Spackle “self-titled” release notes:

Why on earth would I remix a record that was recorded in Spring of 1994?

Several small “events” took place that gave me the opportunity to do so. First, at the studio I rehearse in currently there are ADAT machines.  This was the format of the original recording so transferring the audio data to the computer to remix was very simple. Second, this album came out on Timmi Kat records. It currently is not distributed digitally anywhere and it should be on King of Sticks with the other Spackle albums.  Third, and most importantly, there are songs on the record that mean a great deal to me and have always been plagued with bad mix, bad mastering of the CD, bad vocal level/sound, important overdubs mixed too low or omitted altogether, and a glaring guitar overdub that had to be done because my guitar track got accidentally erased midway thru a song during overdub sessions.  Ugh.  And finally, and the most peculiar of all, the amplifier I had used on the album, that I sold in 1995 (!), is now back at my disposal, complete with “Spackle” stenciled on the rear panel. This meant I could FINALLY fix that erased guitar track because the amp we used to replace it sounded nothing like my amp. (How the amp came back around is a long story… needless to say the sound of it is VERY unique.)

I'm not comparing the new mix to the old one.  The old one had overproduced drums and almost no attention to the vocals in post-mix so the results are vocals that just kind of sit "on" the music as opposed to being altered here and there to sit "in" the mix. Going back to the original tracks also revealed that all the really terrible compression on the CD is NOT present on the raw tracks.  Good thing too! So now the tracks play out much more naturally.  And a few really interesting finds... like the snare being out of phase with the kit, bass tracks scattered all over, some direct and some from Bill's amp, and unfortunately, overheads swapped around left and right so that the kit was imbalanced in the stereo layout.  The bottom line though is that the drums, bass and guitars all have essentially the same "sound" from song to song to maintain continuity. The overall instrument balance, the overdubs, and the vocals got the most attention.

After 6 months of mixing when I had time, tweaking versions, listening to the feedback of Scot and Ian, FINALLY all of those little annoyances are now corrected; balance is restored, mastering done “lightly” and to my ears, the album is now “complete” and I will never have to listen to it again. Ha.

Enjoy.

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