Voice mixing - Aretha Franklin now and past

[Dave AndreParticipant]

Hi all,

first of all a minute of silence for Aretha Franklin

...

Now straight to the point:
It's really interesting how recording and mixing a voice (and of course intruments as well) has changed within the years.
And sometimes it seems all the tech we have is not for the good.
Aretha Franklin released an Album 2016 called "Aretha Franklin sings the great diva classics"
Curious about it I searched you tube and found a song originally performed by Adele.
Check it out here and listen to the compressor working hard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNWeGngQqOI

And compare it with an old song perfomred by her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqYnevHibaI
- its bad quality but you can easily hear what my point here:
The Voice sounds just right in the mix, you cant hear any compressor used as sole purpose like the the new mix.

for me its kinda sad that such a great great singers voice gets mixed with so much compression.

So my question is: am I the only one, or do someone share this thoughts?
Maybe you have experoience with other songs that sounds like too much tech. Im not talking about current pop productions 🙂

Cheers,
Dave

[face (chris) JantonParticipant]

The Aretha Franklin cover of the Adele song is kind of unfortunate (to my ears). It sounds a lot like a "pop" production of a song trying to emulate the Adele performance. The Adele performance has (what we would be led to believe) a typical singing of a song. Freely expressed, nicely done. I wonder if that track is one of the songs that Andrew Scheps mixed?

Anyway, the early Aretha song has a much free-er voice. Sounds like she's not trying hard, she's just doing what she does...
Probably no "compressor" on the early tune, more likely a "leveling amplifier" like an LA2A, but far more likely a Sta-Level. Recorded into the amplifier, no need to compress during mixing...

I am a big proponent of having professional singers (think college-trained, big gift like a Rolex for graduation) owning a proper microphone, pre-amp, leveling amplifier to take with them everywhere - just like I would always bring my own tubas for recording and performing.

Build a lunch-box or a small 6U rack with "the right stuff" and just do it.

I guess it's all up to our ears. I would like to un-hear the 2016 Aretha recording. Sigh.

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