Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions

[Mathieu Benoit]

Now this would be Clinton's kind of session... One mic and away you go.

http://www.cowboyjunkies.com/albums/trinitysession/index7.html

This album is a bit before my time but I just ran across it today and people are talking about what an amazing sounding record it was. Then I realize they recorded from one point in the room using one microphone. It all seems pretty impressive.

Has anyone actually heard it? What's it like?

[Malcolm Boyce]

This album was a huge deal in it's day. It was such a departure sonically from most of it's contemporaries. Wasn't entirely a favourite of mine at the time, but I did love the Sweet Jane cover.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trinity_Session

This is touted all the time by "lo fi" recordists as an example of not needing to "engineer" recordings, but it was in fact brilliantly recorded by a very talented individual. Not "lo fi" in any form or fashion.

Peter Moore has gone on to a stellar mastering career. Love his mastering work.

http://www.peterjmoore.com/

[LarryS]

Thanks for this thread!! Man I would love to do a project like this!!!

[Mathieu Benoit]

This is touted all the time by "lo fi" recordists as an example of not needing to "engineer" recordings, but it was in fact brilliantly recorded by a very talented individual. Not "lo fi" in any form or fashion.

It begs the question what is "lo fi" anyways?

Often lo-fi artists will record on old or poor recording equipment, ostensibly out of financial necessity but also due to the unique aural association such technologies have with "authenticity", an association created in listeners by exposure to years of demo, bootleg, and field recordings, as well as to older pop studio recordings produced more simply. The growth in lo-fi coincided with the growth of extreme slickness and polish associated with the multitrack pop recording techniques of the 1980s.

I don't get the impression that Peter was doing it for either of those reasons. I also don't get the impression that this was just "thrown together" either. This seems incredibly methodical. It would be unfortunate that people would use this example to justify laziness.

I can't wait to hear it now...

[Christian LeBlanc]

Thread hijack!

Laziness pawned off as lo-fi does a disservice to the genre. Then again, my only exposure to the genre is through its masters, artists like Eric's Trip, Sebadoh, and The Microphones.

I think flaunting it as more 'raw' or 'authentic' than other types of music is just an ironic form of snobbery - especially these days, when we could argue that 4-tracks are harder to get a hold of and use properly than DAW's. (or maybe that's just sour grapes on my part, because I focus on clean and crisp for all my recordings and I take that 'authentic' remark a little more personally than I should, like it's an attack on ambition or something).

Now, back to the album in question - yeah, I agree that 'lo-fi' does not apply. From that article, panning and volume (and eq, by default of room placement) were just physically done on a macrocosmic scale. Or microcosmic. You guys know what I mean, anyway.

[clinton]

amazing album, one of my faves of all time.