The Katy Lied section in the Steely Dan album by album thread starts here: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread Based on that discussion, we more or less established that "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More" was probably the Katy Lied track most adversely affected by the faulty DBX. The drums and vocals on that track sound particularly 'swimmy'. Over all, though, IMO Katy Lied doesn't sound that bad...I can only imagine what it sounded like pre-DBX, though.
The piano sounds quite "dull" indeed. But the drums and vocals also sound "not optimal". But compared to other albums of the same genre and vintage, it still sounds great. That's Steely Dan for you.
The answer is in the article: I don’t know the album that well because I only own the Hoffman mastered Aja and the Decade Of compilation. So don’t blame the messenger.
Oh thats interesting. But since middle sounds are a result of 2 simultanious and equal left and right channels why does it disappear completely?
Imperfection is a good thing. Otherwise you end up with those sterile sounding Fagen solo albums. SD got close enough to perfect on Aja. After that they got the slickness sickness.
From which release are these samples exactly? Would you be so kind to provide a Discogs link? Bad Sneakers sound 98% identical on the early German mastering of Decade Of. The current master in iTunes sounds brighter.
Probably stretching it, but could you upload the samples to Dropbox and share a link to the Dropbox folder? Would be much appreciated, as zip files don’t work on iOS devices.
When the album first came out, I honestly didn't give much thought to the sonics of the recording. Not my favourite album, however it does have its moments of aural grandeur.
No stretch at all. I'll figure something out for you later tonight or tomorrow when I'm back at home and have the time.
One channel is inverted prior to summing. So anything that is common to both channels gets cancelled out. I use it to peek inside recordings...but obviously depends on how it's mixed. Bern
It does not sound as great as the 3 albums that followed, but not a lot worse than Pretzel Logic to my ears. The only thing that really bothers me is the sound of the vocals on "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More".
I thought it was a stylistic choice to distort the vocals on that track. Was it just a technical issue?
Don't know, I always thought it was a technical issue because it's more prominent in some places than in others. But that could of course also be a stylistic choice.
If I remember correctly from the album by album thread some of us thought it was some kind of effect they used on Fagen's voice, others thought it was a side effect of the DBX. Worth noting that "Daddy" is also a rare Steely Dan track with no backing vocals/harmonies. The drums sound kinda weird compared to the rest of the album as well. I remember Jeff Porcaro talking about his ride cymbal sound on the album, I think this was the song he mentioned it sounded particularly bad on (Reelin' In The Years bio, I think) But what do I know...I'm the guy who reckons The Royal Scam is their best sounding album, not Aja
Katy Lied was my first MFSL and have always enjoyed it. Never owned any other pressing so hard to compare...It's my favorite Steely Dan album
Quoted from the Denny Dias link provided by the O.P. "On "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More" there is no special effect on the lead vocal. For the re-mix Roger implemented a manual phasing technique that required him to stand near a tape machine and slowly turn a dial by hand."
This thread had me listening to this album today and damn this album just gets better every time you listen to it. Katy Lied, Royal Scam and Aja might just be the greatest triple triple threat of albums ever created. And I love the sound of Katy Lied and I could imagine it sounding any other way.