Smithers XKR
Well-known member
Yes and Supertramp, now yer talking !
Can I add .... Genesis ... Trick of the tail? Still sounds so pure and the nicest analogue recorded Genesis album to my ears 
What's your favourite1970's studio analogue Production?
- Thread starter Smithers XKR
- Start date
Yes and Supertramp, now yer talking !
Can I add .... Genesis ... Trick of the tail? Still sounds so pure and the nicest analogue recorded Genesis album to my ears I have it on vinyl and CD. Should get it on a factory cassette too...... just to piss people off.
Smithers XKR
Well-known member
I have the factory cassette. Stored it away with original Journey and other tapes for years. I cleaned and demagedd my Technics deck. I thought the tapes would be toast but they sound great after all this time! No wow or flutter or drop outs, happy days!I have it on vinyl and CD. Should get it on a factory cassette too...... just to piss people off.
rob aylestone
Moderator
Looking at the list, Supertramp was probably my favourite so far, I’d add Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
looking louder, Status Quo, Piledriver. Just sounds kind of ‘real’ and raw,
looking louder, Status Quo, Piledriver. Just sounds kind of ‘real’ and raw,
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
By 1973, that was old hat.That might have been the first use of sampling as we know it, albeit in a primitive sense. On Money they recorded an old cash machine opening and closing then sliced the section of tape and somehow looped it
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Could well be true, but originally, it was only slated for Japanese release.
In '79, when I was 16, I went through a quantum leap in my musical tastes and this was one of the albums that I was listening to that was part of that changing of my musical headspace.
But it's the only one that I never actually really liked. Pink Floyd, the Stones, Deep Purple, Hendrix, Poco, Creedence, Melanie....they were all fabulous and all that stuff I'm still listening to today. But Supertramp for some reason, never cut it with me. I liked "Goodbye Mary" and I adored "Take the long way home." In fact to this day, I still love and listen to "Take the long way home."
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I have a strange head in this regard. Because, production-wise, I don't have any favourites. If I love the song or album, then I could care less about the production, unless it really stinks and is terrible ~ and nothing is. Well, there are a couple of Christian rock albums that were vanity projects that aren't all that, but they're such an exception and in one case, the songs are so wonderful that the poor production is forgivable. And it's not so poor as to be unlistenable.
There's actually a tremendous variety in the recorded sounds of the 60s and 70s. Jimmy Page inspired me in terms of production {ie, being a member of the band and doing the producing}, but I don't highly rate any of Led Zeppelin's albums from a purely production point of view. But I love every one of their original run of albums except the live one and "Coda".....
My ears just acclimatize to what I'm hearing if I like it.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Smithers XKR
Well-known member
I get it. All Zep albums were fairly raw and Page and JPJ always wished it be that way and retain a live feel. It was never meant to sound like Steely Dan!
(whom I absolutely love aswell ).While we are on the subject of christian and gospel music I will send two versions of my favourite Todd song.
Both are wonderful but different.... the no. 1 hit of Dan and Coley is so arranged and polished instrumentally and vocally and production wise. The other is a little stripped bare and simple.
Love both versions.. but just decided... gonna go with the original Utopia.... only by a small margin
Great chatting with you Grim,
Take care and KR's
Smithers
Gtoboy
Well-known member
Breakfast in America is really well recorded but I don't care for the songs either. We used to sing "take the Wrong way home" when it came on the radio whilst driving around half stoned. I like both Crisis, What Crisis? and Even in The Quietest Moments.
Genesis was mostly too compressed on vinyl. To my ears anyway. Still like em. Just don't consider them great recordings.
Elton John's Caribou and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are well done. Come to think of it so is Madman Across the Water.
Pinky
and The Brain...
I'm a big Yes fan, but their earlier recordings through Relayer all had glaring production issues. Have you heard the Steven Wilson remixes (and surround mixes)? He really cleaned things up, in particular the easily audible tape hiss anytime the music came down to near the noise floor. But there is/was also a lot of clarity missing in those recordings that modern tools, probably with very little effort on his part, was able to bring out.
My favorite recordings of the 70s would be the run of Steely Dan records (through Gaucho, which I think is technically early 80s). Gerry Rafferty (mention by the OP) immediately came to mind as well, just a very well balanced recording and a reminder that more isn't always more.
Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" is also a stellar pop recording. Dark Side of the Moon has always sounded good to my ears, and the remixes in the past 20 years have only improved on it, even though only slightly because it didn't need much attention.
The 70s was a sweet spot where analog was matured to the point it sounded amazing in the hands of the right engineers, and an era when musicians needed to be able to play to get on a record.
TalismanRich
Well-known member
Pinky, I haven't heard any of the Yes remixes. I've got original LPs, early CD releases of some Yes albums, and even an 8 track of Close to the Edge. Certainly with the currently available tools, things can be reworked and cleaned up. Just look at the reworked Beatles releases! The technology is at the point that you can isolate Ringo's drumming from a mix that might be 3 generations deep with the the mixing/dubbing techniques that they had in the 60s. The trick is to capture the original the feeling and balance of those old recordings. Sometimes it works for the better, sometimes it loses something in the translation. I've heard a few remixes of songs that just screwed up the original. They bump up the kick a bit and add some low end thump to give it a "modern sound".
I liken it to the colorization of old black and white movies and TV shows. Is I Love Lucy better because it's now in color? Maybe. Does it make a difference if Lucy is wearing a orange polka dot dress instead of a red one? Probably not, since you didn't know the original color. But what if they started changing the colors of color films because they think an orange dress looks better, more modern? Would you prefer that? I'm guessing you would hear an uproar from the purists. I remember the uproar when Lucas put a CGI generated Jabba The Hutt into rereleases of Star Wars.
I agree that the 70s-80s era is a high water mark for rock recording. Musicianship was strong, and artists finally had more control of the tools and used them creatively. The tools had progressed immensely from the 50s-60s in quality and capability. This was never more in evidence than people like Jimi Hendrix building Electric Lady studios, the establishment of places like Sound City, AIR and Trident studios.
Digital didn't take away the creativity. The Brothers In Arms could have been done on 24 track analog tape had Knopfler wanted to, but he wanted the extra capability that he felt going digital afforded. It ended up winning a grammy for best engineered album.
A big portion of my record collection is from the 70s. In the end, for me it's the music, not the technology that's important.
I liken it to the colorization of old black and white movies and TV shows. Is I Love Lucy better because it's now in color? Maybe. Does it make a difference if Lucy is wearing a orange polka dot dress instead of a red one? Probably not, since you didn't know the original color. But what if they started changing the colors of color films because they think an orange dress looks better, more modern? Would you prefer that? I'm guessing you would hear an uproar from the purists. I remember the uproar when Lucas put a CGI generated Jabba The Hutt into rereleases of Star Wars.
I agree that the 70s-80s era is a high water mark for rock recording. Musicianship was strong, and artists finally had more control of the tools and used them creatively. The tools had progressed immensely from the 50s-60s in quality and capability. This was never more in evidence than people like Jimi Hendrix building Electric Lady studios, the establishment of places like Sound City, AIR and Trident studios.
Digital didn't take away the creativity. The Brothers In Arms could have been done on 24 track analog tape had Knopfler wanted to, but he wanted the extra capability that he felt going digital afforded. It ended up winning a grammy for best engineered album.
A big portion of my record collection is from the 70s. In the end, for me it's the music, not the technology that's important.
Pinky
and The Brain...
Unfortunately the two can't be just pulled apart and differentiated, to enjoy one requires the other and vice versa. You should check out the Wilson remixes, he's also done some ELP, King Crimson, and Tull. He's got a real knack for making them sound pristine like they're 'modern' recordings without taking away any of the original's vibe and impact. Tull's "Aqualung" might be the most improved album in history with Wilson's remix.
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grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I refuse to listen to them. I'm such a Luddite !
I remember when the Anthology recordings came out in the mid-90s. I listened to them out of curiosity but even at that point, I'd had the regular versions insinuated into my consciousness for 20 years. Yet, I'm something of a contradiction because a few years back, I converted the Beatle stereo recordings to mono in Audacity and they sound great.
But some of my Beatle albums were mono anyway.
I have an almost allergic reaction to the attempt to revise history and make things "then" into "now."
Unless the "old" that I'm hearing, I'm hearing for the first time and don't know any different.
I can't stand it.
Of course, I reach something of an impasse when I'm watching something that was made in colour but which I originally saw in B&W because back in the day, I had a B&W TV. But I haven't had one since 1983 so it's kind of moot !
It's not only Jabba. I think he loused up quite a bit of the original trilogy with CGI. Especially given that their special effects in the first two of the trilogy were so revolutionary. The moon landing conspiracies gained in momentum after it was seen just how realistic the space scenes and planets were in the original "Star Wars" films.
I think it was the high water mark, not because things didn't progress even further in the 90s and beyond, but because so many new genres and subgenres came into being or evolved out of what was going on in the 60s and therefore, new ways of recording music. And digital was beginning to encroach as more than just an idea.
They had to. They couldn't not.
I agree. It enhanced it and at the same time, made laziness easier.
I agree with that too, although I think that the two go hand in hand. Some artists that were plying their trade in the 70s and beyond simply wouldn't have sounded the same if they had been recorded strictly with 50s tools.
I bought the ZZ Top Tres Hombres record when it was released. I listened to that vinyl over and over again.
Later in an effort to ‘save’ my album and not wear it out I bought a 90s CD.
Every time I put it in and played it, I detected something was wrong. It just didn’t sound right. It bothered me.
So one day, I compared side by side the original vinyl and the CD.
The CD version had massive amounts of reverb whereas the record was quite dry.
No mention of ‘remastered’ or ‘remixed’ in the CD packaging.
Felt kind of cheated. I didn’t want a whole new ‘modernized’ version. I just wanted to be able to play one of my favorite albums without wearing it out.
Later in an effort to ‘save’ my album and not wear it out I bought a 90s CD.
Every time I put it in and played it, I detected something was wrong. It just didn’t sound right. It bothered me.
So one day, I compared side by side the original vinyl and the CD.
The CD version had massive amounts of reverb whereas the record was quite dry.
No mention of ‘remastered’ or ‘remixed’ in the CD packaging.
Felt kind of cheated. I didn’t want a whole new ‘modernized’ version. I just wanted to be able to play one of my favorite albums without wearing it out.