Best engineered album?

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Mr.Bluelegs
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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by Mr.Bluelegs » Wed Jun 12, 2019 3:06 am

Saint&Sinner wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:36 am
It's crazy isn't it. I record in a little practise room in my house and I have 16 channel inputs and get semi good sound quality/recordings. I think in the 80's my studio/practise room would have cost tens of thousands, and now I use it to tinker around in for fun! Love it.
Great explanation Mr.Bluelegs.
I find producer/engineer can meld quite easily as the direction the producer decides to go in can often influence the equipment and how its set up.
I love the whole process and find it fascinating. It's a shame you never get a "in the studio/making of" of any of alices albums. I love those things looking at the set ups, how they record things, choices they make etc.
Has alice ever done this?
True, we have incredible recording technology in our basements and bedrooms for a fraction of what it would've cost us years ago. The only "in the studio" footage I remember was a brief moment during Prime Cuts when Alice was in the studio during Hey Stoopid (if I remember correctly). I'd love to see more of that, too. A few here pointed out how good the Goes to Hell album sounds and I completely agree. Even much better than WTMN (like someone mentioned). I was always fascinated with the sound of the Flush album produced by Roy Thomas Baker. So perfect for the era and genre they were immersed in.

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by pitkin88 » Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:27 am

I love the production on FTF. Clean and very powerful sound. I'd love to hear RTB talk about that album but I can't find a single thing. He seems a very eccentric bloke.

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by Babysquid » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:20 am

pitkin88 wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:27 am
I love the production on FTF. Clean and very powerful sound. I'd love to hear RTB talk about that album but I can't find a single thing. He seems a very eccentric bloke.
Isn’t there something in that “Welcome to My Nightmare” bio that came out a few years ago?

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by pitkin88 » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:27 am

I'm not even sure what that is. Be nice if there is as id certainly like to hear about it.

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by Model Citizen » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:56 am

From The Inside. While it may be a bit too clean in places, there is no better sounding Cooper record in terms of clarity, balance and depth. I'd love to hear it in 5.1 surround.

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by Babysquid » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:11 am

pitkin88 wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:27 am
I'm not even sure what that is. Be nice if there is as id certainly like to hear about it.
Dave Thompson biography released in 2012, it’s full of inaccuracies so it’s a bit “fish out the facts “

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by While Heaven Wept » Wed Jun 12, 2019 10:12 am

Just thought i'd add a little extra to this. The term 'producer' gets misused quite a lot.

There are many producers, especially these days, that barely touch the mix. A producers role is more-so that of a conducter/master of ceremonies. Someone like Bob Ezrin has a direct input in ideas, song structures, songwriting. It's about one person having the vision to see the project through and it is often the job of the producer to decide which people will engineer, mix and master the recording. The producer does not necessarily mix, but they will certainly direct the show if that makes sense.

In terms of how well an album has been engineered... a well engineered album will often end in a well mixed album. If you can make the sounds of the various instruments sound good on the way in, then chances are it'll be harder for a mixer to ruin them on the way out. So if the audio source is poorly captured at the very start, it'll end up with the mixer/producer having to do a lot of repair work on the way out. This will often result in a sterile final product. ACAS was a good example of a poorly produced album. To me it sounds like a bunch of pre-production demos that were simply polished up in order to release. The vocals seem rushed. Lots of poorly double tracked vocals which don't sit well in the mix. The drums are either programmed or have been sampled and quantised so much as to be indistinguishable from a real drum kit. Guitars seem overly compressed. My real problem with ACAS though is that the songs just don't seem finished. A good producer would have cut out all of the unnecessary waffle in that album and made the songs more punchy.

In terms of Alice's output post MCA era.... Hey Stoopid has a nice shiny production. It has that over-produced sound which was good for the time but has maybe aged a little now. I really like the sound of TLT. Nice grungey guitar sound and a dynamic mix which hasn't been brick-walled. Brutal Planet sadly suffers from that nu-metal compression. There's something quite squelchy and fizzy about the rhythm section. Sounded great at the time as it was so loud, but hasn't aged that well for me. The songs are decent though. I'd say that album is well produced but could be better mixed.

TEOAC is pretty decent. I like the fact that it was done quickly and that kind of shows in the production. Nice and bare but with loads of attitude. W2MN is a good sounding album but for me is over-produced which sucks some of the life out of it. I have the same issue with Paranormal.

I really like the sound of the latest Hollywood Vampires single. You can tell whoever has recorded that knows how to get a great vintage rhythm section sound,

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by Saint&Sinner » Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:29 am

From The Inside. While it may be a bit too clean in places, there is no better sounding Cooper record in terms of clarity, balance and depth. I'd love to hear it in 5.1 surround.
I'd buy that for a dollar! there are a few albums I would love in 5.1
Goes to hell, From the inside, Hey stoopid, The last temptation, W2MN
It's a crying shame they will probably never get done.
I really like the sound of TLT. Nice grungey guitar sound and a dynamic mix which hasn't been brick-walled. Brutal Planet sadly suffers from that nu-metal compression.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of grunge as a genre or a sound in general but TLT really works (apart from unholy war which is just a step too far for me) cleansed by fire especially is a highlight and considering it has 3 producers and who knows how many engineers and studios it sounds remarkably cohesive.
Brutal planet I think sounds great, compression and all - the industrial/downtuned guitars feel comfortable in that harsh compressed sound, sometimes when an album is overly compressed I get ear fatigue really quickly but this album never seems to suffer from that. Maybe having bob ezrin in the background elevated this?
I get when people say a sound is dated but this doesn't bother me, all productions are dated to a greater or lesser degree, it's just whether you like the inherent sound I suppose.

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by mestreech » Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:04 am

Mr.Bluelegs wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 4:27 am
mestreech wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:32 am
Can someone explain me in understandable language what is the difference between :
Producer - engineer - mastering/mixer etc.
I thought Ezrin did it all.
In a nutshell, the engineer sets up the microphones and is mostly concerned with trying to achieve a good recorded sound on an instrument or vocal. The producer usually makes decisions as to which recorded sounds he/she sounds best, assists in the arrangements of the songs, and basically oversees the entire process of the recording often with the input of the artist(s). The producer usually conducts the mixing (blending all the recorded instruments together) often with input from the artist and engineer. After a satisfactory mix is concluded, the master tape (final mixes) are sent out to another party who masters them (putting a final balance on the sonics to ensure the recording sounds good on different formats..i.e.- cd's, vinyl, streaming,). As for Ezrin, he always had a good crew working with him. He always said that you can hear every bass note that Dennis played which is true. Hope this helps a bit.
Thank you

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Re: Best engineered album?

Post by patrick » Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:09 pm

I got an idea of what the work of Ezrin means while looking at the dvd that came with the latest Deep Purple (infinite).
fascinating to see how songs are being made..
you really wouldn't understand..

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