Eric Carmen's Letter to Bob LefsetzEditors Note: Boy does this sum it up for us.... From Lefsetz.com: ...Back in the mid to late seventies, I used to record at Sound Factory in Hollywood. So did Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and a host of other terrific artists. It was a great room, but the real reason all of us recorded there was because Val Garay, and then Greg Ladanyi, the stellar engineers who ruled that room, had learned how to make the studio as TRANSPARENT as possible. When you hear a record by James Taylor or Linda Ronstadt from that era, it's like they're sitting next to you in the car, singing in your ear, and the band is coming out over the radio speakers. It was all about getting the warmest, truest, MOST INTIMATE vocal sound, using the best Neumann tube mics, and the fewest effects. The reason we all wanted that sound, is because we understood that in order to really connect with the listener, you had to sound real. Real as in "un-processed." Those records sound as good today as they did when they were released. I work out every day in a gym that plays the top twenty, over and over again, so I'm forced to listen to the stuff that passes for music these days, week after week, usually multiple times a day. And the thing that strikes me about what I'm hearing is that the approach to recording these records is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what we were going for at Sound Factory. Every voice is so processed that they barely even sound human these days. Every hip-hop record has that annoying sound ( popularized by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton in the 70's, but only used as an occasional effect during a guitar solo ) on every vocal, you know, the one that makes the vocal sound like a Middle Eastern clarinet. Additionally, where we used to spend hours trying to get the most natural drum sound and bass sound and every other kind of sound, the tracks I hear in the gym sound like they've purposely found the worst, cheapest synthesizer sound they could find, and that sound has now become "de rigueur" to every production. I've always believed that the most important thing you have to do, as a singer, is convince the listener you mean what you're singing. It was never about just having a good voice. John Davidson has a pretty good voice, but Mick Jagger is a much better singer. You BELIEVE Mick! That's why Todd being all about "feel" is exactly right. It's ALWAYS been all about feel. From Sinatra to The Rolling Stones. Years ago, I used to get a newsletter called "Who's Looking?" It came out every month, and would tell writers which artists were looking for songs, what label they were on, who their contact was, and exactly what they were looking for. If you looked up "Whitney Houston", it would say "Big Ballads, Strong Hooks, Great Lyrics, contact: Clive Davis", Arista Records. I remember looking at the same newsletter sometime in the early to mid 90's, and instead of "Big Ballads, Strong Hooks, Great Lyrics, etc. it said simply " Beats." That was the day I knew music as we knew it was over. Every last vestige of humanity had now been officially removed. Processed vocals, cheap electronic sounds and "beats." No songs, no melodies, no great vocal performances, just beats. Who goes to a live concert to emotionally connect with that crap? No one. That's why music is in the dumper. |
