Best Sounding Album of all time

Tim Walker

Tim Walker

New member
In your opinion what is the best sounding album of all time......

Two rules:

pick only one,
and
not necessiarly your favorite album musically, but recording wise (engineering & mastering, etc.)


Also describe why you think this is the best sounding album of all time.

I'll get back to you on my pick!

tim
 
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

While the songs themselves tend to get a little lost in the grand concept of the album, that actual production is top-notch. It seemed like it would be a hard thing with multiple layers of synths, electronic AND acoustic drums, distorted guitars, vocals, etc, but everything shines through without covering up another instrument. The dynamics were really well thought out too. The soft songs are just as rich as the loud, pulling more into the album rather than just listening to it.

Excellent use of panning placement, reverbs, hell, just an amazing sounding album.
 
"Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges/Back to Back"

Clean, sexy and dynamic.

Check particulary the occasional line doubling of Hodge's saxaphone and "Sweets" Edison's trumpet - which was recorded live in-studio and not via time-delay multitracking - and be amazed not only at how great they sound but how great they share the sonic space with no clashing whatsoever.

And when you find out these sessions were recorded in February of 1959, you'll pick your jaw up off the floor and want to throw your project studio out the window because your state-of-the-art multitracked, digitally-edited, computer processed recordings can't even compare in quality to the incredible warmth and power of this 46-yr-old masterpiece. :)

Oh yeah, the music is even getter than the recording ;)

G.
 
I would have to say Yanni Live at the Acropolis. Super clean and clear, you can hear ever instrument, and the performance is top notch. The stereo spread is great also.

"can't even compare in quality to the incredible warmth and power of this 46-yr-old masterpiece." How true..........those musicians and engineers really knew how to work their equipment.
 
Smurf said:
I would have to say Yanni Live at the Acropolis. Super clean and clear, you can hear ever instrument, and the performance is top notch. The stereo spread is great also.

"can't even compare in quality to the incredible warmth and power of this 46-yr-old masterpiece." How true..........those musicians and engineers really knew how to work their equipment.
Click to expand...

That may be a great recording but I will never hear it.

Because Yanni ....... ewwwwwwwwwww!

All I can think of is Yes 90125 or Dark Side of the Moon.

Maybe Steely Dan stuff as well.
 
I thought Peter Gabriel's last record sounded pretty killer.

From an artistic standpoint, I didn't like all of the songs, but it certainly didn't suck by any means.

Some very well-recorded and engineered stuff, though. Most of his stuff is. He's just a perfectionist like that, and I can't imagine him accepting anything second-rate out of his producers and engineers, who happen to be some of the finest around.
 
Mark Linett's stereo remix of Pet Sounds. Opened up entire new dimensions from the mono version and sounds fantastic.
 
Lauryn Hill "The Miseducation of..."

Big Step for Hip Hop...

Live Instrumentation..."Billy Joel" esque chorusing...(singing the harmonies via seperate tracks :D) Tight production and mixing...
 
firby said:
Because Yanni ....... ewwwwwwwwwww!

Maybe Steely Dan stuff as well.
Click to expand...

LOL...I know, but the start of the thread said it didn't have to be a favorite. I just think it is a well produced and engineered CD.

And I 2nd SD..................
 
Is Abbey Road considered toady to still be of really high recorded quality? Or was it just good for its day? I mean, does it match up with great contemporary recordings, with all the advances in equipment?
 
Monkey Allen said:
Is Abbey Road considered toady to still be of really high recorded quality? Or was it just good for its day? I mean, does it match up with great contemporary recordings, with all the advances in equipment?
Click to expand...
I think that question is somewhat academic. It's like asking if today's New York Yankees are better atheletes than the Yankees of DiMaggio, Mantle and Ruth's day. It's not a fair question because the playing fields (figuratively, if not literally) are not the same.

However, Alan Parsons, who was an engineer on Abby Road, is one of the great engineers of the last 30 years, no question. He also had a hand in Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." You'd be OK to pick Abbey Road. I had both that and Parsons' own "Turn of a Friendly Card" as finalists in my decision.

G.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top