From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2014 #308 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Website:http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe:mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Wednesday, September 17 2014 Volume 2014 : Number 308 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- New Library item: A statistical lament (after Joni Mitchell) [TheStaff@Jo] RE: New Library item: A statistical lament (after Joni Mitchell) ["Susan ] Larry Klein, Billy Childs, Shawn Colvin, Rickie Lee Jones at Grammy Museum 9/30 [kbhla@fas] Re: Hejira master tape ["johnnybgoode@lineone.net" Subject: RE: New Library item: A statistical lament (after Joni Mitchell) As a researcher, I find this absolutely hysterical!!! :-) Susan Tierney McNamara email:B sem8@cornell.edu - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@smoe.org [mailto:owner-joni@smoe.org] On Behalf Of TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 3:28 AM To: joni@smoe.org Subject: New Library item: A statistical lament (after Joni Mitchell) Title: A statistical lament (after Joni Mitchell) Publication: LabLit Date: 2011.2.6 http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2828 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:57:56 -0700 From: kbhla@fastmail.fm Subject: Larry Klein, Billy Childs, Shawn Colvin, Rickie Lee Jones at Grammy Museum 9/30 So excited about this upcoming event at the Grammy Museum! The event features Billy Childs, Larry Klein, Shawn Colvin, Rickie Lee Jones and Becca Stevens in a panel discussion and a performance! Tickets went on sale today for members with an AMEX card and on sale to the public Sept. 24th. Hope to see some of you there! http://www.grammymuseum.org/events/detail/map-to-the-treasure-reimagining-laura-nyro Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:40:23 +0100 (BST) From: "johnnybgoode@lineone.net" Subject: Re: Hejira master tape Thanks Dave, very interesting. John >----Original Message---- >From: beatntrack@att.net >Date: 14/09/2014 15:05 >To: "JMDL JMDL" >Subj: Hejira master tape > >Listening to the Hejira master tape last week was, in many ways, revelatory. The detail that is contained in a source recording played through a no-compromise listening system is remarkable and hearing a recording that is this familiar allows you to appreciate and sometimes re-evaluate it. As you know, I do a lot of recording and mixing myself, so I listen to records often with two sets of ears going at once; the first set let me take it all in and appreciate the music while the second set listens critically - hmmm, I wouldnt have done that or why did they let that take go? > >We all have playback systems from earbuds to laptops to cars to home stereos these days but were never really sure of whether what were hearing is on the recording or an artifact introduced by the playback system itself, or our room. If something sounds tinny or thin, we might assume its probably cheap headphones or a poor mastering job - should one shell out big money for a newly mastered version? But there are playback systems that cannot be blamed for anything. Every thing you hear on them is neutrally presented with nothing hyped or downplayed. The goal of an audiophile system is a flat response, total neutrality, not, as one might expect, enhancement or euphonic smoothing introduced by the electronics (the exception being the tube (valve) amplifiers). Every component has been chosen towards this goal. Room shaking bass, sparkling highs and such will not be heard unless the mix and mastering engineers put them there. In fact one might be hearing the limitations or ton! > al anomalies of the speakers the engineer mixed on if there is a consistent troublesome timbre throughout the record. > >So, how did Hejira sound? The instruments came off best, I thought, especially the bass. All three of the bass players were up prominently in the mix, and Jaco triple or quadruple tracked his bass so his presence was never understated (!) The guitars were also lovely, quite wet with reverb and had that phasey swirl that gives the album its liquid texture. There are also several layers of those. Amelia had, I think, three layers of Joni plus Larry Carltons four takes of reactive improv" and then the vibes from Vic Feldman. Its a dense sound but lush and full of stereo movement because of the looseness of the double-tracking and how the guitars were panned wide. The drums didnt come across as well recorded to my taste. They had a boxiness about them, actually a typical 70s dry studio thud with no room sound or reverb added. On Blue Motel Room, the bass drum, which should be very subtle in a swing ballad, was mixed very hot and in your face. I found it distracting from the ! > mood of the tune. > >And then theres the vocal. I have always found the timbre of Jonis voice on Court and Spark, Hissing and Hejira to be fairly unnatural and harsh. It works on a car radio or in the supermarket aisle when you hear Help Me, and it certainly cuts through so you can hear the lyrics, but it doesnt sound like Jonis voice really sounds. The master tape proved that that was how Henry and Joni wanted it, or that the A&M monitors didnt reveal this. To me it sounded a little like a voice through a paging system. The low end of her voice was nearly absent, the mids between 800Hz and 2kHz were strident and on the edge of distortion in some passages and the treble was heavily squashed with a de-esser. The net effect was a tone that was harsh and lacking body but had its sibilance and consonants noticeably crushed down. I would attribute some of this to the solid state Haeco console preamps in A&M studios, as Tapestry, which was also recorded in there has it too. Oddly, too, the level ! > of Jonis voice in relation to the band changes radically throughout the album. On Coyote it is buried in the mix and sounds less than captivating but over the course of the album it is brought forward. By Refuge of the Roads it is up high in the mix, a bit too much given the strident tone at times. All mixing was manual back then as automated recall of fader moves was several years off. What you hear from records of this era is a live performance by the engineer trying to balance the shifting sounds and levels in real time. Once console recall arrived you could get a section right, store it, and move on to the next section. By Don Juans Reckless Daughter (also recorded at A&M in the same room) the vocal tone was much improved, whether it was Henrys EQ choices or modifications done to the console through the 70s. I dont know. > >In conclusion, the master tape revealed things I had suspected as being in the source recording but was never sure: it showed off the guitars and bass tracks vividly but it exhibited enough harshness in the vocals that the gorgeous poetry was, in my opinion, not presented in the most listenable way. The ear needs to be invited in, as it were, and a strident tone tends to do the opposite. Im being critical - its still in my top three albums - but as a devotee of sound, per se, I found some aspects of Hejira to be rather dated and aimed at FM radio play, perhaps not wanting to acknowledge that nothing on Hejira would ever make it to radio given its complexities and long songs. But hey, it is Hejira, after all! > >Dave ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2014 #308 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here:mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe