I think many of us would accept that artists such as Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, and Dire Straits have consistently put out music that was at least originally recorded to a high technical standard. [I'm not too sure what the loudness wars may have done to subsequent reissues, but even so, the tone and timbre thankfully tends to remain intact.]
However there must be plenty of lesser known recordings out there that could be said to be of a high sonic standard.
One such recording that I like to put on in the background whilst I'm doing other things is a piano recording that features wonderfully lush timbre and some delightful tunes.
This one is The Disney Piano Collection by Hirohashi Makiko and to me it makes a lot of other piano recordings sound a little washed out.
Two things for me: - can hear the tamber of the instruments - can hear the room or hall in the recording. So you get the ambience of where it was played. There are scratchy and imperfect recordings that I turn to time and time again bc they have those two qualities. Many audiophile recordings are technically better but bring no joy.
Tamber is a girl’s name. I found a baby name website claims it means music pitch. Whatever. The word you were probably looking for is timbre. Pronouced timber, timbre is the word for the particular harmonic overtone structure of different instruments.
Since timbre is a structure made up of different frequencies, the relative volume between which is the pattern, then it should be clear that dynamic compression does indeed affect timbre. If you compress the loud bits relative to the soft bits, that is exactly what harmonic structure is, and so this too is ruined by compression.
Yes @thecarpathian, and correctly so. It is also often mis-pronounced tim-ber by the musically uneducated (no offense intended) . Timber! is what you yell when a tree has been felled. ;-)
Joe Jackson live in NY (going by memory on this one as to the correct title).
As far as incredible/exceptional recordings go I only have them on vinyl, though I doubt that many here would be interested in listening to tribal/cerimonial music recorded live via battery powered Nagra tape decks.
Why is timbre pronounced tamber?The fact that timbre comes from French influences its pronunciation: it is often pronounced \TAM-ber\ and, with a more French-influenced second syllable, \TAM-bruh\. ... In French, timbre became used for bells that were shaped like drums and usually were fixed and struck with a hammer, like the bells of a carillon.
If it’s a great sounding recording you want, just about any direct-to-disc LP absolutely slaughters any and all recordings ever made with a tape recorder. They possess an immediacy and visceral transient "snap" not heard in recordings made by any and all other means, sounding MUCH more like live music.
If you can get your hands on a good reel-to-reel tape recorder and a pair of condenser mics, you can make recordings of live music that will surprise you with their sonic superiority to most your LP’s and CD’s.
Funny. I just gave up looking for a truly great LP! I have a copy, but apparently it’s rare. 1958. RCA Living Stereo, one of RCA’s first batch of brand new stereo recordings, released in March 1958. The first stereo LP was released by Audio Fidelity in November of 1957. Not even YouTube has a video of it.
The New Glenn Miller Orchestra. “Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue”
Its a tremendously well recorded LP despite its being made at the very dawn of stereo records.
John Mayer, the later the better. Even his first album was pretty good considering his circumstances, but his latest "The Search For Everything" is a fantastic recording of some pretty fine music (imo). He's got a new one coming out in a few days and I'll be shocked if it's not very good as well. Also, Fourplay's "Best of" album is an excellent recording, especially now that it's available in hi-res. I know Steely Dan's been mentioned but Donald Fagen's solo stuff is also pretty great.
I have tick skin so if I get beat up for stating the obvious I can handle it. It does not matter how much I spend on a piece of new gear or a tweak, the single biggest contribution to my listening pleasure is the quality of the recording. Why were so many poor quality LP’s and CD’s produced? Maybe it was the low opinion record companies had for their customers … I don’t know.
I have heard a couple of the new PS Audio Octave records releases and have to say they are really well done. Pity they don’t release on Vinyl as well.
When I weeded the 4,000 LP’s I inherited, often faced with 20 of the same primary artist, wanting to keep perhaps only 3, I flipped em over, checked who else was playing, where, when, and the engineers involved. I kept all that Rudy was involved with without hesitation.
Some feel differently, what I know is: I discovered him when I looked sideways at my friends and said "whoever recorded this knew what they were doing", grabbed the sleeve to find the answer, which was often Rudy.
DF’s Kamikiriad is a masterpiece for recording reproduction ... along with Brother’s In Arms, let’s see ...The Wall, perhaps another.
Some groups change through the years: Rush had a couple albums, Moving Pictures (probably the pinnacle of its recordings), Signals is commendable. Then its recordings went into an era that lack lower-end presence, ala Presto, Power Windows, Roll The Bones ... fortunately the live recordings of same work atoned for previous sins!
Have appreciated Miles Davis’ work ... some live! Good stuff!!
Perhaps the flip-side of your question might prove an interesting query
I agree most of Joe Jackson's live stuff is very well recorded. If you are a vinylphile, Rickie Lee Jones' first five albums are wonderfully recorded. On CD, Flim and the BB's were all live direct to disc (in the studio) and have fabulous dynamics. The Eagles Live Hell Freezes Over is exceptionally well recorded.
I do like Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac "Rumours", Donald Fagan. I feel these are very well produced and good sounding, however, they can sound a little too "dead"; not enough hall ambience. The first Dire Straits album is well done, i.e Six Blade Knife. Now that is dynamic rock and roll. Brothers in Arms sounds a little bright to me. Best song is "Ride Across the River" sonically Pink Floyd is very well done. I like Buddy Miller, Ronda Vincent recordings a lot. Lately, early Joni Mitchell seems very intimate sounding. Peter Gabriel "So" is quite good. If you like electronic music Kraftwerk 3D Catalogue is exceptional.
would say that the best recording I have is Dallas Wind Symphony "Trittico" The tympanies will test your system. I also like several of the RCA Living Stereo recordings. I like Stokowski Rhapsodies a lot. Also Fritz Reiner and Chicago Symphony are hard to beat.
I have other music that is well recorded but I have to like the music to recommend. And one has to listen to music because you like it vs good recordings, or there wouldn't be much to listen to.
The Eagles Unplugged 1994 (The Second Night) Vol 1 is an excellent recording (vinyl)., I prefer this to Hell Freezes Over as it has the Don Henley singing Heart of the Matter which the vinyl/cd version doesn't have (video has it) as well as an awesome opening version of Peaceful Easy Feeling (God Bless Glen Frey).
Several mentions of Dire Straits but solo Mark Knopfler is a better bet for recording quality. "Sailing To Philadelphia", "Shangri-La", and "Get Lucky" are all really good. I'm sure others are as well but those are the ones I'm most familiar with. To me, Mark is like further distilled Dire Straits. His voice is just one of the best ever with amazing presence and gravitas. He's a pretty decent guitar picker, too. (That's a joke, he's incredible)
Just re-read the OP and realized he’s asking for lesser-known stuff. I’ve got a sleeper for sure. Ben Rogers "Wildfire" album is one of those recordings that make you wonder, "man, how much great music is out there that almost no one will ever know about?" Very well recorded, too.
Going to the other extreme, pretty much everyone’s familiar with Darius Rucker, but have you heard his only album in the R&B genre? "back to then" from ’02 is fantastic and the recording quality is excellent.
George Michael almost always delivered on quality, as well. If you’re only aware of his radio hits I would encourage you to dig deeper.
Gregory Porter is a wonderfully pure vocalist that is always presented well. Josh Groban is much more well-known but also consistently delivers quality.
Here’s one that was a bit of a shocker for me. Rascal Flatts. Not my usual cup of tea at all but my wife has one of their cds titled "Rewind" and I popped it in one day. I was very impressed with what I heard. Again, not so much the content (though I’ll admit a lot of it is pretty "catchy") as much as the presentation. I ripped it onto my music server in AIFF and listened to it with my dedicated headphone rig and it still stood up. Goes to show how we’ve got to keep our minds open...
Once again swinging the pendulum to the complete other extreme is Rage Against The Machine’s debut self-titled album. The music itself may or may not be up your alley (and it’s very NSFW) but the quality is unassailable. I have it in hi-res now but even the cd is really good. Sade "gets it" when it comes to quality. And if you ever want to test your low-end with something that’s still very musical "Slave Song" from the album "Lovers Rock" will undoubtedly do the trick. Weezer can be a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to recording quality, but their latest "Van Weezer" is pretty fantastic. Really fun album, too.
"Yes @thecarpathian, and correctly so. It is also often mis-pronounced tim-ber by the musically uneducated (no offense intended) . Timber! is what you yell when a tree has been felled. ;-)"
So, when the tree surgeon you've hired misjudges his chain-saw angle and ends up sending a tree crashing through your picture window down onto your audio system, which do you yell, then: "timber" or "timbre". . . ?
@chilli42:
"I have tick skin so if I get beat up for stating the obvious I can handle it"
Yeah-- especially once all those ticks are filled to the brim with blood, I imagine it's like being sheathed in a carpet of miniature balloons-- no wonder the punches just glance off !
"Several mentions of Dire Straits but solo Mark Knopfler is a better bet for recording quality. "Sailing To Philadelphia", "Shangri-La", and "Get Lucky" are all really good."
For sure.
Mark Knopfler is a great musician who consistently puts priority on sound quality.
He certainly seems to have taken no chances, or spared any expense when he put together his own recording studios in Chiswick, West London.
Folks like Mark Knopfler and Barry Diament seem happy to go that extra mile when it comes to preserving the highest possible studio sound quality.
@laps- indeed the Roxy Music stuff and Ferry’s solo stuff as well. Avalon and Bête Noire particularly.
Someone mentioned SO, fantastic.
On the Rush front, I think Roll the Bones and Presto are two. Moving Pictures goes without saying. A Farewell to Kings is really good too. Xanadu is amazing…
i've long been impressed by the 1980 LP pressing of The Korgis "Dumbwaiters" which had less than average surface noise, much less distortion esp. on inner grooves than typical vinyl product of the time. the 1960 RCA red seal recording of the CSO/Reiner performing Rimski-Korsakov/Debussy [on CD] has digital-levels of low-level clarity, in terms of being able to hear all the little musical sounds such as musicians' breathing, mouth noises, chairs and music stands creaking, rustling sheet music etc. the FF and FFF parts are clean and golden, no distortion or treble compression which was more common with most recordings of the era. the Stereo Fidelity LP of Robert Hunter [under the pseudonym of "Georges Montalba"] "stereo fantasy in pipe organ and percussion" was also an exceptional sonic specimen for its day, commonly used as a hifi demo record in hifi salons back then.
Jason Isbell does a great job with all of his recordings - it’s clear he cares about the sound. I’ve especially been listening to his 2 most recent releases with the 400 Unit - Reunions, and The Nashville Sound and am always blown away by how good the recording quality is.
Sinatra at the Sands is a great recording on the right pressing. Also believe it or not, his Christmas Album is very well recorded. Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out The Lights, great record, top quality sound. I’m not talking about reissues here, the original pressings. Bob and Ray's Stereo Spectacular is another record that comes to mind.
Boy, you guys are strictly Walt Disney. How's about What Do You Want From Live, The Tubes. NIN Broken and The Downward Spiral.
Actually, there are so many excellent recordings and excellent in different ways. It is impossible to catalog them all. There are more excellent recordings than there are truly horrific ones. I was listening to an old Supremes album last night. It was totally amazing!
Mark Lanegan - Houston Joanna Newsom - Y’s Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom Henry Cow - Concerts (Side 1 only; Peel BBC Session) Kate Bush - Never for Ever Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff Twenty One Pilots - Trench Chelsea Wolfe - Unknown Rooms Hawkwind - Levitation Gentle Giant - Octopus
I hesitate to call these lesser-known albums but I guess it just depends on how old you are. Phoebe Snow Rickie Lee Jones and Leon Redbone first albums on vinyl sound stunning to me. Extremely natural and the note Decay on the Phoebe Snow in particular is very satisfying. Kooper Stills Bloomfield super sessions is another if you you like to hear three Master musicians just sit around and jam. Tracy Chapman's first album occasionally has sounds that have startled me more than once thinking somebody was in the room with me although I have heard many criticism of this album because of the close close miking
The command recordings on vinyl sound great because they had a huge recording studio and they had the best microphones and mixing and mastering equipment along with the best monitor speakers and they will light up any quality system with tremendous sound.
I would suggest just about every Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release, even better on SACD than cd in case you don't already have the vinyl. Same with just about every release on ECM, regardless of format.
Jazz, by Ry Cooder is an excellent and interesting LP. I see Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is referenced above. I purchased their very expensive re release of Ry Cooder's Paradise & Lunch. Sad to say it was money wasted as my original copy of the same LP sounds every bit as good. I guess taking good care of your vinyl over the decades really does pay off.
Another few sleepers: a first gen pressing of: Randy Newman’s Sail Away; Roberta Flack’s Chapter Two, 10cc’s Deceptive Bends; David Crosby’s If Only I Could Remember my Name; and Brubeck’s Countdown — Time in Outer Space.
@tostadosunidos: Yes! That album sounds almost like a direct-to-disc, so alive and immediate. Produced by Richard Gottehrer, who didn’t make Blondie sound nearly as good.
Gordon did the first version I ever heard of "My Gal Is Red Hot", a killer Rockabilly song originally by Billy Lee Riley. I didn’t yet know it, but Ronnie Hawkins recorded the song in 1959, before his band The Hawks included future members of THE Band.
Gordon had a number of superb guitarists after Link Wray, including Chris Spedding and Danny Gatton. I saw Link live on his last trip through Los Angeles. He needed help getting onto the stage, but could still play great!
I often go by labels. 50’s and 60’s RCA records, especially Chet Atkins, sound great. 60’s and 70’s Electra Records sounds pretty good, too. And Rounder Records stuff sounds excellent as well. I would also add that legacy artists like Dylan, Young, Petty, and Mellencamp care a lot about sound quality, and virtually everything they put out has great sound; I wish the same could be said of Springsteen.
@jrw1971. I enthusiastically second your mention of David Crosby's "If Only I Could Remember My Name". I was fortunate enough to hear it the year it was released and then the reissue in 2006, which is an amazing remastered recording. I recently played it for my brother and he was astounded as to its content and quality, now 50 years from its debut.
For live music, Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus has always ranked high, along with the epic Jazz at the Pawnshop.
I’ve always considered the 2002 Verve SACD release of Getz/Gilberto to be a good recording.
Norah Jones' Come Away WithMe is a very well-recorded piece. And speaking of Crosby, there’s a version of Lee Shore on the 4-CD CSNY box set that is just..............quintessential Crosby. Certainly a beautiful song to begin with, but this version is stellar. I would dare say the best ever recorded.
+1 David Crosby; that LP is on the TAS Super Disc list which fueled the vinyl resurgence and early heavy vinyl reissues. One of my favorite albums but mostly for content; the great sound quality is icing on the cake.
In Jim Smith's Get Better Sound book. he lists his favorite well recorded CDs (around 180) including the one he uses the most (he also likes LPs but not for system set up which this book is about). Very few are "audiophile" releases.
Calexico - The Black Light Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall
Arne Domnérus - Jazz at the Pawnshop
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie - It Might as Well Be Swing David Chesky Quintet - Jazz in the New Harmonic
Absolutely agree with Lee Shore; great call. Just thinking of that performance, gives me goosebumps.
That entire 4 CD set, for the most part, is breathtaking.
Yes, Crosby may be the biggest asshole in rock but what a talent! He follows in the footsteps of other great musician assholes; Stan Getz, Buddy Rich and Delius come immediately to mind.
Hmm, that would be a fun musical thread; The Great Assholes of Music.
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