SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2008

(part 57) TECHNICAL SCHMECHNICAL



I would like to clarify some of the points for those who are interested regarding technical problems encountered in the making of "COLOR HIM IN". There are differences in the MONO and STEREO versions of the album. When the stereo version was made the signals were split which drops the output considerably. If this is not dealt with at the time, which is wasn't, the output remains low and again clarity is lost, which in the case of COLOR HIM IN happened. When I say the album did not finish the same way it was started, it's things like this that I'm referring to. Rather than boosting the overall signal output on the STEREO mix, during mixdown and or mastering, it was just left as is.

The MONO mix is cleaner and tighter. The output has more thrust, because it was not split into two different channels, right and left, as it were. The mix on the MONO version is lacking in separation, but better on consistency of the delivery of sound at the output or speakers. The whole process was done with a lack of regard for the final product. It doesn't much matter what you cut in the studio if you can't hear it clearly or at all in the end product.

The process of mixing sound is like editing a film properly. You may have it on film, but it may be sitting on the editing floor or in this case lost in the mix or so muddy that it is hard to make out. CURT BOETTCHER himself, in an interview much later in time, stated that the mix was awful. It suffered because of the two things I mentioned in the last post. Rushed because of money and lack of attention due to other problems with other groups that Curt and Steve Clark were working with. The Association, Tommy Roe, and Joe South who were with Steve's Southern partner Bill Lowery in Atlanta, and were all demanding attention from Steve Clark and Curt Boettcher at the time "COLOR HIM IN" was being completed.