Members rasputin1963 Posted September 28, 2015 Members Share Posted September 28, 2015 What are your three favorite record PRODUCTIONS of all-time? (Maybe we'll say: post-1955). Where, of course, the music is fine, to be sure... but the producer's skill just blows you through the roof with its care and delicacy and precision and ingenuity? I want to do some critical listening to hear just what pure magic sounds like, when produced in the right hands. ras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I can think of a bunch of worthy albums, but this one had a huge impact on me, and it's one of the most well-produced albums ever waxed IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Where' date=' of course, the music is fine, to be sure... but the [b']producer's skill[/b] just blows you through the roof... FWIW, as a producer, I don't think it's really possible to separate what we do from the music... they're interdependent and intrinsically entwined. What a producer does is dictated by the music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 28, 2015 Members Share Posted September 28, 2015 For me it's hard to separate production and engineering. IMHO Tom Petty's "Damn the Torpedoes" is one of the most transportable mixes of all time...sounds good over anything...but not sure if that was the engineer, or the producer's direction. Probably both! Miles Davis "In a Silent Way." How hours of noodling got distilled into that masterpiece is impressive. I always thought "Simple Minds" had great production - huge sounds. There are plenty others, but I thought I'd mention some less obvious choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gismo recording Posted September 28, 2015 Members Share Posted September 28, 2015 Hmmm. I'd have to sayDark Side of the Moon - Pink FloydBrothers in Arms - Dire StraitsRevolver - The Beatles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 144dB Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 The best single production of rock & roll to me (single song) is The Who's "Who are you?" from the album of the same name... It's a great song with great vocal harmonies, fantastic dynamics (soft and loud passages), and it's crisp, fat, wet, and warm, all in one... Dark Side of the Moon is the best album, in my opinion. I don't know what number three would be, but Jackson Browne's stuff deserves an honorable mention. Listen to "That Girl Could Sing" or "Somebody's Baby". There is great separation, a great stereo image, clarity, yet everything glues together. I could think of countless honorable mentions, but the The Who and Pink Floyd are my clear #1 and #2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 For me it's hard to separate production and engineering. IMHO Tom Petty's "Damn the Torpedoes" is one of the most transportable mixes of all time...sounds good over anything...but not sure if that was the engineer, or the producer's direction. Probably both! That was engineered by Shelly Yakus, who I always thought was quite brilliant. Production was done by TP and Jimmy Iovine. Great album - one of my favorites! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark L Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 Chinatown by Thin Lizzy First time I heard it I thought "Waaw, that's great production!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 144dB Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 "Appetite for Destruction" would be number three.. I can't recall a hard rock album that sounded so good, and flowed so well together. Mike Clink did a phenomenal job producing a very difficult band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 I'm no good at picking 'top x albums, tracks, guitar players,' etc. And the crapification of sound quality that happens when Joe Sixpack uploads his records and CDs to YT really puts the plastic cherry on the crap sundae... but here are some tracks from some albums I have thought sounded great over the years. First up, one of my favorite musical eccentrics (and one who actually had an exceptionally brief brush with fame), Andy Pratt... the sound here is pretty crummy -- but actually better than other examples of the album on YT (better to listen from your streaming subscription or even mid-fi ad-supported Spotify). If Andy Pratt doesn't sound familiar, no surprise. He had a very, very cool 1969 debut record that was sort piano-blues-bossa -- with ultra-jaded, but somewhat abstracted lyrics (worth puzzling out in many cases). I'm one of the very few people who bought that one (but it's in the stream-o-sphere: Records Are Like Life) and it's really more my favorite. But Pratt's second, eponymous album, Andy Pratt, got a budget and some wild, kitchen sink+ arrangements and production, and actually fielded a minor hit in some areas (they tell me) with the appropriately quirky, falsetto, 'autobiography' of a female outlaw, "Avenging Annie." Few people seem to know about the album -- but it did make Al Kooper's revered '100 Best Rock Albums' list (or whatever it's called). This isn't the track I would have liked to have put up (which I couldn't find) but it was one of the few Pratt album track vids with anything approaching decent sound [stopped far short of that goal, though]... After the second Album, Pratt's style and focus shifted and his music changed considerably, as did his lyric content -- which shifted fairly drastically to a Christian pop orientation. (But that shift got him a full page, lead review for his third [but, to these jaded ears, disappointing] third album, Resolution.) [video=youtube;5kq5jFaBJFQ] Second: Cal Tjader is best known for funky Latin grooves ranging from cool to red hot -- but his Several Shades of Jade album (combined on CD with the considerably lesser Breeze from the East) was arranged and conducted by the brilliant Argentine (and one time Nadia Boulanger student) Lalo Schiffrin. (BftE was different staff and sessions but they to some extent interleave the tracks with SSoJ on the CD combo release. Idiots. BftE isn't bad, but it's a long way from SSoJ.) The album may be way too much for those for whom the preciousness of exotica is already just too damn much -- but this is certainly one of the best played and musically substantive exotica records of the 60s. And it sounds amazing. (The stream-o-sphere only has the combined album but Google Play Music subscribers* can hear the original album in sequence via a playlist I created there.) [video=youtube;8AU_91XRstM] I'm going to have to think about the third one... *And...if you are a Google Play Music desktop user -- and don't like the 'bold' orange color scheme or, like me, you're a classical fan and frustrated by the super-narrow play queue window that the G instituted in a big makeover a few months back (just as Apple Music was dropping), you might be interested in the Stylebot skin I created that restyles GPM. Info here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 That's tough. I'll bet this changes. I think I'll mention: "Wrecking Ball" Emmylou Harris (Daniel Lanois, producer; Malcolm Burn, engineer and mixing)"Physical Graffiti" Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, producer; Eddie Kramer, engineer and mixing; Andy Johns, engineer)"Glow" The Innocence Mission (Dennis Herring, producer; Chris Fuhrman, engineer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Dark Side of the Moon is the best album, in my opinion. I think that album will be showing up on lists like this one for a long, long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted September 29, 2015 Members Share Posted September 29, 2015 I think that album will be showing up on lists like this one for a long, long time. Yeah, that's another one. Stunning, ambitious production that should be on my list. I picked a few odd ones, partially because I'm odd, partially because I simply thought of them first, and partially because I think it's good to mention them in case others get turned on to them or think about them again. I should also mention the more obvious "Unforgettable Fire" release by U2 with Eno and Lanois producing and engineering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted September 30, 2015 Members Share Posted September 30, 2015 Ah, you guys reminded me. Here's my number three --of course... [EDIT: after watching the 'enhanced' version I previously posted, I decided the original album version, sans animations, was probably a better experience] [video=youtube;VJEZWsnIECo] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 144dB Posted September 30, 2015 Members Share Posted September 30, 2015 In a more modern context, Imogen Heap does a great job making synth-laden tracks sound organic and fresh. And I think she produces her own stuff. Getting synthetic tracks to sit well together is not easy. Azure Ray is another fantastic, original sound ("As Above So Below"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 Queens 'Night at the Opera' had pretty amazing production. Ray Thomas Baker did some stunning work on this. But I generally lean towards less bombastic work; things likeSteely Dan (all their albums),JJ Cale (especially the 'Naturally' album).The albums I have by Robert 'One Man' Johnson are also really clean and great to use as a mix reference.I do also love the sound of every Zepplin studio album, though their live recordings don't really do it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 DSOTM popped to mind immediately. The next two is a lot tougher, I can't decide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davd_indigo Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 I recently became aware of Captain Beefheart's "Clear Spot" album which followed "Lick My Decals Off Baby". I read that Don Van Vliet recruited Ted Templeman in an effort to make a more commercially viable album. To my ears it should have had some level of popular appeal but I don't think he ever reached that with any recording. He eventually turned to painting as his vocation. But I think it works. A success in my opinion. I was watching "The Big Lewbowski" on Netflix a few weeks ago and noticed "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" in the background a scene. This is one of my favorites. I really like the interplay between the guitar and (to my ears) the horns. "Long Neck Bottles". [video=youtube;hRjl7Bvnkzw] And my introduction to Los Lobos maybe 22 (or so) years ago. At the time Mitchell Froom (producer) and Tchad Blake (engineer) were frequently teaming up. This brought to mind George Martin with the Beatles. Not that it sounds like the Beatles, but reminded me of the sonic ecosystem (just made up that term) that GM created. Their fingerprints (Froom's and Blake's) are all over the production. A great album. [video=youtube;QPoXM4LFZsc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPoXM4LFZsc&list=PLW07jHtRc3HdsucOeC3RLRq2 Q9Z_TW7B6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 What I like about the Los Lobos track is that it all sounds so natural and effortless, but I'm sure it took a lot of effort to make it sound like it didn't take a lot of work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 Queens 'Night at the Opera' had pretty amazing production. Ray Thomas Baker did some stunning work on this. I agree - it's a great record, and RTB is one of my producer / engineer heroes... but I'd select a different album he produced - The eponymous first album by The Cars. The first time I heard those massively stacked BGV's on Good Times Roll, I almost fell over. Of course, some of the BGVs on Night At The Opera are also stacked to the moon... But I generally lean towards less bombastic work; things like Steely Dan (all their albums), Roger Nichols (RIP) and Gary Katz made for one heck of a studio team. All of those albums are so clean... I don't know if I could single out just one... maybe Aja? No - The Royal Scam, or maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 And my introduction to Los Lobos maybe 22 (or so) years ago. At the time Mitchell Froom (producer) and Tchad Blake (engineer) were frequently teaming up. This brought to mind George Martin with the Beatles. Not that it sounds like the Beatles, but reminded me of the sonic ecosystem (just made up that term) that GM created. Their fingerprints (Froom's and Blake's) are all over the production. A great album. [video=youtube;QPoXM4LFZsc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPoXM4LFZsc&list=PLW07jHtRc3HdsucOeC3RLRq2 Q9Z_TW7B6 Monster band. I'm a big fan of both Mitch and Tchad's work too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 All three are excellent choices IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mandolin Picker Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 For me, the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack is one of my favorites, and not just because it has lots of 'ol timey' music on it. Yes, the majority of the music is old time, traditional music that pretty well represents the time period of the movie. What I like about it is that the majority of the music was 'modern day' recordings, yet they produced them to sound much like they would have if actually recorded in that time period, without resorting to adding fake record scratches. Ralph Stanley doing an a capella rendition of "Oh Death" doesn't sound like a modern recording. It has flaws, much like the time before Melodyne and AutoTune. The "Man of Constant Sorrow" version which only has a single guitar accomp, accompney, accompnist - again much like what would have been done back then. The music and the movie are intertwined together, there is no doubt of that. However, where the movie would be hobbled without the music, the music can stand on it's own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 1, 2015 Members Share Posted October 1, 2015 I agree - it's a great record, and RTB is one of my producer / engineer heroes... but I'd select a different album he produced - The eponymous first album by The Cars. The first time I heard those massively stacked BGV's on Good Times Roll, I almost fell over. Of course, some of the BGVs on Night At The Opera are also stacked to the moon... The Cars one gets overlooked when people mention recordings and production. It's stunning. But it's also hard to compare anything to "Night at the Opera" for sheer audacity, vision, and ambition. And those vocals aren't exactly shabby either. I dunno. I like The Cars album more, but I don't even know what I'd pick for production. I just know that they're both stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted October 2, 2015 Members Share Posted October 2, 2015 I'm going to try and take a different tack on this topic of Best Produced. The usual suspects like DSOTM and Aja and Wildflowers and Abbey Road are uncontestably great - exquisite recording, mixing, and overall conception and vibe, no arguments. Studio types especially admire these I think because they sound so real and natural at the same time they are so masterfully crafted. I think there are also productions that have less of a real and natural sound, that go for a more messed-with, altered sound, going for a unique vibe and feel somewhat at the expense of naturalness and reality. Movies do this all the time with lighting and framing and a host of tricks from the filmmaker's bag. Sepia-toned period pieces are an example - was the sun different somehow in the 40s so that it drenched everything in golden-brown soft light? Of course not, but it works. Daniel Lanois is one of the masters of carefully crafted unreality in his productions. He works in various styles customized to the artists at hand, but I think of the quintessential Lanois productions as having a slightly foggy atmosphere, dulling and blending everything in a hazy, dreaming, drifting vibe that evokes nighttime in the swamps or warm, humid winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico, driving long distances overnight while the ecstasies and aches of memory swim mingled and confused in a tired mind. [YOUTUBE]FJ1bzKISLBw[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]7ledV1EjVD4[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]N8TY2klBh8o[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]MiOISz3S8UQ[/YOUTUBE] nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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