Quote:
Originally Posted by frontierfran  anyone else read that article in Tape Op about Sufjan Stevens?
His guerrila recording techniques. recording at 32 and not at least 44.1. Dumping tracks 2 tracks at a time into PT from a 4 track...manually overdubbing drums and lining them up by eye. using nothing but 57's...
If the article is 100% geniune, then it really does say something about gear, or, perhaps the need of high end stuff to make a really nice sounding album.
now, there will be arguments on how good that album sounds, but I can say this: I doubt many people on this board would detect how "amateur" the tracking and mixing were done. It really sounds much better than the methodology behind it would dictate.
possible bottom line: good gear might only be for those of us who need a lot of help with mixing since the better the gear up front, the easier it is to mix.
And, or, Sufjan Stevens is the greatest enginneer to have ever lived. 
if you havnt read it, read it. its facinating. |
I'd heard/read his name for some time but was unfamiliar with his actual work. (The context of mention often seemed to suggest that those who like Coldplay with like Stevens [?!?]. I
hate Coldplay. But then people are always saying to me, if you like A, then you'll like B, and, far more often than not, I don't.)
But I made a point of checking out some of his stuff [I just took the most popular off the top of the Rhapsody artist page for him] after seeing the article on the cover (still haven't really read it) and, actually, seeing this thread title (this is the first time opened it).
I actually rather liked much of what I heard -- and it's
clean, for the most part, but not exactly sparkling fidelity. That said, what I heard had a fairly pleasant tone, and was nicely arranged in that dreamy, arty way. I sometimes think high frequencies are overrated. The ear may be attracted to bright, shiny objects, but it seems to fall in love with and want to hang out with the warmer, darker tones, often enough.