11-06-2023, 07:13 AM
In my world, I would have lost a customer or gotten a message to redo and do things right if I made the mistakes that I described below, but it turns up that the songs below live good and well with them.
I just happened to listen to Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You, and suddenly, I noticed the very prominent plosives that appear in the beginning where she sings a cappella. The first plosive already appears on the first word in the song, and it's the "f" in "If". I listened to the official 4K YouTube Video and started to wonder if she sang live from the scene in the movie, the same thing goes on in the original version of the recording, but it is a little less prominent to me, so the video is probably a little more compressed and or loaded; I just used my ears here, so it's my very subjective feeling.
My respect for the name of the artist and the recording staff behind the recording has prevented me from hearing this, but now it stands out. Up to now, I would never record or let the plosives be as prominent as on this recording but with Whitney's stunning vocals and the fact that this recording also serves as a golden moment in the music history, I must reconsider and think a little bit. Here is the link to the video:
https://youtu.be/3JWTaaS7LdU?si=kwYzM3vbmoD7boSp
The next examples are something I have noticed for years and the artists I mention here are these days hot and actual again with new releases. Let's begin with the Rolling Stones and Honky Tonk Woman. Here, the tempo varies like crazy. The cowbell in the intro starts at around 108 BPM, and the drums continue steeply at 112 BPM (rounding up to integers here). If I recall it right, the maximum speed on this song is around 125 and the speed varies very much throughout the whole song. In addition to the tempo flaws, the musicians are making mistakes here and there which would make me crazy in the studio or in the practice room, but the history proves that it works. This is a perfect song for training tempo-mapping in Mixbus32C. Again: -This is among the most popular songs in modern history and I love it.
https://youtu.be/hqqkGxZ1_8I?si=rWYEoFxEfrnAwnAe
Last but not least, we have John Lennon and Working Class Hero. From 1:25 to 1:45, you can hear they have glued in another take of the song. Phil Spector was among the producers here and I wonder what happened during this recording. They must certainly have had the resources to make this better, if not there, at least at a later point, and I wonder what happened. What is just good enough? I notice that someone has tried to make the difference less prominent in later mixes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMewtlmkV6c
It's clear that human performance has been the winner over perfection here, something to be aware of if a customer or producer lets us as engineers or musicians slip through in these razor-sharp times of accurate rhythms and surgical cutting and adjustments. What do you think, are there more well-known examples?
I just happened to listen to Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You, and suddenly, I noticed the very prominent plosives that appear in the beginning where she sings a cappella. The first plosive already appears on the first word in the song, and it's the "f" in "If". I listened to the official 4K YouTube Video and started to wonder if she sang live from the scene in the movie, the same thing goes on in the original version of the recording, but it is a little less prominent to me, so the video is probably a little more compressed and or loaded; I just used my ears here, so it's my very subjective feeling.
My respect for the name of the artist and the recording staff behind the recording has prevented me from hearing this, but now it stands out. Up to now, I would never record or let the plosives be as prominent as on this recording but with Whitney's stunning vocals and the fact that this recording also serves as a golden moment in the music history, I must reconsider and think a little bit. Here is the link to the video:
https://youtu.be/3JWTaaS7LdU?si=kwYzM3vbmoD7boSp
The next examples are something I have noticed for years and the artists I mention here are these days hot and actual again with new releases. Let's begin with the Rolling Stones and Honky Tonk Woman. Here, the tempo varies like crazy. The cowbell in the intro starts at around 108 BPM, and the drums continue steeply at 112 BPM (rounding up to integers here). If I recall it right, the maximum speed on this song is around 125 and the speed varies very much throughout the whole song. In addition to the tempo flaws, the musicians are making mistakes here and there which would make me crazy in the studio or in the practice room, but the history proves that it works. This is a perfect song for training tempo-mapping in Mixbus32C. Again: -This is among the most popular songs in modern history and I love it.
https://youtu.be/hqqkGxZ1_8I?si=rWYEoFxEfrnAwnAe
Last but not least, we have John Lennon and Working Class Hero. From 1:25 to 1:45, you can hear they have glued in another take of the song. Phil Spector was among the producers here and I wonder what happened during this recording. They must certainly have had the resources to make this better, if not there, at least at a later point, and I wonder what happened. What is just good enough? I notice that someone has tried to make the difference less prominent in later mixes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMewtlmkV6c
It's clear that human performance has been the winner over perfection here, something to be aware of if a customer or producer lets us as engineers or musicians slip through in these razor-sharp times of accurate rhythms and surgical cutting and adjustments. What do you think, are there more well-known examples?
