Iowan wrote:I'm 28 and can't hear the high frequency shit at all.
Of course, being as I've been listening to super loud music, blown up a lot of stuff, fired a lot of shotguns, and routinely around very noisy farm equipment my entire life, I probably have some hearing damage.
Iowan wrote:I'm 28 and can't hear the high frequency shit at all.
Of course, being as I've been listening to super loud music, blown up a lot of stuff, fired a lot of shotguns, and routinely around very noisy farm equipment my entire life, I probably have some hearing damage.
beantownbubba wrote: Relax. You're good. I just carbon-dated myself. "Tin foil" is an old-fashioned (and possibly regional, I'm not sure) reference to aluminum foil.
Spit coffee on that one! There's probably a thread somewhere in here,"Words or Phrases you don't hear anymore".
Honestly, I never thought about it but I always say "tin foil".
In one of the reviews of EO Patterson describes the band as tasteful. That's always been one of the primary reasons for my attraction to DBT. Even when they are half drunk and wailing away on Lookout Mountain, Shut Up, or People Who Died, their playing is infused with musical taste. As everyone from Debussy to Miles Davis has said, music exists in the space between the notes. Miles told his sidemen, don't play what's there, play what's not there. Some people, passive listeners, confuse this with an absence of content. Active listeners on the other hand, like virtually everyone on this board, are pulled into the spaces between the notes and become participants in the creation of the music.
Playing what's not there is incredibly hard to do and impossible to describe but we all know it when we hear it. I'm a drummer so I'll use EZB to make my point. Even though a reasonably competent drummer with minimal experience might be able to re-create Brad's part on a particular song, it would sound horrible because this imaginary drummer is playing only what's there--he or she doesn't know enough to know what not to play. For example, that deceptively simple modified Purdy Shuffle (google it, it's an awesome beat) and humming you hear from Brad on the outro to Grand Canyon? That's Brad playing what's not there. Incredible.
Markalanbishop wrote:In one of the reviews of EO Patterson describes the band as tasteful. That's always been one of the primary reasons for my attraction to DBT. Even when they are half drunk and wailing away on Lookout Mountain, Shut Up, or People Who Died, their playing is infused with musical taste. As everyone from Debussy to Miles Davis has said, music exists in the space between the notes. Miles told his sidemen, don't play what's there, play what's not there. Some people, passive listeners, confuse this with an absence of content. Active listeners on the other hand, like virtually everyone on this board, are pulled into the spaces between the notes and become participants in the creation of the music.
Playing what's not there is incredibly hard to do and impossible to describe but we all know it when we hear it. I'm a drummer so I'll use EZB to make my point. Even though a reasonably competent drummer with minimal experience might be able to re-create Brad's part on a particular song, it would sound horrible because this imaginary drummer is playing only what's there--he or she doesn't know enough to know what not to play. For example, that deceptively simple modified Purdy Shuffle (google it, it's an awesome beat) and humming you hear from Brad on the outro to Grand Canyon? That's Brad playing what's not there. Incredible.
Purdy Shuffle
You done. You hired the hit maker. Major props for mentioning the Purdy shuffle.
Bearee wrote:I've been a DBT fan for many years. I downloaded the MP3 from Amazon, not a pirate copy. I find the sound quality to be poor. Lead guitar is muffled / fuzzed out on many tracks, especially the ending of Pauline Hawkins. Don't know if this is for "garage" effect, but it does't work for me. Also, the percussion on English Oceans should have been turned way up in the mix, its barely audible. And what's with the background mumbling on Grand Canyon? Some goods songs, but nothing really jumps out at me. Many of the songs sound the same, not enough variety musically. DBT needs to return to a 3 guitar line up IMO.
Now THAT is how you make a first post. No "thanks for having me" "glad to be here" bullshit, just both barrels blazing about what is wrong with the new album and the current lineup. Welcome to the board dude!
Am I wrong to say that the new lineup and new album pales in comparison to the 2000's glory years? I miss the dynamics of the Isbell line up. Too bad things went south with him. I'm still going to the rock show, wouldn't miss it. Just think the band is trying too hard to re-invent themselves when they once had the formula and lost it. Need to get that formula back. No more Sandwiches for the Road!
Bearee wrote:I've been a DBT fan for many years. I downloaded the MP3 from Amazon, not a pirate copy. I find the sound quality to be poor. Lead guitar is muffled / fuzzed out on many tracks, especially the ending of Pauline Hawkins. Don't know if this is for "garage" effect, but it does't work for me. Also, the percussion on English Oceans should have been turned way up in the mix, its barely audible. And what's with the background mumbling on Grand Canyon? Some goods songs, but nothing really jumps out at me. Many of the songs sound the same, not enough variety musically. DBT needs to return to a 3 guitar line up IMO.
Now THAT is how you make a first post. No "thanks for having me" "glad to be here" bullshit, just both barrels blazing about what is wrong with the new album and the current lineup. Welcome to the board dude!
Am I wrong to say that the new lineup and new album pales in comparison to the 2000's glory years? I miss the dynamics of the Isbell line up. Too bad things went south with him. I'm still going to the rock show, wouldn't miss it. Just think the band is trying too hard to re-invent themselves when they once had the formula and lost it. Need to get that formula back. No more Sandwiches for the Road!
Nothing whatsoever against Isbell but my favorite era is when I first got into them in the late 90's/early 00's. As you've probably read in the liner notes of Alabama Ass Whuppin', it's a time Patterson is fond of but would never want to return to. I can only imagine the same holds true for the era when Jason was in the band. I honestly don't get the impression that they're "trying too hard to re-invent themselves". The impression I get is that they're only doing what comes natural, especially after the self-admitted bloated-ness of The Big To-Do and Go-Go Boots. Beats the shit of bringing in some ringer on guitar and trying to repeat the Decoration Day/Dirty South era, which would be taking the easy way out. It sort of reminds me of how fans got upset with R.E.M. for Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Monster, Green, etc. for taking a different tact by moving away from their signature jangle-pop sound. If they had repeated what made Murmur, Reckoning and Fables such successful records they would have caught shit for that as well. Better for the Truckers to move onward and upward as they always have rather than trying to repeat past glories.
Well, I think they have the potential to be as great as ever, really. What they need, IMHO is a great player like Isbell or Neff who can sort of tie the sack musically. Not necissarely a "hot picker" but someone to challenge Hood and Cooley musically to be the very best they can be. They are still very potent writers/singers but to me it lacks somewhat in quality control. I wouldn't want to see them make a The Dirty South-by-numbers album, though and if this version of the band means the survival of DBT, then fine. They are still pretty much my favourite band out there . DBT continues to move forward and I sure do admire them for that. No matter what one might think of EO, it's not a second rate repetition of one of their older albums. I do agree tough, that the current line-up is not the strongest in the band's history, but I'm sure they will find their feet eventually.
RoyHandcuff wrote:Well, I think they have the potential to be as great as ever, really. What they need, IMHO is a great player like Isbell or Neff who can sort of tie the sack musically. Not necissarely a "hot picker" but someone to challenge Hood and Cooley musically to be the very best they can be. They are still very potent writers/singers but to me it lacks somewhat in quality control. I wouldn't want to see them make a The Dirty South-by-numbers album, though and if this version of the band means the survival of DBT, then fine. They are still pretty much my favourite band out there . DBT continues to move forward and I sure do admire them for that. No matter what one might think of EO, it's not a second rate repetition of one of their older albums. I do agree tough, that the current line-up is not the strongest in the band's history, but I'm sure they will find their feet eventually.
You just described Jay Gonzales It's amazing he can play both instruments so well. Plus he's a better back-up singer than Jason was
RoyHandcuff wrote:The high-pitched noise in the background just kills it for me though. It seems to be even worse and at a higher pitch than on Natural Light. Big bummer.
Really surprises me that there are people that can’t hear the high frequency noise. I took a look at the frequency spectrum and it’s a solid 13-14 kHz spread, which isn’t that high to not be able to hear. Most people can hear upwards of 18-20 kHz. Wish I was one of those lucky people that couldn't hear it though...
I ended up looking at spectrograms for all the tracks, and the 13-14 kHz noise is present on most of Cooley’s songs which makes me think that it was his mic. That said, Natural Light and First Air of Autumn are the two songs it’s most prevalent on. So bad that I could barely listen to them. Being an electrical engineer has its perks, and in the end I did some audio engineering to reduce the 13-14 kHz band on those two songs. I was able to completely remove the squeal without reducing the track’s sound quality. It's the only way I’m able to listen to those songs…. And they are great songs.
Total bummer that this wasn’t caught by Barbe during recording/mixing.
Last edited by jcook on Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RoyHandcuff wrote:The high-pitched noise in the background just kills it for me though. It seems to be even worse and at a higher pitch than on Natural Light. Big bummer.
Really surprises me that there are people that can’t hear the high frequency noise. I took a look at the frequency spectrum and it’s a solid 13-14 kHz spread, which isn’t that high to not be able to hear. Most people can hear upwards of 18-20 kHz. Wish I was one of those lucky people that couldn't hear it though...
I ended up looking at spectrograms for all the tracks, and the 13-14 kHz noise is present on most of Cooley’s songs which makes me think that it was his mic. That said, Natural Light and First Air of Autumn are the two songs it’s most prevalent on. So bad that I could barely listen to them. Being an electrical engineer has its perks, and in the end I did some audio engineering to reduce the 13-14 kHz band on those two songs. I was able to completely remove the squeal without reducing the track’s sound quality. It's the only way I’m able to listen to those songs…. And they are great songs.
Total bummer that this wasn’t caught by Barbe during recording/mixing.
Do you have mp3's of your cleaned up tracks?
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever
I do. I'd be happy to give them out, but would need permission from the board admin first. I did the processing in wav format, but created 320 kbps mp3 files also. Here's a link to the spectrogram for First Air of Autumn. Pretty clear there's solid high frequency content that shouldn't be there! That giant horizontal yellow bar just below 1.5x10^4 Hz is the 13-14 kHz noise.
This is just the first 10 s of the song, but it looks like this for all but about 20 s; from 2:23 to 2:48 the high frequency content disappears, which you can also hear in the song.
We humans have the ability to find a negative in anything if we try hard enough. This is a live rock and roll band. Anything living means that change and uncertainty are the only constants. Sounds to me that the band is simply getting back to its garage roots. I like the "noise" some complain about. Could be Barbe put it there on purpose. The Conan appearance told everyone this not only is what the band is right now, but also, for some of us, showed this may be it's best incarnation.
Humboldt wrote:We humans have the ability to find a negative in anything if we try hard enough.
Not trying to put up a stink. I love this band (and the new album)--seen them over twenty-five times now. But that high frequency resonates in my ears, and ultimately made it so I couldn't listen to those two songs! Glad you can enjoy it.
jcook wrote:I do. I'd be happy to give them out, but would need permission from the board admin first. I did the processing in wav format, but created 320 kbps mp3 files also. Here's a link to the spectrogram for First Air of Autumn. Pretty clear there's solid high frequency content that shouldn't be there! That giant horizontal yellow bar just below 1.5x10^4 Hz is the 13-14 kHz noise.
This is just the first 10 s of the song, but it looks like this for all but about 20 s; from 2:23 to 2:48 the high frequency content disappears, which you can also hear in the song.
RoyHandcuff wrote:Well, I think they have the potential to be as great as ever, really. What they need, IMHO is a great player like Isbell or Neff who can sort of tie the sack musically. Not necissarely a "hot picker" but someone to challenge Hood and Cooley musically to be the very best they can be. They are still very potent writers/singers but to me it lacks somewhat in quality control. I wouldn't want to see them make a The Dirty South-by-numbers album, though and if this version of the band means the survival of DBT, then fine. They are still pretty much my favourite band out there . DBT continues to move forward and I sure do admire them for that. No matter what one might think of EO, it's not a second rate repetition of one of their older albums. I do agree tough, that the current line-up is not the strongest in the band's history, but I'm sure they will find their feet eventually.
You just described Jay Gonzales It's amazing he can play both instruments so well. Plus he's a better back-up singer than Jason was
Jay is awesome in his own right, but I'd prefer him full time on keys and as you say, he's a very good backup singer.
jcook wrote:I do. I'd be happy to give them out, but would need permission from the board admin first. I did the processing in wav format, but created 320 kbps mp3 files also. Here's a link to the spectrogram for First Air of Autumn. Pretty clear there's solid high frequency content that shouldn't be there! That giant horizontal yellow bar just below 1.5x10^4 Hz is the 13-14 kHz noise.
This is just the first 10 s of the song, but it looks like this for all but about 20 s; from 2:23 to 2:48 the high frequency content disappears, which you can also hear in the song.
I don't know what any of this means but way to go with the research. Thankfully I am one that doesn't hear it.
I don't know what it means either but I'm just going to take it on faith that Greg Calbi, who was recently trusted to re-master several albums by a little band called the Beatles, is not going to fuck up only Cooley's songs. Glad I don't have dog ears.
13 - 14 kHz probably explains why I don't hear it. I did a sweep once and mine starts dropping at around 9 - 10. . I don't hear crickets. The high frequency may explain why it wasn't detected. It's pretty common that the higher frequencies go when people get older. Don't know if it's common practice to run recordings through a spectrum analyzer. Maybe it should be.
First time DBT album. And to these 57 yr old ears, a wonderful, rockin experience, much like the first time I heard Exile on Main St. in 1972. I keep playing it over and over. Now I need to get some older albums like Decoration Day. Going to see them in Boston on the 21st and am really lookin forward to it. BTW, I don't get Isbell's popularity. His solo album sounds like a Ryan Adams imitation.
Spit coffee on that one! There's probably a thread somewhere in here,"Words or Phrases you don't hear anymore".
It's amazing he can play both instruments so well. Plus he's a better back-up singer than Jason was 
. I don't hear crickets. The high frequency may explain why it wasn't detected. It's pretty common that the higher frequencies go when people get older. Don't know if it's common practice to run recordings through a spectrum analyzer. Maybe it should be.