On weekday mornings, I generally start my day by watching HLN’s Morning Express with Whoever Happens To Be Filling In For Robin Meade This Week. While the program airs a lot of stories that I don’t consider to be news, such as what happened on American Idol the night before, it does a fairly good job of running down the day’s top news stories as well.
As you can probably tell from the name of the show, Robin Meade hosts only sporadically now. She is busy hosting specials on Oprah’s network, covering benefit concerts in Nashville, and trying to start a singing career. The latter is a move so common for celebrities that it was merely annoying to me at first. Think about Patrick Swayze, Gregory Hines, and (gag) William Shatner for a moment.
Robin’s first and only recording so far was with Jim Brickman, a very talented songwriter and pianist who has enjoyed considerable success but has remained just this side of true stardom. You may have never heard of him, but you’ve probably heard of most of the artists he’s written for or collaborated with. Robin provides the lead vocal for a song called “Welcome Home,” a melodic love song for a solider returning home from the other side of the world. Recorded as part of Brickman’s “Home” album in early 2011, the song has a catchy chorus which became the theme for Morning Express’ “Salute to the Troops” segment. I quickly got completely tired of it, as one gets tired of any song whose chorus he’s heard several hundred times, sung by a news anchor trying to start a singing career.
I don’t know what happened, but I finally became curious as to what the rest of the song might sound like. I’d never really heard it. In fact, I hadn’t truly heard the chorus. Despite a concerted effort by many in the industry over the years, it’s a documented fact that most TV audio still sucks. I’m happy to be working for a company that’s helping to change that.
Two days ago, I found the song on iTunes and purchased it. Yesterday, I slipped on my new Grados and listened to it critically, the way I’d listen to something before I released it to the world.
My first thought surprised me! “Robin Meade actually has both a voice and the talent to use it!” After hearing processed, pitch-corrected, reverberated celebrities do their best over the years, I expected the worst, and instead I was pleased. She has a light, open alto tone, excellent control of pitch and power, and a refreshing lack of overdone vibrato. I was unashamedly impressed.
My second thought was surprising in a different way. “Did they let the sports guy mix this?” Granted, Brickman’s not a superstar, but surely he can afford better mixing talent than the person who butchered this. It’s an amateurish, over-processed nightmare.
Robin’s voice has been compressed to a ridiculous degree. Her soft passages are soft. Her loud passages are also soft. Meanwhile, the piano comes blasting out like Van Halen at a Shakespeare festival. The whole sound field is so full and so busy, it’s hard to hear the vocal at times, let alone really enjoy it. I spent several minutes twiddling the equalization trying to make it sound good, and finally just gave up. The subtle beauty of the song has been mixed out of existence. Even mastering couldn’t save it.
The song is beautiful, and I can hear enough of Robin’s performance to say that she’s done a beautiful thing as well. Others may not find the mix as obtrusive as I do; it’s an occupational hazard. I do wish I could remix it, though. It’s screaming for help. My worst, most ham-handed rough mixes from my earliest days in recording are better than this. Someone should be ashamed.