JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum What is your favorite sounding record, all time.

There's a point to this.

My entry is a tie.
1a. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon.
1b. Cowboy Junkies:The Trinity Session

This is NOT about your favorite album or songs. Its about the records you dig the sound of. In other words, who made the best use of a studio?

I'm getting more into video now so I'd have to make a blanket call on Sony Pictures Harrison console. It just blends a mono/stereo/surround sound into a singular cohesive audio landscape. It's why I've started to use Harrison Mixbus as a final mixdown choice.

Sgt. Pepper....

Barry, did you happen to catch the PBS doc on Sgt Pepper's last week?

YES and it was Fantastic.
That album to me was like an Acid Trip of what was Possible.
The Beatles had No Limits on their songwriting and recording.
Just Amazing.....

In terms of sound quality, recent albums by Mark Knopfler (Sailing to Philadelphia) or Lucinda Williams (Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone) have perfect tone. Sergeant Pepper is amazing considering what they had to work with in those days (cutting up tape and re-recording tracks from one machine to another) but it doesn't sound nearly as good as it would if they were to do it today.

And that brings me to my point Colin.Sgt Pepper's would sound better if recorded today? It was re-recorded using the original equipment and current (then) bands . The problem was, particularly with the Kaiser Chiefs, bands had trouble playing their way through an entire song. Being used to editing and copying entire sections have led us to an inevitable conclusion....incompetent musicians. Part 2 is that advances in technology haven't led to better music. Almost everyone will answer the question by citing older albums. No bits, no mhtzs. Just warm tape. Protools never wrote a better song. The best examples of recorded music fall into the tape category. It's inevitable that digital will rule but not all progress is forward.

"Almost everyone will answer the question by citing older albums" because you're asking a bunch of older people! Today's good musicians are just as competent as they were back in the day however the good ones don't necessarily get heard. The internet has no filter and success is determined by "popularity", not quality (although sometimes they go hand in hand).

Well, You are asking a question that has a million answers! A few off of my head that you can Google.
A WALK IN THE BLACK FOREST Horst Jankowski.
SAIL ALONG SILVERY MOON Billy Vaughn
GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY Vaughn Monroe
RELEASE ME Ray Price etc, etc,etc/

Ty Ray.

I would suggest that anyone disagreeing with my point go look at modern recording ads. They promote 1 of 2 things. Either they promote sounding like tape or they promote "workflow". What the hell does workflow have to do with better music? Better yet, go over to tape op message board and read what engineers say.

If you ask a bunch of ordinary 30ish people what they think of Sergeant Pepper, you will get a blank stare from most of them and the occasional "Oh my grandfather had that when I was in grade school". Yes, there are people marketing plug-ins that allegedly make it sound like tape but it's just marketing.

Best studio recording of all time (with a "vibe") = Elvis Presley (first release on RCA in 1956)
Best live recording of all time = "Overtime" by Lee Ritenour in 2004

I've never been much for records that attempt to have a "sound" to be honest. I like it better when the technical aspects gets out of the way. I think there are lots of records I like, but have more to do with the artists and the material and the timeperiod, not the engineering and the production.

Runner up fr me is Elvis' album from 76, where he recorded in the Jungleroom, and RCA sent a bus to do it. It has a great vibe to me. Basically a record done at home, which I guess was innovative at the time too.

A clean studio album sound could be Sting's "10 Summoners Tale" from the late 90'ies, but I can't say I like the crystal clear sound. It's more like the material could have been presented better if the record have had more of a "vibe".

A lot of the vibe in old records was due to limitations from the gear, I think. Today there aren't many limits, and everything is possible, so it is possible now to get out of the way more, which basically means that "sound" becomes less important, imo.

Or maybe sound in the records pre-2000 was more a historical or cultural thing, where now it is a technical creative thing you can "apply" to taste.

Probably "Jungleland" by Springsteen. So atmospheric.

YES...Epic Song and Epic Production..

Steely Dan: Aja
SEAL: second album (1994)
Eagles: Hotel California
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (as old as this is, it still holds up!)

Peter Gabriel - So

Boston. The first album.

Wait, did I say album? I mean CD, no I mean.......

Herbie Mann..Push" Push"

Neil Young...Harvest"

I love Ohio From Neil Young.....Such a cool sounding song.

"And Your Bird Can Sing" (The Beatles).

If just the guitars, that would still have been enough to have this track taste and feel GREAT! Tastes like Rich Dark Sweetened Chocolate with Peanut Butter mixed in, and with an added "touch" of Sea Salt!

Yum! I love the Sound and Flavor of that song!

If judging by sound, I'll go with anything Peter Gabriel...
shock the monkey, sledgehammer, red rain, big time.

U2 was about the sound, Radio Head too

For that matter, anything Foo Fighters....
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y

Or monkey wrench
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I7rCNiiNPxA

Or all their songs

The grays "ro sham bo"
level 42 "world machine"
xtc "black sea"
beatles "sgt. pepper"

Vinyl, Supertramp "Long way home" or Rush "Moving pictures".
CD or current "Sound", NiN or Nickelback.