What are some of the most "poorly engineered" albu

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:19 pm

AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.

haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:02 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!

Phew...

For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.

AnalogousGumdropDecoder · Post by **AnalogousGumdropDecoder** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:01 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!

It's been done. Have you ever listened to Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On on CD? What HAPPENED to "Closing My Eyes?"

EDIT: I'm pretty sure there are some Husker Du CD mastering jobs that would fall simultanously into those categories as well.

EDIT EDIT: I still stand firmly by Husker Du's sound on vinyl. It's unconventional, but it WORKS.

AnalogousGumdropDecoder · Post by **AnalogousGumdropDecoder** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:12 pm

Jitters wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!
Phew...

For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.

I am in no way defending current mastering trends over... uhm... any other mastering trends, but I've heard some good sounding semi-recent Japanese discs and a LOT of weird sounding CDs from the 80s.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:27 am

AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:
Jitters wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!
Phew...

For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.
I am in no way defending current mastering trends over... uhm... any other mastering trends, but I've heard some good sounding semi-recent Japanese discs and a LOT of weird sounding CDs from the 80s.

Haha, no, I was referring to a project I sent him to master. One that probably falls in the 'poorly engineered' category.

AnalogousGumdropDecoder · Post by **AnalogousGumdropDecoder** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:38 pm

Jitters wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:
Jitters wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!
Phew...

For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.
I am in no way defending current mastering trends over... uhm... any other mastering trends, but I've heard some good sounding semi-recent Japanese discs and a LOT of weird sounding CDs from the 80s.
Haha, no, I was referring to a project I sent him to master. One that probably falls in the 'poorly engineered' category.

Ha! Ok. I'd rather be poorly engineered and artistically unimpeded any day. I just finished listening to Electric Ladyland and there's a very stern eyebrow/forehead squinching going on about some things I recall reading on this board (perhaps in this very thread) about Eddie Kramer's engineering on it. It is very hard for me to imagine someone listening to this record and not thinking it sounds cool as hell. Saying Eddie Kramer is a poor enineer is akin (though not identical) to saying Neil Young is a poor guitarist. It might be sort of true on some planet, but not one I'd ever want to live on.

P.S. You can't really blame him for KISS not sounding very good.

mechanicalmastering · Post by **mechanicalmastering** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:39 am

Long live this amazingly bittersweet thread. I'm going to add one of my all-time favorite records to the list: The Cocteau Twin's "Milk And Kisses". The music and songwriting is nothing short of spectacular, (this is what I pray the future of music will sound like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyLhtPhPEWU ), but thanks to the new, cutting edge technology of ADAT that became popular during the period in which it was recorded, the fate of this amazing masterpiece would forever be defiled with brittle, spiky sounds that are sharp and unattractive. Super sad.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:56 am

Sean Sullivan wrote:I'm too afraid to make any suggestions because the engineers or producers might read this thread

Get over that. If they didn't want anyone to have a reaction to the records they make, they shouldn't be making them.

Forgive me, I haven't through all 11 pages of this thread. Has anyone mentioned those shitty sounding SST recordings from the late 80's/early 90's?

AnalogousGumdropDecoder · Post by **AnalogousGumdropDecoder** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:41 pm

@?,*???&? wrote:
Sean Sullivan wrote:I'm too afraid to make any suggestions because the engineers or producers might read this thread
Get over that. If they didn't want anyone to have a reaction to the records they make, they shouldn't be making them.

Forgive me, I haven't through all 11 pages of this thread. Has anyone mentioned those shitty sounding SST recordings from the late 80's/early 90's?

Husker Du keeps coming up, and I keep insisting that those albums sound AMAZING on vinyl. I'm probably the only person who believes this.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:57 am

the vinyl of 'zen arcade' must sound awfully different from the cd i have here but i'll take your word for it!

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:23 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:the vinyl of 'zen arcade' must sound awfully different from the cd i have here but i'll take your word for it!

I haven't heard the vinyl, but I suppose it's possible the CDs were made with the "vinyl" EQ curve still applied. I have an REO CD that's like that. One has to crank the bass knob all the way up on the stereo for it to sound even vaguely normal. Fortunately I have the vinyl of that album as well...

AnalogousGumdropDecoder · Post by **AnalogousGumdropDecoder** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:00 pm

dwlb wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:the vinyl of 'zen arcade' must sound awfully different from the cd i have here but i'll take your word for it!
I haven't heard the vinyl, but I suppose it's possible the CDs were made with the "vinyl" EQ curve still applied. I have an REO CD that's like that. One has to crank the bass knob all the way up on the stereo for it to sound even vaguely normal. Fortunately I have the vinyl of that album as well...

It's hard to explain. The sound on Husker Du records is probably never what most would call "good engineering" - partly due to budget and time restraints. However there also seems to be a conscious production choice at play that didn't quite translate to CD back in the 80s (and of course none of it has been remastered). Consider that their major label albums also sound weird. Hell, some of Mould's solo/Sugar stuff sounds weird.

On CD the albums sound kind of shrill and thin, but I suspect that they were produced/mixed with the intention that they be played on vinyl at high volume. If you crank up Zen Arcade on LP, what you get is still very "sharp" and "edgy" sounding, but it isn't weak or cold (and it doesn't exhaust your ears). It's more like a focused rush of sound. It's still trebly and abrasive and there isn't a lot of separation, but it sounds coherent. It sounds more warm and natural in comparison to the CDs, the way early Cocteau Twins does on vinyl. It also sounds much better LOUD, as if mixed to be played that way - like Loveless by My Bloody Valentine does. The lack of the low end in the drums makes more sense because it's contextualized with the rest of the instruments as part of one big "blast" of noise, not really as a distinct sound to be isolated and scrutinized.

Still probably not "well engineered" like The Nightfly supposedly is, but it sure sounds a hell of a lot better.

red-noise · Post by **red-noise** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:48 am

The ZZ Top Six Pack.

All I can think is, there must have been a hell of a lot of cocaine involved.

coniferouspine · Post by **coniferouspine** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:04 pm

The reverb smeared all over the ZZ Top Six Pack is just abysmal. ZZ Top albums were meant to be flat, hot, and excruciatingly dry -- just like the desert.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:58 pm

Holy crap! James, how've you been?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

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What are some of the most "poorly engineered" albu

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