Here are some facts about the essentials of one-man overdubbing across a wide range of men's voices: Michael Roy is a bass-baritone, meaning, he has the combined range of both voices, but necessarily with a darker color to his overall tone quality. To effectively overdub across three octaves of men's vocal parts, one must first be a bass-baritone for this reason: a naturally low voice can adequately attain notes in the tenor and countertenor range by mastering the use of head tones and falsettos; the bass range, however, cannot be likewise attained by higher voices. While many baritones and tenors can produce tones below the bass clef, mean range is only half of the equation: color, texture, and power are the other half, and thus, a bass-baritone is essential for a solid "bottom."
Farther Along / We'll Understand It All By and By
Michael Roy sings the lead in this old gospel song backed by his one-man men's quartet. He sings each part twice to achieve the stereo spectrum. In total there are nine vocal overdubs, plus two guitar tracks.
Beyond the Sunset
A song often performed by a men's quartet or male chorus, again, MR has sung each men's part at least twice. There are 12 dubs in this compilation, presented a cappella.
I'm Persuaded
MR wrote the lyrics of this song, based on II Tim. 1:12, and the music was written by his old friend and touring buddy, David Ayers, who has gone on before us and awaits us in the heavenlies.. MR builds up a men's vocal ensemble and also plays flute, bass flute, and elec. bass on this arrangement by Ayers.
Very Soon
Another collaboration with David Ayers, MR wrote the lyrics and overdubbed the men's vocals, added elec. bass, guitars, and bass flute. Jan supplied organ.
Confusion
Michael Roy sings, live in-concert, a one-man barbershop quartet. Although the four solos pass to each voice, three background voices are always on the pre-recorded taped playback, and each successive solo voice is sung live. In the finale, all four solos are sounded simultaneously (with the baritone solo being live). We couldn't make this stuff up. This really happened.
Poor Joe
This recording is sans the lead tenor, left out for use as a prerecorded background audio file: MR can sing the lead to the background and thus enact a one-man quartet. He has already sung the other three parts on the recording. This men's BSQ is mostly outrageous comedy, but here and there are also good harmonies.
The story: four barbershoppers stand stoically, with dead-pan expressions, except for the wild cadences into the dominant chords, and at the end: in these places, emotions and hand gestures are over the top, only to return to dead-pan. The sounds tell most of the story or Poor Joe, the street urchin, watching a carriage pass by with a high class lady and her silver spoon son inside.
Just a Little Talk With Jesus
This old gospel song was a staple of an idiom of men's sacred quartet singing that is sometimes called revival style, or radio gospel quartet. Back in the '50's and '60's, one could tune into certain stations and hear the Melody Four Quartet; there was a very good men's quartet that regularly sang on a Seventh Day Adventist radio show, the King's Heralds. Michael Roy overdubs the four men's parts to one of the favorite songs of the old gospel radio men's quartets. He also throws in some flute and guitar.
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Agnus Dei
MR is the only one who can explain this: Here we have "early music" that isn't. It is written in the style and (largely) within the rigid rules of a medieval motet, but I wrote this in 1971 during my grad studies in theory & composition. It was a final exam assignment in modal counterpoint and it basically determined my grade for the semester class. I got an A-.on the piece. I probably should have gotten a lower grade, but my composition professor gave me credit for writing, in his words, "something that follows most of the rules, which should normally guarantee that it sounds idiomatic, nevertheless, it doesn't!" The conventional wisdom is that writing within the rules of modal counterpoint invariably produces idiomatic sounding music. I somehow contradicted that wisdom. I got the idea, however, that he personally liked the piece, was mildly impressed with the complex devices and was convinced that I had learned the rules of modal counterpoint, and my only sin was over-writing. I therefore got my A in
the class, but with an admonition to learn when to set the pen down and relax. The various markings indicate the devices being employed. My canon, instead of simply being at the unison or octave, or quite boldly, at the fifth, was at the seventh! Needless to say, modal counterpoint does not commonly use that interval for canonic writing. I have sung the three parts and then overlaid the vocals with recorders.