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Ah am so steel een luv weeth yoo
I must admit that I've been less than thrilled with the fact that Richard Carpenter feels the need to continually remix, add to, or otherwise "fool with" the songs Karen and he created. I feel this way for a few reasons.
First of all, the sound is rarely better than what came before. His basic approach is always the same:
1. Overly-accentuate the kick drum. Likely, he's re-recording one and adding it to the proceedings. Most of the time he does this, the kick drum goes out of time quite a bit. Check out "Love Is Surrender" from the black and gold set. In Pro-Tools, these sounds can be "slid into place". Why he doesn't do this is beyond me.
2. Drench Karen in reverb. I've never enjoyed this. "Calling Occupants..." and the latest "Yesterday Once More" fall victim to this and it really sounds horrible to my ears.
3. That "doubling" effect. He added it on "Calling Occupants..." and songs that were finished after she passed like "Tryin' To Get The Feeling". It just doesn't work.
4. Compression. I can't tell you much I dislike that. Check out the very last "So they sprinkled moondust in your hair..." line from "(They Long To Be) Close To You" from the SACD. At the end of it, you can hear the compression kick in. I am not a fan of that kind of revision.
5. Adding synths. He did this work "Superstar" and "It's Going To Take Some Time" from the SACD. That remix of "It's Going..." - is unlistenable because of this. That piano sounds positively synthetic.
His remixes very rarely work. This is mostly because the additional elements he adds just don't sound like they belong in the song. They sound like they were added after the fact rather than sounding like they're a part of the song. You also get additional "tape hiss". Whenever Karen's vocal is faded in, this hiss accompanies it and it's always quite "jarring".
What does everyone else think about his penchant for remixing?
Ed
First of all, the sound is rarely better than what came before. His basic approach is always the same:
1. Overly-accentuate the kick drum. Likely, he's re-recording one and adding it to the proceedings. Most of the time he does this, the kick drum goes out of time quite a bit. Check out "Love Is Surrender" from the black and gold set. In Pro-Tools, these sounds can be "slid into place". Why he doesn't do this is beyond me.
2. Drench Karen in reverb. I've never enjoyed this. "Calling Occupants..." and the latest "Yesterday Once More" fall victim to this and it really sounds horrible to my ears.
3. That "doubling" effect. He added it on "Calling Occupants..." and songs that were finished after she passed like "Tryin' To Get The Feeling". It just doesn't work.
4. Compression. I can't tell you much I dislike that. Check out the very last "So they sprinkled moondust in your hair..." line from "(They Long To Be) Close To You" from the SACD. At the end of it, you can hear the compression kick in. I am not a fan of that kind of revision.
5. Adding synths. He did this work "Superstar" and "It's Going To Take Some Time" from the SACD. That remix of "It's Going..." - is unlistenable because of this. That piano sounds positively synthetic.
His remixes very rarely work. This is mostly because the additional elements he adds just don't sound like they belong in the song. They sound like they were added after the fact rather than sounding like they're a part of the song. You also get additional "tape hiss". Whenever Karen's vocal is faded in, this hiss accompanies it and it's always quite "jarring".
What does everyone else think about his penchant for remixing?
Ed