BOC: revamped set

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

>>     The sound _is_ a bit thin.  Certainly by modern standards, but
>> there were beefier sounding recordings in 1970 too ...
>
> Hmmm.  I always use Black Sabbath _Black Sabbath_ as a yard stick, and I
> think the only difference would be in the style of mix rather than the
> quality of sound, I mean, all the sounds are there, the clarity's
> there....

     Well, I am, after all, making as aesthetic judgement on the final
sound--which I find a bit anemic on the early BOC recordings.  IMO, the
style of mix is pretty lame compared to, say, that on _Black Sabbath_,
which is much fuller.  BOC starts getting much better mixes towards the
end of the 70s when, ironically, I start liking the _music_ less
consistently :)  And despite my reservations about the production on _CC_,
I liked the fact that a song like "O.D.'D on Life Itself" now had a little
meat on its bones.

     I love "Stairway to the Stars" :)  But the mix on the first album is
really lifeless, IMO, whether Buck wanted it that way or not!  One does
not feel like the band are standing just on the other side of the speakers
when you play it, which is what I consider the ideal sound of a recording
:)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/