What are the best sounding albums in your opinion?

[olepro]

Philip Bailey: Soul On Jazz

This is INCREDIBLE !



Keb' Mo' All albums good, but these three is fantastic sound !

Suitcase

Peace...Back By Popular Demand

The Door

[robogone]

I agree, with a caveat. The problem is that you are right, 'best' is indeed subjective.

Not all evaluations of recordings have to be that subjective, though. The idea of 'fidelity' is nowhere near as subjective as 'best'. And there are definitely some recordings that have better fidelity than others.

But fidelity is almost gone as a standard in recording (except for orchestral recordings). Most people are going after a 'sound' that is highly artificial, so there is no standard to judge this sound against like there always was in the days if high fidelity (e.g. 'Is it live or is it Memorex?). This is all well and good, but people still want a simple standard even though there really isn't one.

I actually answered this with a thought I had in mind a few days back, and it was essentially the second part of what you said - I don't think that the past decade or two has had much to offer in the way of production values. As you said, it's all about "a sound".

In particular I was listening to 'In the Year 2525' and 'Spirit in the Sky' and thought that one of the things that makes them such good songs is the imperfections in the recordings. They're not recorded in digital perfection on the highest quality hardware, they're organic products of the time with a sound determined by the situation. There's no element of trying to make it sound like a reference mix or any of that bullshit, it's just get the ideas and feelings down on tape.

Why I mentioned low fidelity is that it sometime makes something amazing to listen to. Could you imagine the Throbbing Gristle material recorded and produced in the way that modern recordings are made? Or 'Third' by Soft Machine? It would ruin them.

[t3toooo]

almost everything released by ecm (because i don't know all records).


http://www.ecmrecords.com/Startseite/startseite.php

[The Telenator]

The "past decade or two" has been a total revolution in technology, sound, standards -- heck, you name it. I'm not saying here that everything sounds better today. I'm just trying to point out what's happened.

We've seen digital methods come in full-force.
You can now play outrageously good instruments via PC, many for free, that would have cost many thousands 20 years ago.
We have seen the Loudness Wars come in, take hold, and possibly somewhat on the way out now.
We've seen that all these new methods and potential advantages do not necessarily guarantee better music, neither will it 'save' one's music -- still hard to 'polish turds'.
Musicians can learn the latest technology and software for free, get set up and record at home almost for free, and can go from start to finish all on their own, if desired, resulting in a fully finished work.
In theory and with very little invested beyond one's own talents, any musician can now produce the 'world's finest recordings and albums' from the coffee table in their homes.

Obviously, we could go on a while with the above list. What's been most interesting to me through all of this is that the resulting music we hear today isn't 'worlds better'. Someone totally unawares of all that's been changing behind the scenes could probably tell by listening to new music that 'something' is different, but might be hard put to say what, in fact, has changed.

I've followed, studied and employed most of what's become available in particularly the last 10 years. As a musician and sound recording professional since the late '60s, I'd have to say that I'm rather pleased with all that is available and affordable today. More important, though, I really believe we are entering a period where the advances are leveling off some. The latest innovations have been less earth-shattering. There isn't really a lot more that can be added to DAWs and VST instruments or effects.

I believe now that those who entered into all of this more recently will assimilate most of the new. Those who have been at this for a while will have a moment to reflect on all they have acquired and learned. With all of this basically at everyone's fingertips, the question may be that timeless asking of "Where do we go from here?" Sure, there will be more of the 'same old, same old', but I sort of expect things will get quite interesting for the rest of our current decade. I really can't see any further beyond that at the moment.

[robogone]

We've seen that all these new methods and potential advantages do not necessarily guarantee better music, neither will it 'save' one's music -- still hard to 'polish turds'.

I don't know. I'm sure Waves must make a one knob turd polisher by now.

[hibidy]

Poor telenator, he tried SO HARD!

Yeah, tech is amazing, and I still don't get the guitar sounds I want

[dune_rave]

Philip Bailey: Soul On Jazz

This is INCREDIBLE !



Keb' Mo' All albums good, but these three is fantastic sound !

Suitcase

Peace...Back By Popular Demand

The Door

Wow! I've got that Philip Bailey album - It's really good! (Didn't expect to see it on this forum

[an-electric-heart]

I think "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" has a really awesome sound... even though it's not the best Floyd album, but it does feature "On the Turning Away" and "Learning to Fly", both way up towards the top in my 'Best of Pink Floyd' rankings, "On the Turning Away" in particular, even though the master is very quite by today's standards, I think it's the honestly the biggest sounding song I've ever heard...

U2's "The Joshua Tree" is another awesome sounding album... Unfortunately though, as a rule I think I like "the 80's sound"

[K-Bee]

Wow! I've got that Philip Bailey album - It's really good! (Didn't expect to see it on this forum

I have it too, and you're absolutely right; This type of music doesn't seem to catch much attention on KVR. I usually use specialist forum when discussing soul/jazz/funk music. As for the sound, I never really noticed - and my Hi-Fi setup is rather good even.

Hi-Fi buffs might check out the LP pressing of "Slave To The Rhythm" by Grace Jones. In the mid 80s som labels used DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) and the results were often stunning. Arguably, this is the best sounding vinyl record in my 2000+ collection.
Quite a few releases on the Dave grusin/Larry Rosen label GRP sounded great too.

[SODDI]

I agree, with a caveat. The problem is that you are right, 'best' is indeed subjective.

Not all evaluations of recordings have to be that subjective, though. The idea of 'fidelity' is nowhere near as subjective as 'best'. And there are definitely some recordings that have better fidelity than others.

But fidelity is almost gone as a standard in recording (except for orchestral recordings). Most people are going after a 'sound' that is highly artificial, so there is no standard to judge this sound against like there always was in the days if high fidelity (e.g. 'Is it live or is it Memorex?). This is all well and good, but people still want a simple standard even though there really isn't one.

I actually answered this with a thought I had in mind a few days back, and it was essentially the second part of what you said - I don't think that the past decade or two has had much to offer in the way of production values. As you said, it's all about "a sound".

In particular I was listening to 'In the Year 2525' and 'Spirit in the Sky' and thought that one of the things that makes them such good songs is the imperfections in the recordings. They're not recorded in digital perfection on the highest quality hardware, they're organic products of the time with a sound determined by the situation. There's no element of trying to make it sound like a reference mix or any of that bullshit, it's just get the ideas and feelings down on tape.

Why I mentioned low fidelity is that it sometime makes something amazing to listen to. Could you imagine the Throbbing Gristle material recorded and produced in the way that modern recordings are made? Or 'Third' by Soft Machine? It would ruin them.

Stuff like "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson and "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" sound amazing to this day despite the fact that they were usually recorded on a 2-track and released in glorious mono (versions you hear these days have been stereo-ized.

The guys who recorded, produced and mastered those tracks were fu**ing geniuses. I am in total awe of them.

I urge any who have not seen it to catch the video "Standing in the Shadows of Motown".

[A.M. Gold]

No Doubt---Rock Steady

Steely Dan----Gaucho & Aja

F. Mac, the obvious one

Cat Stevens---Buddha & The Chocolate Box

Michael Jackson---Off The Wall & Thriller

Kenny Loggins---Keep The Fire

AC/DC---Highway to Hell & Back In Black

Earth, Wind, & Fire---All 'n' All

ELO---Out of The Blue

[an-electric-heart]

I saw "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" recently, I had no idea motown in general was basically one band... just with different singers, fascinating!
... now I feel like a dick because I'm racking my brain and can't remember what that band was called... I feel it's the least I could do after seeing that doco'

[A.M. Gold]

Yea, the Funk Brothers, although there was also a Motown extension in LA, where the Jacksons stuff was handled, and I'm not sure but I think they used different (but equally great) session people. And that amazing mid 70's Stevie Wonder stuff was on the Tamala imprint, all recorded in NY to my knowledge.

Bob Olhsson hangs out on The Womb forum if you ever want to start a thread picking his brain about Motown. He engineered there in the late '60's and early '70's and from my experience he's generally willing to answer questions. I learned some interesting things about their recording setup and mix practices. For one, pretty much every electric guitar and bass sound you hear on Motown records (at least the Detroit ones) was done purely direct, using a custom DI box they made there.

[robogone]

Stuff like "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson and "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" sound amazing to this day despite the fact that they were usually recorded on a 2-track and released in glorious mono (versions you hear these days have been stereo-ized.

The guys who recorded, produced and mastered those tracks were fu**ing geniuses. I am in total awe of them.

I couldn't agree more. Considering how rushed people were to get in and out of the studio because of the expense and the fact that they had such limited equipment, it's amazing that things got recorded anywhere near as well as they did.

Totally in awe of anyone who produced or engineered any of the recordings from that era. I'll bet if you give the best engineers around today the same equipment they wouldn't be able to record anything near as good.

[mellotronaut]

Jeff Buckley, GRHS.........wow, some FAB stuff there

Rumors? Might be the BEST EVER. I mean, I don't care if you like FM or not....that was mixed and sounds f**king superb.

Steely Dan "Aja" could be a close second. That is a real benchmark in sonic quality imho.

these

and

Goldfrapp - Seventh Wave
Nick Drake - Bryter Later
Massive Attack - Mezzanine

and, like Ariston, i also like Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway original vinyl a lot.