Entertainment For Lively Minds
Best sounding record?
Posted by Bigsby on 13 November 2008 - 11:41pm.
Not the best song, or even the best performance, but the one whose very sound jumps out of the speakers and grabs your attention.
I may be shallow, but production and arragement can make or break a record for me, so how about these for starters:
December 1963 (Oh What A Night) and Who Loves You? Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Summer Wine (just heard it on the radio)
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
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One that springs to mind is
Constant Craving - K D Lang. Just love the laid back production.
Funny you should mention that Four Seasons record
When I interviewed Nick Lowe last year he talked about how that record changed his ideas about production. When it came out he was talking to a mastering engineer about it and saying how much he envied the way it leapt out of the radio. At the time he was always cranking up his productions in an effort to get them to do the same. He assumed that "Oh What A Night" was the sound of a big band. The mastering boffin pointed out that it was, in fact, only four instruments. What made it work was that the dynamics of the playing were just perfect. So in that sense it's not so much a perfectly produced record as a perfectly played record. Some old-time producers would tell you that it amounts to the same thing.
Funny, I was just relistening the other day to...
...the podcast from back in Feb with the Music Thing guy talking about evil modern recording techniques, the loudness war, MAroon 5 building a song from a load of half baked ideas and all that. "O What A Night" was quoted then as a tune which is, of course produced well, but jumps from the speakers because of the great performance. Of course, what was the next tune I listened to? Yup and it's an amazing song amazingly performed. I guess the same goes for a load of those old tunes. Wonder why those Motown and Stax records sound so great? Great songs, great recording of a room and great performances (mostly live in the studio too!).
It's all about good musicianship...
Not necessarily being able to play a million notes a second but to be able to nail the song every time - either from road experience of endlessly playing it or by demon session players who could read the charts and get it exactly right first time.
Studio time was expensive so, if you weren't any good, a session guy stepped into your shoes ("Ringo, this is Andy White...") to get the track done, and done *right*
Back in the 60's a live dance band was a human jukebox, they were there to provide music to dance to - the musicians rapidly became tight and on the button. When they came to record in a studio they knew exactly what they were doing. If you weren't *that* good (snaps fingers) then you didn't get to play on your own record.
Bands today just don't do the 'three sets a night, 6 hours playing' night after night that they need in order to get that tight. Those that do still churn it out (your local pub blues band) are either doing it for fun or as background - where mistakes, larking around, improv etc are all 'allowed'.
The demise of the dance band and practiced sesssion players, together with cheap, accessible studio time has a lot to answer for.
December, 1963
Just bought it off 7digital.com. What a fantastic record.
Elton John's
Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy - the track rather than the album. Each instrument sounds crisp, clean and sounds like the band are in the room with you.
Joe Jackson's "Body & Soul"
Recorded in a Masonic lodge in New York, it really does sound like a room and not a studio, and gives the lie to the notion that digital recordings all sound antiseptic. Great songs and performances too of course, but just the sheer sound of this album gets me every time...
good call
Body And Soul is a fantastic recording, 100% with you on this.
I'd also suggest Time Loves A Hero by Little Feat, a great sound to this record too. Jumps out at you from the first bar.
If I remember correctly
wasn't it recorded live to 2 track tape? So no mixing etc. And yes, it is excellent.
Elbow - Starlings
The fact that the record is mastered at a normal level, seemingly against the usual trend, gives it the scope to make you jump out of your skin at one or two moments
Have to disagree
i love theElbow album but that song is ruined by that slap round the ear effect. Ouch!
Then He Kissed Me...
*That* snare drum....see also Be My Baby and Like a Rolling Stone.
Makes your hairs stand on end
That'll be Hal Blaine
(not on Like A Rolling Stone obviously), a member of the legendary Wrecking Crew and a man with a strong left wrist.
edit: Just looked him up on the 'Pedia and he has a claim to being the most recorded drummer ever. Over 40 number 1 hits as well
The best way to make...
.. a real loud record, is to play quietly. Listen to the Stax and Motown records. Those guys are playing softly through small amps. The transients leap out because they're not "compressed" by distortion and volume.
Abbey Road
The Beatles.
Still sounds wonderful
Nick Drake's
"Five Leaves Left" and "Bryter Layter" sound lovely. Joe Boyd and John Wood at work. I just bought a best of the Shagri-Las which sounds pretty damn good too!
That'll be Shadow Morton
One of the true geniuses of record production and very much a kitchen sink merchant
Lanois
Emmylou Harris' "Wrecking Ball" sounds fantastic, Daniel Lanois always makes great sounding records.
If you ask me
I'd say it's this
Try and not sway or tap or just be happy.
I'd agree - a great performance can make a great sound
...tight, dynamic playing (e.g. Oh What A Night) can make a record sound great. There's something about the production / performance on Get Happy that makes it great as opposed to just good. Kind of claustrophobic, with a reggae-like emphasis on bass, but without sucking the energy out of the rest of it - how does that work?
The room and the gear (i.e. recording equipment) must also have something to do with it. As a member of a once budding pop combo we recorded at Pathway studios in London - scene of early Madness / Costello and er, Dire Straits recordings - and there was definitely something in the place that made us sound punchy. Maybe the place just inspired us to play better, but I think the room had something to do with it, and maybe the range of gear on offer.