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there are some seriously amazing sounding records that are just crushed.
Andy Wallace Tchad Blake ...
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Substitue "cliche-riddled, immediately-dated artefacts" for "seriously amazing sounding records" and you've hit another nail on the head.
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I know that I am coming to this conversation very late and am hardly the stature of a Steve Albini
OR a Tchad Blake but it would be nice to remind ourselves that today's "cliche-riddled, immediately-dated artefacts" were yesterday's most significant innovations.
Here is a dated reference but it makes my point. I hated watching "NYPD Blue" at times simply because pf those stupid, over-the-top drum treatments used in the show music. They reminded me of the difference between your basic pickup truck and those rediculous monster trucks that are fifteen feet tall and a monument to the stupidity of man.
However, I think that a fair percentage of us originally thought that the drum sounds on Phil Collin's "In the Air Tonight" kicked some serious ass, the first thousand times they were heard. It isn't the effect, it is the over-use of an effect that is goofy, especially if you cannot help but hear it in the mix.
Another question raised early on in this thread was, can you name music that sounded weak in its unadorned state (or something like that)? Funny this question should come up. Just this weekend I was listening to some Seventies-era Grateful Dead and specifically thought that the "naturally" recorded drums (esp. Toms) sounded positively anemic, thin, amateur. So, yes.
As it turns out, "Natural" is also an illusion.
Use one color in your palate and you always sound clich