Vote here for the best mixed song ever!

  • Thread starter Thread starter revaudio
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anything recorded by Steely Dan. They are completely anal when it comes to recording, and their recordings always come out pristine and perfect.

The board where i work, a Neve, is the exact board that Steely Dan used to record one of their albums.
 
1. Pink Floyd The Wall
2. Steely Dan Aja
3. Spacehog The Hogyssey
4. Pink Floyd Dark Side
5. Spacehog The Chinese Album

Just my opinion
 
There are so many good recordings.To be sure, Aja is a classic masterpiece. Sonically, Donald Fagen's Nightfly is right up there with the best of them.
 
Savatage - The Wake Of Magellan

One of the best mixes I've ever heard. Cool part is they hit it dead on live too. Multi-part point/counter-point vocals are hellish to mix, but they got it right.
 
Yeah yeah....Aja is great. Everyone should check out the last two XTC lp's. Nothing short of immaculate ear candy.
 
Here are a few unusual ones :)

  • Goodbye Sober Day - Mr. Bungle (complex mix)
  • Take Five - Dave Brubeck (huge "live" sound)
  • Metropolis - Dream Theater (complex mix)
  • Mr. Nutbutter - Primus (particularly interesting cuz it was recorded on some Smackie mixers in someone's basement)
  • She's a Lady - Tom Jones (simple + elegant)
  • the whole Medulla album - Bjork (cohesive, even when it is deliberately dissonant or harsh-sounding -- there are parts that are delibterately mixed wrong, but they still work)
  • 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six - Tom Waits (incredible dynamics)
  • any Bach fugue by Glenn Gould (simple elegance, incredible dynamics, modern approach to splicing, and -- he's from TO :))
 
Zeppelin!!

Led Zeppelin 3!! Put it up against anything recent and it blows it away! Put it on a nice system and close your eyes and you're there. You can see them playing. The guitars are unmatched, drums incredible, it's 3D, the imaging is amazing!! They didn't have pro tools, 192Khz, or automation. Absolute proof that the single most important piece of equipment in this art is and always will be the human ear. Also, this volume/compression war is ruining recordings! That's my two cents. By the way I stayed at a holiday inn express last night.
 
The Steely Dan stuff, of course, and Dark Side of the Moon and EVERYTHING Bob Clearmountain ever mixed. :D
 
aren't the Foo Fighters rrecords very well mixed? i haven't heard them, but a lot of my friends who are engineers use their records as references. i also heard that Bob Ludwig mentioned that a particular Foo Fighters record was the best sounding mix he heard that year. but that's just hearsay.

me personally, when i'm recording someone, i ask them what they want the record to sound like, and i get that and reference it.
 
Rage against the machine for me is an excelent job, deftones (white pony) as a killer drum sound and wide voice mixing...listen to the 3 reverbs used on the snare on digital bath...just to beautiful to be true!Terry Date, you are the man! Sevendust (seasons and animosity)great prodution. Porcupine tree (In Absentia) Anothe killer drum sound and listend to the guitar-power, defenition, and recorded with a 1*12 valve Bad Cat.Great pan, excelent voice efects.
 
Frank Zappa Hot Rats
I can listen to Peaches En Regalia all day long and not get sick of it.
 
Deftones, White Pony
Yes, Close to the edge
Yes, Relayer
Beverly Craven, Promise me
Frank Sinatra, It was a very good year.

Note: Frank Sinatra's 'It was a very good year' was recorded on april 22 1965 by Bill Putnam Sr and was mixed before it got on tape I suppose, iow it was recorded to a 2 track at once.

More about Bill: http://www.uaudio.com/company/history/bill_sr.html
 
Cosmic said:
Pink Floyd 'The Wall' (especially the Mobile Fidelity CD set.) A master class in itself in Huge Analog Sound. Great transparency, monstrous dynamics, mastered just right. Tape hiss, yes; does it matter, no, the tape machines were used to the full limit of dynamics.

CC
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"One More Brick in The Wall" is my reference point for a good sounding recording.
 
Haha! I was just looking for this thread and then someone resurrected it! Crazy world!

Anyway, I was just wondering how it went and what you used for your class.

revaudio said:
Thanks for all the ideas so far. I'll let everyone know what I end up using for my class.

Jason
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You never did! :mad:
 
Los Lobos' "This Time" CD
Dr. Octogon's CD (finally some hip-hop)
Fishbone's "Give a Monkey a Brain..."
 
Mr. Bungle - California
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Mark Lanegan - Field Songs
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Morphine - Cure for Pain
 
My class

Scottgman said:
Haha! I was just looking for this thread and then someone resurrected it! Crazy world!

Anyway, I was just wondering how it went and what you used for your class.




You never did! :mad:
Click to expand...

In reply - I ended up having to really strip down how much time I was going to spend on mixing and what to focus on. It was an intro class to music theatre students covering all the basics in one semester. So I decided the one lesson they needed to learn was how to sit the vocal in the mix (the downfall of most beginning recording - and some advanced ones!). So I had time basically for one song to play for them. I decided it needed to be something complex because laying a vocal onto a piano track in no great feat. I really appreciated all the great suggestions and I ended up using a U2 track "Beautiful Day" because of the way bono's voice cuts through - you can hear every word - over a very complex background - and not just because the volume on his vocal is cranked. It led into teaching about the importance of EQ and finding space to paint in the sonic canvas!

Thanks for the input - Many recordings that were a little before my time and so I've begun to check out the ones I was less familiar with. Thanks again!

Jason
 
Marciano said:
Rage against the machine for me is an excelent job, deftones (white pony) as a killer drum sound and wide voice mixing...listen to the 3 reverbs used on the snare on digital bath...just to beautiful to be true!Terry Date, you are the man! Sevendust (seasons and animosity)great prodution. Porcupine tree (In Absentia) Anothe killer drum sound and listend to the guitar-power, defenition, and recorded with a 1*12 valve Bad Cat.Great pan, excelent voice efects.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure that Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree used the Hot Cat amp on that record. I believe he used many amps on that album. On the In Absentia tour though he used only the 1x12 Hot Cat.

Here's an interesting article on recording the In Absentia album (which is an awsome album BTW):

http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_porcupine_tree/
 
Nearly any track on the Nik Kershaw CD "The Riddle".
(just try to find a copy) Peter Collns producer. (no, not Phil).

Don Quixote
The Riddle
Wide Boy
Know How
City of Angels (EU version)

The secret for me in a great mix is in the lower mids.
If those are well handled you are on your way to success with the master.

Also, let's not fool ourselves by spreading everything out in stereo unitil it's clean. That's OK in the phones, and in the sweet spot, but step back...ooops.

So here's the test? Pan all your tracks at 12 noon and give a listen.
Pass? If not, tweak, then re-pan. A great mix holds up under the "mono test".

OK, ...that's all you get for free! :p

Oh, and here's a stretch for all you kids... "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite". Sgt. Pepper. If any of you guys can paint a better picture with a mix using only four tracks you let me know... Thank you Sir George Martin for all those lessons of less is more...

Still studying that...

PS - I agree with all those in favor of SD's album "AJA"... also hard to beat.
 
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