Great albums- bad recordings

[Dubmaniac]

Today at work, I put on Warehouse: Songs and stories, a 1987 album by Husker Du. The songs range from pretty good to fantastic- okay, mostly fantastic, but I was appalled at the sound quality. It was brittle and harsh- midrangey and almost painful to listen to. I had to EQ out a lot of the midrange just to get through it! All of this got me wondering a couple of things- first, has this album ever been remastered, and how did it even get released sounding like this? Second- how often does this happen? Great performances that were nearly obliterated by awful recording, mixing and/or mastering? I'm sure I'll think of other examples with time, but this one was so obvious that I had to mention it. How about you? What's on your list and why?

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i think that's just how husker du records sound. you've heard zen arcade right? sounds like a frying pan.

check this thread:

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=68033

[egr]

"Motorcade of Generosity" by Cake fits your description perfectly. I love the album (Jolene is probably my top song by them) but the album has no low end and sounds like it was recorded with the tiniest amount of signal possible. It's a shame, really.

[vvv]

Warehouse is a great record; recenly listened to it myself.

Seems to me that was on SST?

Just checked - nope, Warner's.

I was gonna say a lot of the SST stuff sounded like that ... and blame Spot.

[Dubmaniac]

Something just occured to me. This was released only about five years after CDs first came onto the market. I wonder if Warehouse (and all the other Husker Du albums) were victims of mixing for vinyl, not CD. Has anyone else heard this theory about early CD releases? That they were originally mixed for vinyl, then dumped onto CD without being remixed or remastered for CD? A good example of this is ABC's "Lexicon of love"- sounded great on LP, awful on CD. I don't know if it's because early digital wasn't that good, or because whoever did the CD transfers didn't know what they were doing.

MoreSpaceEcho- I haven't heard anything else from Husker Du, but maybe you're right- that's just the way they sound... like a frying pan. Were their earlier albums sonically worse than "Warehouse"? Or did they all sound consistently bad, even though the songs were great?

[Waltz Mastering]

Foo Fighters (self titled) debut album to me is both bad and great at the same time. I think it was originally meant to be demos... a little lo-fi

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Something just occured to me. This was released only about five years after CDs first came onto the market. I wonder if Warehouse (and all the other Husker Du albums) were victims of mixing for vinyl, not CD. Has anyone else heard this theory about early CD releases? That they were originally mixed for vinyl, then dumped onto CD without being remixed or remastered for CD? A good example of this is ABC's "Lexicon of love"- sounded great on LP, awful on CD. I don't know if it's because early digital wasn't that good, or because whoever did the CD transfers didn't know what they were doing.

MoreSpaceEcho- I haven't heard anything else from Husker Du, but maybe you're right- that's just the way they sound... like a frying pan. Were their earlier albums sonically worse than "Warehouse"? Or did they all sound consistently bad, even though the songs were great?

It wasn't a mixing problem. It was a mastering problem. Lots of early CD releases weren't remastered for digital. They just used the vinyl master, RIAA eq and all.
RIAA eq was used to get the most out of vinyl records. Low frequencies were cut and highs were boosted on the master. Your phono pre-amp would decode that eq buy cutting the same highs and boosting the same lows. The result was a flat eq.

Without a phone pre amp decoding the RIAA eq you end up with a really brittle horrible sound.

[Jay Reynolds]

There's a Riot Goin' On - Sly Stone

Badly done to the point that even non-engineers are aware of the production issues. And so beautiful. The remake of "Thank You" on Riot is the better version, IMHO.

[bipedal]

Husker stuff sounded like that. IMO, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig are the best-sounding of their studio albums, but both still have gobs of that tinny fizz vibe.

Among all of the official Husker Du stuff, the live album The Living End is the one that's most "listenable" to me. (Pretty rippin' versions of most of the tunes as well. That version of "Ice Cold Ice" is killer.)

[;ivlunsdystf]

This thread recurs every 8 months or so.

I jumped in so I could mention "Zen Arcade" and the Sly Stone album, but others beat me to it.

Now, right on schedule, I must add the 1st Bad Brains record to the list.

[Jay Reynolds]

Husker Du is the new 'First!'

[Sean Sullivan]

I think Dinosaur Jr. "Beyond" sounds awful. A lot of pumping in the compression, and the kick, snare, and bass can get completely lost when Jay piles on the guitars. "Farm" sounds better. It's still incredibly loud, but at least I can hear everything.

[bedbug]

I think Dinosaur Jr. "Beyond" sounds awful. A lot of pumping in the compression, and the kick, snare, and bass can get completely lost when Jay piles on the guitars. "Farm" sounds better. It's still incredibly loud, but at least I can hear everything.

I agree!

[kayagum]

So does anyone have the anti-RIAA curve they care to share?

[ashcat_lt]

So does anyone have the anti-RIAA curve they care to share?

Aw...the picture I posted is too big, and ain't mine anyhow. Google images.

I found this plugin.