Imaginos remakes and outtakes

[Carl E. Anderson]

Re: the song "BOC"
> 2.  When I first heard this song, I sort of felt very nostalgic and thought
> that this was the end of BOC

        _Close_ though.  I wouldn't want to stake my life on _Imaginos_
not being the last full-length album of original material to bear the
artist name "Blue Oyster Cult".  It's not like BOC as an entity had a
lot to do with the album, and it's not like BOC have exactly shown much
speed it getting a new album out.  Bet's on whether they can do it before
Imaginos has its 10th anniversary? :/

> BUT - the use of digital, depending on how well you use it, can produce
> either very good or not so good results.  Check out the Brain Surgeons'
> stuff for examples of how good stuff can sound with digital.  But, many
> have complained about the sound that digital gave *Cult Classic* (sure,
> the performance of the band may have had something to do with that, but
> I'm just referring to the "thin" sound in spots).

        I think it's a lot easier to get a thick, warm sound off analogue
tape.  If you get a thinner sounding recording off of digital than you
did with analogue, it's not, of course, because you were doing anything
clever using analogue but because of the response characteristics of
analogue media.  Digital just doesn't _do_ that and will cheerfully
reproduce the sounds you put into it (as effected by your microphone or
other analogue input device).  Once, that sound you put in got thicker
and warmer since that's who analogue tape responds.  Now the same input
sound will appear thinner on play-back since digital doesn't do that.
        This is what I suspect happened on _Cult Classic_.  We've all
come to expect certain kinds of sounds after decades of analogue recording,
and we haven't learned how to produce the sounds we'd like with the new
technology yet.  If BOC had taken more care with the mixing and recording,
_Cult Classic_ would have sounded fine.
        I think the skill of the recording and mixing is far more important
than the medium of the recording.  I've got fully digital recordings that
sound great, and fully analogue recordings that sound crap--the reverse
is also true.  I can't speak for the engineer on _CC_, but I bet the
band rushed the recording and mixing process, and weren't familiar with
digital recording to boot.  I heard a while back that Buck was building
a studio in his basement, and maybe he, at least, will learn how it
works down there.

        Now that would be great!  A 24-track ADAT studio in my basement
(if I had one) with a drum kit, and amps, and a few isolation booths ...
Ahhhh!

Cheers,
Carl