the production is the whole process from going in the studio and having an album done.

mixing is doing the balance so as every instrument is at the level you want it to, as well as correcting the timbres that weren't right when the recording took place and applying effects, so that the tracks previously recorded gel together and fit the producer's plan.

mastering is litterally making the matrix that will be endlessly reproduced for mass consumption. basically, the mastering is made of two steps: sequencing (the track order, the duration or lack of gaps between songs), levelling (not sure about that term) i.e. making sure the db meter doesn't change dramatically from one track to another (that's where many records from the early-naughts to now sound like shit/are brickwalled - you want a song to sound as loud as possible but that involves losing nuance and dynamics when not done properly. i mean, you can't brickwall a master properly. basically, it's a choice from the producer dictated by the "market": short term impact over rewarding subsequent listens). on the other hand, when done in the right way, mastering can be positively crucial to the overall sound and personality of an album - mind you that at this stage of production, you only have two tracks (for stereo; 5.1 is out of my knowledge) and you can't turn up a guitar at this point - you can tweak the frequencies, put the signal though compressors, pre-amps, etc. to make it lock together and warm it up. in my band, since we recorded on computers, we made our mastering on tape to make it all sound a bit more organic. anyway, that's my take of it.

i suggest you read that wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Speed of sound is a very good song. i love the ending.

for lovers of vinyl and haters of MP3:
http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/airvinyl ... 66256?mt=8

You can't just magically make mp3s sound better. Once fidelity is lost, it's gone.

We agree!

I just wish the studio arrangement had been a little more dynamic. I wonder how I might feel about it if I hadn't heard the demo.

BANNED

i remember listening to the demo and thinking, ok, so another acoustic eddie song...i wasn`t blown away.
the full band version was a relief for me.
kind of the same happened with gone, after listening to it in that atlantic city boot and hearing it was gonna be in the album i was disappointed. I really liked the full band version even if now i dont really care.
Can`t keep is another example... the eddie uke version from 2002 wasn`t that interesting and the full band version is awesome.

i gave stip a monster wristy to ensure posting privileges in perpetuity

feel the sky blanket you with gems and rhinestones

wonder if he ever considered 'gems and diamonds' instead of rhinestones?

i like the rhinestone lyric since rhinestones are cheap costume jewelry. The diamonds lyric would have been redundant with gems.

Horny and rhinestones. Two words i'd never expected to hear ev mention in songs.

what song does he say "horny"

i guess you soon forgot about it...

nevermind..