Who's your favorite engineer? Producer? Mastering Engineer?

nbiehl said:
to me personally the cooking/music comparison is really appropriate lately. If the recording is a dish, musicians and songs are the ingredients and tech guys are the cooks. A great cook can create a great meal with poor ingredients and a poor cook can ruin great ingredients.
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Well... I'm going to disagree with that analogy.

Someone would have to really suck -- and I mean suck hard -- as an engineer to so ruin an excellent musical performance as to make it unlistenable.

Whereas the special someone who can polish a turd (i.e., produce/engineer a lousy musical performance) so throughly as to make it a pleasure to listen to is a complete myth. Does. Not. Exist.
 
LeeRosario said:
Ron "Saint" Germain
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I would never buy an album based on who engineered or produced it...but I have on 3 or 4 occasions bought an album, listened to it, thought to myself "wow, the engineering/audio production on this album is awesome!", checked the credits, and discovered that sure enough it was Ron St. Germaine.
 
ethan johns: ryan adams, Kings of Leon
chriss goss: kyuss, slo burn, Qotsa

Especially Ryan Adams' 29 album blows me away..
 
Let's see, in my grandmother's chest...I choose mshilarious today!
Hands down I've learned more from his teachings here than anyone :)

Second goes only to Ethan of course!
 
Bob Ross said:
I would never buy an album based on who engineered or produced it...but I have on 3 or 4 occasions bought an album, listened to it, thought to myself "wow, the engineering/audio production on this album is awesome!", checked the credits, and discovered that sure enough it was Ron St. Germaine.
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avid New Yorker too....most pictures he's in, has to have the NYC cap :D. He's actually on myspace now...his gear list...well, you be the judge :D

http://www.myspace.com/rsaintg
 
Steve Albini is my favorite. I want to be like him one day! Yes, even the asshole part.

Everything in his mixes to me seem to have this awesome space between instruments. You can hear everything just so clearly. Even when it's the ugliest sounding tones, he makes them sound awesome in the mix.
 
I don't have life-long favorites (as in "producers/engineers whose records I buy blindly), but I do take note when something really rocks--or sucks.

Interestingly enough, I can answer the question right now with what's in my car CD player.

Like: Mutt Lange. Why? AC/DC Back in Black. I've always loved the song "You Shook Me All Night Long" but as a guitarist I loved it for the guitar line. After hearing the CD (instead of the crappy compressed FM rock stations), I was blown away by the whole recording.

Do this: buy the CD. Go ahead. Right now. Put it in your car's CD player (if you've got a decent rig in your car). Crank it up till it hurts a little bit. FF to track seven (though it's evident on the whole CD). The drums are just incredible to me. Huge, loud, right in my face, but clean and crystal clear. Same with the guits.

As soon as I'm done with my current project (drums are already tracked), I'm getting my session drummer back in the studio and not letting him out until I can track drums that sound that good. (Not sound the same necessarily, but that good.)

Even for non AC/DC type material, this sound exemplifies my goals in recording: huge, energetic, raw, clean, clear. I can't wait for the drive to work tomorrow!

Don't Like: whatever buttwipe "re-mastered" the REO Speedwagon tunes for a compilation called "Hits." Picked it up to fill in some holes on my classic rock playlist, and it sucks. The bass guitar is non-existent, and the drums sound like plastic blocks--especially the snare.
 
Bob Ross said:
Someone would have to really suck -- and I mean suck hard -- as an engineer to so ruin an excellent musical performance as to make it unlistenable.
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I think you have a point. Some songs on the recording I referenced in that post are close to un-listenable to me, but not all the "ingredients" are there. The singer is top notch, and his guitar playing is wonderful, but the "backup band" they layered behind that core is just not good, and everything sounds like it was recorded through a lavaliere in a bunker. It's just disappointing.

SouthSIDE Glen said:
Are they specifically answering the OP question? Not necessarily, but taken as a collective, this thread should give the OP plenty of folks and productions stuff to research and (hopefully) enjoy.
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As the OP, I'm thrilled with this thread.
 
Incidentally, I DID buy an album last week, in part, because it was recorded at Mark Never's Beech House studio, and I'm thrilled with it. I also enjoy the artist (Andrew Bird) so I bought it in part because I knew I'd like the music, but I REALLY wanted to hear how Mark handled Andrew's songwriting.

Through headphones parts of it made my stomach feel like I was on a roller coaster.
 
I've bought albums by MUTT LANGE simply because he produced it. His work spans different genres... and I've bought it all because of him. Everything from Billy Ocean, to Bryan Adams, Shania, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Cityboy, Romeo's Daughter, Nickleback. Even when he just wrote a song on the release (Heart, some country bands, etc.). I remember being SO disappointed when AC/DC came out with FLICK OF THE SWITCH... produced by themselves... and it lost ALL of the power Mutt brought to HIGHWAY TO HELL, BACK IN BLACK, and FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK.

I've also bought albums from Mike Shipley, simply because I knew they would be good.

I've also bought albums by David Foster because he produced them. Still do, from time to time.

I've bought albums by Keith Forsey, who in his heyday in the 80s... I felt did really great work. I wasn't too impressed with what I think may be his most recent work... that of Billy Idol's DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND. I felt this album didn't have Keith's sound on it.

In the late 80s to mid 90s, I used to buy almost everything Peter Collins produced. Gary Moore, Rush, Queensryche... I loved the 'sheen' he brought to the work. Especially when working with Jimbo Barton.

In the 80s, I would buy everything Giorgio Moroder did.

These guys have a 'sound' that they bring to the artists. They do not produce the artist to sound like 'the artist'. I just happen to love the way they create their work. This may be bullshit to others...purists who want to hear what the band sounds like on their own... but in the case of these dudes... it's what I like. I almost consider it a 'standard'... their work elevates the 'standard' of the release to a point where I know I will like it.

It's the same thing with directors. I'll see anything by Ridley Scott, for example.

In comics... I buy based on the artists or writers I like for the same reasons. Because I know I'll get a quality release.
 
Dang it, someone already beat me to it.

Mutt Lange. Precisely because he did "Highway to Hell." And it is so different than what he did some years later for Def Leppard. With DL, he had slappy drums in a big room, fuzzy bass, and layered vocals for Joe Elliot.

With HtH, it had such an immediate crunch to it. Angus was two-stepping right on your head. And Bon's whiskey voice was right in your face.

"Living easy, loving free. Season ticket on a one-way ride."

Amen, brother.
 
Steenamaroo said:
...and only just. :facepalm:

Welcome to HR. :)
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Thanks. I am not a producer or recording guru. I am a singer and guitar player trying to record myself at home with hit or miss results. Another book I was reading mentioned this website and I thought I would have a look.

Anyway, so, yeah, like the other guy mentioned AC/DC's "Flick of the Switch" tanked kind of hard and I might agree that it is because Mutt was not producing. I remember correctly, Mutt did produce "Back in Black," their biggest selling album and one of the biggest selling rock albums of all time, even competing with Guns and Roses "Appetite for Destruction" for total units sold. I read histories and memoirs but I cannot remember why they chose to self-produce FotS except that the Young brothers do like to control things. For a while, they would not let Brian write any lyrics. Most of the songs during that era were written soley by Malcolm.

Here is the problem with self-production, which I hope we can overcome, somewhat. And I know this especially as a singer. A singer cannot hear himself as others hear him. Not just because of bone conduction in the body. But mentally. Even in recording playback, it is nigh unto impossible to be objective. Same, sometimes, with a band self-producing, with one exception, Jimmy Page. With the exception of Led Zeppelin I, Jimmy took over ever increasing production duties on the albums, with good results, I think. Houses of the Holy is such a finer production than the first album, partly due to technology and certainly due to having a good ear.

Because that is what makes a good producer. I honestly believe that and not just because I have read it. A good producer has ears, not millions of dollars in gear. I have good sounding recordings with a guitar that I bought at a flea market for $40 in Kleburg, Texas (east and a little south of Dallas.) So, just as a decent guitar player can make a cheap guitar sound good, a producer can make something good with limited time and equipment.

Talent to play and sing well is not the same talent as listening to it and balancing it. It really is a skill. As is mastering. Which a person can learn all of this but having fresh ears help.
 
ronws said:
Thanks.
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Heh, I'm not sure if you got the joke. This thread's dead man.
Well, technically it's not now, but the last post before yours was 2009. :)

It's not a big deal, but maybe something to look out for.

I will take up your point, though, because I half agree.
Personally, I am happy judging my own performances and I think I'm just as critical as anyone else would be.
I know I'm not a top quality singer, but I know when I've done something they way I meant to, and I know when I've borked it.
There are a good few others around here who are just like that.

On the other hand there are definitely people out there who can sing and can sing well, but do need someone over their shoulder to be objective and point things out to them.

I've come across it plenty of times.
I guess it's just one of those things...
 
Brendan O'Brien tends to make a really good job of stuff. Done loads of stuff with bands I like. Pearl Jam Ten sounded really dated and was improved a lot when he remixed it.

Don't think I ever listen to stuff and think "ooo, I really like the production values" but sometimes noticing that a producer who's done loads of stuff that you like is working on an album by someone will at least make you want to give it a listen.

Also like Matt Johnson, watched film once cos I heard he did the soundtrack.

David Briggs cos he's a knob who keeps it simple and Steve Albini too.

Butch Vig obviously and lesser known guys like Steve Fisk and JG Thirwell
 
What is this?

Are we on "Candid Frickin' Camera"? :eek:

Listen, my favorite producer is GregL.

Now close this mothefucker. :(
 
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