2. music
  3. 1357745476

How did "Oh Mercy" end up sounding so great?

Hi,
Years ago, probably not long after it came out, an acquaintance gave me a CD of Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy," which came out in 1989. Not being a Dylan fan, I never played it until a few weeks ago, when I noticed in another thread here that someone recommended it as a recording with an impressive sound stage.
I was blown away by the sonics of this recording. While clearly a big, multi-tracked studio effort, the sonics and sense of spaciousness are extraordinary, and this is just the garden variety CD.
Now, being that 1989 was hardly a golden age of pop music recording, it got me wondering: How did this record end up sounding so amazing? I mean that two ways:
1) Technically, what techniques did the engineers and producer use to get it to sound that way? Miking? Artificial phase manipulations? I don't know anything about studio recording so I'm just guessing here.
2) How, in an era of crappy sounding, compressed recordings, was such a feat pulled off (because it leaves you wondering why more records of that era didn't sound so good)?
Thoughts?
rebbi

Showing 3 responses by rebbi

rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Onhwy61,
Thanks for that video link... it was great. He's a very intense, intelligent person, for sure.
I smiled when he said, "I made a high fidelity record and I stand by it!"
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
One of the things that I found really fascinating about that video (link earlier in this thread) interview with Daniel Lanois is that "Oh Mercy" was recorded in a way that Dylan wasn't used to working. He just sat with Dylan and recorded him playing and singing the songs solo until he and Dylan got a version of each one that they were completely happy with the take. He would then talk to Dylan about "what kind of picture frame he wanted to put around the song," i.e., what musicians should they bring in to complement what had already been recorded. This means that the album is a thoroughly modern creation: created by layering and overdubbing in the studio. And yet, its sense of spaciousness and "air" is extraordinary. This is why I wish somebody that knew a lot more about the recording process than I do could explain how somebody gets a sound like that of a multitracked, studio recording, when so many other recordings made in a similar way sound so lousy.
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Tostadosunidos,
This is the kind of thing I was curious about. I also wonder what Lanois did to achieve the kind of wide, soundstage "spread" that the record manifests... instruments seem to come from way beyond the outer limits of the speakers, and this is surely a deliberate effect.
More to discover