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is it just me, new Steely Dan cd's too brite snare

I've had this debate on a Steely Dan webpage

several of the latest dan albums
Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go
and the new Donald Fagen album
seem to be recorded beautifully, all the nuances, close mixed horns, incredibly lush mix

everything perfect except for the snare drum which is way up in the mix and headache inducing

it isn't my sytem and it's worse on Two Against Nature
especially the title track and West of Hollywood
it's so bad I have to listen in the next room

EMG recorded in analog is a little less bright
and Don's new spectacular Morph the Cat (MtC) has some hot snare in the mix

the last two albums feature Keith Carlock who is an incredible drummer, but Don has him in tight snare timekeeping with little room for fills on most of MtC

has Fagen lost his upper frequency end of his hearing?
is he mixing things hot for jumpy mid fi reproduction?
or am I hallucinating?
128x128audiotomb
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,170 posts
 
On Two Against Nature the snare drum is forward and very thin sounding. Has almost no timbre. Sounds like a cheap drum. Rest of the recording mix is fine.

As a side note, I bought two of my favorite Steely Dan albums "Aja" and "Gaucho" remastered and they sound brither than the originals. By brighter I mean more digital souding. I guess that's normal since this isn't the first time I bought remasters that sound like this.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
all the remastered steely dan recordings are brighter, but they are still great. the snare on morph could be an 'on purpose' effect......rock music isn't confined to convention.
flemke
595 posts
 
I have EMG on vinyl and it sounds much better than the digital versions I have. TAN is a bit forward. Morph sounds perfect on my systems. I think Steve Hoffman is going to master the vinyl for Morph. I can't wait for that one.

Tim
rja's avatar
rja
2,356 posts
 
Is it just me, too many new CDs suffer from this problem? Seems I'm fighting it all the time!
sit
315 posts
 
I agree with Rja that too many CDs suffer from this problem which is why I own an equalizer that I can choose to either use or bypass. Makes a wonderful difference, especially with Redbook cd items. I am able to program the way I prefer to hear the music instead of the weaknesses of the format that it comes on. I really don't have the same problem very often with the SACDs.

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