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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 ghostrider45

ghostrider45
449 posts
 
They all sound fine to me, though in the case of Morph the Cat I've only listened to the DVD-A and not the CD.

Do you notice treble anomolies in any other recordings?
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
One other thing - Becker and Fagan love tight rhythms and are big fans of drum machines (often augmented by human drummers). 2AN uses drum machines on almost every cut. Gaucho, Nightfly, and Kamakiriad also use them extensively. I need to listen to Morph again to see if this is the case here. Drum machine snares tend to be pretty bright and might account for your perception.
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
Audiotomb, I politely beg to differ. Automated drum tracks are all over the later Steely Dan works. One example that's really easy to hear is towards the end of the final vamp on "West of Hollywood" on 2AN. You can hear the unmistakable sound of an automated drum track playing solo for the last few bars after the musicians drop out.
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