You said it bud.
I don't mind a little slick pop now and again and it's ok to be young
and look great, but the focus used to be on the talent and the art and
the integrity and now it's completely all about the money.
but in small corners of the musical universe, on the Americana market,
on xm radio which i don't have because I think it's such a rip-off, you
can't just buy one subscription like you do cable and have radios all
over the house, but folk festivals and blues festivals, and all sorts of
little and medium venues all over the place and in our little studios
the flame is being kept alive.
It all went to shit when mtv came around, that's when everyone had to
have a video and it didn't matter how you sounded so much as you looked.
Of course that element has always been there, you know those slick shows
from the 70s, band stand, and what was that black music line-up I forget
where all the great artists of color for that time showcased their stuf?
But still, even if there was dancing and showmanship going on, the music
was the main deal.
soul train, yeh, that's what I was trying to think of.
We all loved soul train.
But there's still a few good things coming out of top 40, you just
really have to look for it.
I like adele,
on the pop side, and i like Gretchen Wilson,
but man, they ruined her laast album with the volume wars thing, it's
getting ridiculous.
Absolutely no dynamic range, everything hugs 0 all the way through with
clipping all over the place.
These corporate cats have lost their mind and all sense of reality, or
people just are that desensatized and don't care?
I can hear audible distortion artifacts in the music.
The atacks of the drums and fiddles are so smeared, the fiddle sounds
like a synth.
they've done stuff to it with their million dollar processors to make it
sound better and still be loud, but how nice it's be if they just let it
be -5 db quieter and let it breathe.
i know we've had a lot of conversations about this sort of thing, but I
was doing a comparison of some different artists, and it really came
home to me how bad it was.
It's so sad.
I've officially joined the other side,
and unless I'm asked to, I'm letting my music be quieter on purpose, and
trying to educate my folks about what really happens when cds are too loud.
So far, it seems to be working.
YOu know those loud cds are actually quieter when they hit the
transmitter at radio stationsl which are designed to squash peaks, and
bring stuff up, well, if everything is maxed out, guess what happens?
Those pushed to 0 db tracks get turned down.
Recently I placed an ad on a local gospel station and I did use some
compression, but my meters are bouncing around -3 -4 and when it played
on the radio it was nice and loud, wasn't an;y quieter than the other
stuff they were playing, as a matter of fact, it was probably louder
than other commercials they were playing.
that's because the transmitter had something to do and and someplace to go.
Now I'm not the best engineer on the planet, but seems like someone
would figure this out but nobody has in the last well say since about
92, but on the independant market, and off the beaten path, you'll find
albums which are starting to be a little less compressed.
So I think atleast a few folks are starting to wig to the big lie.
i hope it keeps going that way.
I've got tapes I recorded of albums from back in the 70s when they used
to spin albums all night without talking so you could record some great
albums and I used the best tape I could afford, tdk and maxells, and
those tapes are clear and sound better than the super squashed over
processed signals they're pushing out the transmitters today.
Another thing, it makes it so much easier to mix when you don't have to
make things over loud, because you don't have to compensate and
frequency balance stuff to try and make it sound good or something
approaching good again, not to mention the stereo imaging gets smaller
when you squeeze too tight.
so for my country stuff, I'm using one mastering limiter,
just to take maybe 3 to 5 db off the peaks, and of course everything
going in is processed nicely as much as it needs to be, splitting the
difference between compressing and using lots of hand automation
like they used to do, ride that fader and spend some time doing it,
but it's amazing the mix sounds lively and kick drums thump you in the
chest, and the highs shimmer but don't shriek, and you can listen to
mixes a long time and your ears don't get tired.
that's what happens to me when i hear a modern over processed cd, after
about 3 songs, my ears just feel worn out.
Long live dynamic range we're trying to bring it back around here 'grin'.
At 01:28 PM 11/14/2011, you wrote:
Yeah, that's real country all right. It's amazing how much that genre
has changed in a relatively short amount of time. heck, tune in a
country station today and you'll hear what we heard on rock stations
in the 70s; The Eagles, Alabama, and most of the rest of what we
called southern rock. And I love the guys who come out of New York or
L.A. and suddenly develop the sweetest southern drawl. How pathetic.
Country music of today seems so fake. I'll take the grand ole opry any
day. Today's country is just an offshoot of the pop genre. The top
priority is that you've got to be a deva or a stud muffin. We'll worry
about that thar music thang later. First let me take a look at your ass.
Tom
On 11/14/2011 11:28 AM, Indigo wrote:
Now, here's my idea of real country.
Did anybody ever beat this, sorry about sound quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DqEIBmGZxAhg&rct=j&sa=X&ei=DD_BTtWmFIKAgweS4N20Bw&ved=0CCIQuAIwAA&q=jimmy+rogers+blue+yodel+1&usg=AFQjCNFWuQYHfesfla1xx75dbjrI6GHPMg
For all your audio production needs and technology training, visit us at
www.affordablestudioservices.com
or contact
Chris Belle
cb1963@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
or
Stephie Belle
stephieb1961@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
for customized web design
