Grooves and Wrinkles

My name "Synthetic Tone" came from my music ventures around 2001. I had a home studio built around a ProTools Digi001 setup and was really into it then. I spent way too much though on that stuff hoping to make some money back eventually on the investment but it seemed even tougher to make money in music than art so I kinda got away from it when my main Mac G3 audio computer died on me. I am still paying bills though on some of that equipment sadly... still have a nice Yamaha synth keyboard, bass guitar, cheap digital mixer, and few audio apps but just can't find the time to get back into it. My electronic music wasn't really very marketable but... I got lots of compliments on my production which I was always proud of. I will have to dig out my old tunes and post them up if anyone would like to hear them

What were you producing Tamlin? Was it your own music.. someone else's? Got anything we can hear? I'd be willing to check it out

Oh... the really cool thing was working with MacMusic.org back then. I was a moderator there and in got to do some cool email interviews such as with Dave Smith who fathered MIDI and a famous music producer. I really kinda miss that and the people at MacMusic.org team.

Synth: Yes, I've got all of Natalie's solo stuff as well. Although I never got to see the Maniacs live, I did get to see Natalie when she played over here in 2002.

The thing about mixing (and I've done a bit of record producing myself) is that if it's done right, it's almost undetectable - all you notice is a great-sounding record - but if it's done wrong it can ruin an otherwise great performance. Even experienced producers can get it wrong sometimes: Norman Smith, who engineered a lot of Beatles songs and produced early Pink Floyd, made a complete mess of "SF Sorrow" by The Pretty Things (in my opinion) and Steve Lillywhite - a very accomplished producer who's done some excellent work with Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads and U2 - made a right pig's ear of The Pogues' album "Peace And Love", even though he'd done an excellent job on their previous album "If I Should Fall From Grace With God".

I think I have one of 10,000 Maniacs cd's... and one Natalie Merchant. Tamlin, are you a fan of solo Merchant? Just curious.

Yeah... I agree. Mixing is an art in itself and unless you really have the ear, knowledge and passion for it... yeah... best to have someone else do it. Never heard of Blackfield... I will have to keep a lookout for that one. I will ask a buddy of mine... he has probably twice the collection I have and first turned me on to PT

Synth - The reason it's not up to parr is because Steven Wilson decided he could do it all himself. Artists should never mix and master their own recordings. Have you ever listened to "Blackfield"? It's a Steven Wilson offshoot with another artist, Aviv Geffen. It's more pop, but not bad.

Tamlin - The Green Pajamas (of the few seconds I heard) sounded pretty cool. Can definitely hear the Beatles / Pink Floyd influence.

ok Moods... you were right about "Fear of a Blank Planet"... sounds lo-fi but not really even in a good way. I have a live album that really sounds as good if not better

Moods: I'm not surprised - the Green Pajamas seem to be almost as well-kept a secret in the US as they are in the rest of the world. I can't even remember where I first stumbled upon them, but I do remember that I fell in love with them at first listen (the song was The Ravenna Witch - still one of my all-time favourites). Here's some more info:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg...1:apftxquhldke

LOL!

You're right, recordings suffer from over compression - among a boat load of other things. Everything loud, all the time.

Tamlin ... I've never heard of the Green Pajamas!

wooohooo... I am scouring a map now... any preferences to location? tropics right? hehe

sorry Moods... got busy doing house chores yesterday and forgot to check the music out... should have set it to play while doing dishes lol.

I have run across some lousy productions in past though... some of which were so bad that I actually thought I could have done better. Has anyone noticed the differences from CD's produced in the 80's vs. recent? The s/n ratio has improved most likely as most studios went to digital editing. But... there's also been a trend in compressing the pee out of music to make it "sound" louder and stand out from other songs. Recent recordings and mixes seem to be losing dynamics and subtleties in favour of loudness which is often result of the record companies pushing their mixers for "loud" and in your face mixes. Sad really.

I'm gonna have to go with the beatles.
not that they encompass all my musical tastes, but they do have the most to choose from.