Lo fi... on purpose!

[joelpatterson]

I helped put together an "audition" CD for a girl applying to an exclusive high school: her singing to a piano acompaniment. I told them we could do some editing to patch different pieces of different takes together... "Oh, no," they assured me, they were just after the simplest sort of recording. Naturally by the end of the session we were listing, by the time code, what edits I would do where.

The piano player talked about being on committees that had to sift through these, and I took my cue from all she said-- tone more critical than pitch, enthusiasm and "freshness" more important than studied perfection.

And the mom had a brilliant insight-- "Make it sound like she just turned on the computer, and did it."

I shaved off everything "hi-tech" and even killed the piano mics. I personally hate the sound of a piano drifting in, pale and chalky, into a vocal mic, but by golly it sounded authentic. And I lowpassed and highpassed her vocal mic, a Trion 8000 tube, to smear any shrillness and smudge any wobbliness. And I gotta say-- the final product had a wonderful "guilelessness," for being such a carefully crafted fraud.

[Mayor999]

Do you have a rough of the recording without and of the "Lo-Fi-ification" and the final product for us to check out?

Sounds cool!

[joelpatterson]

Here's the link:

Lo fi-ification syndrome

This is just the final version-- the glorious crisp and clear one? With the Earthworks mics on the Steinway? Gone, gone, gone... solid gone.

[lord_bunny]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

Gone, gone, gone... solid gone.

Is that a Tom Waits refrence? Would make sense considering the thrust of the endevour.

[GroovnD313]

I recorded a rock band the other day, neumanns and the whole deal. Artist:"Can you make it sound lo-fi"
So I dusted off the old cassette deck turned the dolby n/r off and handed them their mixes on a casette.
Artist: "We Love it!"
god bless lo-fi goodness ( and the day it took me to find a blank casette) for 3$!!!

[Mayor999]

Hah Pirates of Penzance! Nice!

[joelpatterson]

Finding the blank tape is hard enough, try to find an empty J-box..."J box"? That must be what the "J-card" fits into, right? I feel like I'm remembering the language from out of a dream!

Steve Miller: Lt’s Midnight Dream LYRICS
Gone, gone, gone, solid gone. These lyrics were found at ActioNext.com. AddThis Social Bookmark Button. More songs by Steve Miller: ...
www.actionext.com/names_s/steve_ miller_lyrics/lt_s_midnight_dream.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Now that I google it, "solid gone" is one of the hardest working song titles in show business...

[joelpatterson]

Originally Posted by Mayor999

Hah Pirates of Penzance! Nice!

Right, right... that's the other funny thing, they didn't want any label, so just called it "Leave," never even wrote down what it was!