I all!
Ok, here is the thing. I'm realizing that I'm not listening to enough "good music". I just got an iPod so i can use my dead moments for listening to well done mixes. Here is the question for everybody:
What is your favourite song/album/engineer? Please consider these characteristics:
- Variety of instruments and their tones
- Dynamic groove of the whole song/mix
- Progression of "hidden" sounds that make the mix being INTERESTING through out the whole development of the mix
- Good individual sounds (i.e. "I like the drums there and the vocals here")
I'd like to have a good list of songs or albums to buy so I can train my brain for interesting mixes.
Anything will be more than welcome, from a classical recording to the most experimental mix (justified by the reason why you like that particular song or engineer), rock, pop, country, folk, etc... The music that you like is not important in this post, it's the way it's been mixed that will make the difference so don't be afraid to say that the last Britney Spears album rocks! :D
Thank you all, I hope this will be interesting for many of you.
Bas.
Comments
Kinda' different take here... Besides the obvious Beatles, Floy
Kinda' different take here...
Besides the obvious Beatles, Floyd and Zep...
Gino Vannelli - ANY. All exceptionally clean production.
Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow - Jan Hammer's blend's... almost run thru Beck's and vica versa.
Zappa - Overnight Sensation - Possibly 2" Tape edit's pinnacle
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds - Talk about Vocals!~!
Kansas - Song For America - Drums and Violin are PERFECTLY mixed... within the rest of the instrumentation.
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five - Now THAT's the way you do it... live.
Pink Floyd - Umaguma - Uncompromising in exploration of creativity.
Modern Jazz Quartet - ANYTHING. I've never heard anything didn't amaze me. The noise floor of these mixes is probably attributable to dbx noise reduction, but the dynamics and moods that they produced were what facilitated the mixes being so good.
Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker - (Good F*&@ Luck finding this one, though) One of the first direct to disk recordings from the 70's... ABSOLUTELY one of the MOST POLISHED LIVE TRACKING SESSIONS EVER!
Blood Sweat & Tears - Your choice... you'll hear horns... REAL horns probably for the first time in your life... pay attention to the trombone(s) stunning work on the tracking and mix!
Chicago (Transit Authority) the first album. Fantastic musicianship is faithfully captured and mixed extremely well.
I could go on for a couple of more pages, but I won't... unless someone wants to take a leasurly trip down nastalgia way.
Max
Davedog wrote: Anything engineered by Shelly Yakus, Tom Dowd, or
Davedog wrote: Anything engineered by Shelly Yakus, Tom Dowd, or Mutt
Really 'old skool' would have to be Eddie Kramer.
Absolutley! but don't you think George Martin should be right up there with all the work he did with a 3 and 4 track machine while Dowd was 8 trackin? It blows me away that he didn't know about the 8 track machine or didn't have access to one!
Wouldn't it be really cool if George Martin or Eddie Kramer stopped by R/O to say hi?
ouzo77 wrote: if you're talking bout "pulse" i'd have to agree!
ouzo77 wrote: if you're talking bout "pulse" i'd have to agree!
Yes, I am
That's the name of that album, I could not remember it off hand.
What a f*ckin incredible album.
Has to one of the best of ALL time. And it's live!
I don't even know of an album that really compares to the sonic superness of this recording.
StevenColbert wrote: [quote=ouzo77]if you're talking bout "pulse
StevenColbert wrote: [quote=ouzo77]if you're talking bout "pulse" i'd have to agree!
Yes, I am
That's the name of that album, I could not remember it off hand.
What a f*ckin incredible album.
Has to one of the best of ALL time. And it's live!
I don't even know of an album that really compares to the sonic superness of this recording.
i'm really looking forward to the dvd. it should have been out last december, but they rescheduled it to october 2006.
so i still have to wait to hear it in 5.1 surround sound!
but the stereo sound is also one of the best, not only for a live recording.
i wonder if they did any overdubs...
definitely a "must hear"!
TVPostSound wrote: Nostalgia??? How about Frampton Comes Live???
TVPostSound wrote: Nostalgia???
How about Frampton Comes Live???? (Eddie Kramer)
No one can or has ever engineered a live show as well as that recording!!!!
That was 30 years ago!!!
From what I recall... (NOT Slammin Eddie Kramer)
There were only like two and a half songs that were actually live tracks from top to bottom. Everything else was one or two live tracks and all the other tracks were studio overdubs.
It also took some silly amount of time to track and mix... like two years or so.
I'd seriously put ANY Dave Brubeck or Modern Jazz Quartet live recording up against Frampton and the sonic qualities would blow Frampton out. Heck, even Aerostench's live stuff is better live musicianship than "Comes Alive". Eddie Kramer no doubt did a superb job of slicin' that album together, but it's hardly a REAL live album.
Max
machina wrote: I can't believe no one's mentioned Counting Crows
machina wrote: I can't believe no one's mentioned Counting Crows: August and Everything After. It's a sonic masterpiece for 2 reasons: It was beautifully layed down on analog & produced by T-Bone Burnett. Need I say more?
Great addition to this post. I have to agree. The Counting Crows debut album was fantastic. Not only the recording, but the song writting from Adam D. is so good. That album is still one of my favorites.
I heard some tracks from one of the Counting Crows albums was recorded at The Sound of Music in Richmond, VA. Which is owned by Dave Lowery from Cracker. Anybody else heard the same?
"Step out the frontdoor, like a ghost, into to fog, where no one notices the contrast of white on white"
You should definately check out David Crowder Band's new album
You should definately check out David Crowder Band's new album "A Collision." The creativity not only in the music, but the production as well, is amazing. The flow from song to song is done so perfectly that a distinctive mood and attitude is created along with the music. This album is more than songs on a plactic disc. Take a listen to it and you will see what I mean. Only one in a million bands (and producers as well) get this far. These guys definately made a great album. Just go get it and lemme know what you think. To each his own, I guess. :)
- Matt
Hey guys, this is my first post here so hello! I have really enjoyed the topics so far and I liked this one so much I just had to register and put in my two cents.
I know I am a little behind quoting Matt here, but I totally agree and didn't see anyone else respond to his suggestion. So Matt, I am just letting you know someone else has heard this album and was blown away by the creativity and production. I wasn't a big fan of David Crowder til I heard this album, my favorite song I believe is number 2, the one where you can hear him sit down at the piano? Genius and beautiful. Another artist worth checking out in this genre(which all too often seems to lack good prodution and creativity) is Shawn McDonald's first album, "Simply Nothing". I love the guitar on virtually every track and the arrangements are amazing. I don't think I have ever heard another album that was so intimate and personal with out sounding cheap. I swear on even a decent system if you close your eyes you will feel like he is right there. Anyways....enough about that. The other artist/song that may get me laughed at but whatever, is a song by Kenny G called "That somebody was you", sung by Toni Braxton. Almost all of his stuff was recorded flawlessly in my opinion and I am not a huge fan of his, but listening to some of his older stuff (I forget which album I like) makes me want to get into recording jazz and classical-type stuff for a change. Anyways, thats my 2 cents. :wink:
Shawn
Hey guys... this is my first post as well As far as the best mi
Hey guys... this is my first post as well
As far as the best mix/recording I've ever heard... I think it was a week ago. I watched the
PINK FLOYD LIVE IN POMPEII
I wasn't much of a fan of them, but it was mostly due to underexposure than anything.
They played live to no one... in the middle of an ampitheater of sorts of a greek looking architecture, with no audience.
They're are moments in that where I heard the best drum/bass sounds I've ever heard in my life.
Does anyone else think this was that quality? Or was I just being quixotic?
child and family development I'd say the most influential mixes
child and family development
I'd say the most influential mixes were in my 'awakening years'.
Some when I was just knocking around the house and amidst the chaos someone had an old Suzi Quatro album on.
When you're 7 or 8 and the opening riffs to 'Radar Love' come blaring through your step-dads speakers amidst the stench of spilt bong-water in the carpet -it's an overload moment.
Aside from the penis machismo of 70s recordings (tunes from that 70s show but played on hi-fi 70s period equipment (full volume)), I tended toward the flacid periodically. Classic artists and classic arrangements -Elton John &
B.Taupin songwriting mixed with the whoosits recording team of those albums.
Gary Wright was a mind-bend at the age of 7. Al Stewarts 'Year Of The Cat' still gives me the chills. Todd Rungren and Utopia.
Much of this stuff just drifted into my environment when I was young and 2 years later I was saying what was that artist? But good mixes in my adolescent-teenage life:
Sgt. Peppers -Beatles
Pet Sounds -Beach Boys
Eddie Kramer (most of his stuff; Hendrix and Zep)
Tulls "Songs from the Wood"
Genesis "Lamb Lies Down"
Lotsa The Who
Hearts "Baracuda"
ELO & Jeff Lynn
Edgar Winter Group
Steely Dans early stuff (junkie whore that he is)
Alan Parsons project "Things People Say In The Middle Of The Night"
young adult life:
Brian Eno & 'Heroes' (David Bowie)
Talking Heads- remain in light
Talking Heads -Speaking in Tongues
Peter Gabriels "Out Out" from the Gremlins soundtrack.
Peter Gabriel & David Lord. Did I say Peter Gabriel?
I chased Steve Lillywhite around in the 80s, -collecting his stuff.
Daniel Lanois
Kate Bush -Hounds Of Love
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis -I can't remember a fav. I just remember they hit the nail on the head and were everywhere in the 80s.
Blue Nile in the late 80s was so bitchin'!
New Order -Shell Shock
Thomas Dolby -Flat Earth
Dead Kennedys- fresh fruit etc. (my first exposure to "sloppy producing" done well.)
Buzzcox
Fear
Meat Men
Pretenders- "Pretenders"
Yes, Tears for Fears "Sowing the Seeds" was like a Sgt. Peppers revisit.
Whatever they did to enhance Sinead O'connors voice in "Lion and the Cobra"
way too Adult:
"I couldn't Dance With Another" whats her name?
Guns n' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" believe it or not
Most Dave Jerden (esp. Janes Addictions "Nothings Shocking")
Beck- Album with "...Loser Baby" It hit the airwaves. That fact was amazing. Also "Devils Haircut"
Basement Jaxx "Where's Your Head aaaaaat"
Chemical Bros. "Funk Soul Brotha"
Whoever did "More Human Than Human" Zombie somethin'
Warmth: Nickel Creeks "When You Come Back Down"
All of these past tunes have something to do with a family motif for me.
Depending on the artists developmental history in life and why they came to articulate their expression through music has alot to do with the right "marraige" of talents in the studio (here at recording.org) and LIVE on the road.
Getting the right chemistry has alot to do with relationships.
I grew up with a deficit in connecting to my family so my mind rationalized manipulating objects of sound to sooth my discontentedness.
(Picture growing up in the Richard Pryor household or the Jackson house hold, or the Capote house.)
So my relationships in adult life come from my success in seamlessly putting together concepts through songwriting, producing & engineering.
So in short, if you've ever gotten your head shrunk, or seen examples of it on the Sopranos or Analyze This (Riot!) a good production comes down to running into people in your professional life who are both musician and therapist. And know how to foster the very best of work environments.
I think of alot of brilliant collaborations (the whole process of getting your music to a major distribution artery) and alot of the producers are thinking about their second chosen field in life.
Music is a vehicle to many things. Once it has helped you "belong" more in this world. In the present. You may be surpised to find yourself connecting more so to people and in different ways.
"Don't let what God gave you (music) be the thing that holds you down."
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven Rage Against the Machine - I don't k
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Rage Against the Machine - I don't know what the album title is, but it is their first album. That is one of the tightest sounding mixes I've ever heard. The low end punches so clean and tight!