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anonymous 28 June 2004

2 parts:

1. What are some of your favorite albums, as far as sound and engineering quality.

2. Are there any good documentaries or programs I could get that show bands in the studio actually working, Just to see real footage of albums actually being made? I love to watch stuff like that.

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anonymous Mon, 06/28/2004 - 10:27

answer my own question. How lame.

Some of my favorite sounding albums.

Ziggy Stardust & the spiders from Mars - David Bowie
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Blue Album - Weezer
Room on Fire - The Strokes
First Rays of the New Rising Sun - Jimi Hendrix
Abbey Road - The Beatles
OK Computer - Radiohead

There are many more. I happen to like all of these albums, but I recently heard a Brooks & Dunn greatest hits(they all sound great), and George Strait's greatest hits(songs from the early 80's). I really think country albums have good production quality(probably better if you really like the music).

KurtFoster Mon, 06/28/2004 - 12:06

I think in terms of records that made me go "WHOAAA! WTF was that?", when I first heard them.

One that always stands out for me is Capitan Fantastic by Elton John ... I think it was produced by Gus Dodgeson .. that record just grabbed me when it first came out . I really liked the drum and guitar tones. It may be a bit passé now but I remember at the time, being very impressed.

Another record that grabbed me (because of the production values) was Tug Of War by Paul McCartney ...produced by George Martin. This was one of the first digital pop recordings released and the punch and cleanliness of the production was very impressive to me ..

One more that was definitely a mile mark was the first Led Zeppelin record ... the use of echo and distortion was groundbreaking ..... and I never had heard any man sing like that. I can still remember where I was the first time I heard that record ...

"Standing In the Shadows of Motown", is a good film. There is a documentary called "The Brill Building" which is about Aldon records ... and another documentary is "The History of Rock and Roll" .... both produced by Discovery Channel or History Channel ... probably available through Barns & Nobel, Borders Books ... or Amazon dot com.

anonymous Mon, 06/28/2004 - 14:09

Have to agree with Kurt on Captain Fantastic. Great album. Most anything by Sting prior to Mercury Falling - didn't care for that album or its sound. Ten Summoner's Tales and Soul Cages stand out for me. Brilliantly produced and recorded. This'll probably sound whack, but Frampton Comes Alive was probably one of the best recorded live albums ever IMO in terms of sound quality. Super Tramps Breakfast in America always struck me as being quite good with regard to overall sound quality.

First two Zep albums - definitely ground breaking for the time. Dark Side Of The Moon of course. They did some really amazing stuff on that album. The Wall wasn't too shabby either. The two big Spin Doctors albums were well done IMO. Toy Matinee's one and only effort was quite good as was Kevin Gilbert's Shaming Of The True.

sammyg Tue, 06/29/2004 - 03:14

step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, HEY HEY!!

Def Leppard, definately one of my fav's. Love it. Warm and FAT!
To me, a recording always grabs my attention when i listen to it through 2 speakers but it sounds like you're listening to it through 10 speakers!! :twisted:

sammyg

anonymous Tue, 06/29/2004 - 06:42

Michael Beinhorn on Soundgarden's Superunknown still does it for me 10 years later.

I remember reading a few interviews and articles about the making of the album, but nothing I could "steal" (unless I could steal Matt Cameron...lol). I do remember that one of the articles mentioned that Michael had rack after rack of his own outboard that he brought to the sessions...if I am not mistaken, a lot of 1073's.

It dosen't hurt to have Cornell's songwriting to work with either. Overall, arguably the most brilliant rock album of the '90s IMO.

Doublehelix Tue, 06/29/2004 - 07:49

The list is endless...hehe...

But after Kurt's post about an album that made me go "Whoa" when I first heard it, there are two that I can think of off of the top of my head.

Mind you, these are not necessarily the best engineered albums, but two that made me go "whoa".

1) Boston's first album. I had that on 8-track, and couldn't believe the sound Tom Scholtz got out of his guitar.

2) Van Halen's first Album. How the hell could anyone play so fast? As a budding guitar player at the time (late 70's), it was pretty depressing since we all had a new standard to live up to.

Guest Wed, 06/30/2004 - 05:31

In the albums that make me go "whoa!!" pretty much everytime I listen to them...

Joe Walsh "So What" produced by Bill Szymczyk
Rolling Stones "Exile on Main St"; produced by Jimmy Miller
Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" produced by Jack Douglas
Led Zeppelin "II" produced by Jimmy Page
The Clash "Give 'em Enough Rope" produced by Sandy Pearlman
Steve Earle and the Dukes "Guitar Town" produced by Tony Brown

... and probably 300 more I can't think of off the top my head...

[oh, and the Neve modules Beinhorn used on Superunknown were Neve 1058's and 1057's, not 1073's]

anonymous Thu, 07/01/2004 - 17:03

I love this topic since I always become enlightened to unfamiliar music... (Especially when I get discouraged about the scene!)

Anyway, my absolute, all time favorite production values can be found on Kevin Gilbert albums:

Shaming of the True - For warmth and creativity
Thud - For warmth and taste
Toy Matinee - For mirror-like polish (Pat Leonard influence?)

I also like Yes' 90125 for the sort of understated, restrained power for that kind of pop music. King's X's Ear Candy, King's X, and Tapehead, are all marvelously produced for Rock/Metal. I also dig 80's era King Crimson - very clean.

Whoever mentioned Wendy Carlos' 'Switched-On Bach' was right on the money... In fact, this may be one of the purest productions ever since she created, from the ground up, every single sound heard on the albums, performed every note, mixed, mastered, and recently re-mastered all of her 'Switched-On' albums for the box set... Can't recommend it highly enough. Particulary Switched-on Brandenburgs, which was the most developed and mature of the set.

anonymous Thu, 07/01/2004 - 23:26

Well it's already got a couple of mentions, but Dark Side of the Moon has to be one of the best produced records of all time. You can get a DVD about the production with relatively recent interviews with all members of the band. A great DVD, and a great album.

Alan Parson's albums were generally accepted to be 'hi fi' albums in their day, but someone mentioned Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits. I'm not sure which greatest hits was being referred to, but one of my favourite albums was their first, when they were a blues and R&B band, which has a shaggy dog on the front and includes the original Black Magic Woman song. Fairly basic production, but suits the genre very well. One of my favourite albums of all time.

Finally, Blue Note released a new version of Miles Davis' Kinda Blue. The version was cut from a backup master tape someone came across relatively recently. The trouble with the original Kinda Blue release was that the primary mastering tape machine was running a bit fast and officianos maintained that this affected the feel and sound of the record. The backup tape found did not suffer such problems and was held to truly capture the feel of the recording. It was digitally re-mastered using Sony's Bit Mapping process. Now if I was marooned on a deserted island and only had one CD with me, this version of Kinda Blue is what I would wish for.

anonymous Sat, 07/10/2004 - 19:59

I can only mention two albums thar really got the 'wow' effect out of me in terms of sound and engineering. These two are:

Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Death - The Sound of Perseverance

As a sucker for big fat clean sound these two come on top on everything else I've llistened to so far. Everything just sounds great, the guitars, the bass, the vocals, the drums... everything is awesome

anonymous Sun, 07/11/2004 - 11:05

gotta jump in

In no particular order

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American and Clarity
Radiohead - Ok Computer
NIN - Downward Spiral and Halo Fourteen
Metallica's Black Album and the mastering on St. Anger was great
lets see.....
That damn Celine Dion song "touched by an angel" ? was one of the best produced songs I've heard in a long time

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