Moshkiae
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/14 19:57:36
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Some of the greatest albums of all time (IMHO) were recorded in the 70s - for various different reasons I'd include Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zep IV, The Clash London Calling, Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, ELP Brain Salad Surgery, ELO Out of the Blue, Gong Flying Teapot Led Zep 4 may have had Stairway to Heaven ... but the real thing was the first Led Zeppelin album ... which took America by storm and then some. Back to the 60's! Gong -- that would be the Trilogy, all 3 albums culminating with "You" which is one of the best rock albums ever done!
As a wise Guy once stated from his holy chapala ... none of the hits, none of the time ... prevents you from becoming just another turkey in the middle of all the other turkeys!
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lespaulman35
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 01:37:36
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It may well be nostalgia but there was a whole dimension of enjoying music that vanished, from the dusky listening rooms of the record shops, choosing an album to purchase, reading the cover notes on the way home to lovingly removing the cellophane drawing out the inner sleeve placing the pristine new disc on the turntable.
Then just kicking back and being blown away.
Analysis may 'prove' in many ways that this wasn't the 'best' sounding era in terms of 'fletcher/munson' curves, signal to noise ratios, frequency responses and all that slide rule garbage they go on about upstairs, but you could feel, taste, smell and touch the whole experience of enjoying sounds back then. Much less so since.
+1
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Purple Rhapsody
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 03:12:15
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lespaulman35
It may well be nostalgia but...
You have to be careful with nostalgia.... it ain't what it used to be :) Anyway, I was thinking about this the other day when listening to a CD I found in the attic - it was the first issue of a digital transfer of ELO's A New World Record. It sounded quiet, fuzzy, and generally crap. In the years since I'd bought it I had purchased the newly digitally remastered version and in comparison it sounds absolutely fantastic - crisp, clear, and dynamic. I first heard it on vinyl and listening to the remastered CD helps me to rediscover the nuances that were in the recording to begin with whereas listening to the fuzzy first CD version just makes me want to sing along. What am I trying to say here....? I dunno :) I guess that good quality recordings exist across the ages but it's the attention to detail at all stages that make the difference. As an example, I have never heard a bad album (sonically)that Alan Parsons has been involved with as engineer or producer (he was an engineer on DSOM I believe). He is meticulous in ensuring the sound is paramount. Okay, so the music can sometimes be suspect but the orgasmic intensity for audiophiles is guaranteed to be off the scale. So... I still dunno what I'm trying to say... I just enjoy waffling... Cheers, Terry. PS: I also enjoy waffling with becan and mable syrup but that's another story....
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gordonrussell76
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 08:10:11
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I am in my 30's so missed 60's and 70's and yet late 60's (motown, jame Brown) and early 70's are probably when the majority of my favourite records are from.
I think that using ol school valve mics on drums etc from that era probably has a lot to do with it, and the analogue, it just all sounds so squiggy and warm.
I am probably biased as well becuase i am into Soul and Funk and those 2 eras are when it all happened.
Funnily enough the 80's which is what i grew up with i hate, its all so clinical sounding.
Everything in this post is subjective and in no way should be taken as definitive.
G
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tarsier
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 11:31:26
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I have never heard a bad album (sonically)that Alan Parsons has been involved with as engineer or producer (he was an engineer on DSOM I believe). He is meticulous in ensuring the sound is paramount. Okay, so the music can sometimes be suspect but the orgasmic intensity for audiophiles is guaranteed to be off the scale. Except for the original CD of Tales of Mystery and Imagination. He must have just gotten his new Lexicon reverb box, because the CD is drowning in it. The original LP (and subsequent CD reissue) is much better sounding with less 'verb. Plus the songs are hilarious. As for the best sounding decade: it's 2000-2010. And I have no doubt that in 50 years it will be 2050-2060.
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philz
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 16:32:36
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I'll throw in with my own spin on the question, and say that the 60's were the most influential decade in terms of songwriting and stylistic development in almost every genre. You had the 'British Invasion', the heyday of R&B, Motown, Dylan going electric, folk rock, Woodstock, the dawn of metal, AM pop stations going FM and playing hard rock, the list goes on and on.
At the risk of giving away my ever advancing age, I was active in the music biz in NYC in the later 60's, and I have to tell you, the single most defining event was the Beattle's release of "Sgt. Pepper." The entire recording industry literally screeched to a halt, with producers and A&R men of every stripe, re-evaluating what they were doing.
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The Maillard Reaction
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 18:29:12
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The thing to remember about the 1960's is that the listening public did not have the playback infrastructure they enjoyed by the mid 1970's.
I have fond memories of listening to great records in the sixties on a foldout player with attached speakers. As a child that seemed normal. Only wealthy people and swinging bachelors had hi-fi. (IIRC the term hi-fi was coined in the early 1950's and is associated with the Williamson amplifier).
By the mid seventies a lot more people had opportunity to experience great playback systems. That made the record producers push their craft to the limit.
Just something to throw in the mix... mainly to explain why I chose the 1970s rather than the 1960s as the best sounding decade.
best regards,
mike
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ricstudioc
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 19:36:59
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Solidly in my 50's, here - I'm going with the 70's. The sheer amount of creativity, coupled with the technical advances, made for a seemingly endless onslaught of really great albums.
Certainly, there have been some great works before/after (you can NOT minimize the Beatles in this conversation), but thru the 70's it would be easier to list the releases that were dogs than to try and itemize the really great stuff that was coming out.
Remember FM in the 70's? In an hour you could be exposed to a more varied menu of brilliantly written and produced music than you'll find in a month, these days....
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auto_da_fe
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 20:12:28
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Mr McCue...you mean when you were a small child you were not lounging in a smoking jacket, pipe in hand, listening to the latest records on your Hi-Fi system that was most highly recommended in Playboy?
That's how I remember it, and do not try to convince me otherwise.
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The Maillard Reaction
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/15 20:46:18
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No... but I did have a secret leather bound hand held radio that I would listen to after lights out. Like some kind of international espionage agent.
:-)
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UbiquitousBubba
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/16 09:25:43
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For a moment, I was worried that your cover had been blown. I then realized that The Man probably hasn't bugged the CH.
Still, I'd watch out for any predator drones and black helicopters.
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southpaw3473
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/16 12:24:59
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Jonbouy
The first half of '70's
Loudness wasn't an issue, we had volume controls and knew how to use them. Many of the famous British consoles that are emulated in software today were standard fit in many top studios.
'Hi-Fi', tape decks and turntables, still had a bit of youth left in them before they all peaked in some form of standard quality and turned Japanese a few years later with lovely space-age looking systems from Bang & Olufson and the like still being vaunted objects of desire.
Lots of seminal albums at the time too, as the only interference that many bands had from record companies then was the simple instruction to produce a record.
Ziggy Stardust, Seven Seas of Rhye, Close to the Edge, the good Supertramp albums, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road the list IS endless.
It may well be nostalgia but there was a whole dimension of enjoying music that vanished, from the dusky listening rooms of the record shops, choosing an album to purchase, reading the cover notes on the way home to lovingly removing the cellophane drawing out the inner sleeve placing the pristine new disc on the turntable.
Then just kicking back and being blown away.
Analysis may 'prove' in many ways that this wasn't the 'best' sounding era in terms of 'fletcher/munson' curves, signal to noise ratios, frequency responses and all that slide rule garbage they go on about upstairs, but you could feel, taste, smell and touch the whole experience of enjoying sounds back then. Much less so since.
That was a perfect summation of many of my points. Jeez, did you grow up in my neighborhood? I hadthis conversation again yesterday in an tea shop of all places, and the proprietress is a famous player and singer. She said the 50s were the best! Her point was that by the 70s most equipment was solid state and that great tube sound from the Sinatra and Nelson Riddle cuts was transistored out. Interesting point but I still hold to my 70s stand.
We'll not risk another frontal assault-that rabbit's dynamite!!!
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Dave King
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/16 12:40:23
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I would go along with the 70's as well as the best decade overall.
However, a couple of standout recordings from the 80's were Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms and Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair. Both of these sound amazing.
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ricstudioc
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Re:Best Sounding Decade
2010/09/16 19:22:27
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Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms and Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair. Agreed - both brilliant works. BIA remains one of the most emotionally laden albums I've ever heard. Knofler knows his writing.... Hmmm, got an hour to kill, think I'll put it on. Later.....
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