What are some of the most "poorly engineered" albu

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LazarusLong
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Post by LazarusLong » Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:40 pm

minorleagues wrote:But, the rest of that album is good. It's too 80's sounding, but that's probably John Cale's touch.
Ouch. C'mon, every long standing artist has gone through their own 80's - whether or not it was actually during the 80's.

----

Speaking of John Cale - the albums that he cut at Island are dismal. They've got some of my favorite songs, some of his best production and great performances. But man, is the engineering lackluster.

Now, on the flip side, "Hobosapiens" is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it sounds damned good. So many, many kudos there.
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:11 pm

I nominate :

Fleetwod Mac : Tusk.

In the words of the Immortal Rick James :

"Cocaine is a HELL of a drug"

This album fell victim to that drug, along with a host of others in the 70's

Drugs suck.
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Post by centurymantra » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:26 am

emrr wrote:The 13th Floor Elevators box sounds better than anything but an original pressing, of which I can attest to, owning 'Easter Everywhere'. Even my cassette copy of my vinyl sounds better than all previous reissues.

But, the box is gone. They are getting ready to roll out new CD's next year with both mono and stereo versions. The mono will likely come from needle-drops, as masters seem vanished. Stereo masters that have surfaced on the box are copies Lelan Rogers made in the mid-70's for licensing at that time; those were also 'lost' until recently. Original masters are all lost, currently. The mind-blowers in the box are Walt Andrus (sp?) original alt mixes and his recent new mixes from unheard multi-tracks. IF you can find the box, it's worth it for the book alone.
Cool...I probably should try to score a copy of that box. I see that they are still floating around on Ebay. Better yet...some mint original vinyl. I was following the saga of the master tapes, etc. Didn't they uncover a few of the original tapes. I could swear the Sundazed mono vinyl reissue of the 1st LP claimed to be sourced from original tapes. Anyway...thanks for the insights on that.

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Post by Sean Sullivan » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:48 am

I have the Roky Erickson "I Have Always Been Here Before: The Roky Erickson Anthology" and the Sundazed mono reissue of "The Psychedelic Sounds Of..." how do those stack up the box set and the original pressing?

In pictures where Roky and Jeff Tweedy have a big beard the look like the same person.
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Post by austin » Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:50 am

superaction80 wrote:Did we really need that much verb on the drums on Doolittle? I'd like to find out.
Aw, that's not poor engineering, just an (era-appropriate?) aesthetic choice.

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Post by emrr » Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:40 am

centurymantra wrote: I was following the saga of the master tapes, etc. Didn't they uncover a few of the original tapes. I could swear the Sundazed mono vinyl reissue of the 1st LP claimed to be sourced from original tapes.
The Sundazed mono vinyl is made from a dub of a duplication master found in a record club's vaults. So it's 3rd generation, at least, if not 4th, from the mix masters. It's the best tape source, but many feel it doesn't compete with good original vinyl.

It sure sounds like there's more out there, either undiscovered, or unavailable. One guy claims to have found Easter Everywhere multi-tracks, but so far has not allowed them to be checked out and verified (?!). Suffice to say there are a lot of personal agendas when it comes to Elevators sources.

I think it's pretty easy to find originals of Bull of the Woods, and Live. The first two will really cost you, if they're legit and good shape. Easter Everywhere was only pressed once, and the mono appears to be less than 300 copies, mostly promo.

The fullest blow-by-blow I've seen is over here, in which Paul Drummond even chimes in. You'll see me yammering on a few times.

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Re: What are some of the most "poorly engineered"

Post by letemin » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:12 pm

Fiery Furnace's Bitter Tea, which is incredibly brittle and bright, IMO. Could be a mastering thing I suppose. It's alright for a song or two, but man, that album punishes the ears, which is a shame because the songs are good.

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Re: What are some of the most "poorly engineered"

Post by Crocoduck5000 » Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:39 pm

letemin wrote:Fiery Furnace's Bitter Tea, which is incredibly brittle and bright, IMO. Could be a mastering thing I suppose. It's alright for a song or two, but man, that album punishes the ears, which is a shame because the songs are good.
Yeah I really need to figure out who did that. That album is the only instance in my iTunes library that I have an EQ setting for!

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Post by Esmo » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:04 pm

Tusk is an incredible sounding imo.

How about Sabbath's technical ecstasy? Good songs that sound awful.

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Post by thunderboy » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:39 pm

--Shields up--

I think that the early electric Miles albums (Bitches Brew, et al) sound terrible. Let me qualify that. I think they sound terrible compared to the last Miles acoustic quintet albums (Nefertiti, ESP, etc). Those quintet albums sound like they were recorded yesterday, while the electric albums sound like they were recorded, well, 40 years ago. I suppose it's because the engineers involved had spent the previous decades refining their techniques on acoustic ensembles, when along came Miles and his crazy ideas...

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Post by LazarusLong » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:36 am

thunderboy wrote:--Shields up--
RED ALERT!

I see where you're coming from. And I agree, Miles was trying to do stuff that few - if any - engineers had experience with at the time.
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Post by Harry » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:39 am

It's funny how most of my all time favorite albums are mentioned in these threads.

Sometimes I feel sad for the hypercritical super engineers.

Picking the production apart on stuff like Zeppelin, Hendrix,Miles, etc. is silly and non-musical.

Thank god there are no time machines.... I'm sure someone would go back and totally kill the vibe at the dark side sessions:)

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Jitters
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Post by Jitters » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:09 am

Oh, I don't know...I think those "Hmmmm, I would have done that differently" moments are part of what made me want to get into recording in the first place.

*goes back to working on time machine*

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Post by thunderboy » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:12 am

Harry wrote:It's funny how most of my all time favorite albums are mentioned in these threads.

Sometimes I feel sad for the hypercritical super engineers.

Picking the production apart on stuff like Zeppelin, Hendrix,Miles, etc. is silly and non-musical.

Thank god there are no time machines.... I'm sure someone would go back and totally kill the vibe at the dark side sessions:)
If someone were to re-mix those classics using the standard "pop" techniques of today, I imagine the result would be fascinatingly horrifying.

"Nice take, Mr. Plant; I'll just clean up those pitches and we'll move on."

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Jitters
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Post by Jitters » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:14 am

Yeah, or Kieth Moon crucified on a grid.

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