The Most Excellent Recording (1 Viewer)

[PhilBoy]

This one is for the hard working music people that we usually don't here about.

The folks who engineer, mix and master the tunes we love.

Based on sound quality. The technical aspect, not artistic performance.

Here's a few I've always admired (not in any order);

Blessed - Elton John

Angel - Sarah McLachlan

Another Day In Paradise - Phil Collins

Shattered - Linda Ronstadt

 

[Dave Bennett]

I'd give the nod to some Donald Fagen's The Nightfly. It came out in 82 and it was one of the first albums to be recorded digitally. Sounds better than some albums recorded in the last five years.

 

[Seth--L]

Bruckner: Symphony No.8
Boulez/VPO
Recorded live in St. Florian, 1996

The quality of DG's recordings greatly varies; apparently for making this one they consulted Decca.

Walter Legge (EMI) and John Culshaw (Decca/London) both turned out a lot of gold during the stereo/analog era.

 

[Iain Brown]

The mix on the new A Perfect Circle Album - Thirteenth step is an amazing effort. Metallica's Black Album is also fantastic. So is the Steve Hoffman 24k Gold discs of Metallica's Master Of Puppets and Ride The Lightning.

 

[Angelo.M]

Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois and engineered by Malcolm Burn, is one of the best redbook (HDCD) CD's I've heard (and an amazing album, to boot).

Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat is also one of the finest-sounding albums I've heard, but I'm not particulalry fond of some of the material.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Mark Waldrep from AIX Records and C. Jared Sacks from Channel Classics are my two heros at the moment. Everything they touch sounds like heaven!

BTW, I recently got my hands on the new Toto: Live In Amsterdam CD, and it sounds fantastic (the great performances also help). I noticed the CD did not have that dreaded "crushed against the ceiling" dynamically limited sound and looked to see who mastered the disc. What a surprise: Mark Waldrep!

Cheers,

 

[Rachael B]

I like the Allman Brothers first album because it sounds like it was reorded in a garage. I like the rough sound free of production value. Well, I do like the fact that they have a guitar in each channel.

 

[PhilBoy]

RachaelB,

Based on your vast musical knowledge as demonstrated in your posts, I'll have to give that a listen..

Not one of my fav groups, but obviously the recording has captured an ambiance.

Free of production value... "Never Mind The Bollocks"

 

[Rachael B]

Philboy, sometimes I get tired of the polished, too perfect sound of so many of the last 20 years recordings. Mind you, don't take that as any type of put-down of the music of the last 20 years, just the recording style/s. Simple two mic recording like David Chesky sometimes does turns me on these days. I like the punk rock of the late 70's and 80's, partly because of the raw recording of stuff like the Police, Klark Kent, Televison, The Damned, The Tokyos, John Cale, ect.

You'd think I'd love live albums but too many of them are no longer exactly live! Adding or fixing vocals or other fixes has become so prevalent. So, I'm even picky about live albums.

I really like the first two Allman albums, S/T & IDLEWILD SOUTH. You could say they're poorly recorded or you could say they're dynamite garage music with a lead guitarist (Duane A. & Dicky Betts) in each channel. I obviously favour the latter opinion.

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[PhilBoy]

I remember seeing Mr. Vincent Furnier on a TV interview years ago talking about recorded music. He implied that there was too much focus on quality instead of content.

His philosophy was listen, here it is, did you like it?

 

[Chris]

Me and a Gun, Tori Amos.

It is very, very hard to get a straight, empty sounding room with nothing but vocals.. one vocal.. come off. MaaG is chilling and so pure that even though the song is not my favorite Tori, nor a song I would listen to repeatedly, the production values are something I greatly admire.

 

[Todd Schnell]

A couple that pop in my head...
Jesse Cook - Vertigo is audiophile all the way!
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia is very nice.
Both are standard redbook.

Todd

 

[ElevSkyMovie]

Anything Gary Paczosa has recorded ( Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek ).