Best "Sounding" Record (engineered, mixed & mastered)

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There are some threads on best "produced" album, but that's not my question. What is best "sounding" recorded album, the album with the highest overall fidelity. From recording, to mixing and finally mastering, the best overall sounding album. Keeping in mind dynamics, frequency range, accuracy, details, etc. etc. This is not a question of artistic merit, it's more technical. Classical recordings are not eligible, keep it in the popular music realm. Re-mastered albums are fair game if you think they are superior to the original version. SACD, DVDAUDIO, 5.1, etc. don't count, i don't want the format confusing the question.

alright GO!

― PeteyPistol, Saturday, 17 March 2007 02:58 (eighteen years ago)

So you're not asking what's the best "sounding," you're asking what's the most impressively naturalistic recording ever.

― nabisco, Saturday, 17 March 2007 03:04 (eighteen years ago)

well not exactly, it doesn't necessarily have to sound natural. daft punk - 'Homework' or Eno 'music for airports' could be fair game for example, they don't sound particularly natural. there is still a subjective aspect to it. i just don't to be about the "production" so much.

― PeteyPistol, Saturday, 17 March 2007 03:10 (eighteen years ago)

A lot of dudes might say Steely Dan's "Aja."

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 17 March 2007 03:16 (eighteen years ago)

that's a good one. great for samples. supposedly bankrupted lord tariq and peter guns for the cost of clearing the "black cow" sample for "deja vu".

how about Yes - 'Close To The Edge' ?

― PeteyPistol, Saturday, 17 March 2007 03:23 (eighteen years ago)

talk talk.

― jackl, Saturday, 17 March 2007 05:20 (eighteen years ago)

I'm gonna go with the one that's been knocking me completely on my ass every time I listen to it lately: California Here I Come, a Bill Evans live album recorded in 1967.

Jazz counts, right?

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 06:31 (eighteen years ago)

Laughing Stock by Talk Talk or Roomsound by Califone.

― Scik Mouthy, Saturday, 17 March 2007 07:49 (eighteen years ago)

I also think Vaya by At The Drive-In is amazingly well done.

― Scik Mouthy, Saturday, 17 March 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

Aladdin Sane
It'll End in Tears
Bitches Brew, but in a way that's counterintuitive to the question i.e. because of its delicious smoky murk.
UFOrb, maybe.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 17 March 2007 10:12 (eighteen years ago)

Hood's Rustic Houses Forlorn Valleys is an absolute marvel of production, a spare, atmospheric pastoral soundscape that wrings the most exquisite desolation out of the subtlest production techniques. It sounds as open as the fields, something I can say of few other records (Talk Talk's last two albums perhaps, and some Bark Psychosis).

(All of those bands are frequently compared to each other, with good reason.)

― unfished business, Saturday, 17 March 2007 11:22 (eighteen years ago)

The Real People's self-titled debut album is a masterpiece.

― Hupi Bojangls, Saturday, 17 March 2007 11:28 (eighteen years ago)

xpost - does it have any tunes though?

― fandango, Saturday, 17 March 2007 12:54 (eighteen years ago)

That's not the issue, fandango. The OP explicitly stated that "This is not a question of artistic merit, it's more technical". It DOES have tunes, very minimalist ones, mostly based around an a-b-c-a-b-c-a-b guitar hook, incidental sampling, or two-note drones (in the first and last tracks). Not 'tunes' in a traditional pop sense, but timeless sound patterns that stick around in your brain.

― unfished business, Saturday, 17 March 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

I enjoy Hood but for me their biggest problem is they have precisely one "song" that sticks around in my brain.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 17 March 2007 13:09 (eighteen years ago)

Hood are one of those bands I admire more than I like. The Bill Evans is a good call. I nominate PiL's Metal Box in it's original 12-inch format.

― leavethecapital, Saturday, 17 March 2007 13:55 (eighteen years ago)

The first note in Van Halen's '1984' comes from a pretty low place that wasn't heard in records before that time.

― calstars, Saturday, 17 March 2007 17:45 (eighteen years ago)

I don't understand the distinction being drawn here between the best "produced" and the best "sounding."

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 18:04 (eighteen years ago)

someone can produce something and have almost nothing to do with the engineering, mixing, or mastering of an album. i think this person is just looking for examples where EVERY element creates some sort of perfect sounding thing. however you may define that. or judge that. and we all have different ears.

― scott seward, Saturday, 17 March 2007 18:06 (eighteen years ago)

I'm just trying to make sense of it. If the question had nothing to do with artistic direction and only technical accomplishment, it would necessarily be "what albums sound the most realistic/natural," but Petey said that's not what he means. Otherwise, if you start talking about what albums sound the most pleasing in some subjective sense, you're talking about creative decisions and not purely technical ones.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

Are you after a Tuomy Award or sump'n?

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 17 March 2007 19:12 (eighteen years ago)

Well I think what he said about albums not having to be "natural" sounding was more directed towards the inclusion of music that is more electronic or studio made, and less acoustic or live based. That said, I'm always impressed by the sound of Massive Attack's "Mezzanine". The consistency, the details, and the way the layers of sound produce a depth to the songs is amazing.

― the Dirt, Saturday, 17 March 2007 19:27 (eighteen years ago)

Well I think what he said about albums not having to be "natural" sounding was more directed towards the inclusion of music that is more electronic or studio made, and less acoustic or live based.

Right, but my point was what yardstick can be used for judging the purely technical merit of a recording besides how realistic it sounds? And if you're talking about non-acoustic sounds, how can there be any reference point? If you say that something sounds pleasant or enjoyable but not necessarily natural or realistic, you're talking about the production, the artistic direction of the mix, and not just the engineering.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

The word this thread is looking for is "exquisite." That's the key to this question. To one person the most exquisite album could be an amazingly naturalistic acoustic recording. To another person it might be a staggeringly precise studio construction. But I think we can all agree that anything that would be labeled "exquisite" is gonna be a pretty hefty technical accomplishment. One might call Violator exquisite, and another might call a state-of-the-art Telarc classical recording exquisite (yes, I know classical doesn't count), but nobody is gonna call, like, Damned Damned Damned exquisite.

So, problem solved:

What is the most exquisite-sounding record you've ever heard, in your opinion?

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not sure about that, factor. I think something lo-fi and generally not technically-polished could still be exquisite, but I don't think that's what Petey was trying to get at.

Anyway, I don't mean to make this into an argument about the question - my point was mostly that you can't so cleanly separate the technical ("engineering") of recording from the artistic ("production").

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 21:16 (eighteen years ago)

I don't see a case where a lo-fi record could be described as "exquisite-sounding," unless you're confusing sound with the music itself, which is not that this discussion is about. You could call a simple recording exquisite, and many of the most exquisite-sounding recordings ever made are indeed extremely simple... but a lo-fi recording is a lo-fi recording. Lo-fi = low fidelity = technically poor = not particularly "exquisite," if you're using that word correctly.

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

I don't see a case where a lo-fi record could be described as "exquisite-sounding,"

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, for instance.

Not sure what you mean about using the word correctly. Exquisite means "of special beauty or charm, or rare and appealing excellence." It doesn't mean "polished and technically flawless."

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Saturday, 17 March 2007 22:00 (eighteen years ago)

Every dictionary is going to have a different definition and some of them are going to be so vague that you can basically just use that word in place of "good" if you really want to, but the connotation just sometimes doesn't fit. I would say that Village Green Preservation Society is surely of special beauty and charm, and rare and appealing excellence. But it is absolutely not an exquisite-sounding record. Sound-wise it's a slop-fest. And so is Aeroplane, an album which goes well out of its way to sound like shit as an aesthetic choice.

This discussion doesn't help the thread. If you're really of the opinion that In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is the most impressively engineered and mixed record you've heard, I guess that's fine. But I doubt you really think that.

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

Also my non-jazz answer to this thread is Violator.

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 23:23 (eighteen years ago)

there is a fine line between "producing" and "engineering", but the line exists and it shows itself sometimes more than others. take rick rubin for example, famous "producer", the guy hardly touches a mixing board, does little to nothing on the technical side of recording a record. he has a team of engineers who handle the technical job of putting a record to tape (hard drive as the case may be), like choosing mics, eqs, effects, ets. etc. a decent analogy to a record producer is a film director, a creative force overseeing the project, but a director in most cases doesn't actual handle a camera or edit the film.

what are some examples of great "production" but not great "sounding" records from a fidelity standpoint? well i'd say the first two Strokes albums. i think the production is great, the lo-fi vocals, the robotic drum sound, etc. etc. are great creative decisions, but the records aren't the best "sounding" records from a fidelity standpoint. in many ways that's their charm, the newest record has higher fidelity, but it's garbage. lo-fi records can be great, but that's not my question. i think "exquisite-soudning" is not a bad way to characterize. a rick rubin song that comes to mind that is produced really well is Jonny Cash's cover of the NIN "Hurt". Great production, great idea, great treatment, but the fidelity is a little suspect. listen to the recording of jonny's vocals, there are times when vocals clip and becoming distorted, that's a mistake, not a creative decision. personally i like "mistakes" in recordings, it's charming and real, but again, not my question.

i don't want this to be too confusing of a question, i mean it is nerdy, don't get me wrong. it's REALLY nerdy, but i am just curious to see what people think. maybe a better way to think about it is what records do you choose to test a new stereo system, pair of speakers, headphones, etc. there are different ways you can look at the question, maybe something with big dynamics is what's best to you, our loudness, or clarity. that bit is a little subjective, but you still get my point.

i second depeche mode 'violator' too, immaculate.

now, GO!

― PeteyPistol, Saturday, 17 March 2007 23:36 (eighteen years ago)

Specifically "Halo." A sonic masterpiece, that song.

― factor, Saturday, 17 March 2007 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

for stereo testing, lots of folks seem to swear by the half-speed master LP version of Supertramp's Crime Of The Century. or Ghost In The Machine.

― sleeve, Saturday, 17 March 2007 23:50 (eighteen years ago)

Two albums that always come to mind for me:

1.) Sunrise on the Sufferbus - Masters of Reality
2.) Vanguard - Finley Quaye

Neither are seminal, nor are they among my all time fav's, but they sound so good to me, I know not why. The entirety of Sufferbus is this really clean, really big but not sterile sounding album. And the drums and noises on Vanguard are just amazingly mixed, clean, hard, bright, but not too narrow and piercing.

― Jubalique die Zitronen, Sunday, 18 March 2007 00:07 (eighteen years ago)

Pink Floyd - The Wall

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 18 March 2007 01:55 (eighteen years ago)

sunrise does sound excellent. so does the first masters album too in a different way.

man, i don't know, i could be here all day. LOTS of stuff sounds great, you know? the best though? i dunno. like i said, everyone has different ears. talk talk is always brought up. and it's true too. laughing stock, and mark hollis s/t are two of the best sounding CDs that i own. i have hundreds of albums that could all win some sort of prize. just put on sf sorrow the other day and that chiming acoustic guitar on sf sorrow is born. god, that never fails to give me chills. the whole album sounds like a dream. everything is placed perfectly. norman smith is some sort of god.

― scott seward, Sunday, 18 March 2007 02:04 (eighteen years ago)

i think 'amplified heart' by everything but the girl is the cleanest, clearest sounding pop album i've heard - every individual element seems perfectly formed.

― electricsound, Sunday, 18 March 2007 06:20 (eighteen years ago)

Alright, well, I think the best-sounding record is John Vanderslice's Pixel Revolt.

I do really love how Aeroplane sounds, though, and I think Robert Schneider did an excellent job recording it.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Sunday, 18 March 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

Did Norman Smith produce Rubber Soul? I'm confused--never trust the omnipresent Wiki, but that's what it said. And then on the RSoul entry, it says George Martin produced it.

― Jubalique die Zitronen, Sunday, 18 March 2007 19:09 (eighteen years ago)

lennons plastic ono band, maybe trust by low as a newer candidate

― twelve, Sunday, 18 March 2007 19:36 (eighteen years ago)

Norman Smith was, I believe, an engineer at Abbey Road before he was a producer. He probably engineered "Rubber Soul", but certainly didn't produce.

Here's some recordings so "exquisite" that they're practically, well, music to my ears:

Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed
Funkadelic, America Eats Its Young
Supertramp, Crime Of The Century
Stevie Wonder, Talking Book
The Tea Party, The Edges of Twilight

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:10 (eighteen years ago)

Which versions of those recordings though, Myonga?

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago)

How does one gauge how well engineered something like Snivilisation is? I've always adored the sound of that record, the layers, the clarity.

Laughing Stock is an amazing sounding record but isn't really a "natural" sounding one - things like mic'ing the drums from 20 feet away on some tracks create a very strange sound. Spirit of Eden has more unidentifiable / electronic / ambient textures in there too, moving it further away from "natural" still.

Yes, a well-recorded acoustic guitar or double-bass sound can be phenomenal but naturalistic minimalism isn't the be-all and end-all. The new LCD Soundsystem is a pretty awesome "sounding" record - the dynamics and clarity and layering on "All My Friends" is amazing. Boredoms have been getting a lot of play round my house lately too, and Super Roots 7 sounds amazing - on headphones I'm pretty sure it'd melt my brain. Likewise Point]/i] by Cornelius.

I'll mention Roomsound by Califone again - an amazing mixture of country & slide guitars, very subtle electronics and occasional deft feedback, plus vocals, drums, etcetera - it sounds absolutely astonishing. Talker by US Maple was recommended to me a while ago and that's astonishing too - dirty, jagged, muddy, murky, clattering but also incredibly rich, phenomenally so, guitars everywhere and all doing something different.

Then there's stuff like Disco Inferno's EPs and [i]DI Go Pop - "Summer's Last Sound" is wonderful.

Guillemots' album and EPs all sound amazing too - "Sao Paulo" is rivetingly well-recorded, tiny and then huge and then smaller still and then huger still.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 19 March 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

I've always amazed by the separation in sounds in the later Massive Attack albums. I'll hear a really soft sound perfectly clear and only later think about how much EQing and mixing they must have had to get it to show up. In fact, the guy that sold me my monitors played "Butterfly Caught" in order to give me a sense of the sound.

― Vinnie, Monday, 19 March 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

I'm thinking of the compact discs, Nick. At their absolute best - which is NOWHERE near as often as I'd like - CDs really do sound best to my ears; or at least as good as possible without buying a $10,000 turntable. And it's not as though I grew up with CDs, either - I'm old enough to have bought 8-Track tapes!

Also, it's worth noting that my selections were all obviously heavy products of the studio. For naturalistic sound, I'd take practically anything released by Blue Note (hell, anything recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, for that matter) from about the mid-'50s-late '60s.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 19 March 2007 14:31 (eighteen years ago)

I don't just mean the CD or the vinyl - which VERSION on CD? I know America Eats Its Young has at least two releases on CD, for instance, as has Talking Book.

CD also, mostly, sounds best to my ears. Or at least, when used correctly, sounds absolutely bloody amazing to the point where I can't imagine vinyl being better.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 19 March 2007 14:35 (eighteen years ago)

Ha, see, I had the same issue Steve did here -- I think it has to do with leaning on the word "fidelity" in the original question. (Which means "sounds like the original performances," not just "sounds good.") I was going to recommend Movietone on that front, but never mind.

― nabisco, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:09 (eighteen years ago)

how come britishers are so much better at recording acoustic guitars? as opposed to their yankee doodle counterparts. norman smith is only the tip of the iceberg. hell, one acoustic bauhaus track pwns any u.s. 80's production i can think of. and don't get me started on the 60's and 70's. must be more folke in their veins. not in every case, obviously. but, jeez, listen to an early roy harper/john martyn/etc album and then play a friggin' eric anderson record. the u.k. dudes attack with their axes. there is a percussive quality to the recordings of acoustic guitars on a lot of u.k. releases that is just deeper and richer. from meic stevens to friggin' aztec camera. we managed to figure out the fuzzbox pretty good though.

― scott seward, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:23 (eighteen years ago)

so, i guess it's a combo of the way they are played and the way they are recorded...

― scott seward, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:24 (eighteen years ago)

most of my fave sound/production guys are brits though. i consider joe boyd an honorary brit. jeez, mike vernon alone...

john loder r.i.p. you will always be in my heart...

― scott seward, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

I don't see a case where a lo-fi record could be described as "exquisite-sounding," unless you're confusing sound with the music itself,

i think bruce springsteen's nebraska is exquisite-sounding. it sounds like he's on a chair next to you with his guitar and his harmonica, and his voice is so present he could be whispering those dark tales in your ear. i would never use this album to test a new stereo system, however.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 19 March 2007 17:58 (eighteen years ago)

there is a fine line between "producing" and "engineering"

there's is actually a gigantic chasm between producing and engineering. engineering is a specific job function, like "singing" or "guitar playing" or "arranging" or "taking the cover photograph." producing is a vague creative description, used quite differently by different acts, but generally referring to the person or persons who take, or are given, responsibility for the overall sound. sometimes this is the engineer. sometimes this is the guitar player. sometimes this is the full band in consultation with its label rep. sometimes it is no one in particular.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:06 (eighteen years ago)

sometimes a producer just sits in a corner doing coke occasionally looking up to tell everyone how beautiful they sound.

― scott seward, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

"sometimes"

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:46 (eighteen years ago)

I don't just mean the CD or the vinyl - which VERSION on CD? I know America Eats Its Young has at least two releases on CD, for instance, as has Talking Book

OK, I getcha! The Supertramp and Stevie Wonder would be the most recent editions, from 2001 or '03 or thereabouts. The Funkadelic is the Westbound original from 1990. The Tea Party (closest thing to a "contemporary" release) is the original 1995, and I have no idea about the Moody Blues.

Footnote: I bought the entire run of Westbound Funkadelics during the early '90s and except for the famously defective "Free Your Mind", all sound glorious, as good as they possibly could, considering their early ones could've been recorded better. Which is a bit of a drag, because it makes the reissues less useful for an obsessed chump like myself who'll inevitably buy 'em all anyways.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:49 (eighteen years ago)

some of those p-funk vinyl reissues from late 80's/whenever sound better than original westbound vinyl. westbound could have issues with cheap vinyl. although my original pressing of america eats its young sounds great.

― scott seward, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

"Baby" by Yello is certainly a contender. Too bad it wasn't updated as part of the recent reissue program though - there have been some slight improvements in audio since 1991 that it might have benefited from.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 19 March 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

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