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| OK, I had to chime in about the idea of whether regular folks can distinguish between the digital mellotron sounds and the real McCoy. This again can be boiled down to the long-time argument between analog and digital and the foibles therein. I can tell the difference, you can tell the difference, but the public at large cannot and don't care. Period. Thank goodness for that. In the recording realm we make impossible things happen every day and if the public knew the specifics of all the tricks, effects and shortcuts we use every day, the lot of us would be labelled charlatans. Now although they can't hear the specific differences, they can, unbeknown to themselves, FEEL the difference. Someplace inside they know that something within a recording lifts them or pushes them down....pulls at them emotionally. Good songwriting can take you part way, but the choices made of how to frame that song within a recording can make or break the communicated sentiment. There's something I like to call "high integrity recording." This involves the use of certain formats and instruments that make a recording thicker, fuller and more impactive to the listener. Magnetic tape, transformered consoles, valves, very good tube and ribbon mics can be considered high integrity formats. Piano, strings, horns, tympani, real mellotrons, choirs and the like are high integrity instruments....essentially any instrument that would be difficult to attain to the average listener short of an orchestra, which would be very high integrity indeed. It's not really about the specific usage of one instrument over another, but the whole of the recording that denotes this. The question can be asked..."Are we providing the listener with as full, impactive and emotional an experience as we can given a decent song and a talented artist?" Right down to the smallest shaker or tambourine, are we committed to providing a sense of reality or quality? I recently was interviewing a new recording client about why he chose me to produce his album and the answer was perhaps the highest compliment I've ever received in 20 years in the biz....."Because your recordings sound real, like they actually happened." I was elated at this simple observation. Yes, a touch dismayed that this is what the industry has boiled down to, but proud to be one who makes the distinction. Digital tron or real one, how does the whole of the recording sound? If the digital one is such that the emotion is conveyed thoroughly, OK. We also have to balance the this idea with what's available. Don't have a choir? Overdub vocals until you do? Use a sample? Don't have a mellotron? Use a 4000D or Memotron? Don't have a tape machine? Use Pro Tools or Nuendo? Fine, but take responsibility for your choice and be sure it works as the idea intended and above all, know the difference. It's OUR job to know what's real and what's not so the listener doesn't have to....so the listener can be given a true experience and be transported to a place where the song moves them. That's my feeling on it. -Jack Younger M400 #376 |