| |  |
 Content Rating Notice: Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
|
| Pure and Easy I listened and I heard music in a word. | | by: | |
|
| Item Size: 37 Entries
Created: 8:59am on 10-12-2008
Modified: 8:12am on 11-17-2009 | |
| |
|
[ <<-- Previous || Back To Entry List || Next -->> ]
[ Leave a comment ] [ View 2 comments ]
|
Entry #666404, added on 09-04-09 @ 8:33 am EDT.
[Entry Access Restriction] None.
Title:
It ain't broke
|
"Hello, this is Wanda Ellsworth with your Arts and Entertainment News. Our top story tonight: A major rennovation of Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper is now in the works to be unveiled sometime next year. Frank Noitall, the Milano curator in charge of the project, stated, "We feel it could look much better than it does now. We're redoing the painting to restore the integrity of the work according to what DaVinci would have wanted." When asked how he knew DaVinci's intentions, Noitall declined to comment.
"In a related story, replacement arms are being attached to the Venus de Milo, and Michaelangelo's Last Judgement will be completely recolored according to modern preferences."
Film at eleven.
There's been a lot of complaining about the new Beatles remasters, coming to your local record store (but not iTunes) on September 9th. Some want more bonus tracks. Some wish the mono versions had been included on the stereo albums, which I can agree with from my pocketbook's standpoint. But the major complaint about the remasters seems to be that they haven't been remixed--that is, the original balance and placement of the instruments and vocals has been left unaltered from the albums' original release on CD.
The attitude that the Beatles' recordings don't sound "good enough" in terms of twenty-first-century technology frustrates me no end, for a number of reasons. First of all, who arbitrarily decided that today's standards are the perfect blueprint for how recordings "should" sound? The public at large? A bunch of recording engineers? Producers? Record execs who want to sell more songs? I've been hearing a lot of static about modern-day recordings which are so compressed to make the sound louder that they've turned the resulting mixes into a bunch of noise. Sometimes you can't even hear the vocals without a lot of buzz, as I've found to my dismay on a few recent purchases. This is not what I want for the Beatles.
Apart from that, I actually like the stereo separation on most of their records (save the first two, which were never meant to be released in stereo, anyway). On "A Day In The Life", you can actually hear John's voice drift across the channels. Sounds marvelous in headphones. Very psychedelic. Other examples of stereo used intelligently include "Magical Mystery Tour", "The Fool on the Hill" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". These mixes don't need "improvement" by moving everything into the center and turning up the bass and drums. It would ruin the original intention.
My final argument is that experiments in remixing have already been tried. To my ears, they've not been successful; quite the contrary. Paul's double-tracked vocal on "Eleanor Rigby" got completely screwed up in the 1999 remix for Yellow Submarine Songtrack. Ditto George's vocal in "Only A Northern Song". The reason for this is that the Fabs recorded everything in four-track, and then often mixed that down to one track so that three more tracks could be used for overdubs, and so on. Trying to remix by going back to the original tapes vastly increases the likelihood of a tape going out of sync and creating results like the above.
Remember, too, that when you remix, you change what's discernable to the ear. If you increase the bass, you're going to make it harder to hear the guitars. If you bring out a piano part, you're going to muffle the vocals. And so on. The Beatles' recordings are like paintings; we've grown familiar with their sound over the years. If it's changed, it will be just like changing the hues in Michelangelo's paintings.
Bottom line: Leave those tapes alone, except for the remasters. You don't screw with Art. |
© Copyright 2009 Lynn McKenzie (UN: lynnmckenzie at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Lynn McKenzie has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
[ <<-- Previous || Back To Entry List || Next -->> ]
[ Leave a comment ] [ View 2 comments ] |
Login To Leave Feedback |
Login To Leave Feedback |
|
| | | | From Our Sponsor | | | By Online Authors | | | |
![View jaccine's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/costumicons/ps-icon-regular-40.gif "View jaccine's Portfolio. [Offline / Private]"){kind=icon}
![Email User: lynnmckenzie [Offline / Private]](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/mail-off.gif "Email User: lynnmckenzie [Offline / Private]"){kind=small}
