OK, I can't resist any longer. I'm a lifelong musician. I spent years playing and recording in bands, and then years, after I got married and raised kids, doing home recording, for myself, and sometimes I was open to the public for nominal fees. I know a lot about sound, of various instruments, and vocals. So here's my beef. Modern artists, mostly, I THINK, don't use open reels anymore. Sometimes I can't tell, and I wonder. Open reel analog recording is fidelity, digital is lesser. I think quite a few of the new rock bands still use open reels, but I can't tell even with some of them. Now, about Regina. She has insisted on years on dry vocals, and a piano mostly, often just that. Her voice is of course unique, everyone's is, as is her piano playing. She's relentless (let's just disregard how relentless she is as a storyteller/songwriter - that's completely
out of the picture). She sings very forcefully, and plays very forcefully. She doesn't fuck around. To mix such an endeavor cannot be easy.
I play endless Cds, and the radio, mostly on a boombox with a 3 band EQ. I play games for hours with the EQ, and usually have the thing on full. When I used to mix recording, what I learned from gurus, is that you have your good studio monitors, but you also have to often listen, during the process of recording a song, to takes on little shitty stereos, like for instance your car stereo, to know what it sounds like on them, and I would tweak and tweak and tweak mixes between the two for days, for myself, and for clients. I've also listened to her studio stuff on good stereos. So the final analysis, and conjecture, is that she hasn't yet recorded anything that meets her standards of writing. I don't know if this is because she's usually NOT using open reels and $500,000 Neives consoles and stacks of extremely high quality reverb units, and opting for pro tools/with some analog, or if she's just so fucking stubborn that no one has quite figured out how to mix her yet. Don't get me wrong, as Chrissie Hynde sang, her shit fucking rocks. Stuff like Your Honor, Better, Two Birds, look, I can critique any Led Zeppelin recording I wish to also, but really haven't had to much, even if I didn't like the song. And many of the just-piano and vocal songs are gorgeous, studio and live, even if it's a lousy venue, and/or she was still learning. Like the live recordings from 07 Bonaroo, WELL DONE. I really have now again, as usual, gotten past my point, and probably was never even sure what it was.
I drink, just a little. It's really hard to EQ her stuff to my listening tastes, the studio stuff. You put on some albums, like some old Genesis albums, and you don't even have to touch the EQs, keep them at noon. And even the master level is lower than many albums, that's a thing also, the actual level of the recording itself. Her voice is weirdly bassy and middly, and her freaking relentless damn piano is, well, relentless. Real pianos, played like she plays them, are bassy things. Sometimes I have to actually turn the bass down almost to zero, the mid way below noon, and the high down at least to noon. Of course, these are experiments on full volume. If you have it at a respectable volume, you can leave her EQs all at noon. But on a freaking Van Halen song, well it's crisp, you can sometimes put all three EQs at like 3 o clock, and you're still okay. If you drink enough, you can put Reginas Eqs at three o clock, AND sing it at the top of your lungs, and be okay. The dog might leave the room, but not usually. OK, I don't know what my point is, but maybe this last passage will bring it out a little. I haven't wanted to talk about the Radio City show too much, because it's like being a journalist, and spoiling the show. I just wanna say that, in-her-element-wise, with the acoustics in that hall, number one, Human of The Year, and number two, Apres Moi, were absolutely in their element. Human of The Year rang true like a freaking cathedral. How utterly perfect it was. Her freaking astounding voice and that massive grand piano. And Apres Moi, it was like the first time I listened to her, when I bought Begin to Hope, I couldn't believe my ears. When she did Apres Moi in that hall, alone, with that piano, she could feel it. She freaking nailed the thing, and it had to do with the acoustics and the artists symbiosis with them. Her arms and hands were flailing like I'd never seen them, and she sang it like I'd never imagined. I mean, it wasn't only the acoustics, of course. She was home in her city, living her dream come true. Anyway, I'm still awaiting all the best. The next album. The next. The next. She's had her learning curves. I remember Edit at Warsaw in Brooklyn. It was really bad. I mean it just didn't come off. That's a high-end song. Hey, every artist in the universe has their learning curves, that's what being courageous enough to even be an artist is even about. Her new drummer is the shit. Her insistence on using just a string section is unique. I just look forward to a pinnacle yet, I know it's there. It always is.
But with her, she's so utterly HUMBLE, I don't know if it ever matters. It's just ART, mother fucker. Well, I go back to Your Honor, and Better, and for that matter, Two Birds.
ROCK AND ROLL. I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on de drum all day. To life.

PS I re-read this before I posted. The only thing I would take back, but won't (cause sunlight is the best disinfectant, as the great Nat Hentoff always said) is that 'she hasn't recorded anything yet that meets her standards of writing'. Yeah, right, sure she hasn't.
What the hell have I been listening to the past 5 years, substandard music? What I guess I really meant was, I'm an endless mix critic, live and studio, and well, gimme them fucking knobs!!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RaelNYC,