BOC: A "dizzying excursion into Pearlman's world"

[Albert Bouchard]

On Sep 15, 2004, at 7:08 PM, Stephen Swann wrote:

> Try listening to _FoUO_ on a really good stereo sometime.
> It's nicely clear and balanced, but it's compressed all to
> hell and gone (if I was going to go way out on a limb of
> guesswork, I'd say its sound was probably deliberately
> smashed down to make it sound good on FM radio, which it
> does).  I really wish someone could go back and undo that
> particular part of the mastering process...

That compression is mostly the bank of 8 UA 1176 compressors that we
used to compress everything from bass drum, to lead guitar to vocals
and, yes, we did it to make it "radio-friendly." Probably can't be
undone.
I was just thinking today about those times and thinking about my
thought process which was, I don't want to be a one hit band. I knew we
had the goods again but the lack of ambition from the rest of the guys
was worrying me (and Martin Birch). They couldn't understand why I was
getting so crazy about every little thing and I think some of them were
thinking I was making a power grab but honestly I was worried that we'd
mess it up.