question about production

[EC]

I know that Jim Co-Produced on the CDs, but he was not the overhead producer. Production on an album has a huge effect on the sound and feel of it, which is why I was wondering if  "Z" had a different lead producer. I will check on it when I get home and have the CDs in front of me.

tf - produced by jim james
ad - produced by jim james
ism - produced by jim james
z - produced by john leckie and jim james

are you talkin' about engineering and mixing?

[banjohead]

Well, I guess so, haha. I was under the impression that production had just as much to do with the sound of the album than it did the funding. Maybe the shorter length and cleaner, more studio sound came from the contributions of John Leckie. I was just trying to point out the differences between the albums in terms of what I thought "production value" was.

[EC]

aha.  okay, well a producer (as far as i've seen) in the music world isn't necessary the money person (like they are in the theatre/film worlds).  a producer is more like the person who helps create and oversee the whole sound of the album.  the money people, for the most part, in music, are the label and/or the artist.

john leckie would have helped craft the sound of z.  ato would have fronted the cash most likely.  :)

[primushead]

I was just trying to point out the differences between the albums in terms of what I thought "production value" was.

Try harder next time. ;D

[banjohead]

aha.  okay, well a producer (as far as i've seen) in the music world isn't necessary the money person (like they are in the theatre/film worlds).  a producer is more like the person who helps create and oversee the whole sound of the album.  the money people, for the most part, in music, are the label and/or the artist.

john leckie would have helped craft the sound of z.  ato would have fronted the cash most likely.  :)

Uhhhh.. yeah.. that is exactly what my original point was. The difference in SOUND on the records was due to the addition of the other producer, John Leckie. So.. yeah.

[wellfleet]

umm, maybe this is TOO obvious so nobody's mentioned it, but maybe the sound on ISM and Z is different because they didn't record in a [glb]grain silo[/glb]?

a bigger budget means different and sharper equipment. more sensitive recording almost forces you to clean up the sound because you don't want to drive the listener crazy with hisses and pops and fingers sliding and scratching. a certain amount of that can lend a lot of charm to an album, but on any good stereo it will prolly sound like ass.

the film company i worked for shot entirely on digital video (no, it wasn't porn) and while cost-effective and highly conducive to fast turnaround on editing, it's really really really unflattering to people's skin and appearance unless they're specially lit or made up...

i find that the recording quality, lo-fi on AD and TF, versus more hi-fi on ISM and Z fits nicely within the context of the music. i don't know how "wordless chorus" would sound in a grain silo, but i don't think it would achieve the same mood.

personally, i love the changing styles and settings, it keeps things fresh and keeps me guessing.

[EC]

umm, maybe this is TOO obvious so nobody's mentioned it, but maybe the sound on ISM and Z is different because they didn't record in a [glb]grain silo[/glb]?

i was under the impression that tf, ad and ism were all recorded at the same place.

i find that the recording quality, lo-fi on AD and TF, versus more hi-fi on ISM and Z fits nicely within the context of the music. i don't know how "wordless chorus" would sound in a grain silo, but i don't think it would achieve the same mood.

well, i think the grain silo was used for natural reverb.  there's still a wee little reverb in the word part of wordless chorus (just a little), and there's a BUNCH in the wordless chorus part - so it might have actually sounded really awesome if recorded in a grain silo.  :)

a lot of the difference between recording in a studio and recording somewhere else is that you can get a more clarified sound in the studio.  the studio is built for achieving the clearest possible recording, whereas, if you're on a farm or somethin', you're dealing with crickets and sprinklers (;)) and there's more sound bouncing around and stuff.  you can use the same equipment in a studio that you would somewhere else, and it'll sound different because the acoustics are different.  

the film company i worked for shot entirely on digital video (no, it wasn't porn) and while cost-effective and highly conducive to fast turnaround on editing, it's really really really unflattering to people's skin and appearance unless they're specially lit or made up...

i find that digital video has changed a great deal over the past few years.  i remember we shot something about five years ago, and it looked preeeeeetty weird.  and then we shot a film more recently, and it looked really great.  i work in a photography studio and we shoot on digital, and it looks awesome.  way better than it used to.

anyhow, i was wondering wellfleet, if you were meaning to compare film vs. dv with tape vs. digital audio recordings?  

[PapaJoeBear]

THe reason, for me, that I like TTF so much is that, yes the songs are great, but also that the album reminds me of my teenage years, playing and recording music with my boy Andrew, using whatever equipment we could to record what we were doing. It was very getto, and very cool.  I bet that alot of you other folks that grew up playing music have had similar expierences.  I'm curious to find out if the majority of people who really enjoy TTF for that home-spun sound grew up playing music and recording it; and likewise if the people who don't care for the sound of the album don't have the expeirence of amatuer recording at home? Does any of that make sense? ???

[tomEisenbraun]

i love it because i'm in that phase right now, experimenting with different recording techniques.

[Sleazy Rider]

ayy! Probably so. When I fist heard MMJ I was reading everything I could find about them, in one review of TTF the feller described it as something you might find in some old office building or something. So thats how I listen to it, like I'm the only one who knows of this music, which is the way things were for a while. Also it does sound like something I could do today at home ( production wise).