IMHO, there is no one like Becker and Fagen. They have always been concerned with sound quality. Steely Dan rules! |
I remember hearing that Cat Stevens mastered with Maggies, too. Can't swear it's true tho. |
More than you think...Floyd,rush,eagles,police,dire straits,dead,fleetwood mac, etc |
Really?? I think Katy Lied's rbcd just sounds kinda OK.
I think Neil Young and Tom Petty are two artists (Rockers) that do a good job of paying attention to sonics. |
Porcupine Tree's and Steven Wilson's albums are always produced with very high sound quality. And Porcupine Tree is phenomenal in concert, some of the best live sound I have ever heard - their sound man is a genius!
-RW- |
Neil Young. He's such a purist even to the point of fanatically focusing on what is in the signal chain for his guitar. He will not permit signal processors in the chain. The only concession to automation is a contraption that mounts on the top of his vintage 50's Fender Deluxe amp and mechanically adjusts the tone/volume/gain pots to predefined settings for the song he's playing.
His LPs/CDs reflect this attitude and are excellent in every regard. |
LPs by Ryan Adams are sonically excellent, and he's definitely an analog guy. His latest, "Ashes & Fire" is one of the better recorded albums (vinyl) of 2011. |
Re: Tom Petty
A friend who (until recently) worked at Warner Bros once commented to me that Petty's the label's pickiest guy (on sound) by far.
Marty |
All of Mark Knopfler's recordings sound excellent. Sailing to Philadelphia and Shangri-La are two stand outs. |
I second the Knopfler recommendation, Saliing... and Shangri-La do sound exquisite, especially in surround...
-RW- |
It's realy not necessary to master recordings with Maggies. There is a substantially large volume of the various studio monitors to master a sound even more superior than with Maggies even back 40 years ago. It's not even audiophile equipment has a large factor of the good recording quality. It's definitely something more and my example is... Frank Zappa not only sounds great but the music and musicians can realy hide the recording imperfections. Seing the movie "Apostrofe" made by his son Dweezil makes me believe that his records are brushed with excellence of professional mixing of large bands independed of an audio equipment used. Another example of recording art is album Nunsexmonkrock by Nina Hagen: Nunsexmonkrock totally grinds. It makes fun of just about everything, from the church ('Antiworld') to drugs ('Smack Jack') to religious obsessions ('Taitschi Tarot') to pompous futuristic declarations ('Future Is Now') to alien life ('UFO'). But even if you cannot make out the actual lyrics - and I sure can't most of the time - the very sound of the music is enough to drive you wild. Nina gets even more production-concerned on this album, which usually means featuring tons and tons and tons of vocal overdubs; sometimes there's as much as four or five Ninas vocalizing at the same time, each one in a different key and a different voice, yet in some perverse manner these overdubs merge together real well. Oh gosh, I mean, it's just my friggin' opinion. So recording is more an art than quality of the studio monitors and equipment. |
I was at a festival in a big ampitheatre years ago and the sound was just crap all day so muddy in the bass and shrill in the highs you couldn't understand the lyrics. Tom petty and Neil young were the last to play. Somehow magically the whole PA system was fixed for both of their sets. They sounded great and the Neil young show in particular stands out as one of my favorite live shows I've seen.
I did a bit of recording in my time and I came to the realization that I would rather have a great monitoring system than front end gear. If you can't really make sense of what you are hearing how can you make the right choice on what to do with a mix? |
The Grateful Dead's 'Wall of Sound' was forty eight 300-watt per channel McIntosh model MC 2300's. Bob Weir still prefers it on stage and at home. |
Hi all ! I read somewhere that the highs on Katy Lied was flawed due to a bad adjustment on the eq , or something like that . Also , that Becker and Fagen never listened to the final album because of this . |
Whow how cool is this info. |
Katy Lied was one of the first albums recorded with dbx noise reduction. Unfortunately the encoder malfunctioned, and they were never able to recover the original fidelity, even when dbx tried to hand tweak a decoder to complement the flaws in the faulty encoder. |
I totally believe that about Katy Lied! I always wondered why it sounded dull. |
several years ago someone was selling a HQD speaker system (Hartly, Quad ,Decca) that was supposed to be owned by Chick Corea.
also, over on AA, Henry Rollins mentioned in an article that he was an Audiophile
fwiw |
Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is a huge vinyl guy. Back when the cool question to ask by interviewers was "what's on your iPod," Vedder stated he doesn't have an iPod or even a CD player; he only listens to vinyl. The album VS' CD release was delayed because Pearl Jam wanted it released on vinyl first. It drove the record company insane (I think it was Sony), but they had enough clout after Ten. The CD version was released two weeks after the vinyl, much to the displeasure of the label and radio stations. A couple of DJs loved it, but I'm sure the execs weren't thrilled. A lot of customers weren't happy waiting for the CD, as by this point most had abandoned their turntables.
Actually, it may have been Vitology, not VS. Either way, a great story IMO. |
Steely Dan's The Royal Scam (MCA AAD) is among the worst sounding RBCDs in my collection. Pearl Jam's Yield among my best sounding RBCDs. The guitar textures on Yield are exquisite. |
agree about the Royal Scam - terrible sound |
Try and catch a listen to the Royal Scam on vinyl. I believe your opinions may change. |
Agree with Fjn04.
The vinyl release of Royal Scam is terrific.
But so is the entire Steely Dan catalog. |
My mistake Fjn04 I was talking about vinyl to begin with |
No worries- just enjoying RS on vinyl these days. Love my ABC pressing, but just purchased a Japanese pressing. Cheers ! |
I would think David Gilmour would be. |
I have my original Royal Scam LP...I'll have to go check it out, although I have listened to it fairly recently. Interesting. I did notice my Gaucho (a fave) CD SUCKS compared to the vinyl version...I suppose I should look for a better version but really...the vinyl sounds way better. This won a Grammy for engineering. Maybe a Mobile Fidelity version will do...taking suggestions. My Aja CD and vinyl both sound fine. |
If you look at Barry's credits and his system you'll see that he has done some big namnes that we all listen or have listened to.
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/credits.htm |
Hi all ! All my SD stuff sounds great except Royal Scam and Katy Lied , all on CD . |
Anything that Alan Parsons put his hand on, starting with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and on to his own recordings. |
