What are the best sounding albums in your opinion?

[rcat]

If we're talking best recording engineer-wise, I'd have to say Annie Lennox-Medusa is the best I've ever heard. Sorry, I can't recall who did the mixing and mastering. Likewise, it is one of my favorites musically.

[metalifuxx]

I could think of a couple hundred albums to list here, but I'll pick one that always stands out (for hard rock in general):

Guns 'N Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Oh yeah, anything that Steven Wilson touches whether it's his material or doing mixing/producing for someone else.

[ariston]

Invisible Touch - Genesis

though there are some catchy tunes (and some horrible drum driven blow jobs unfortunately), i don't like the mix at all. it's totally sterile, imo. the only Genesis album, where i like the mix a lot, is 'Lamb ...'.
most horrible is, what they did to 'Eleventh Earl of Mar' on 'Wind and Wuthering'. drowned in reverb. arrrggh.

Got to agree here... "Invisible Touch" pretty much epitomizes everything I dislike about the sound of 80s records.

Wind and Wuthering... I think the title sums up the overall sound rather well.

[robogone]

Got to agree here... "Invisible Touch" pretty much epitomizes everything I dislike about the sound of 80s records.

Agreed again - there were various changes in approach early to mid 80s that in the minds of many were considered steps forward, but the end result in retrospect is a horrible, clinical sound that just seems to make everything sounds like someone put a lot of polish on something dead that they propped up and hoped no one would notice.

[contrary]

Got to agree here... "Invisible Touch" pretty much epitomizes everything I dislike about the sound of 80s records.

Agreed again - there were various changes in approach early to mid 80s that in the minds of many were considered steps forward, but the end result in retrospect is a horrible, clinical sound that just seems to make everything sounds like someone put a lot of polish on something dead that they propped up and hoped no one would notice.

from http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_totos_af ... _channel=1

"One other cool thing about the record is something we need to go back to," Ladanyi says. "The lack of compression used on the final process for the record to be pressed was not an issue like it is today, so the great dynamics of Toto as a band were really felt and heard by the end-user. Today, almost every record you hear is so compressed. A musician's ability to play with their feel is all about their dynamic range, and when that gets taken out of the mix, the end-user has no relationship with the musician or artist and how they feel things

CIRCA 1982



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[GRUMP]

Bump!

Madonna - Ray of light (William O. anyway)
Metallica - Black
Alanis Morisette - live @MTV unplugged (!)
Annie Lennox - Medusa

Lionel Richie? Commodores! Enigma. U2!? Motown

And lots of singles from the pre-album era.

[Shane Sanders]

I always enjoyed the way the albums by The Police were realized. But I love hi-hats, so that's part of it.

Middle-era RUSH is pretty awesome, too.

-S

[PatchAdamz]

There are so many recordings now that sound great due to technology but way back in the days when they could only record live, everything had to be perfect.
Here are some old live recordings (studio and performance)

Some very old recordings that still sound good:

Artist: Patsy Cline
Release date: November 27, 1961
Recorded: November 16, 1960 —; August 25, 1961
Producer: Owen Bradley
Genres: Country pop and Traditional pop

Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
Recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City.

Sinatra at the Sands

Artist: Frank Sinatra
Release date: July 1, 1966
Recorded: January and February 1966
Producer: Sonny Burke
Awards: Grammy Award for Best Album Notes

LITTLE FEAT - WAITING FOR COLUMBUS

Waiting for Columbus is the first live album by the band Little Feat, recorded during seven performances in 1977. The first four shows were held at the Rainbow Theatre in London on August 1–4, 1977.

[Biome_Digital]

Add broken bells - broken bells.

[vurt]

prince - pretty much all of them.

spiritualized - ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

bowie - station to station /heroes/low/scary monsters/hunky dory

sunn0))) - monoliths and dimensions.


primal scream - screamadelica/xtrmntr

[vurt]

stone roses. debut/eponymous

[donkey tugger]

stone roses. debut/eponymous

Great songs, but too much fackin' reverb. Suppose they had to a bit though, on account of Ian Brown's 'inconsistencies' in hitting the notes.

Blur - Parklife. Now that's a good sounding record.

[vurt]

stone roses. debut/eponymous

Great songs, but too much fackin' reverb. Suppose they had to a bit though, on account of Ian Brown's 'inconsistencies' in hitting the notes.

Blur - Parklife. Now that's a good sounding record.

it depends what we mean by "great sounding record".
if its a sort of best mix with clarity and great performers all around (yeah brown was a bit "off" but ...) if on the other hand we mean great sounding because it stands out due sometimes to those "over done bits" then id argue it's s great sounding record

nothing else has ever sounded like it, some have tried and no one remembers their names...
so it stands out on its own in my humble opinion.

i would also agree with the blur - parklife, although a couple of the actual songs do my head in.

back up north, more your way...

pulp - different class.
some lovely work on there, as seen in one of those classic albums shows

and donks - if you've not seen it, check out an old "that pedal show" on pootube, graham coxon showing some mad skills!!!

[dark water]

Bjork - Debut

Radiohead - In Rainbows

[vurt]

bjork can do no wrong!