is it just me, new Steely Dan cd's too brite snare


I've had this debate on a Steely Dan webpage

several of the latest dan albums
Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go
and the new Donald Fagen album
seem to be recorded beautifully, all the nuances, close mixed horns, incredibly lush mix

everything perfect except for the snare drum which is way up in the mix and headache inducing

it isn't my sytem and it's worse on Two Against Nature
especially the title track and West of Hollywood
it's so bad I have to listen in the next room

EMG recorded in analog is a little less bright
and Don's new spectacular Morph the Cat (MtC) has some hot snare in the mix

the last two albums feature Keith Carlock who is an incredible drummer, but Don has him in tight snare timekeeping with little room for fills on most of MtC

has Fagen lost his upper frequency end of his hearing?
is he mixing things hot for jumpy mid fi reproduction?
or am I hallucinating?
audiotomb

Showing 3 responses by audiotomb

don't get me wrong, I love the sound except the hot snare at times

even Roger Nichols had some cd issues with mastering

http://www.rogernichols.com/EQ/EQ_2000_02.html
kevin - you didn't own NIGHTFLY

it's getting a remix soon for a 3 cd compilation with Morph and Kama

the dvd-a is nice too
ghostrider - the Dan don't use drum machines but they do sometimes sample the drum track and get it right on the millisecond (Gaucho had Werlin a prototype drum machine on in and so did Walt's solo, but not those you mentioned)

24phun - yes that Winwood album is killer, I saw him perform that and old traffic last year, great show