Digital Ditties & You Want Me To Pay For *What*? :-)

[katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)]

Vickie here. Ken Brownfield asks:

>   Happy recorded digitally, didn't she? 

Yes, she did. The digital mastering was done by Dr. Toby Mountain at
Northeastern digital Recording. He works with Rycodisk and, I believe,
worked on all the Zappa CDs. I'm a bit hazy on his credentials, but I've
seen his name around quite a bit, I just never paid attention until he
got involved with _Warpaint_. Technical isn't my strong point, so I don't
feel qualified to say any more about the recording process. 

>   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.

That's certainly true. Not that Warpaint is a "simple" album, there are
many layers there, but it's more simple than TSW, absolutely.

>   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. 

Getting as far away as possible from comparing Warpaint and TSW (they are
nothing alike, and the only "connection" is that Happy has a song on WP
inspired by Kate) I will point out that WP cost $10,000 and took about
6 months (guessing on the time, but not far off) from conception to release.
Beyond the music/lyrics/voice, which some (like me) love and others (like
Richard) don't, for sound-quality standards is good time. Happy's very
prolific. Her 4th album (Ecto, my personal favorite) took 2 _weeks_ from
conception to release, but it was not digital, and it only came out on
cassette. If Happy had the money, we'd probably already have the 6th album
in our hands. *sigh* If all my favorite artists were that fast...
 
> 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.

Well, uh..."we"? You can chip in if you want, but I've spent far too much
money on Kate already :-) and I we still have the tour to come. Ay yi yi!
Ah well, Kate's worth it! 

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'"we just _have_ to see the Tour in London"Chris)
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us

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