Born to Run: Why the Poor Sound Quality?

A lot of studios were getting rid of their tube stuff and "modernizing" with solid state recording equipment.
IMO: That early transistor stuff was harsh. Could this have contributed to the sonics of the era? Thankfully, some Luddites kept recording with tube equipment!

I have an advanced copy of the new album, Magic and I had to hear it in my car to really appreciate it. The title track and Radio Nowhere are the stand out tracks audio wise and performance wise. At first listen I was not impressed, generic Springsteen, but after repeated listenings I found myself enjoying the songs more and more. The sound is very reminisent of the wall of sound captured on the Born to Run sessions. It should go over great live as these tracks seem to be written for that purpose.

I met Jimmy Iovine, the engineer, several years ago and had a nice discussion on the session environment. I also have heard various bootlegs of this album as part of the studio rehersal environment while it was being creating. A general problem of this album was that it was multi-tracked over many takes (Born to Run alone has 100 plus known takes over a year in progress)and during the mixing sessions, the combining of many takes and tracks degraded the overall production. This was before tape hiss reduction and the downstream degrading of generations of tapes was very common to work around that particular problem. The sessions were especilly grueling (they knew they would be dropped)and Bruce has a high work ethic, and really puts his band through the paces ALL DAY AND NIGHT. Very hard to remain fresh and composed after so many takes. Born To Run the album was always very flat and uninspired compared to the 1975 shows that supported the album. The LA Forum bootleg is a good approximation of the tour at its height.

As a side bar, the very best Springsteen cd is a master tape bootleg of the 1979 "river" sessions. It came out in 1992 in Italy and was titled "The Ties That Bind." Only 1000 were made and one fetched $1,000 on Ebay several years back. I am sure it is online in P to P exchange sites. It was live in studio before mixdown and best approximates the live and dynamic sound what the band is capable of. Those sessions at the Record Plant in NYC absolutely kill the final release that CBS issued as The River in 1980.

agree...well even exile on main st. and electric ladyland are minestone recordings with poor sonics by modern standards...however...the music stands on its own and then some...all along the watchtower does sound very good...

This looks like a really stale post - but i'm hoping someone can chime in. I just got a supposed "new" copy of born to run, still shrink wrapped. Wife paid out the ass for it i'm sure. It sounds like complete crap. I'm having the hardest time with the vocals. Sound compressed to hell, clipping, and distorted. Instrumentals are tolerable. Vox are worse on some tracks than others, which i find odd. Is it the recording itself, or did my wife get swindled when buying the album?

Marantz SR6006, Rega RP1, and B&W 705's...my gear isn't garbage..but this recording sounds like it.

Thanks!