Everly Bros. DCC Gold CD / RCA Nashville Studio info/ What's Compression?/Buddy Holly

"That's right.

Less is more!"

Today this means less human intervention and judgment. Thus we have dialogue normalizaton, and black box formulas for combined dynamic compression, EQ and limiting. This gives us the everything is loud, aren't we a powerful TV and radio station syndrome that everyone is used to and expects as normal. At least it has "cured" the loud commercial "problem". Just try to produce a full frequency response, wide seperation, dynamic music production and play it on today's AM and FM or TV. The worlds often collide.

 

Maybe the problem of music being overprocessed, over EQd, over compressed, and over-messed with is due to the salaries that the recording engineers demand. In order to demand a high salary, the engineer has to be able to show the record label the he really knows how to "re-engineer the sound to make the music sound better". Maybe the record labels won't pay an engineer for "keeping his hands off of the music"? After all, why should they pay someone for doing nothing.

 

Maybe I'm just a bit naïve, but I really don't think there's some big conspiracy coming from the label bosses saying "we must make things sound processed. More, I think it's probably "we've been told we need 'mastering engineers' to make things sound better. We'll hire them and let them do what they want." Chances are engineers *will* try to improve things as they see fit. We don't think that's good? Well, not everyone shares our definition of "good", nor does everyone know how to achieve "good" if they wanted to.

 

Johnny,

Personally, I do not think so. Labels remaster catalog titles in order to create hype and market visability (unit sales) with such nomikers as "newly remastered", "restored from the original master tapes", etc, etc. I believe you will find the reasons for the "overprocessing", which have been well-chronicled in other threads and posts, are more related to the record labels desire to master recordings to sound "good" on low quality reproduction equipment. If your theory were to be correct that would mean that we now have a generation of Engineers out there who sincerely believe that all this "processing" is actually making the music sound better. I hope not!

Bob

 

But we did and do. In the early '90s, EVERYONE (well, not everyone, but a lot of people) was using noise reduction. "Look ma, I can get rid of the hiss!" Most people have wised up since then (in the US) - Joe Gastwirt comes to mind - but many British mastering engineers still swear by it. Jon Astley has won CEDAR "awards", and Peter Mew's bio on www.abbeyroad.co.uk makes a special note that he specializes in "Sonic Solution de-noise".

They really do think it sounds better...

 

lukpac,

Thanks for the link!

Bob

 

Well, a lot, if not most, of the music that the young people currently listen to is over-processed. These people think that this is the way music is supposed to sound. When some of them become recording engineers, they may overprocess everything because thats the way they think music is supposed to sound. Yikes!!!

 

Johnny,

well put...

Bob

 

Steve,

Did Bill Porter engineer Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline? Most of their recordings appear to have that "sound" or is that just a signature "Nashville sound" from the period that I am hearing?

An idea for the future....a compilation of the "Best of Bill Porter". Certainly would be a fitting tribute to a talented Engineer. Possibly licensing would be onerous.

Thanks!

Bob

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! I want a copy.............. .....sadly I never got a chance to get this one........and I love the Everly Brothers Ok, this is my next project to get this album............Does anyone have suggestions on where to look.......besides ebay .......................I'll snag it in a second if I find one............My search now begins....................................................................................


-Wes

 

Like on "Rock Around With Ollie Vee"?

 

Steve,

Many, many thanks!

Bob

 

Steve, I'm learning more and more every day on how they recorded my favorite recordings I enjoy on the radio and in my CD player every day thanks to you. I don't mind all that echo in Columbia's mixes at all nor do I mind the Owen Bradley sound at all, in fact, I love them both as well as Bill Porter's stuff.

 

Steve, I agree it makes listening more fun as well. So much of my collection was recorded in Nashville past and present as you know this kind of music is my specialty in collecting.

 

I'd say, IMO, that this is the charm of these recordings. They might be compressed...but they don't have that squashed, fatiguing, no room to breath feel that one would normally associate with a finished, compressed mix. Which leads me to my next question. Did the compression occur strictly on the individual tracks while recording or was the final stereo mixed squashed? I mean, one can use compression on individual tracks (can sometimes work wonders on cheap acoustic guitars) and not still end up with the same negative results of a finished mix thats compressed. It's a creative tool that *can* be used in a good way too.

What I love about the Porter recordings is that wide-band sound that you just don't get nowadays. Standup basses playing in conjunction with electric basses giving true bottom and snap at the same time...not just some one-note variety thud. Cymbals that actually sound like cymbals and not just like air being let out of a tire! I also love the deep echo chamber sound on the center-mixed vocals (particularly some of the Everly's 60's Warner's stuff...Muskrat, Lucille.), and of course the slap-back effects used between the two wide stereo channels that form a nice bed around the center-mixed vocals (again..listen to the intro of "Muskrat"). Some very creative use of echo and tape delay there!

 

Steve, refresh my memory if you could. What did Bill Porter tell you was the reason for the bizarre stereo mixes of Poor Jenny and Take A Message To Mary - creating that center, phantom channel illusion that they did? Something about knocking one of the channels out of phase. These are two of the weirdest 1959 stereo mixes I've ever heard and need my memory refreshed!

Also, do you know if he still lectures at the college level? This guy should really write a book!

 

If you're looking for Everly Bros. Best (DCC)...

Better get on over to CDNow while they still have
some. Got one this week.

 

Ah, I'll head over there right now.....thanks

-Wes