White Stripes too hot? (1 Viewer)

[Ed St. Clair]

Hope all you audiophiles can help me.
Just picked this up for the 'Girl' song [great version on the MTV show, by the way]. So this cut ,and no other, just sizzles on the top end. I love my R&R, but this cut is 'hotter' on top than any other to the point of making it unlistenable [almost].
Any help on this major label release or the original or the CD-R, or advance cd, or the singles [two part set] or any other CD source would be great, thanks.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

THe song is limited to shit- on purpose I believe, to emulate a more lo-fi and vintage sound. THe distortion on the drums and vocal is a deliberate tube crunch on a preamp- and the whole thing is hyped in the high mid-- mostly to emulate the more garage rock sound of the 60's and 70's.

Or in other words: it's deliberate.

-Vince

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Yeah, I believe it, "were would R&R be without distortion".
However, I did not hear this on the other cuts. And if anyone else has a 'different' source, would still like their input. Thanks.

 

[Iain Lambert]

My vinyl copy of the album sounds distorted to hell and back; I was really disappointed, as while for one 3-minute pop song it works quite well over an album length it really tires.

 

[Jason Wilcox]

isn't the strokes album recorded much the same?

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

In ethos and design, yes- in implementation- quite a bit different.

First and foremost, the Stokes and White Stripes both approached their recordings looking to emulate the garage rock sounds (as mentioned above). The engineer on White Blood Cells, Stuart Sikes, is pretty well known for his more indie low-fi approach to record making (check out Jets To Brazil "Orange Rhyming Dictionary" or Promise Ring "Nothing Feels Good" to see some other approaches he took to engineering). For the Stipes record, much of the intrumentation is recorded using overly saturated preamps and mics- lots of wild additive mono stuff and flat out slaughtering the finished mix.

The Strokes record on the other hand took a more subtle approach to this- by focusing the tube saturation sound mostly in the vocals. The instrumentation on the album is compressed into a tight singular drone and then the vocals sit on top of that. The sound also emulated much of the 60's and 70's garage rock sound- but in this case rather than exploiting the "turn it up all the way" approach that the White Stripes seemed to favor- they went with the "squash the band, and put the vocal on top" approach which you hear on material from the Stooges and Velvet Underground.

So, it's interesting to really listen closely if you're familiar with the history of rock and roll- especially rock and roll recording- because both bands made records that really owed a lot to the same basic ideas and influnces- but found something specific and distinctive they liked about the era and made two different sounding records while owing the same homage.

-V

 

[Andrew Santos]

i never really noticed orange rhyming dictionary to have a lo fi sound. i dunno, it sounds relatively fresh and clean to me. nothing feels good, on the other hand, definitely has a distinct sound to it.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Andrew,
I should have been more clear in my post above. My quote was actually:
"check out Jets To Brazil "Orange Rhyming Dictionary" or Promise Ring "Nothing Feels Good" to see some other approaches he took to engineering"- meaning I find these two records to be a bit more polished indie rock, as oppose to the low fi garage stuff he's done.
Both those records have an interesting sound- often almost too clean. Still maintains the minimalistic production usually found on an indie rock record, but unlike the White Stripes- the approach is more contained, clean and dynamic.
-V

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Thank's for the LP 'update'.