Fagen’s “countermoon”

Hi, thanks for stopping by

so, whats the story behind this one? . i’ve mentioned a few times, that Donald Fagens”the nightfly” is one of my favourite albums, material/production and mastering. its very slightly bass light around 80-120 (ish), but the sub detail, and indeed the whole thing is so beautiful i dont really notice. anyway….i wrongly presumed it was his only solo album, until my lass surprised me with “kamakiriad” on my 40th birthday. considering it was recorded about 10 years later, i expected something at least as good as nightfly.

unfortunately, fagen decided to overlook the previously fantastic Gary Katz and go with a different producer, his Steely Dan guitarist Walter Becker, a superb writer and player. i can actually see what fagen was trying to do with this album. the whole essence of the writing , and the story behind it Read Here did beg a slightly different finish. its just a shame it went slightly wide of the mark.

so what are my issues with the finish of this album??

I dont care for meters too much, they have a limited use, but the peak analysis pic shows some of whats going on. the 60hz area actually gets a bit more violent, but i was in a rush, so didnt run it long enough to show up….DOH!  . but that peak at 98 is the serious offender. its not actually the whole track creating it, its a 2db overshoot in the bass guitar at 98 and 135ish(i think, come on…its 2 days back i did this   )   . anyway, its making the whole thing sound like bass karaoke, creating a separation between the bass and the rest of the instruments etc, and stealing all the nice low end from everything and creating harsh upper mids. add to this the fact the under 60 is very inconsistant and boisterous its a bit of a frankenstein’s monster.

so, having put the album on a few times, loving the songs and playing, but craving a smoother finish i decided to do my own remaster of it. “remastering an album from a great name like Fagen Tone??!!!” , yeah!. luckily, this album is very pre loudness war, “countermoon” only averages -21 db rms, so there is enough room for me to work.

how spikey is this!!!

as you can see, there are some severe spikes in the waveform, mainly coming from the snare (the non limited attack through the compressor). i should have drawn these out in the editor, but its a long process, and the multiband comp dealt with them pretty well. but i may well go back over it when i have a bit more time.

The Audio

Here are the before and after tracks. there has been a slight trade off with vocal level, as they were strongly relying on overshoots at between 1-4k , but still clearly audible, and considering the smooth/clear overall finish, a much more listenable song…..  exactly what i intended. i havent brought the RMS volume  up by much, this kind of material can lose its feel very easily, for the sake of a few db.

Before

After

Revised (latest tweaked output, slightly better vocal clarity using a couple of tricks)

thanks for reading people

Tone