Re: Idle Speculation and Other Nonsense

[Organized Noise Proliferator <jsd@gaffa.MIT.EDU>]

>Really-From: nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii)
>So if TSW is a less than ideal recording who gets the blame?  
>Ultimately Kate does because she's responsible for the finished
>product but more specifically Del is credited with "Recording" the
>bulk of the album.  Note that the credit is for "recording" not
>"engineering" and to me that just about sums it up.

I have a suspicion that the British use the two terms interchangeably,
on occasion...

>|  "I'm using the Fairlight again, and a DX-7; but a lot of the songs
>|have been written on piano initially, and it does definitely give
>|the songs a different flavour from those written on Fairlight. A
>|lot of rhythms are arranged by Del, and we tend to keep bits and
>|replace a lot with real drums, but still keeping his "feel". 
>
>Keeping _his_ feel?  Certainly Del has been programming the drum
>machines for a long time but in the past it seemed that great pains
>were taken to capture _her_ feel.  Now we hear talk of Del arranging
>the rhythms with an effort being made to keep his feel.  

I think you're getting there but are a bit off the mark here.  I
assumed Kate just meant that they kept the drum programmes as written
rather than improvising too much.  Given all that talk about the
effort given to merely overdubbing the snare on "Deeper
Understanding," I think the fault lies in the sterility of the drum
sounds rather than the bad programming.  Being an expert at drum
programming (heh heh), I would also register my official displeasure
at the lackluster quality of the drum programming itself, but I don't
think that's the major problem.  The opening taps and backwards
swishes on "Heads We're Dancing" are actually quite trivial and I
thought it got pretty boring rather quickly, but... you know,
subjective viewpoints and all that.

The drum sounds on most of The Dreaming are huge gated noises, done
mainly with toms.  The drum sounds on The Sensual World are huge
reverbed noises that have become pop "power ballad" staples.  A real
lacklustre bunch, and given that Kate has said she's relying mainly on
factory patches, I think we know where the real problem lies.

But, hey, I'm just a male who has trouble getting in touch with his
female side, so what do I know?  (cheeky lopsided grin)

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