From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V14 #12 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, January 14 2009 Volume 14 : Number 012 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: CD quality ["Karen Hester" ] Re: interpretive singing [meredith ] Re: interpretive singing [jjhanson@att.net] Re: interpretive singing [Tim Jones-Yelvington ] Re: interpretive singing [meredith ] new bat for lashes in april! [JoAnn Whetsell ] Kristin Asbjornsen (was Re: interpretive singing) [gordodo@optonline.net] Re: CD quality/mastering issues [birdie ] Burner [Doug ] Re: CD quailty [Greg Dunn ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:38:01 -0500 From: "Karen Hester" Subject: Re: CD quality Yep, was interesting :) (and since I'm not interested in Chicago, double points to you). Looking forward to your Sensual World critique. K > Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:33:23 -0500 > From: Greg Dunn > Subject: Re: CD quality > > Well, I'm going to pull out _The Sensual World_ which I haven't > listened to critically in a while, and see if I can figure out what > might be "wrong" with it. Should be interesting, since I have a > better idea what goes into mixing/mastering than I did back in the > 80s. ;-) > ... > OK, that was probably a little longer than it needed to be, but blame > it on my being an engineer and obsessed with details. ;-) Hope it > was interesting to some. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:39:05 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: interpretive singing Hi, bill wrote: > However no discussion of covers would be complete without mentioning one > Mark Johnathan Davis aka Richard Cheese aka frontman for Lounge Against > the Machine. I'm reminded of The Mike Flowers Pop, whose stunningly cheeseball Vegas version of "Wonderwall" is truly a classic of the genre. (Somewhere on an aging videotape left over from the era when we would turn on MTV before we went to bed and see what we'd gotten in the morning, we have the video for that.) But while we're discussing complete reworkings of popular songs, I should mention Susan Werner's latest project, called _Classics_. She's taken hits of the 60s and 70s and done them with string arrangements (she even got some Boston Pops players to join her in the studio to record them). It's the type of thing that very easily could have gone horribly wrong, but I think it's brilliant -- particularly "Hazy Shade Of Winter", which always makes me want to put on a Rasputina record as soon as it's over. She's taking pre-orders for the record right now at susanwerner.com -- and yes, she's a friend of mine, but I'm not shilling for her in any way. :) - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:14:49 +0000 From: jjhanson@att.net Subject: Re: interpretive singing I think no discussion of cover artists can be complete without mention of Holly Cole. To me, she is probably the most consistently spectacular interpreter of songs. Yes her stuff is more jazzy than most ecto-fare, but I still am dumbfounded how Diana Krall gets the limelight for Canadian jazz interpreters ,when Holly Cole is so much more versatile. Great place for people to start with Holly is her album of Tom Waits covers, Temptation, but you really can't go wrong with any of her albums. - -------------- Original message from meredith : -------------- > Hi, > > bill wrote: > > However no discussion of covers would be complete without mentioning one > > Mark Johnathan Davis aka Richard Cheese aka frontman for Lounge Against > > the Machine. > I'm reminded of The Mike Flowers Pop, whose stunningly cheeseball Vegas version > of "Wonderwall" is truly a classic of the genre. (Somewhere on an aging videotape left over from > the era when we would turn on MTV before we went to bed and see what we'd gotten in the morning, we > have the video for that.) > But while we're discussing complete reworkings of popular songs, I should > mention Susan Werner's latest project, called _Classics_. She's taken hits of the 60s and 70s and done > them with string arrangements (she even got some Boston Pops players to join her in the studio to > record them). It's the type of thing that very easily could have gone horribly wrong, but I think > it's brilliant -- particularly "Hazy Shade Of Winter", which always makes me want to put on a > Rasputina record as soon > as it's over. > > She's taking pre-orders for the record right now at susanwerner.com -- and yes, > she's a friend of > mine, but I'm not shilling for her in any way. :) > > > > -- > =============================================== > Meredith Tarr > New Haven, CT USA > mailto:meth@smoe.org > http://www.smoe.org/meth > =============================================== > hear at the HOMe House Concert Series > http://hom.smoe.org > =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:16:28 -0800 (PST) From: Tim Jones-Yelvington Subject: Re: interpretive singing eek! And I still haven't given her "gospel" songs the attention they deserve. Susan's one of my favorites, but I frequently forget about her because I don't listen to her records often.... she blew me away live... I think contemporary folk is really hard to produce in a way that I care to listen to in everyday life. Albums like "Time Between Trains" and "New Non-Fiction" just sound more... I dunno.... cheesy, or sentimental or something than I experienced her in person, where she kicked serious ass. I listen to "I Can't be New" the most, probably, because it's a different kind of production. This sounds like it might be similar (albeit different focus, different kinds of songs). Can't wait to hear it. - ----- Original Message ---- From: meredith To: ecto Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:39:05 AM Subject: Re: interpretive singing Hi, bill wrote: > However no discussion of covers would be complete without mentioning one > Mark Johnathan Davis aka Richard Cheese aka frontman for Lounge Against > the Machine. I'm reminded of The Mike Flowers Pop, whose stunningly cheeseball Vegas version of "Wonderwall" is truly a classic of the genre. (Somewhere on an aging videotape left over from the era when we would turn on MTV before we went to bed and see what we'd gotten in the morning, we have the video for that.) But while we're discussing complete reworkings of popular songs, I should mention Susan Werner's latest project, called _Classics_. She's taken hits of the 60s and 70s and done them with string arrangements (she even got some Boston Pops players to join her in the studio to record them). It's the type of thing that very easily could have gone horribly wrong, but I think it's brilliant -- particularly "Hazy Shade Of Winter", which always makes me want to put on a Rasputina record as soon as it's over. She's taking pre-orders for the record right now at susanwerner.com -- and yes, she's a friend of mine, but I'm not shilling for her in any way. :) - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:00:35 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: interpretive singing Hi, Tim Jones-Yelvington wrote: > eek! And I still haven't given her "gospel" songs the attention they deserve. They do deserve attention, too. :) > Susan's one of my favorites, but I frequently forget about her because I don't listen to her records often.... she blew me away live... I think contemporary folk is really hard to produce in a way that I care to listen to in everyday life. Albums like "Time Between Trains" and "New Non-Fiction" just sound more... I dunno.... cheesy, or sentimental or something than I experienced her in person, where she kicked serious ass. I know exactly what you're saying. I think _New Non-Fiction_ captured her energy much more successfully than _Time Between Trains_, and I find myself listening to the former much more often than the latter. > I listen to "I Can't be New" the most, probably, because it's a different kind of production. This sounds like it might be similar (albeit different focus, different kinds of songs). Can't wait to hear it. Both _I Can't Be New_ and _Classics_ were produced by Crit Harmon, and yes, it's a different sensibility. - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:46:31 -0500 From: JoAnn Whetsell Subject: new bat for lashes in april! Yay!! http://stereogum.com/archives/bat-for-lashes-returns-with-two-suns_045041.htm l JoAnn _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:19:33 +0000 (GMT) From: gordodo@optonline.net Subject: Kristin Asbjornsen (was Re: interpretive singing) and speaking of interpretive singing, i cant get enough of Kristin Asbjornsen...I love love love her in Kroyt and Dadafon, but I recently picked up two of her solo albums one is called Wayfaring Stranger and is a collection of old time spirituals sung beautifully - who knew a norwegian white woman could channel a southern african american woman so perfectly (not my usual sort of listening, but it works for me much the same way of susan werner's gospel album) the other is a collaboration with the Nymark Collective where they revisit Bessie Smith tunes...I love Bessie and I love Kristin and this is great as well. there is also a regular solo album coming out sometime in 09 called The Night Shines Like the Day np Bessie Smith Revisited - Nymark Collective w/ Kristin Asbjornsen ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:04:16 -0800 From: birdie Subject: Re: CD quality/mastering issues that was fab! looking forward to the The Sensual World results. i'm deep into researching A to D converters to transfer ADAT tapes via ableton live 7 to digital files and need the best highest quality possible.... i am Jen has been restoring Bill Graham Presents concerts using CEDAR Cambridge audio restoration system and I need to look into that more.....i am sure it is ace. i have 70 songs on five 24 trk master tapes to transfer that date from the 70's to 90's. (apart from a different set of ADATs)....and i do have the best facility for the 24trk transfer but will be doing various groups of 2, 4 , 8 trk tapes and ADATs and mix masters, as well....and we plan on doing those at home studios. Sometimes muddy sound is just as simple as - DIRTY HEADS! Clean the heads - is our daily mantra! Birdie On Jan 12, 2009, at 10:33 PM, Greg Dunn wrote: > Well, I'm going to pull out _The Sensual World_ which I haven't > listened to critically in a while, and see if I can figure out what > might be "wrong" with it. Should be interesting, since I have a > better idea what goes into mixing/mastering than I did back in the > 80s. ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:41:51 -0600 From: Doug Subject: Burner Look her for an inexpensive CD/DVD burner...free shipping no less! http://tinyurl.com/6tznhb - --Doug ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:24:13 -0500 From: Greg Dunn Subject: Re: CD quailty At 12:33 PM -0500 1/11/09, meredith wrote: >Hi, > >Karen Hester wrote: >>Maybe LoveHounds obsessives have done the Kate CD release comparisons. > >Yes, they have. :) > >Plus, from the moment _The Sensual World_ was released in 1989 >(*pauses to have the OMFG I've been online for almost 20 years >freakout*), folks on Love-Hounds have been bitching about the sound >of it. But in that case, it wasn't just about the CD -- that is >just a very poorly engineered and mastered record. (At the time I >really had no clue what everyone was on about, but now that I know >much more about how these things work and have a much more critical >ear, I agree.) Well, I've actually not taken the time to compare the releases till now, so it was a bit of an education to go through them and see what was going on. I should probably re-listen to all of her discs before spouting off, so the following is just some quick impressions based on listening to a track or so from each disc, then sitting down with _The Sensual World_ for a more thorough listen. My copy is a US EMI pressing, FWIW, so there may be some differences with the Euro version - I can't say. The thing that sticks out is that many of the songs seem to be very heavily multi-tracked and her voice is processed a bit more. There's a density and a crowded-ness to the mix that might be the focus of those who object to it. Most of KaTe's albums are complex, yes, but listen to "Lionheart" and "Hounds of Love" for examples of how she used that complexity without making the mix blurry and opaque. TSW just seems like she went further and in places the clarity of the sound suffers. I don't find it that objectionable, really, but it is different from the earlier discs. I can't hear any loss of frequency response or volume compression (other than what is necessary to pile 16 tracks atop one another); in fact, the peaks don't seem squashed at all. OTOH, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of overall dynamics, either, and that's probably also a consequence of the mix. And this is not the case in every track; I can't find anything to complain about in the mix of "This Woman's Work" except for maybe too much reverb. Does this sound like it describes the issues, or should I just shut up till I've listened to them all again in depth? - -- - -- | Greg Dunn | I don't have low self-esteem. | | gregdunn@indy.net | It's a mistake. I have low | | The Sultan of Slack(tm) | esteem for everyone else. | | http://www.indy.net/~gregdunn/ | Daria | ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V14 #12 **************************