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Good CDs Bad Recording

Interested to learn if others have CDs they like that are really poorly recorded. I'm not talking about the ones made in the garage, I mean big artists or studios that should know better and leave you wondering "what where they thinking?".

Mine is Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Daylight Again".. Whether I hear it on the radio or my home stereo or anywhere else the recording sounds like they accidentally cut off everything above 5 kHz. So muffled and dull.

~Jim
jimspov

Showing 4 responses by lowrider57

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lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
The digital recordings from the 80s on DG. Over-miked, harsh and clipped highs, orchestra lacked a sense of space. Worst offender was Karajan since he liked to take control of the production.
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lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
@ahendler 
True, but it took time and money to get those recordings to sound good.
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lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
@shadorne, If RHCP means the Chili Peppers, then I agree.
I consider Rick Rubin to be one of the great producers of our time, in terms of his arrangements and artists' performances. Given that he has worked within certain genres of music; e.g., Rap and Heavy Metal, he was never going to produce any high quality recordings. One exception would be the Johnny Cash recordings.

But his contribution to the "Loudness Wars" puts him at the top of the list for churning out crap recordings.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
Springsteen's "Born to Run." The story is they were going for the "wall of sound" type of mix, so what we have are some great tunes that sound flat and compressed. And it seems that remastering does not provide much improvement.
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