Over production

[ForeverAutumn]

There's a Canadian folk singer that I really like named Rose Cousins. I have her first CD and it's a gem. Very simple folk music. Well written songs sung with an accoustic guitar and a few instruments to fill in the background. The CD really puts the focus on her beautiful voice and the strong melodies of her songs. It's simply charming.

I just bought her second CD. With more financial backing and a budget for a bigger producer, more musicians, and overall production, it's not nearly as good IMO. The CD sounds like other similar artists now and has totally lost the charm that the first disk has. While not a bad disk, I just don't see myself spending the time with this one that I did (and still do) with her first.

The new disk is produced by another Canadian artist, Luke Doucet. Luke is married to another singer named Melissa McLelland. He played on and produced Melissa's last CD. Well he plays on and produced this new Rose Cousins CD, and it sounds just like Melissa McLelland's last CD. Instead of letting Rose sound like Rose, she's a cookie cut of Melissa.

Overall, this disk is a disappointment to me. Rose is an extremely talented singer and song-writer (more talented than Melissa McLelland IMO) but it's lost on this disk. The bigger production highlights her vocals nicely, but is so over produced that her songs seem to have lost their way. It's a shame.

[MasterCylinder]

The producer, as you know, can have considerable influence over the artist's sound............and this occurs not only in the recording but, after all is done, the mastering as well............the mix might sound great to you in the studio, but when you get the final product weeks later, it isn't what you wanted.

If you think back to the disc I sent you, some of those songs were produced by me and some were done by a friend of mine.............after years of doing this, I now get a quasi-final product and label it as "test' and listen to it in the car changer, the home big rig, headphones, systems with and without subwoofers, all of the above............ for a week or two before deciding on any final mix.............go back to the studio and tweak accordingly............seems to work well for me.

Mine are easy to recognize as they have a rich low end.

Best regards,
RW/MC