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Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 11:08:50 -0700
From: camus[at]-remove-netcom.com (Julian Stewart)
Subject: "Western Family" thoughts
Been listening to the dub of the "Western Family" pre-master
that David sent to me.
While it's nice hearing Pat live (particularly for someone like
me who hasn't been fortunate enough to see him live), I'd have to agree
with him that live albums are better souvenirs than anything else.
Though I'm not an audio engineer by any means, there are several
things that just don't sound right, IMHO. I certainly think that the
effects on the vocals were overdone. It's hard enough to make vocal
delays work in appropriate situations, and in a case like this where delay
was not really necessary, poorly done delays just kill Pat's voice. Poor
guy sounds like he's singing from the next building over....
I'm certainly willing to give the engineer the benefit of the
doubt; the venue could have had difficult acoustics. Also, the album is
not a total wash by any means. "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Southern Mark
Smith" both sound great, and the vocals were done fairly dry on those.
The intimate nature of Pat's songs and covers doesn't seem to lend itself
well to heavily-processed vocals.
Just my 2 cents on the matter :)
-julian-