Great Recordings, Sonically Speaking - and Why.
My latest cheap oddball chick cover find gets happens to fall speak to this thread. https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pA4k1kMb-lI/Xc0eHheQB6I/AAAAAAABi_k/dZp9NgFhzWkEiEmRwG7Tpy7H02LcytAHwCLcB... Looks like the ol’ chicken sacrifice-put a spell on you thing, going on there! The LP happens to be a 1963 Audio Fidelity press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Fidelity_Records Audio Fidelity I see is mentioned here, and in a few threads. This was pressed during their "golden years" and sounds everybit audiophool heaven. Amazing ethnic percussion with EXTRA "in the room" presence than "ordinary" LP’s. Chicken was spared. I have a collection of ultra cool 50’s chick LP’s. Most of the music is not my thing, but many actually quality pressings. Martin Denny anyone? |
Since you mentioned Pink Floyd in the OP, check out Airbag, some younger (than PF) Norwegians who were greatly influenced by their elders. My favorite of theirs is, “Disconnected”. It has excellent sound very atmospheric with layers of synths and guitar that will remind you of a guy named DG. This is my favorite but they have 5 or 6 out and one of the others might resonate with you. |
The recordings made by the small http://https//www.soundliaison.com/ label are superb. These are a few of my favorites with the reviews from audiophile publications; ....."This is some of the best sounding drum sound I have ever heard on a recording. Very dynamic and not reserved. The sound of the double bass is full, rich and powerful where needed but with no hint of bloat. And the guitar.....It is clear and reverberant. Naturally, not with added reverb. Of course, the vocals are captured beautifully. Carmen is right there in front of you. This recording doesn’t take you to the recording studio. Even better, it brings the recording studio to your listening room. Very few studio recordings do this. The drums to the left, Carmen in the middle in front of the instruments and the bass just to the right of her and the guitar to the right side of the soundstage. The sound is totally three dimensional. You almost feel like you can reach out and touch everyone. The sound is totally open with natural decay and depth. It is stunning. It really is. No hyperbole.".... Review One Mic+ Recording by Joe Whip at Audiophile Style. |
I agree with Coltrane 2. Jazz at the Pawnshop is the best live recording I have ever heard. I close my eyes and I'm sitting center at a table 12 feet from the stage, 30 feet from the bar in the back round ( hearing mild talk and clanging glasses). The music is melodic, traditional jazz with a very mellow flair. The acoustics are superb. I have over 3,000 LPs and this one is in the top 2 or 3 for sound quality and presence. You do not have to be a jazz purist to love this album...buy it if you can find it. And thanks to Coltrane 1 for bringing it to everyone's attention. |
As Wolfie says, look for early Audio Fidelity pressings. One features Louis Armstrong and one of his last bands as well as Thelma Middleton, and the sound is spectacular. Audio Fidelity also packaged this disk with one by the amateurish Dukes of Dixieland and, amazingly, actual got Louis to record yet another record with them (what a mismatch). This was only sold as a three record set as a private label offering by EJKorvette, the early discount chain. I own that set, and while I don't know for sure I suspect it is worth a fair amount of change. The individual Dukes-only recording and the Armstrong recordings were also sold as singles. BTW, that discount chain had sound rooms in each of its stores in the late fifties/early sixties. Filled with Japanese receivers. |
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Eric Clapton - Change the World, Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live, Tarrus Riley - Human Nature, Brantley Gilbert - Man That Hung The Moon, yes to much of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler, Super Tramp, much of the remastered Beatles, many classics and too many more to mention. It's great that these artist care about what their music actually sounds like and spent the money for the best. Unfortunately very few seem to care or notice anymore so we may hear fewer and fewer great recording. |
"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."@chilli42 AMEN! Understanding recording quality to derive from: composition, performance, sonics. In line with that, some worthy titles: Black Light Syndrome - Bozzio, Levin, Stevens Earth + Sky - Andy Summers If You Look Far Enough - Andersen, Towner, Vasconcelos If Summer Had Its Ghosts - Bruford, Towner, Gomez Last Dance of Mr. X - Andy Summers (forget The Police, just listen to these two from Andy) Meltemi - Alboran Trio Never Ending January - Espen Eriksen Trio Searching for Jupiter - Magnus Ostrom St. Germain (self-titled) |
Even now there’s potentially hundreds of great albums I’ve not heard - mostly US artists little heard in the UK.Great music and great recordings have never stopped being made by great musicians. Sure enough, there is a huge amount of material to wade through even from one week of new releases to the next week , but if you know roughly what genres you tend to stick with, then it's not difficult to look into new stuff day-to-day. If one is interested in 1970s rock music for example (as most of us seem to be!), there is a whole contemporary community of rock artists evolving and changing with modern influences from other genres, creating new worthwhile music, with great recording and musicianship. One of my interests is 1950s torch singers, of which i have hundreds of original albums, in mono and early stereo. Though the overall presence of that type of music culture has shrunk dramatically, their high standards of arrangements and singing performance can be found in contemporary recording artists like Stacy Kent, Diana Panton and Celeste. |
@sumaato , "Audio friends, I’ve got to wonder, reading the posts in this thread, if any listeners have purchased a record since about 1980!" My record buying (current music) began to seriously tail off by the late 1990s. Afterwards it’s mostly been reissues and material by previous favourites (Dylan, Springsteen, Morrissey etc). The main problem is the sheer richness of the back catalogue stretching back some 70+ years. Even now there’s potentially hundreds of great albums I’ve not heard - mostly US artists little heard in the UK. Therefore recent stuff has a lot to compete with if its going to stick and same goes for cinema, TV etc. In fact the only recent (post 2000) movies I’ve seen that have left much of a lasting impression were both from 2008 - The Hurt Locker and The Dark Knight (Batman). It's a moot point as what's actually happening today but there does seem to be a clear discord between recent world events and musical commentary. Any protest singers still around in 2021? Anyone about to instigate a cultural revolution like the ones witnessed in the 1950s and 1960s or are we done? |
sumaato,Ozzy, If you put a foot in the water with any of those artists/labels, it will lead you to other artists/recordings of quality. Have fun! Here's a few more: --Cassandra Wilson --The Future Kings of England --Moses Sumney --Agnes Obel --Reference Recordings label-Classical --Artemis on the Blue Note label |
@fyn, Good review, it might be worth checking. Seems like a lot of care was taken in the recording to maximize fidelity and not commerciality. Not my favourite genre but I'll give some of the more upbeat numbers a listen later. "One more word about the drums. Far too many recording engineers pan the drums across the soundstage, giving an unnatural size to the drums. Not here. The drums are focused in the sound field and sound like a drum kit does live. I wish this was the case in more jazz recordings." |
Carmen Gomes Inc. " Up Jumped the Devil" is an outstanding example of how good a recording can be if the engineer takes the time to get everything right; Understanding the music and the musicians and making optimal use of the acoustic space and high quality equipment. The album is available in RedBook CD on https://carmengomes.bandcamp.com/ and in hi-res on https://soundliaison.bandcamp.com/ for ultra hi-res, DXD and DSD there is the https://www.soundliaison.com/ site. There's a superb review of the album on the site that jimf421 mentioned; ....."This is some of the best sounding drum sound I have ever heard on a recording. Very dynamic and not reserved. The sound of the double bass is full, rich and powerful where needed but with no hint of bloat. And the guitar.....It is clear and reverberant. Naturally, not with added reverb. Of course, the vocals are captured beautifully. Carmen is right there in front of you. This recording doesn’t take you to the recording studio. Even better, it brings the recording studio to your listening room. Very few studio recordings do this. The drums to the left, Carmen in the middle in front of the instruments and the bass just to the right of her and the guitar to the right side of the soundstage. The sound is totally three dimensional. You almost feel like you can reach out and touch everyone. The sound is totally open with natural decay and depth. It is stunning. It really is. No hyperbole.".... https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/sound-liaison-one-mic-recording-r957/ |
Good question. Joe Jackson- Blaze of Glory, and most of his live releases he captures a great sense of space in most of his releases- too often for it to be a fluke Art Blakey and JM- Ugetsu live date at Birdland you can hear the musicians interact and move around the stage Pharoh Sanders- Thembi title track only for great soundstage and a test of transient response Miles Davis- 4 and More/ My Funny Valentine really well captured live date of a band on fire you are transported back to 1964 if listening through transparent equipment B52s- self titled don't laugh this was recorded live in the studio and is just the basic band without embellishment natural studio ambiance Marshall Crenshaw- Field Day cleanly recorded power pop/rockabilly you will get goosebumps listening to 'what time is it' |
Audio friends, I've got to wonder, reading the posts in this thread, if any listeners have purchased a record since about 1980! (And I'm 70). There are countless fabulous recordings produced in the last few years alone, not to mention the '90s, '2000s. To mention just a few artists/labels I know of with consistent great sound who continue to record: --Malia, --Porcupine Tree --Any recent ECM jazz release --Hiatus Kayote --The Robert Glasper Experiment --The XX --King Krule --Cécile McLorin Salvant --The Internet --Stacey Kent --Vanessa Hernandez --The White Birch --Joan Chamorro --Xavier Davis --Anna Maria Jopek --Any Sono Luminus release It's endless. |
I have found this page very useful... https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/the-best-version-of/ They analyze most (all) versions of recordings to determine which sounds best. I have bought several and have not been disappointed. |
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. |
+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. |
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 With Me 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. |
@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. |
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. |
@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! |
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. |
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 |
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! |
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. |
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. |
