New Santana Album "Africa Speaks"



Santana has a new album out; since it's not quite jazz, and I'm not sure if it's Rock, I'll just throw it up for grabs and see who likes it.

Africa Speaks is inspired by music from the continent of Africa, and has been called a "unique fusion of rock, Latin and jazz". Many of the album's tracks were recorded in one take. The album features vocals from Spanish singer Buika.

Africa Speaks was released on June 7, 2019 by Concord Records and Suretone Records, but this is the first time I've seen it on "you-tube"

Since it has been hard for me to find anything by Santana that I didn't like, I'll refrain from expressing my biased opinion.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD4a7bAnhrM&list=PLW0qrlJ-5IPmYy6pMLK1wv4Fq8V3bIFMm



What do you think?
orpheus10

Showing 11 responses by geoffkait


onhwy61
In the rock/pop world if you don’t use large amounts of compression across the entire mix, your song will sound weak and wimpy when it follows a track that is heavily compressed. The compressed track will sound louder, punchier and more alive when compared directly to the uncompressed track. Technically the process is compression/limiting. They chop off the signal peaks and then raise the average signal level. It’s like having an amp that goes to "11".

>>>It’s the difference between loudness and dynamic range. If the music doesn’t have dynamics it’s just elevator music albeit loud elevator music. That’s why you have to turn the volume UP for uncompressed tracks. The overly compressed tracks sound MONOTONIC not DYNAMIC. Teeny boppers love it, though. 😍😍😍
I’m afraid you missed the point. The CD under discussion is extremely compressed. Can you say flatline? Aggressive compression affects all formats to some degree, CD, SACD, Hi Res downloads, what have you. 
I like Latin music as much as the next guy, I even took Latin in school. 
mrdecibel
geoffkait, hello buddy....if you are suggesting that I not listen to my Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zep, Satriani, P.Floyd, Santana, Billy Joel, Journey, and so much more, because of a lack of dynamics, I can tell you, I would have very little to listen to.

>>>>>And this is somehow my fault? Besides, I differentiate between somewhat compressed CDs and overly compressed CDs. In the case at hand it’s waaaay over-compressed. That’s why I called it flatlined. I.e., All in the RED. Hel-loo!
Without dynamics there is no music. If you can tolerate flatlined recordings more power to you.
That’s probably one of them old wives tales. If it doesn’t make sense it’s probably not true. They used to use 45s for AirPlay, who knows what they use now, a digital file I assume?