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The reverb

Started by Godfather, May 02, 2005, 05:39 PM

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Godfather

May 02, 2005, 05:39 PM
I love mmj but the only thing i dont understand is the mass amount of reverb on everything.  Jim has a great voice and sometimes i think its overdone with too much.  I know it adds to their signature sound but it sometimes bothers me and is my only criticism.  Really if its not broke dont fix it but im just curious as to why there is so much.
Without MMJ my state of Kentucky would only have horses, whiskey, tobacco, and weed, so thank you..

corey

#1
May 02, 2005, 06:22 PM
I read an interview once where he mentioned that he feels naked singing into a dry mic. He just enjoys the reverb.

:)

tomEisenbraun

#2
May 02, 2005, 07:43 PM
what songs do you think it kills it on? I think the reverb gives it the "Mars" feeling that Jim was talkign about in that one article. When i first heard "It Still Moves" I described it as "listening to a dream" and I think thats what the guys are going for with the reverb. I don't htink it kills it at all, but opinions are opinions. If you have any specific examples of where you think they could do without it, I'd be happy to give a listen and take a look at your side of things.  :)
The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.

The Boar

#3
May 02, 2005, 07:55 PM
Godfather, I hear what you are saying but I honestly think their music would not affect me the same way if it was not so heavily doused in reverb. Songs like "I Needed It Most" and "It's About Twilight Now" and "One in the Same" would just not be, er, the same without it. Plus, it's so totally unique. In the era where bands like The Strokes and Good Charlotte seem to rule the airwaves, it's nice to hear something completely different.

Godfather

#4
May 02, 2005, 09:26 PM
it doesnt kill anything and i know it contributes to their style but i was just wondering what the reasons jim said they used it for. Really only one song they could have cut it down on is mahgeetah, which is one song i really do like regardless.
Without MMJ my state of Kentucky would only have horses, whiskey, tobacco, and weed, so thank you..

neal

#5
May 03, 2005, 03:15 PM
i agree somewhat with godfather. jim has a tendency to over do it with reverb and country twang on some tracks. thats why im not a huge fan of "it still moves". i've heard that from plenty of listeners. i prefer jims vocals when he was with month of sundays was around long, long ago. if anyone know what im talking about.

fitzcarraldo

#6
May 03, 2005, 09:19 PM
F it, it sounds beautiful to me.  :P

EC

#7
May 03, 2005, 11:44 PM
QuoteF it, it sounds beautiful to me.  :P

Fuckin a.  Me, too.  L.O.V.E it.  :)

Godfather

#8
May 04, 2005, 05:44 PM
QuoteF it, it sounds beautiful to me.  :P
ya i guess your right
Without MMJ my state of Kentucky would only have horses, whiskey, tobacco, and weed, so thank you..

Oz

#9
May 04, 2005, 05:53 PM
QuoteI read an interview once where he mentioned that he feels naked singing into a dry mic. He just enjoys the reverb.

:)


What's so bad about feeling naked?
I'm ready when you are

fitzcarraldo

#10
May 04, 2005, 11:20 PM
The sound is pure style. Taking it to the next level. "It's evolution, baby!"  Just heard One in the Same for the umpteenth time. It gives me the title of that Tennessee Fire outtake that I never heard.  (yet) C'mon, re-release the gooddarn song already. I could get killed walking my doggie tomorrow. Itunes? hah

kymoose

#11
May 05, 2005, 06:30 AM
The reverb is what makes MMJ, MMJ.  Jim has an amazing voice and he clearly does not need reverb to mask anything--he likes it and choses to use it, and most of us are thankful for it.

Neal--I think some of us may have a different interpretation of twang.  Calling It Still Moves as "too much twang" is a serious matter of perspective.  If you only listen to house music, or hip hop--It Still Moves may sound rootsy.  But, if you listen to the Allman Brothers, Son Volt, Wilco, Drive By Truckers or many other American bands you are probably going to hear just as much--if not more of this "twang."    

tomEisenbraun

#12
May 05, 2005, 08:03 PM
QuoteThe sound is pure style. Taking it to the next level. "It's evolution, baby!"  Just heard One in the Same for the umpteenth time. It gives me the title of that Tennessee Fire outtake that I never heard.  (yet) C'mon, re-release the gooddarn song already. I could get killed walking my doggie tomorrow. Itunes? hah


what is this TN Fire outtake?
The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.

EC

#13
May 10, 2005, 03:54 PM
I kept meaning to post this, but kept forgetting.  It has a really nice section about the reverb.  

QuotePrinted from NOW Magazine Online Edition
                http://www.nowtoronto.com

               
       
Beards R Us
       
My Morning Jacket's silo science
       
By MATT GALLOWAY

Jim James has had it with all the  cracks about Southern rock beardos and burly, Jack Daniel's-swilling longhairs.  Any mention of James and his pals in Kentucky's My Morning Jacket inevitably comes loaded with talk about the South rising again as a rock power, drawing sketchy links between MMJ and everyone from the Allman Brothers to Kings of Leon. Mention his beard and boogie rock again and there's no telling what mayhem the otherwise polite James might unleash on you.

"Aw, Christ, it's so fucking annoying," he snorts from Louisville's outskirts. "I keep telling people that music is about your ears, it's not about your eyes. Yes, we are from Kentucky and we're big, burly guys with beards, and we're proud of that, but it shouldn't matter if we're skinny and bald or fat and scruffy.

"It's the same thing with the whole Southern rock thing. There is no scene, and I don't even listen to Southern rock bands. Most of my favourite bands are from the north."

Unfortunately, the hair chatter will only get louder. MMJ's major-label debut, It Still Moves, is kicking up a serious fuss, not that James and the rest of the band are letting their sudden shift in fortune go to their heads.

Rather than slim down their loose-limbed rock epics into more radio-friendly jams, the band kindly took label owner Dave Matthews's money and invested it in the rural farm where MMJ have recorded all their records. The result Ð a silo converted into a giant, whooshing reverb chamber Ð helped them achieve something you just couldn't get in a proper leather-couch-and-gold-record-filled recording studio.

"I'd sat in the silo before and just played, and it was fucking amazing," James laughs. "It sounds unreal, absolutely unreal, and that's the sound I heard in my head. We'd never been able to record out there, though, because it's 750 feet away from the studio, and we always ran out of cables.

"We ended up running a whole mess of Ethernet cables out there. It was like a science experiment, and we started shooting sound around this old silo. The first time I heard the finished results it just blew my mind. I was almost in tears. The dream had become a reality."

The upshot is a record that is utterly drenched in reverb. The songs on It Still Moves are built around this echoing, cavernous sound, at times eerie, often just plain immense.

"Reverb is essential. It is the music for me," James insists. "If it was gone, the songs might not exist. At the very least, they'd be pretty fucking thin. We have all sorts of different reverb chambers, ranging from a bathroom to a garage to a barn to a silo.

"My whole thing is the idea of space and how things are recorded. We've been fortunate to do this in our own studio, which has rooms that sound like no others. As a result, no one else can really get that sound. If we went to just a normal recording studio, you know what you're going to get, which is a record that sounds like a bunch of other records. I guess that's fine, but why not record your vocals in a silo instead? There's no comparison." Ê  

I really like the end bits..
                                                                      
        







  
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