Red Ant

22 minutes ago, epi56ebony said:

Absolutely NOT TRUE...American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Blues For Allah, In The Dark

I love BFA but its really just Help/Slip/Frank, Crazy Fingers and a  bunch of filler. AB  and WD are great collections of songs, but not particularly coherent albums. I can't speak for ITD, as I can't stand it.

1 minute ago, moogerfooger said:

Coherent or not I couldn’t get to :30 

 

Terrapin is an acquired taste, even amongst deadheads... its their Prog album

😢

While mainly known for producing multi-platinum blockbusters, he also produced the only coherent (and coherent-sounding) studio album in the entire Grateful Dead catalog. 

6 hours ago, stratosaurus said:

Another question would be...what do you do to maintain them, after playing? 

Nothing whatsoever. Apparently my sweat isn't corrosive, as a set of strings will last me for a year of daily playing. 

Been using GHS Boomers for seems like forever. They sound balanced, feel good to me and last a very long time. 9s on 25.5 scale and 10s on 24.75.

15 hours ago, Phil O'Keefe said:

Another one of my all-time favorites. They're great on drums, or anything else where you need an ultra-fast attack time. Whatever the LA-2A isn't perfect for, the 1176 usually will be, and vise-versa. 

 

 

In 30 years of use, I've never really made friends with the 1176. I think it's a great "effect" compressor, meaning that it imparts its character to any source you send through it, and no matter how gently you use it it still imparts a particular color. Unfortunately I don't much care for the color it imparts - I find the whole "mids forward" thing it does more trouble than it's worth - except maybe on aggressive, "rock" bass guitar, especially when a pick is used <shudder>

When I need a compressor that is faster than the LA-2A, my go to is the Tubetech CL-1B. Pretty much my favorite hardware compressor ever made - It can give you color if you want it, or it can remain virtually transparent while taming transient peaks, depending on settings. 

And when I want huge color and audible compression artifacts, NOTHING beats the Fairchild.

I sadly do not have a Fairchild available, but the UAD emulation does a stellar job of it 

1 hour ago, Phil O'Keefe said:

No doubt about it - the LA-2A is a classic for a reason. They're easy to use and they just work - and sound fantastic.  

 

Two knobs and the truth

On 2/25/2020 at 5:31 PM, redEL34 said:

Ha, now that I have your attention, how important are the tubes?

I have an LA-2A in the studio, owned by my studio partner. It has never occurred to me to even open it to look - it sounds great, so I use it

24 minutes ago, NOS68 said:

Montana - Over-nite Sensation 

Yippie Yi Yo Ti Yay 

(rides pygmy pony of into the sunset)

 

With your zircon-encrusted tweezers gleaming in the moonlighty night

48 minutes ago, Alndln3 said:

Axis Bold as Love

Another excellent choice! He knows everything...

3 minutes ago, NOS68 said:

Burn Down the Mission - Tumbleweed Connection 

Good call.... though it isn't even one of my favorites from this incredible album - those would be Ballad of A Well-Known Gun, Amoreena, Son Of Your Father and My Father's Gun. Hookfoot made an incredible backup band for Elton. 

2 minutes ago, Opposite Day said:

House of Pain!

 

I came to get down!

Tomorrow Never Knows - Revolver

The Overload - Remain In Light

That Falling Feeling - Listen Now

Flamenco Sketches - Kind Of Blue

Vein Melter - Headhunters

Eat That Phone Book Coda - Angel's Egg (Gong)

At the end of the day

When there's nothing left to play

And you're all alone

'Cept for Radio Gnome

Here's your angel's egg for 

Breakfast in the morning... bye bye! 

This is one of those "I get how amazing it is, but it doesn't do any thing for me" albums - with the sole exception of God Only Knows, which gets an enotional response from me. The rest is just "oh, neat". 

Its funny cause 3 people who I've worked closely with and count as friends, or at least good acquaintances, "made their bones" on this record - Don Randi, Don Peake and Carol Kaye 

4 minutes ago, Grumpy_Polecat said:

This:

 

I guess this is back when they didn't need attorneys to talk to each other. 

1 minute ago, Grumpy_Polecat said:

Well, yeah.  Someone (you, perchance?) said this topic was a big kettle of subjectivity, and no truer words have been spoken.  For me though it really comes down to the content.  When I first heard Brittney Spears' 'Hit Me', I knew it was solid gold.  I think that number would have worked even if it hadn't been over-produced. Though over-production certainly didn't hurt it, the production was transparent, as it should be.  Now, while I really didn't care much for the content itself in this instance, it still shined through.  So well in fact that the Zappa Brothers absolutely KILLED with it. (and furthered the over-production in the process...)

What do Dweezil and Ahmet have to do with Brittney? 

Just now, Zig al-din said:

 

Yep. Disengage would have fit in on Scary Monsters. The vocal on it actually sounds eerily like Bowie's vocals on some of the tracks on that record (It's No Game pt 2 etc). 

Well, the dirty secret here is it was meant for Bowie to sing, but didn't work out business-wise, somehow. Peter Hamill does a stellar job though - and another HUGE influence on Mr. Patton. 

5 minutes ago, Grumpy_Polecat said:

Well, I thought we were talking about recording quality, not to be confused with production quality.  Keeping with ZZ Top as the example, the production quality of all 50+ years is stellar.  Esp. when Bill Hamm was the 4th member of the band.  But 'First Album' -in all it's spartan, stripped-down, naked glory stands out.

I feel like I need to mention Billie Holiday here as well.  We don't REALLY, really, REALLY, really REALLY know what she sounded like.  The equipment used, as well as the environment itself all converge into the end result, each adding its own color along the way.  The beauty of the recording art is in NOT having to 'put it in post' (ie: fix it later).

I read about Hendrix going from being a barely containable animal in the studio, mere moments from being given a plane ticket home to being fascinated with what Kramer was doing and staying up all night with him, helping and learning.  Certainly one can admit that the stereo mixing for that album was stellar, even by today's standards.  Stereo being a burgeoning thing still in 1967 makes it all the more a standout.

But that was all 'post'.  In computer vernacular they say GIGO, and it applies.  One simply cannot polish a turd (even with 'autotune' -- Yven eth nioj!)

There are really two schools at play here - the school that says "capture the room as faithfully as possible and be done" and the one that says "the studio is a musical instrument - use it to express emotion and imagination". I like both, but when it comes to the art of mixing specifically, albums like ZZ Top 1 aren't in the running because there really was no mixing - put up the faders and let 'er rip to 1/2'' master. Again, nothing at all wrong with the approach, I just chose different examples thereof (Kind of Blue and Blues and Abstract Truth).

1 hour ago, Zig al-din said:

100%.

I'm especially fond of III and IV. because of how sinister and atmospheric they are. They're some of the most idiosyncratic records out there. They link in my mind with Bowie's Berlin records with Fripp and some of Crimson's work. In fact, there are some moments on III and IV that are almost King Crimson with Gabriel on vocals because of Fripp and Levin. lol

About Genesis - Gabriel's twisted, dark, comic sensibility was sorely needed in Genesis to offset Tony Bank's twee pretentiousness. (And I like the early stuff.)  

There is one album that brings all those twisted and related skeins together in one sublime album - Robert Fripp's "Exposure".

11 minutes ago, Grumpy_Polecat said:

ZZ Top's First Album: No studio tricks.

Or Dave Van Ronk's 'No Dirty Names'.  I think you can hear a small plane flying in the background on one of the tracks.  That effect was NOT planned; it was purely organic.  Like bathroom reverb.

I LOVE ZZ Top's First Album. In fact I love all their output all the way to Deguello. But I fail to see what those records are doing in this thread. I mean they by no means sound bad, and Billy's guitar tones are ALWAYS stellar, but they're hardly a recording milestone. 

12 minutes ago, Zig al-din said:

 

Yeah that's a great point which I'd never thought about! This tune has about 80% of Patton playbook - it only lacks the psychotic screams and all that animal noise crap he does with Zorn. 

I know a lot of people who consider themselves Gabriel fans because of the So album and then they hear something like this or Intruder or Family and the Fishing Net, and they want to throw the record across the room. That's the stuff I like though. YMMV. 

 

After IV, Gabriel is basically dead to me

And you know I'm not a fan of his Genesis output. For me, I through IV are essentially one continuously evolving experiment, and a masterpiece taken as a whole. 

I especially like I lately, for the same thing I used to dislike it for - the Bob Ezrin bombast

And speaking of the Patton playbook: 

3 minutes ago, Zig al-din said:

 

Haha you mean chicks didn't dig the fox mask and red dress or the reverse mohawk... 

 

I was about to post a clip of Moribund The Burghermeister, but shockingly, YouTube is down!

Edit: Youtube's back!

Mike Patton owes Peter a LOT. 

2 hours ago, flemtone said:

My shot is for 'Swingin' the Blues' by the Count Basie Orchestra.  The subtlety of the mix on " Li'l Darlin' " is phenomenal to me.

 

After that, I'd go for Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours" as a recording masterpiece.

 

Both great recordings, but there is no mixing involved, per se - these pre-date mixing. The balance was achieved by careful placing of musicians around the microphone, or a few mics at best - then cut straight to either vinyl acetate or a single-track tape machine. 

Just now, Zig al-din said:

 

Agreed. So is a mediocre Gabriel record IMO as far as the music goes, but it sounds great. Maybe because there's no Robert Fripp involved? Or Gabriel was mentally healthier while writing it? Who knows...

He'd finally gotten laid

11 minutes ago, redEL34 said:

I love them when someone else is operating them. God forbid you make a mistake you later regret after really listening...They have to..get the giant tape out..find where you f’d up..transfer the whole thing to digital(per track). Find your F’up again..find something else to paste over your f’up..hope you’ll be happy.

Haha digital xfer? What luxury!

My studio nickname used to be Dr. Blade, cause I would edit 2'' tape like a madman, I'd splice together a master take from 4-5 different takes, all with just a razor blade and an edit block