Favorite Reference CD's?

[crawdad]

I hear people mention reference CD's often, so what CD's do you all prize as pinnacle of the art? Right now, I'm gushing over "Rhythm, Country and Blues" which came out in 94. The tracks are rich, fat and smooth. Yet the performances are allowed to be free and sometimes raw. Its just a great sounding disc. Bob Clearmountain did all the mixes. This recording humbles and inspires.

What are your choices?

[Buck62]

"Puzzle" by Dada (1992)

It's an engineering masterpiece.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Steely Dan - Aja
Donald Fagen - The NightFly
Red Hot Chili Peppers - BSSM
XTC - English Settlement
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature

[Wil Davis]

Bruel & Kjaer put out a demo-disk (early 1980s) which is pretty damned good - a whole variety of sounds, from symphonic to country, from heavy rock to the sound of a passing train recorded in the countryside. All recorded with B & K (or DPA, as they are now) microphones. Very clean, what you hear is what is there type of deal. Good demo!

I also have a neat stereo micing demo CD which goes through all the different set-ups and configurations so you get a good idea of how pattern choice and position effects the result. Sort of like an audio version of Harvey G's Mega-Thread (although nowhere near as interesting...)

- Wil

[chessrock]

I like to listen to the tune "Live" by Lenny Kravitz.

Okay Computer, Bloodsugarsexmagic, Close to the Edge and/or Fragile (Yes).

[db51]

Am I the only one who loves the hyper-compressed-squashed-to-death sound of At The Drive-in's latest album ("Relationship of command")?

I probably am.

Oh well

[Boo Boo Foo]

The Foo Fighters won a Grammy for "Best Rock Album" in 2001 for their album "There is Nothing Left to Lose" - and for those of you who aren't aware, their lead singer and songwriter is a guy called Dave Grohl who used to be the drummer in Nirvana.

Well, it seems Mr Grohl is quite a talented guitarist too, and he's very much from the classic school of using two inch reel to reels and surrounding himself in his band with absolutely top flight musos. His producer on the album is a guy called Adam Kasper who has huge raps for his work with acts like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden et al.

Dave Grohl is a lover of Gibson guitars through Vox AC-30's and on some tracks he still whacks the skins himself (and whatever you might think about Kurt Cobain, certainly you must concede that the drumming in Nirvana was absolutely top flight in it's sound and playing) but on other tracks he as a drummer called Taylor Hawkins who really comes from the Stuart Copeland school of drumming. It seems Taylor is an even better drummer than Mr Grohl if you can believe it. What riches huh? Two of the world's best rock drummers in one band.

Anyway, Dave likes to write truly pretty melodic songs and then set them to an arrangement which is quite Zeppelin like in it's execution - and the result is similar to a mixture of The Police, The Beatles, and Zeppelin themselves.

The album truly is a benchmark for mine, at least in the context of quality melodic rock music (which is quite witty in places) and the sheer quality of the album in terms of quality of mix and tone (especially the tones of the guitars and how well they merge with their bass player) and it's worthy of being in any music lovers collection I would think.

It deserved to win the Grammy that it did. I've yet to hear a more equisitely mastered album which is incredibly loud on your CD player but not compressed or pumping.

Very much worth an appraisal as a Reference CD.

The sound of their drums are just wondrous.

[drstawl]

Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat
Nathan Milstein: Sonaten & Partiten BWV 1001-1006 (DG)
Shakti: A Handful of Beauty
Rolling Stones: Bridges to Babylon

[A1A2]

umm..I dont know much about Mr. Grohl. But, from the music I've heard from him and his interviews, I don't quite like him...I guess I didn't understand why he was braggin about how he can't even read music while making big hits.

I looked at his comments in 2 ways:

1) he really thought those open/power chords are what music is all about
or
2) he thinks the audience's standard is only that high

Nonetheless, he is a good entertainer. Love his videos

Anyways, I like Dark side of the moon as a reference CD most of the time cuz I enjoy listening to it, and everything is got its own space.

[Cyrokk]

Undertow for drums, Led Zeppelin IV, and Badmotorfinger.

Cy

[Boo Boo Foo]

Guys, you know, I must have sounded like quite the one-eyed fan earlier going on the way I did about Dave Grohl, so with your blessing, I'd like to throw in a caveat as to why I mentioned the album I did, and as to the context in which it is placed.

Obviously, like you guys, I am a true fan of classic music - albums such as "Dark Side of The Moon", "Aja", "Physical Graffiti", "Abbey Road", "Gaucho", and "Love Over Gold" are just wonderful absolute benchmarks in the history of recorded music - no question about it.

And recently, I was making a piece of music which was quite "Floyd" like in it's nature and I actually went back to "DSOTM" to see how close I was getting to the sound, and it surprised me just how good that album sounds after all these years - as in just what an exemplary mix it was.

The only thing about the album I could possibly fault is that the drums sounded a dash weak - in particular, the toms had thud but not much else in terms of aural presence. I'm the first to concede this is as much to do with the technology of Abbey Road studios in 1973 as much as anything else, but other than that, "DSOTM" is still a masterpiece - as are all the albums mentioned above.

But here's the thing - very few of us nowadays can get our hands on the equipment which was used by those guys back then. I'm told that 48 track reel to reel master tapes are scarce as hen's teeth these days, and as such, the vast majority of us will most likely perform our recording's digitally.

And this, in particular, is what makes Mr Grohl so fascinating. Because he too, just like us, is a huge fan of classics as mentioned above, and because he too is widely regarded as being one of the few drummers around nowadays who can come close to people like John Bonham, he was really keen on building his own recording studio underneath his rambling forest home in Virginia - and this is where it gets interesting. He actually made a point of buying genuine 1970's recording gear to make his album on. He couldn't get the gear new, but he hunted down and bought the very same reel to reel that Fleetwood Mac recorded "Rumours" on. And I'm told he was very, very proud of this purchase. He bought all the mixing desks and auxiliary equipment from the same period too.

He then set about recording the Grammy winning album mentioned in my earlier post underneath his house! Just like most of us tend to do! Then, and this is where people like us should show a lot of interest, he took the master tapes to Los Angeles and had them mastered on the latest greatest gear that money could buy.

Accordingly, we have a record which was made by a true purist on top flight analog gear which was then mastered with the greatest in modern technology, and THAT is why the album is worth listening to as reference CD methinks.

I appreciate that musical tastes are all over the place and that one man's food is another man's poison - so I mentioned the classic albums I did earlier to demonstrate that I too have my finger on the pulse on regarding lovely classic sounds - but there can be no denying that it's very rare to hear such a mixture of the best of both the analog and digital worlds.

I for one, find the story quite interesting.

[crawdad]

Boo--I met a guy who did something very similar, but on a smaller scale. He went to a guy to buy gear for a studio and explained that he really liked certain records from the 70's. So the guy set him up with a 1" 8 track tape machine, some Brent Averill Neve pre's and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. Anyway, his recordings sound wonderful and they are all done in his home using this vintage style equipment. His name is Brandon Barnes and he has a record deal--but does his stuff at home.

[A1A2]

Boo Boo Foo: great story you got there. I now need to take my words back and take Mr. Grohl off my blackmail list

crawdad: sorry about the bashing earlier. I didn't know that he produces. I shouldn't have made any comment on someone I hardly knew.

Gotta pay more attention to his stuff now

AL

[Uladine]

Rammstein's Mutter is one of my favorites.

[crawdad]

A1A2--no offense taken at all. Just curious as to what everybody puts on the pedestal as being great recordings. I'm trying to understand the standards and aspire to equal them. That may be ludicrous on my part, but you have to know what the goal is, right?

[dr.colossus]

tom waites - mule variations
tommahawk - self titled

they may not be the highest fidelity (especially tom waites), but the engeneering is "personal"... hmmmmm



oh i forgot one....

white stripes - white blood cells

[octoruss]

Steely Dan: Jack of Speed
Basia: The Sweetest Illusion
Cyrus Chestnut

[c7sus]

Tony Rice- Native American

Counting Crows- Recovering the Satellites

Steely Dan- Two Against Nature

The Who-Quadrophenia

Beck- Midnight Vultures

You guys can actually read music?

[camn]

'crash' by the dave mathews band
'the score' by the fugees
'ten' by pearl jam.


xoox

[battleminnow]

Goo Goo Dolls :Anything on Dizzy Up the Girl that isn't sung by that punk a$$ bass player of theirs.

Pete

[geekgurl]

Pink Floyd -- Dark Side, the Wall
Steely Dan -- almost anything
Cowboy Junkies -- Open
Tori Amos -- Boys for Pele
Kate Bush -- Red Shoes
Dead Can Dance -- Into the Labyrinth
Santana -- Supernatural
Bruce Hornsby -- Harbor Lights
Miles Davis -- Doo Bop
Brand New Heavies -- Brother Sister

... and some other stuff that I can't pluck off the top of my head right now ... kinda depends on what I need a reference FOR ...

[tdukex]

Aja
Abbey Road
Dark Side of the Moon
No Fences
Anything by Harvey Reid

[strmkr]

"The Best of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra"
Stevie Wonder "Songs in the Key of Life"
John Fogarty "Blue Moon Swamp" (Bob Clearmountain mix)
"Aja"
"Revolver"
Earth,Wind and Fire "Best of,Volume 1"

[octoruss]

Is it any surprise that Steely Dan is the most common entry on this list?

[elevate]

Tool - Lateralus
Police - Synchronicity
various tracks off Journey Into The Ambient Groove - Phase 3
Peter Gabriel - Us & Passion