Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - "When's the last time you could tell who the drummer was?"

Silver Sonya · 14th March 2008

By now, most of you have probably read the Rolling Stone article about the death of sound quality in recorded music.

To a certain extent, this is kind of a *yawn* topic for us. The web is littered with zillions of articles on this topic: the music business is dying, the public doesn't care, sound quality sucks, the public doesn't care, the loudness war has reached insane proportions, the public doesn't care, etc.

But the most poignant and striking quote from this particular article is the 3rd-to-last paragraph.

Quoting:

"You can make anyone sound professional," says Mitchell Froom, a producer who's worked with Elvis Costello and Los Lobos, among others. "But the problem is that you have something that's professional, but it's not distinctive. I was talking to a session drummer, and I said, 'When's the last time you could tell who the drummer is?' You can tell Keith Moon or John Bonham, but now they all sound the same."

I was thinking... it's true! The age of The Drummer With A Distinctive Sound And Recognizable Personality seems to be over, for the most part. In recorded music, drums are all starting to sound the same. I went to the Police reunion tour last year and I was struck by how much Stewart Copeland always sounds like Stewart Copeland.

What do you guys think of Froom's quote? Does it break your heart as much as it does mine?

- c

14th March 2008	#1
Silver Sonya Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2004 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 7,203 Thread Starter	"When's the last time you could tell who the drummer was?" By now, most of you have probably read the Rolling Stone article about the death of sound quality in recorded music. To a certain extent, this is kind of a yawn topic for us. The web is littered with zillions of articles on this topic: the music business is dying, the public doesn't care, sound quality sucks, the public doesn't care, the loudness war has reached insane proportions, the public doesn't care, etc. But the most poignant and striking quote from this particular article is the 3rd-to-last paragraph. Quoting: "You can make anyone sound professional," says Mitchell Froom, a producer who's worked with Elvis Costello and Los Lobos, among others. "But the problem is that you have something that's professional, but it's not distinctive. I was talking to a session drummer, and I said, *'When's the last time you could tell who the drummer is?'* You can tell Keith Moon or John Bonham, but now they all sound the same." I was thinking... it's true! The age of The Drummer With A Distinctive Sound And Recognizable Personality seems to be over, for the most part. In recorded music, drums are all starting to sound the same. I went to the Police reunion tour last year and I was struck by how much Stewart Copeland always sounds like Stewart Copeland. What do you guys think of Froom's quote? Does it break your heart as much as it does mine? - c