. 1 with their version of " How Do You Do It? ", a song previously rejected by the Beatles, in April 1963. The group's next two singles (also produced by Martin), " I Like It " and " You'll Never Walk Alone ", also reached no. 1, earning the group the distinction of being

4370-536: The River Wye . It was a spoof of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai , being based on the 1957 Goon Show episode "An African Incident". It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the name was used. Martin edited out the 'K' every time the word Kwai was spoken, with Bridge on the River Wye being the result. The River Wye

4465-600: The United Kingdom and 23 number-one hits in the United States, and won six Grammy Awards . He also held a number of senior-executive positions at media companies and contributed to a wide range of charitable causes, including The Prince's Trust and the Caribbean island of Montserrat . In recognition of his services to the music industry and popular culture, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1996. Martin

4560-549: The accompanying soundtrack album for David Frost 's satirical BBC TV show That Was the Week That Was , recorded in front of a live audience. Martin frequently used comedy records to experiment with recording techniques and motifs used later on musical records, such as recording magnetic tape at half-speed and then playing it back at normal speed. (Martin used this effect on several Beatles records, such as his sped-up piano solo on " In My Life ".) In particular, Martin

4655-456: The band signed a new contract with EMI in January 1967 that forbade such alterations. After his repeated clashes over salary terms with EMI management, Martin informed them in June 1964 that he would not renew his contract in 1965. Though EMI managing director Len Wood attempted to persuade Martin to stay with the company, Martin continued to insist that he would not work for EMI without receiving

4750-512: The band they should re-record "Please Please Me" and make it their second single. He also suggested the Beatles record a full album (LP), a suggestion Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn called "genuinely mind-boggling", given how little exposure the Beatles had achieved so far. On 26 November, the Beatles attempted "Please Please Me" a third time. After the recording, Martin looked over the mixing desk and said, "Gentlemen, you have just made your first number one record". Martin directed Epstein to find

4845-654: The band under the domed ceiling of Decca's studio in New York City , located in a former ballroom called The Pythian Temple. Some recording companies and many small independent labels could not afford large purpose-built echo chambers such as the Abbey Road Chamber, so enterprising producers and engineers often made use of any large reverberant space. Corridors, lift-wells, stairwells, and tiled bathrooms were all used as substitute echo chambers. Many famous soul music and R&B music recordings released by

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4940-426: The classic tape-based echo effects, physical echo chambers fell into disuse. However, as noted above, naturally reverberant spaces such as churches continue to be used as recording venues for classical and other forms of acoustic music. Echo (phenomenon) In audio signal processing and acoustics , an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay

5035-462: The company in August 1965, he recruited a number of other EMI staffers, including Norman Newell , Ron Richards , John Burgess , his wife, Judy, and Decca 's Peter Sullivan . Artists associated with Martin's new production team included Adam Faith , Manfred Mann , Peter and Gordon , The Hollies , Tom Jones , and Engelbert Humperdinck . Martin conceived of his new company as being modelled on

5130-431: The delay between each repeat can be varied by a pitch control that alters the speed of the tape loop across the heads. Typically, the playback heads of tape echo machines are also connected to controls that allow the user to determine the volume of each echo relative to the original signal. Another control (sometimes called "regeneration") allows the signal from the playback heads to be fed back into and variably mixed with

5225-412: The directly transmitted wave. Echoes may be desirable (as in systems). In sonar , ultrasonic waves are more energetic than audible sounds. They can travel undeviated through a long distance, confined to a narrow beam, and are not easily absorbed in the medium. Hence, sound ranging and echo depth sounding uses ultrasonic waves . Ultrasonic waves are sent in all directions from the ship and are received at

5320-631: The early 20th century—specifically the invention of the amplifier and the microphone —led to the creation of the first artificial echo chambers, built for radio and recording studios. Until the 1950s, echo and reverberation were typically created by a combination of electrical and physical methods. Acoustically speaking, the "classic novel" echo chamber creates echoes in the same way as they are created in churches or caves—they are all simply large, enclosed, empty spaces with floors and walls made of hard materials (such as polished stone or concrete) that reflect sound waves well. The basic purpose of such chambers

5415-460: The end of the skiffle boom. In 1957, Martin signed Jim Dale , hoping the singer would prove Parlophone's answer to British rock and roll star Tommy Steele . Dale achieved success as a teen idol , reaching no. 2 on the chart with "Be My Girl". After recording an album, Jim! , in 1958, Dale cut his music career short to pursue his original profession as a comedian, frustrating Martin. Martin courted controversy in summer 1960, when he produced

5510-646: The first British act to have their first three singles top the charts. Martin also produced the Epstein-managed Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas , whose first single was a cover of the Beatles' " Do You Want to Know a Secret ", which hit no. 2 on the chart. Kramer and Martin scored two UK no. 1's in 1963 and 1964—" Bad To Me " (also Lennon–McCartney original) and " Little Children ". Kramer also reached no. 4 with another Lennon–McCartney song in 1964, " I'll Keep You Satisfied ". Martin began work with

5605-583: The genre was the 1953 "Mock Mozart" single, performed by Peter Ustinov with Antony Hopkins – a record reluctantly released in 1952 by EMI, only after Preuss's insistence. In 1956 he produced the well-known children's song "Nellie the Elephant" which was released by Parlophone in October of that year. In 1955, Martin worked with BBC radio comedy stars the Goons on a parody version of " Unchained Melody ", but

5700-507: The interest of obtaining a recording contract for his band. Epstein met with EMI's general marketing director Ron White, with whom he had a longstanding business relationship, and left a copy of the Beatles' German single with Tony Sheridan , "My Bonnie". White said he would play it for EMI's four A&R directors, including George Martin (though it later emerged that he neglected to do so, playing it only for two of them— Wally Ridley and Norman Newell ). In mid-December, White replied that EMI

5795-505: The large concert hall in the Hansa recording studio in Berlin, and Visconti has since been much praised for the striking sound he achieved on Bowie's vocals. Visconti placed three microphones at intervals along the length of the hall; one very close to Bowie, one halfway down the hall, and the third at the far end of the hall. During the recording, Bowie sang each verse progressively louder than

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5890-438: The last words spoken to her. Some animals, such as cetaceans (dolphins and whales) and bats, use echo for location sensing and navigation, a process known as echolocation . Echoes are also the basis of sonar technology. Walls or other hard surfaces, such as mountains and privacy fences, reflect acoustic waves. The reason for reflection may be explained as a discontinuity in the propagation medium . This can be heard when

5985-417: The last, and as he increased volume in each verse, Visconti opened up each of the three microphones in turn, from closest to farthest. Thus, in the first verse, Bowie's voice sounds close, warm, and present; by the end of the song, Visconti has mixed in a large amount of signal from all three microphones, giving Bowie's voice a strikingly reverberant sound. The original echo chamber at EMI's Abbey Road Studios

6080-446: The late 1950s, is typical of this kind of electronic delay device. Tape echo units use an endless loop of magnetic tape, which is drawn across a series of recording and playback heads. When a signal from a voice or instrument is fed into the machine, it records the signal onto the tape loop as it passes over the record head. As the tape advances, the newly recorded signal is then picked up by a series of playback heads mounted in line with

6175-489: The leading EMI label. In December 1964, Gerry and the Pacemakers released " Ferry Cross the Mersey ", a teaser for the February 1965 film of the same name in the style of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night . The soundtrack album featured music by Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Fourmost, Cilla Black, and George Martin-orchestrated instrumental music. Martin produced numerous comedy and novelty records. His first success in

6270-407: The louder the reverberation becomes in relation to the source. The signal from the microphone line is then fed back to the mixing desk, where the echo/reverberation-enhanced sound can be blended with the original 'dry' input. An example of this physical effect can be heard on the 1978 David Bowie song "Heroes" , from the album of the same name. The song, produced by Tony Visconti , was recorded in

6365-678: The music of Rachmaninoff and Ravel and Cole Porter . His oboe teacher was Margaret Eliot (the mother of Jane Asher , who later became involved with Paul McCartney ). After that, Martin explained that he had just picked it up by himself. Martin also took courses at Guildhall in music composition and orchestration. After graduating, Martin worked for the BBC's classical music department, also earning money as an oboe player in local bands. Martin joined EMI in November 1950 as an assistant to Oscar Preuss, who had served as head of EMI's Parlophone label since 1923. Although having been regarded by EMI as

6460-644: The music publisher for the Beatles and Elton John , to a recording contract, and reached no. 14 with James's theme from The Adventures of Robin Hood . Martin became the first British A&R man to capitalize on the 1956 skiffle boom when he signed the Vipers Skiffle Group after seeing them in London's 2i's Coffee Bar . They reached no. 10 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957 with "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O", though their success faded with

6555-614: The name "Paul Raven". Neither single was commercially successful. Martin's first British no. 1 came in May 1961, with the Temperance Seven 's " You're Driving Me Crazy ". Also that year, Martin produced Humphrey Lyttelton 's version of "Saturday Jump", which became the theme tune of the influential BBC Radio programme, Saturday Club , and scored a success at no. 14 in the charts with Charlie Drake 's novelty record, " My Boomerang Won't Come Back ". In early 1962, Martin collaborated with Maddalena Fagandini , then working at

6650-759: The next Rachmaninoff ", he did not initially choose music as a career. He worked briefly as a quantity surveyor , and later for the War Office as a Temporary Clerk (Grade Three), which meant filing paperwork and making tea. In 1943, at the age of 17, Martin volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy , having been inspired by their exploits in the Battle of Taranto in 1940. He trained at HMS St Vincent in Gosport . The war ended before Martin

6745-490: The occasional bass player, such as Chuck Rainey , or trumpeter, such as Don Ellis ), many recording studios also used the Echoplex. Beginning in the 1970s, Market built the solid-state Echoplex for Maestro. In the 2000s, most echo effects units used electronic or digital circuitry to recreate the echo effect. George Martin Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016)

6840-423: The original input signal, creating a distinctive " feedback " effect that adds more and more noise to the loop with each repeat. If fully activated, this control ultimately produces a continuous feedback loop of pure noise. Roland manufactured various models of magnetic tape echo and reverb sound effect machines from 1973 until the introduction of digital sound effect machines. A tape echo that has few repeats and

6935-403: The receiver after the reflection from an obstacle (enemy ship, iceberg, or sunken ship). The distance from the obstacle is found using the formula d = (V*t)/2. Echo depth sounding is the process of finding the depth of the sea using this process. In the medical field , ultrasonic waves of sound are used in ultrasonography and echo cardiography . Electric echo effects have been used since

7030-413: The record head. These play the sound back as the signal passes over each head in turn, creating the classic rippling or cascading echoes that are typical of tape echo units. The number of playback heads determines the number of repeats, and the physical distance between each playback head determines the ratio of delay between each repeat of the sound (usually some fraction of a second). The actual length of

7125-469: The recording of "Love Me Do"; between takes, he introduced himself to the Beatles and subtly changed the arrangement. The verdict was not promising, however, as Richards and Martin complained about Pete Best 's drumming, and Martin thought their original songs were simply not good enough. In the control room, Martin asked the individual Beatles if there was anything they personally did not like, to which George Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie." That

7220-405: The reflecting object must be more than 17.2 m from the sound source for the echo to be perceived by a person at the source. When a sound produces an echo in two seconds, the reflecting object is 343 m away. In nature, canyon walls or rock cliffs facing water are the most common natural settings for hearing echoes. The echo strength is frequently measured in sound pressure level (SPL) relative to

7315-433: The reflection returns with sufficient magnitude and delay to be perceived distinctly. When sound, or the echo itself, is reflected multiple times from multiple surfaces, it is characterized as a reverberation . The human ear cannot distinguish echo from the original direct sound if the delay is less than 1/10 a second. The velocity of sound in dry air is approximately 341 m/s at a temperature of 25 °C. Therefore,

7410-456: The same time as the contract dispute, Martin took a work trip in late March 1962 to Blackpool with his secretary, Judy Lockhart Smith. This trip led Wood to discover that Martin had been having an affair with Smith, which further irritated Wood. With their relationship strained, Wood exacted a measure of revenge by having Martin sign the Beatles to a record contract to appease interest from EMI's publishing arm, Ardmore & Beechwood. Martin

7505-522: The song's publishers objected to the recording and blocked it from release. The Goons subsequently left Parlophone for Decca , but member Peter Sellers achieved a UK hit with Martin in 1957, " Any Old Iron ". Recognising that Sellers was capable of "a daydreaming form of humour which could be amusing and seductive without requiring the trigger of a live audience", Martin pitched a full album to EMI. The resultant album, The Best of Sellers (1958), has been cited as "the first British comedy LP created in

7600-472: The tape was destroyed, and the 11 September recording with Andy White on drums was used for all subsequent releases. (Martin later praised Starr's drumming, calling him "probably ... the finest rock drummer in the world today". ) Despite Martin's doubts about the song, "Love Me Do" steadily climbed in the British charts, peaking at number 17 in late November 1962. With his doubts about the Beatles' songwriting abilities now quashed, on 16 November Martin told

7695-482: The teacher. Martin created his first piano composition, "The Spider's Dance" at age eight. Martin continued to learn piano on his own through his youth, building a working knowledge of music theory through his natural perfect pitch . I remember well the very first time I heard a symphony orchestra. I was just in my teens when Sir Adrian Boult brought the BBC Symphony Orchestra to my school for

7790-553: The time he signed a three-year contract renewal in 1959, Martin sought—but failed—to obtain a royalty on Parlophone's record sales, a practice becoming common in the U.S.: "I reckoned that if I was going to devote my life to building up something which wasn't mine, I deserved some form of commission", he reflected. The issue continued to linger in his mind, and Martin claimed he "nearly didn't sign" his spring 1962 contract renewal over this issue—even threatening EMI managing director L. G. ("Len") Wood that he would walk away from his job. At

7885-407: Was a new thing. I was being too conventional." Though charmed by the Beatles' personalities, Martin was unimpressed with the musical repertoire from their first session. "I didn't think the Beatles had any song of any worth—they gave me no evidence whatsoever that they could write hit material", he claimed later. He arranged for the Beatles to record a cover of Mitch Murray's " How Do You Do It " at

7980-411: Was also infuriated by EMI's refusal to give him a Christmas bonus at the end of 1963—a year in which he had produced seven no. 1 singles and dominated the albums chart—because his £3,000 salary disqualified him from receiving one. "I, naturally, had a chip on my shoulder", he admitted later. He also advocated that the Beatles' penny-per-record royalty rate be doubled; Len Wood agreed to this, but only if

8075-494: Was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " fifth Beatle " because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles ' original albums. Martin's formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices facilitated the group's rudimentary musical education and desire for new musical sounds to record. Most of their orchestral and string arrangements were written by Martin, and he played piano or keyboards on

8170-487: Was born on 3 January 1926 in Highbury , London, to Henry ("Harry") and Bertha Beatrice (née Simpson) Martin. He had an older sister, Irene. In Martin's early years, the family lived modestly, first in Highbury and then Drayton Park . Harry worked as a craftsman carpenter in a small attic workshop, while Bertha cooked meals at a communal stove in their apartment building. At age 5, George contracted scarlet fever ; Bertha,

8265-432: Was curious to see how tape offered advantages over existing technologies favoured by EMI: "It was still in its infancy, and a lot of people at the studio regarded tape with suspicion. But we gradually learnt all about it, and working with the likes of Sellers and Milligan was very useful, because, as it wasn't music, you could experiment. ... We made things out of tape loops, slowed things down, and banged on piano lids." By

8360-512: Was given for the ones that were issued. In December 1962, Martin complained to EMI managing director Len Wood that he "would not wish to recommend Capitol Records to any impresario who was thinking of launching a future British show in the States". Dexter passed on issuing the Beatles' first four singles in the US, driving Martin out of desperation to issue " She Loves You " on the small, independent Swan Records . Capitol finally agreed to release

8455-757: Was improved by Clive Robinson, site foreman at the time of construction. His construction and engineering teams perfected the echo booth at Abbey Road Studios in London. It was one of the first studios in the world to be specially built for recording purposes when it was established in 1931; it remains in place and is a prime example of the early 20th-century electro-acoustic echo chamber. Buildings such as churches, church halls, and ballrooms have often been chosen as recording sites for classical and other music because of their rich, natural echo and reverberation characteristics. Famous examples include Sir George Martin 's AIR Studios at Lyndhurst Hall in Belsize Park , London,

8550-455: Was involved in any combat, and he left the service in January 1947. During the war, Martin travelled to New York and saw performances by Cab Calloway and Gene Krupa . He also did nine months of aerial training in Trinidad , becoming a petty officer and aerial observer . On 26 July 1945, shortly after receiving his officer commission, Martin appeared on BBC radio for the first time during

8645-555: Was major news in the music press, with the NME calling it a "shock to the recording industry". Wood attempted to lure Martin back to EMI in 1969 with an offered salary of £25,000, but Martin rejected it. Martin and Wood's working relationship ruptured for good in 1973, with Martin vowing to negotiate with EMI only through legal representatives from then on. In November 1961, new Beatles manager Brian Epstein travelled to London to meet with record executives from EMI and Decca Records in

8740-521: Was not a Lennon–McCartney song. Martin then reluctantly decided to have "Love Me Do" issued as the A-side of the Beatles' first single and save "How Do You Do It" for another occasion. (In April 1963, Martin achieved a No. 1 hit with the song as recorded by Beatle contemporaries Gerry and the Pacemakers .) Martin was dissatisfied with Starr's 4 September performance and resolved to use a session drummer for their next recording session. On 11 September 1962,

8835-532: Was not interested in signing the Beatles. By coincidence, Martin gave an interview that week in Disc magazine in which he explained that "beat groups" presented unique challenges for A&R directors, and that he sought a "distinct sound" when scouting them. Martin claimed that he was contacted by Sid Colman of EMI music publisher Ardmore & Beechwood at the request of Epstein, though Colman's colleague Kim Bennett later disputed this. In any event, Martin arranged

8930-469: Was only a minor hit, reaching no. 35. Martin and Black rebounded in 1964 with two no. 1 hits, " Anyone Who Had a Heart " and " You're My World ". Black's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was the top-selling British single by a female artist in the 1960s. Between the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Martin-produced and Epstein-managed acts were responsible for 37 weeks of no. 1 singles in 1963, finally transforming Parlophone into

9025-431: Was the turning point, according to Smith, as John Lennon and Paul McCartney joined in with jokes and comic wordplay, that made Martin think that he should sign them to a contract for their wit alone. After deliberating for a time whether to make Lennon or McCartney the lead vocalist of the group, Martin decided he would let them retain their shared lead role: "Suddenly it hit me that I had to take them as they were, which

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