Favorite Recordings

A simple album that is nicely recorded is Green Day's Dookie. I also like the way some of the Strokes songs are recorded. A lot of the Flaming Lips' songs sound awesome. Incubus also has some great recordings. I'd agree that nickelback has some good recordings.
 
Zane1Tsu said:
He underproduced Nirvana's In Utero. They brought in someone else to remix and bring the vocals out. But his recording's do sound like the band is right there w/ no extra gimmicks.

I know that they had someone else mix it, but Nirvana wanted a lo fi sound. Cobain wanted to get away from the poppy, polished sound of Nevermind. (In interviews leading up to the album, he was talking about how Nirvana would probably lose half of it's fan base with In Utero.) You have to remember, Cobain was into Daniel Johnston, Meat Puppets and Butthole Surfers... hardly *nice* recordings :)

To answer the post, here are some of the biggest ones for me:

Some Older Ones:
Beatles - From Revolver on...
Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request
Kinks - Village Green
Velvet Underground - VU & Nico
Os Mutantes - Millennium
Queen - A Night At The Opera
David Bowie - Low, Lodger
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

Some Newer Ones:
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Flaming Lips - From Hit To Death... on
Wilco - YHF
Dirty Projectors - Slaves Graves & Ballads
Danielson Famile


A lot of the recent home recording/lo fi-ish stuff like White Stripes, Unicorns, Frog Eyes and Half-Handed Cloud is very inspiring.
 
I second Albini. People will always gripe about his outspoken nature, but he makes rock bands sound how they should sound, like they're throwin down proper in a good room, and that's it....I like pretty much everything he does. All the Jesus Lizard and Tar records are completely stellar, and Surfer Rosa to me is still the best example of what can be acheived with extremely little compression.

I don't know about an official countdown but here's some records I love for how they sound off the top of my head. I'm gonna try to add some oddballs here, cause we all already know how great Dark side of the Moon, the Beatles, and Steely Dan records sound already.


-AC/DC...Highway to Hell...the most solid, pounding, straight up rock and roll record of all time for me. Mutt Lange deserves a medal for that one. Maybe my favorite guitar tone of all time.

-Swervedriver...Mezcal Head - Extremely overlooked British band from the 90's. The production isn't picture perfect, but it's interesting as hell. Tons and tons of unbelievable guitars. "Duress" is one of the best tracks of that whole decade. I'll never get sick of this record.

-Thin Lizzy...Jailbreak - come on...solid as shit!...and underrated.

-Tony Rice...Unit of Measure - best acoustic recording I've ever heard.

-The Stooges...Funhouse - Yeah, knock on me for this if you will, but the record is incredible. Recording isn't necessarily about getting the right compression ratio on the overheads, it's about capturing the greatness of a band. I can hardly think of any better examples in my eyes. There's a vibe on this LP that you'll never hear again. By the end of it, it sounds like the band just doesn't want to stop playing. The first lp and Raw Power are sloppy throw togethers up against Funhouse.

-My Bloody Valentine Loveless - again, 'interesting' and 'creative' will triumph over 'proper' and 'perfect' anyday. This record is now 15 years old or so, and as much as others have tried, I still have yet to hear anything that sounds even remotely like it.

-Miles Davis Bitches Brew/Live Evil/In a Silent Way - I like them all for the same reasons. Talk about brilliant editing...and no Sonar or Pro Tools to do it with. If you're into recording and you've not heard these, just go get them.

-Devo....Duty now for the future/Are we not men - Underfreakingrated.

-Deerhoof...Runners Four - The only modern recording as of late that grabbed me. For all the analog nuts in the audience. If you're into the classic tape sound, you'll shit your pants when you hear this band's recordings.

-Brainiac...Hissing Prigs in the static couture - Again, creative and interesting over proper. The death of singer/creator Tim is one of the most saddest loses I've ever witnessed. This stuff is still unlike anything even though there are plenty of bands in the 'indie' world that try desperately to cop this vibe.

-Bad Brains...Quickness. Rod St. Germain rules for this. Talk about a big kick ass room sound. The drums, huge...guitars, huge. Still one of my favorites.

-Suicide..s/t debut - Trust me, you've never heard anything like it. Maybe my favorite record of all time.
 
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Oh yeah Alison Krauss and Union Station--Live

Goose Creek Symphony --Welcome to goose creek

Metallica --Ride the Lightning

Fugazi-==repeater

My bloody valentine

helmet-meantime
 
Meantime....jesus. I need Ibuprofen from just thinking about that record. I'll always prefer Strap it on, but they both kill.
 
Wow... I can't believe I forgot this.

Van Morrison - It's Too Late To Stop Now
This album would be an amazingly engineered studio album... but it's live. Absolutely in my all-time top 5. Don't see much Van Morrison love going on anymore. It's a Shame :( Best singer ever IMO
 
The Raconteurs-Broken Boy Soldiers
The White Stripes- White Blood Cells
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures
Radiohead- OK computer
Bowie at the Beeb: The Best of the BBC Radio Sessions...this technically doesnt belong here, but i absolutely love the sound of these live sessions.
Depeche Mode- Violatr
The Appleseed Cast- Low Level Owl (people here probably hate this band, but the recording is great on this cd...espescially drums)
 
I really love the engineering of the last two mudvayne albums. They are perfectly recorded imo as far as the sounds of the instruments. There isnt much bass to any of the instruments and overall, its a very sterile sound, and the guitars have a decent amount of mids to them. This recording style would sound terrible for other bands but i think its perfect for them, its like their signature sound.

And also, i dont really like nickleback, but their latest sounds amazing. If i could describe the perfect guitar distortion sound, it would be their guirtar sound. and the drums sound killer too.
 
cephus said:
Even though it was 99% electronic, I always liked Art of Noise Invisible silence...
You just reminded me how much I enjoyed the sound of Art of Noise's "In-No-Sense? Nonsense!" A well-crafted and awesome sounding record.
 
While we're talking about bad bands with good recordings, has anyone heard the Louis XIV record? Those guitar tones are as it gets. I would give three teeth to get sounds like that.
 
One album that just "sounds" amazing is Bringing Down the Horse by the Wallflowers...drums, organs, guitars...all sound incredible. I would say the mixing is perfect, everything is clear yet nothing is overpowering.
 
You know, another one I really like is Ill Communication - Beastie Boys. there are a couple turds on it, but those atmospheric groove tunes really fill up a pair of headphones and the one with Q-tip is well constructed. Sabotage is also a really live sounding recording. I like it because it is an attainable sound. Like, you can't really record dark side of the moon in your bedroom, but Ill Communication kinda proves you can put together something decent that isn't laboratory perfect.
 
darinm said:
RUSH - Moving Pictures. I just love the sound of everything on that album


:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

(I love Hemispheres and Moving Pictures; better rush recordings (my taste,at least...))
 
Aside from Fly By Night, their stuff has definetly been recorded very well. Really keeps up with the dynamics those guys have.

Was listening to some tracks off Pearl Jam's VS. the other day. Forgot how good it was, great drums.
 
Recording-wise I can list a few and these aren't my favorite albums, just ones that I really admire the recording techniques on.

Pink Floyd - Animals (recorded in 77 or 78 and sounds like it could have been made today)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic (find the video on the making of the album. Rick Ruben at his finest)
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (the photo on the cover shows how everything was mic'ed)
 
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
First Pink Floyd CD and The Wall
Several early Elton John Cd's especially - Good bye Yellow Brick Road
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Steely Dan - Asia and Gaucho
Many recordings done on ECM

To name but a few.

-Stew
 
You know what's crazy, is how much popular music has changed since I started this thread. But I have returned to update and explore. Lorde's Heroine, twenty one pilots blurryface, and a lot of Imagine Dragons/ Alex Da Kid's productions sound amazing. It's like it's not about recording in a real space anymore, with all the simulation software, it's more about the mix. Understanding sub bass. But I still think there's something about recording in a room, and blending with samples and electronic sounds. Get the best of both worlds. Oh, and the last Tame Impala LP.
 
To really get to the heart of a recording one has to separate the 'engineering' aspect from the 'production'.......

If you want to discover purity in recording, investigate any of the direct-to-disc recordings out there. Sheffield Labs and others.

A lot of the great Producers are (and were) also great engineers and over the years I have personally found these recordings to 'fit' my ear more than others.

Listen to the Old Guys......Sir George Martin...Roy Thomas Baker...Jimmy Miller....Jimmy Iovine....Tom Dowd....Daniel Lanois....Todd Rundgren...Qunicy Jones....Nile Rodgers....Arif Mardin.....Mutt Lange....Chris Thomas..

That should keep everyone busy for a bit.

Sometimes a band or an artist will hit lightning in a bottle.....these guys on this list NEVER failed to hit it every time.
 
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