Trends in mastering CD's. Also, Love and Humility.
Submitted by andric on October 18, 2007 - 18:44.10/3/07
I still haven’t found anything worthy of replacing the last entry on the first page: Love and humility. Not only is everyone happier if we act out of love and humility, but I believe it is also the best way to get what we want out of almost any given interaction. I’m not pretending to be enlightened in this sense— I still find myself getting angry for no good reason when I’m driving my car, but it helps to remind myself of this.
Ok, Back To the Music:
I have recently gotten the latest albums from three bands that I always look forward to hearing: Michael Franti and Spearhead, Zap Mama, and Jill Scott. I’m noticing a disturbing trend in the production and the mastering— in the overall sound of the cd’s. I’m not talking about the songs themselves, or the perfomance, but in the things that are done to them after all is recorded. In a nutshell, all three sound like they could be played on 95 triple-x (the local top-40 station). Jill Scott sounded kind of like Britney Spears— she’s been Britnified by the automatic harmonizer and pitch correcter. This is particularly disturbing because Jill is the exact opposite of Britney in every sense— a very large black woman with musical skills, soul, post-feminist awareness, and a real live band.
There’s a certain range of frequencies in the mid to high range which are brought out— the hi-hats are really crisp and shimmery, as are the high overtones of the vocals. Everything is loud and “hot”— in your face. I believe this has to do with MP3’s and ipods. The poor quality MP3’s that are sold on iTunes truncate the extreme low and high frequencies. The crappy earbuds that people use on their ipods do the same. So the frequencies that are reproduced well on ipods with earbuds are the ones that get all the attention in these albums.
That, and these artists and their producers really want a hit. And, admittedly, sometimes the top-40 production techniques sound great.
8/28/07
I had a revelation at tonight’s gig— a reminder, really. Love and humility.
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