haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
What are some of the most "poorly engineered" albu
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It's been done. Have you ever listened to Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On on CD? What HAPPENED to "Closing My Eyes?"MoreSpaceEcho wrote:haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
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.
Last edited by AnalogousGumdropDecoder on Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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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 wrote:Phew...MoreSpaceEcho wrote:haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.
Haha, no, I was referring to a project I sent him to master. One that probably falls in the 'poorly engineered' category.AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote: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 wrote:Phew...MoreSpaceEcho wrote:haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.
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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.Jitters wrote:Haha, no, I was referring to a project I sent him to master. One that probably falls in the 'poorly engineered' category.AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote: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 wrote:Phew...MoreSpaceEcho wrote:haha, that seems like a tough combo to pull off!AnalogousGumdropDecoder wrote:These sound pretty thin and murky.
For a second there I was afraid you were chiming in on a recent mastering job.
P.S. You can't really blame him for KISS not sounding very good.
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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.
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Get over that. If they didn't want anyone to have a reaction to the records they make, they shouldn't be making them.Sean Sullivan wrote:I'm too afraid to make any suggestions because the engineers or producers might read this thread
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?
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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.@?,*???&? wrote:Get over that. If they didn't want anyone to have a reaction to the records they make, they shouldn't be making them.Sean Sullivan wrote:I'm too afraid to make any suggestions because the engineers or producers might read this thread
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?
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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...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!
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."
"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno
All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/
"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno
All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/
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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.dwlb wrote: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...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!
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.
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