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bad mix annoyance
May. 2nd, 2009 07:07 pmWho is responsible for the awful new stereo mixes on the Beach Boys US singles collection box set? Who? Who has done this?
They sound nothing the fuck like the mono singles. Nothing the fuck like. The sounds have been separated out so you have the drums HERE, the harpsichord HERE, as if the guys were sitting and playing in a pub. And then the vocal sounds like it comes from about five miles away. Who has done this? It doesn't sound like music any more. It isn't a soundscape of music like what it should be - it's the Beach Boys for fuck's sake.
It's like someone thought that in order to make a good mix, you have to separate everything out and mix everything up high. If this were a meal made of food ingredients rather than some music made of sound ingredients it'd go like this - 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of egg, 100 grams of black pepper, 100 grams of salt. Served on a tray in separate piles. And there's your omelette.
There are some good stereo mixes of Beach Boys tracks. There's an incredibly good Dolby 5.1 surround sound mix of Pet Sounds available on audio DVD. But these, the new stereo mixes of When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) and She Knows Me Too Well sound bloody dreadful.
There's an argument to say that it's nice to have the mixes as instrumental tracks almost unmixed, not competing with the perfection of the mono mix, MAYYYBE with the vocal laid on top... but the thing is, they sound bloody dreadful. And with the vocal on top you read them as a proper track, and they SOUND BLOODY DREADFUL.
You can already hear all the instruments in the mono mix, you know. You just have to use your bloomin lugholes.
They sound nothing the fuck like the mono singles. Nothing the fuck like. The sounds have been separated out so you have the drums HERE, the harpsichord HERE, as if the guys were sitting and playing in a pub. And then the vocal sounds like it comes from about five miles away. Who has done this? It doesn't sound like music any more. It isn't a soundscape of music like what it should be - it's the Beach Boys for fuck's sake.
It's like someone thought that in order to make a good mix, you have to separate everything out and mix everything up high. If this were a meal made of food ingredients rather than some music made of sound ingredients it'd go like this - 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of egg, 100 grams of black pepper, 100 grams of salt. Served on a tray in separate piles. And there's your omelette.
There are some good stereo mixes of Beach Boys tracks. There's an incredibly good Dolby 5.1 surround sound mix of Pet Sounds available on audio DVD. But these, the new stereo mixes of When I Grow Up (To Be A Man) and She Knows Me Too Well sound bloody dreadful.
There's an argument to say that it's nice to have the mixes as instrumental tracks almost unmixed, not competing with the perfection of the mono mix, MAYYYBE with the vocal laid on top... but the thing is, they sound bloody dreadful. And with the vocal on top you read them as a proper track, and they SOUND BLOODY DREADFUL.
You can already hear all the instruments in the mono mix, you know. You just have to use your bloomin lugholes.
