The "mixing on the albums needs to be better" thread.

I've read several people say this.
Just curious, which albums needed better mixing?

Postcards from Ireland. I won’t listen to that one for that reason. The orchestra drowns out the voices and you can barely hear Tara either.

Postcards from Ireland. I won’t listen to that one for that reason. The orchestra drowns out the voices and you can barely hear Tara either.

I agree about that album. In Wild Mountain Thyme, one girl drowned out the others whenever all were singing, which drove me nuts. I like how the music was arranged with the bagpipes, but the music was louder than the girls a lot.

For the most part, Celtic Woman tracks are pretty well mixed.

The Postcards from Ireland album had some problems. Tara got buried in the mix. Also, most of the harmonies (when the arrangements even had harmonies) sounded and dull, unbalanced, and even sloppy at times. They sounded so much better on tour.

Ancient Land (Deluxe edition tracks only): For some inexplicable reason they toned down Mairéad Carlin's voice in Newgrange and in the Over the Rainbow. It was like they dropped her voice track volume for the climax of both songs. It still sounded good, but it sounded even more spectacular on tour. Also, don't get me started on the "rattlesnake" sound in Newgrange. Argh! It's like fingernails on a chalkboard for me.

Other than that I don't have too much to complain about (at least not with the Celtic Woman group albums).

I loved the clear harmonies and simple but powerful backing from the Gavin Murphy era. For the most part I really enjoyed the Downes-era mixing too, because there was always such a rich array of sounds (although in rare instances, I wished the singers stood out from the sound a little more ... sometimes the choir sounded as loud as the lead performers and I couldn't tell them apart).

I'm hopeful that 20th Anniversary album will turn out really well too.

For Homecoming, which ever way either the DVD sounded better than the CD as they were recorded differently in stereo if I can remember. I never understood why is that for that special.

The Postcards is the one that needed "help".  Yes, part of that may be due to how it was recorded, i.e. outside.  That's a challenge itself, then throw the Covid restrictions in and it's more complicated.

It may be controversial, but I'll say Voices of Angels. The Orchestra, although one of the main features of the album, overlaps the girls too much; not in all songs, but still. I give A Time For Us and Nil Sen La as examples.

O Holy Night on the CCFI EP also needs to be remastered. The music was too loud.