Todd filming new Drumming DVD

[StyxCollector]

OK please forgive me.....i said they were recorded in various band members studio's.....there may have been chunks of those albums recorded in proper studios (such as Pumpkin studios if my memory serves correctly) but for the most part, at least based on what I have read, indicates that alot of those albums were done in their home studios and THAT is a fact.....and to pretty good results. you may dislike some of the source material of BNW and that's fine but overall many of those songs were recorded at a high level and certainly sound good enough for release....in my opinion........ and your opinion of the bad mix is just that....your opinion and certainly not anymore of a factual statement than mine.

and the point that you seem to be missing is that in this day and age of small album sales there is no reason for them to incur the expense of a "proper" studio to sell 25-50k units......just do it yourself and make it sound as good as you can and actually make decent profit on selling the same amount of cd's.

they could record the next cd in the greatest studio in the world with big name engineers and producers and it would not result in anymore album sales in my opinion....so why spend that money? so you will feel better about the source material and mix???? it doesnt add up for me to be a good business decision.

It all depends on the sound you are going for as to where/what you record. For examples, drums are generally better done in a real studio unless you've got a proper setup at home or you're going for a band vibe and are going to add some room sound later.

But on BNW just listen to those harmony mix on "Brave New World (Reprise)". Horrid. No mix can make that sound better. And there's a clear difference in the DDY songs vs. the TS/JY ones in terms of mix (i.e. "Heavy Water" vs. "Goodbye Roseland"). The album is a mish mash sonically.

Cyclorama is cohesive sonically all the way through. Having quality people who know what they are doing on a release - home or studio - is key. BNW is a mix of good and bad. Cyclorama and 100 Years are fine. Regeneration not.

[cittadeeno23]

Allan,
I really like "Brave New World Reprise" as a song, but you are right. The mix was really bad.
Do you think if Dennis would have produced that album all the way through he could have saved that song? I mean usually he does a great job blending the 3 voices together and it's obvious he didn't work on that song. It's obvious he didn't work on any of the JY/Tommy songs on that album, but BNW Reprise is the most obvious to me.

[Boomchild]

Allan,
I really like "Brave New World Reprise" as a song, but you are right. The mix was really bad.
Do you think if Dennis would have produced that album all the way through he could have saved that song? I mean usually he does a great job blending the 3 voices together and it's obvious he didn't work on that song. It's obvious he didn't work on any of the JY/Tommy songs on that album, but BNW Reprise is the most obvious to me.

My observations have been that the production of Styx' releases post DDY have been lacking when compared to when DDY was involved with the production. That is just one of things that showed me the good things DDY did for Styx.

[masque]

OK please forgive me.....i said they were recorded in various band members studio's.....there may have been chunks of those albums recorded in proper studios (such as Pumpkin studios if my memory serves correctly) but for the most part, at least based on what I have read, indicates that alot of those albums were done in their home studios and THAT is a fact.....and to pretty good results. you may dislike some of the source material of BNW and that's fine but overall many of those songs were recorded at a high level and certainly sound good enough for release....in my opinion........ and your opinion of the bad mix is just that....your opinion and certainly not anymore of a factual statement than mine.

and the point that you seem to be missing is that in this day and age of small album sales there is no reason for them to incur the expense of a "proper" studio to sell 25-50k units......just do it yourself and make it sound as good as you can and actually make decent profit on selling the same amount of cd's.

they could record the next cd in the greatest studio in the world with big name engineers and producers and it would not result in anymore album sales in my opinion....so why spend that money? so you will feel better about the source material and mix???? it doesnt add up for me to be a good business decision.

It all depends on the sound you are going for as to where/what you record. For examples, drums are generally better done in a real studio unless you've got a proper setup at home or you're going for a band vibe and are going to add some room sound later.

But on BNW just listen to those harmony mix on "Brave New World (Reprise)". Horrid. No mix can make that sound better. And there's a clear difference in the DDY songs vs. the TS/JY ones in terms of mix (i.e. "Heavy Water" vs. "Goodbye Roseland"). The album is a mish mash sonically.

Cyclorama is cohesive sonically all the way through. Having quality people who know what they are doing on a release - home or studio - is key. BNW is a mix of good and bad. Cyclorama and 100 Years are fine. Regeneration not.

i pretty much agree with you on most of that.

[kansas666]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

[masque]

here's the thing about all of this "dennis as a producer" talk; to me equinox, crystal ball, the grand illusion, pieces of eight, cornerstone and paradise theatre all sound real good to me....kilroy is OK sounding to my ears....not horrible but not as good as the others.

of the ones listed above the grand illusion and pieces of eight sound the best to me. we have all been told numerous times by dennis himself in recent interviews that he was really the "producer" of the produced by styx credits. fair enough.

but when you fast forward to his solo albums they all sound VERY WEAK to me. not powerful at all. the guitar tones for the most part were forgetable and there is really nothing about those albums sonically that make me say "oh my, i want to listen to that album because it sounds so great". doesnt mean that i dont like the albums....for the most part his first two discs were pretty decent overall and contained at least a couple of great songs from each disc.

he may have been writing songs to avoid the "styx sound".......but to me there is nothing special about what he has done as a solo artist from a production standpoint.....so that leads me to believe that tommy and jy had to contribute something to the overall "mojo" of that sound from their glory days.....not just the vocals....i'm talking guitar tones and things like that. those old styx albums had incredible guitar tones on them and some of the drum rolls and overall sounds of the drum kit were huge especially for the time period they were recorded in.

[Boomchild]

here's the thing about all of this "dennis as a producer" talk; to me equinox, crystal ball, the grand illusion, pieces of eight, cornerstone and paradise theatre all sound real good to me....kilroy is OK sounding to my ears....not horrible but not as good as the others.

of the ones listed above the grand illusion and pieces of eight sound the best to me. we have all been told numerous times by dennis himself in recent interviews that he was really the "producer" of the produced by styx credits. fair enough.

but when you fast forward to his solo albums they all sound VERY WEAK to me. not powerful at all. the guitar tones for the most part were forgetable and there is really nothing about those albums sonically that make me say "oh my, i want to listen to that album because it sounds so great". doesnt mean that i dont like the albums....for the most part his first two discs were pretty decent overall and contained at least a couple of great songs from each disc.

he may have been writing songs to avoid the "styx sound".......but to me there is nothing special about what he has done as a solo artist from a production standpoint.....so that leads me to believe that tommy and jy had to contribute something to the overall "mojo" of that sound from their glory days.....not just the vocals....i'm talking guitar tones and things like that. those old styx albums had incredible guitar tones on them and some of the drum rolls and overall sounds of the drum kit were huge especially for the time period they were recorded in.

That seems to show that none of them were as good on solo projects as they were as a group. That is one of the reasons that this current version of Styx does nothing for me.

[Boomchild]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

What's debatable? That he records his work from a home studio or that it doesn't sound like crap? Give me an example.

[kansas666]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

What's debatable? That he records his work from a home studio or that it doesn't sound like crap? Give me an example.

Well, to be honest, I can't speak to the production. But the songs on 100 years are crap.

[Boomchild]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

What's debatable? That he records his work from a home studio or that it doesn't sound like crap? Give me an example.

Well, to be honest, I can't speak to the production. But the songs on 100 years are crap.

That's debatable and personally I don't agree. As a whole it's a very good album and with the success he had with the title track in Canada seems to show that some people didn't feel it was crap. At the least he wrote all new material for this album. Unlike his former band mates who only seem to be able to rerecord songs the already did and put out a new mediocre song once in a blue moon.

[Toph]

here's the thing about all of this "dennis as a producer" talk; to me equinox, crystal ball, the grand illusion, pieces of eight, cornerstone and paradise theatre all sound real good to me....kilroy is OK sounding to my ears....not horrible but not as good as the others.

of the ones listed above the grand illusion and pieces of eight sound the best to me. we have all been told numerous times by dennis himself in recent interviews that he was really the "producer" of the produced by styx credits. fair enough.

but when you fast forward to his solo albums they all sound VERY WEAK to me. not powerful at all. the guitar tones for the most part were forgetable and there is really nothing about those albums sonically that make me say "oh my, i want to listen to that album because it sounds so great". doesnt mean that i dont like the albums....for the most part his first two discs were pretty decent overall and contained at least a couple of great songs from each disc.

he may have been writing songs to avoid the "styx sound".......but to me there is nothing special about what he has done as a solo artist from a production standpoint.....so that leads me to believe that tommy and jy had to contribute something to the overall "mojo" of that sound from their glory days.....not just the vocals....i'm talking guitar tones and things like that. those old styx albums had incredible guitar tones on them and some of the drum rolls and overall sounds of the drum kit were huge especially for the time period they were recorded in.

I'd say its more about having a more adult contemporary sound with his solo releases (less of the bombastic Styx sound) vs. a production issue - look at 100 Years...great sonic value and more like traditional Styx in the song makeup.

[Toph]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

What's debatable? That he records his work from a home studio or that it doesn't sound like crap? Give me an example.

Well, to be honest, I can't speak to the production. But the songs on 100 years are crap.

And you're an idiot....

Are you the same guy that says you like BNW and think 100 Years is crap? Maybe Santa will bring you a hearing aid this Christmas...or at the very least, some taste...

[Boomchild]

Dennis records and produces his material from his home studio and it doesn't sound like crap.

That's debatable.

What's debatable? That he records his work from a home studio or that it doesn't sound like crap? Give me an example.

Well, to be honest, I can't speak to the production. But the songs on 100 years are crap.

And you're an idiot....

Are you the same guy that says you like BNW and think 100 Years is crap? Maybe Santa will bring you a hearing aid this Christmas...or at the very least, some taste...

I think their are those that will put down just about anything DDY does solo because they for some reason do not want to face the fact of DDY's contributions to Styx's overall success. If DDY was holding Styx back from being what it should have been, the current Styx certainly hasn't proved that yet.