Three/Five Star Affair

Posted by Johnny at 8:31 p.m.

I just received the Five Star Affair CD that I ordered after BSD and am in the process of listening to it. As indicated by the title, I'm giving it 3/5 stars, and here's why:

The music itself is quite good. Their style varies between straight pop/rock, reggae, funk, and even light punk. Most of their stuff is very creative and has a good feel.

Now here's the catch: their live performance is electrifying, vibrant, uber-creative, and, well, hot. But their studio work seems... flat. Not as in "below pitch," but it doesn't have that same crackle, spark, whatever you want to call it. It just doesn't live up to it.

Now here's why: the album's engineering and production work was sub-par. It failed to properly capture the fidelity and energy of these musicians, transforming their sound into something lackluster and narrow.

Being a drummer, I immediately notice the drum sound on any album and that usually indicates whether or not I will like it. For example, bust out any 80s pop album and I'll turn it off because the drums are electronic and fake-sounding. Or, put in an 80s metal album and I'll turn it off because the drums sound way too big, most likely due to reverb and gating. (Hmm, it's looking like I have a bias against the 80s...)

Ok, now take the drum sound on the FSA EP. The thing that I screamed when I heard it was, "OH GOD, the compression!" I understand the process of adding compression to drum tracks to give them punch, but what the engineer did to these drums took it waaayy too far. The drums end up sounding unnatural, like there's no fluid volume decay, especially on the toms and bass drum. You hear the initial impact, quickly followed by a super-compressed beat, then nothing. It's kind of unsettling if you listen hard enough.

The bass sound suffers from the same problem as the drums. Way too compressed. It just ends up sounding unnatural, kind of like there is a brief swell of distortion right after each note. Again, if the engineer was going for an unnatural sound, he found one; albeit one that doesn't sound good. It's a shame, because the bass player is rock solid.

The trumpet, unfortunately, sounds a little bit like a kazoo in some parts. Really thin and nazal are the words I would use to describe it. Unprofessional, really.

Next, the lead guitar sound. It sounds very amateurish, almost out of tune sometimes, even though it isn't. I think this can be attributed to the lack of bass, or too much treble in the equalization. The guitar ends up sounding thin and gets lost in the mix.

Speaking of the mix, it feels like everything is panned dead centre, which certainly doesn't help the narrowness of their sound. The mixing engineer either didn't have a mixer with pan knobs, or he just plain forgot that he had a virtual 180 degree soundscape to work with. What ends up happening is that none of the instruments have any definition when they all play together. Not only do different tracks need their own space carved out of the frequency domain, they need their own virtual space in the soundscape. The vocals, snare drum, bass, and bass drum are the only things that should be dead centre in a standard pop song. Everything else should be panned left or right in varying degrees.

On the plus side, the vocals sound pretty good. I think a better mic, preamp, or EQ job could have really boosted the presence and sparkle in Tristin's voice.

So what I'm trying to say is, I wish I could remix or re-record this EP. I'm not saying I could do a better job, but I'd like to try. If Five Star Affair comes across this post at any point in time, for some reason, please email me at johnny_AT_rnjstudios_DOT_com. I want to make you sound better.