Mixing sheep and goats.

[brownfld@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Kenneth R Brownfield)]

     First off, I want to kill the sheep string, mainly because I've been
hearing too many "Why do Scots wear kilts" jokes recently.  They're talking
only about goats.  Goats make that lovely Ba-a-a-a-a noise as well.  It's
"Get your goat," not "Get your sheep."  Bah-ah-ah-ah is a sheep.  So if you
hear that on Usenet...
     Now then, on to the meat of the matter.  ;-)
     I've listened to Happy Rhodes some recently, and I've pretty much come
to the conclusion that it is good music, but for a fairly distinctly defined
audience.  In the right mood and right perspective, I like her music a lot,
but I'm not in that kind of mood a lot.  To Live in Your World (sorry if I
got the title wrong) is a great song, IMHO, regardless of my mood.
     Past that I think she's a worship or indifference artist.  Which isn't
to say anything negative at all.  She's certainly a level above a great deal
of what you find floating around out there (esp. indie) but I just happen to
be on the indifference side of the coin.  This may be why I find no problem
with poking fun at Happy, or Jane Siberry for that matter.  We certainly
can't do the same to Kate, we ran out of barbecue sauce long ago.
     I also did some comparative listening to Warpaint and The Sensual World.
I remember someone commented that Warpaint was engineered better than The
Sensual World.  Listening to both CDs, it seems that the alleged better
engineering on Warpaint is more due to the much simpler mixing arrangements
that Happy uses.  TSW has Uillean (sp?) Pipes, Bozoukis, etc., so on all at
once, and in much more complex arrangements.
     If you listen to Warpaint, you can hear the hiss cutting in and out as
Happy sings, and as other components are mixed in.  The cuts are done well,
I think a bit better than TSW.  I have no experience recording live music,
or mixing and so on, but it seems that the more mixing in analog you do, the
more muddy or heavy it's going to sound.  And more hiss as well.  This seems
to explain a bit of the shortcomings of TSW.
     Of course, i've heard AAD recordings that are superior to both Warpaint
and TSW, so some engineering seems to be at fault.  Comparing the two seems
pretty worthless considering the musical material.  Maybe if we got together
some money and bought Kate some digital equipment...TSW recorded digitally
would be quite a trip, even without chemical-therapy.
     Has anyone dreamed that they had the chance to remix Rocket's Tail?
It's too bad I can't hear in my dreams.
     Happy recorded digitally, didn't she?  In the liner there's a thank you
for the DAT machine, but I don't know if it was just "mastered" to DAT or not.
I'm sure Vickie would know (do ya?)
     I hope I didn't set off anyone's kill file mentioning Happy, but can we
please stop this H*ppy or Ha**y business?
     Has anyone listened to Rocket Man enough to tell how well it was mixed?
It's not terribly relevant to anything she's working on now, but it may be
enlightening.  I wouldn't know, I haven't caught it yet.  :~(
     You may be a raving bitch, Cynthia, but a little spice in Usenet can't
cause too many deseases (void where prohibited by law, subject to change
without notice. ;)  Sarcasm is one of the four netfood groups
     Have a good weekend all (does it not _feel_ like Friday?)

							Ken.