I want to Re-Mix Highway 61' Revisited

[Ryan Silva]

I have always loved and hated this album. It's a very important album in the history of rock, and I hope I'm not the only one to notice that Bob's harmonica on a few songs is just plain un listenable. Maybe I'm crazy but I have never heard such a harsh recording. I understand that he most likely recorded the harp with the same mic he was singing into, but holy shit It's just ear splitting awful.

Am I the only one?

[leigh]

For what it's worth, I don't find the harmonica on Highway '61 to be half as reedy and ear-splitting as the harmonica on the John Wesley Harding album.

I do think the rhythm section is pretty great on Highway, and it would be fun to remix it for greater power/clarity. Not that it needs fixin', in my book - that slighly mushy 60's rock recording style has its own charm. But still would be fun to play with a different sort of mix.

Leigh

[drumsound]

It's a harmonica. Do you expect it to be pretty?

[Ryan Silva]

It's a harmonica. Do you expect it to be pretty?

But painfull? I have never had to stop listening to a song that I really like, due to a mix issue. Cant think of even one.

Does anyone know the mic used?

[PeterSawatzky]

There's a picture of Bob in the liner notes of the Highway 61 Revisited CD showing him playing piano and harmonica with a U67 in front of him.

[A-Barr]

I agree with you 100%. I think technique may also be factor, like those sustained piercing high notes that are just a little bit out of tune. Ouch. Tempted to throw some stuff in an editing program and just chop the inst. bis and splice the rest together sometimes.

[Knights Who Say Neve]

Gaaah, this is like Lucas "fixing" Star Wars to make Greedo shoot first. It is what it is, and one man's "improvement" is another's desecration.

[inverseroom]

There's a picture of Bob in the liner notes to the Highway 61 Revisited CD showing him playing piano and harmonica with a U67 in front him.

Still, everyone poses in front of Neumanns, right...?

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Gaaah, this is like Lucas "fixing" Star Wars to make Greedo shoot first. It is what it is, and one man's "improvement" is another's desecration.

++++++1,000,000,000,000.

Once it's done it's done.
Although........I wish someone would remix all those Replacements records without that horrid 80's production.

[leigh]

Gaaah, this is like Lucas "fixing" Star Wars to make Greedo shoot first. It is what it is, and one man's "improvement" is another's desecration.

++++++1,000,000,000,000.

Once it's done it's done.
Although........I wish someone would remix all those Replacements records without that horrid 80's production.

Christ yes!

Or at least remaster "Tim"! Please! I have a treble-killing, low-mid-boosting preset in iTunes named "Tim" just for that album.

Leigh

[standup]

Everything is a victim of its era.

Don't like Hwy 61? Do a record that sounds the way you want it to.

80's production can be painful. Imagine Lone Justice without the gated reverbs and the sizzly vocals. I heard Maria McKee in a club last year and she sounds better now than she did on those records.

But what are you going to do? Record Charlie Patton with a GarageBand drum loop behind him? Would that help? With his vocals hitting a Behringer condenser mic through an Echofire interface?

I'm kinda used to it the way it is.

And the 90's. In a few years we'll be like... "What if everything WASN'T looped. How 'bout a kick drum that's not the size of Passaic NJ?"

Everything is a victim of its era. Best to move on, and do something that sounds right to your present ears. I would think.

[chetatkinsdiet]

++++++1,000,000,000,000.

Once it's done it's done.
Although........I wish someone would remix all those Replacements records without that horrid 80's production.

Can you bake the beer and vomit off the masters? Seriously, I'd kill to hear their records mixed properly. Starting with Boink....

m

[drewbass]

It's a harmonica. Do you expect it to be pretty?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&clie ... ns&spell=1

drew

[electrofloss]

Gaaah, this is like Lucas "fixing" Star Wars to make Greedo shoot first. It is what it is, and one man's "improvement" is another's desecration.

++++++1,000,000,000,000.

Once it's done it's done.
Although........I wish someone would remix all those Replacements records without that horrid 80's production.

Christ yes!

Or at least remaster "Tim"! Please! I have a treble-killing, low-mid-boosting preset in iTunes named "Tim" just for that album.

Leigh

Good lord, I'm so glad somebody else feels this way about the Replacements. Their records are just about the only ones that I find virtually unlistenable because of the production value. So much treble! So much unnecessary chorus!

Through it all, though, Paul's throat shredding performance of "Unsatisfied" off of Let It Be gives me goosebumps every time - treble and all.

[minkthinking]

i don't even care about the sound of it, i just think that it's mixed so LOUDLY
holy crap. on every album. when it comes in, there goes the rest of the music. it's annoying. point well made, bob. i turn the volume down and then back up and then down and then back up.

i love the album JWH, and it's REALLY bad on that. what an amazing album, though.