From a recording standpoint for me many of the singer/big band records from the fifties still qualify as some of the most astonishingly good recordings ever.  To be able to create a sense of intimacy with 30 musicians or so and a singer and doing it all in one take and live.  Geeze louise.  Can you say real talent?

So.....

are we to be astonished by the recording, the performance, the memories invoked or the back story.

I don't want to get this wrong.

bapu


astonishing can be such an obtuse term

"absolutely amazing", now there's a way to describe something

This says it on the label.  I should go home and listen to the album tonight.  Oh, I am seeing Devo.  Never mind

Tonight.  Before the cream sits out too long.  I couldn't help buying tickets.  I have an uncontrollable urge.  And I am a mongoloid.  

offnote


it's no wonder for me that some old recordings sound better then current - they had tube amps which are better (warmer and less noisy) then today's digital crap. Tubes are coming back anyway.

Ah, you're one of "those" types, eh?  Here's the tube shrine I put together a long time ago:
 

 
And a larger version...

SteveStrummerUK
And am I the first to mention DSOTM? 

I wonder how much RAM they used on that album.
Alan Parsons engineered it, you know.

SteveStrummerUK




And am I the first to mention DSOTM?

Listened to that one this pm to get used to the new monitors and the new room. Almost had tears rolling down my cheeks, even if I've heard it thousands of time.

how about Buddy Rich firing up at his band on the bus after a gig?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ssZeOZkWU


Warning: lots of swearing

space_cowboy


Tonight.  Before the cream sits out too long.  I couldn't help buying tickets.  I have an uncontrollable urge.  And I am a mongoloid.  

How could anybody have known?
 
You wear a hat, have a job and bring home the becan, that's what threw me.

That's a great perspective Spacey. I'm with you, I'm frequently amazed it all works at all. :-)






Here's a great Buddy Rich interview segment that shows his happy side and his love for the craft:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...6w&feature=related

The Troggs arguing in the studio..very strong language warning; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En4ase-1-FA

honestly I don't get Steely Dan as well except that one song and comparing him to Floyds is rather ridiculous.
 

I was talking to friend of mine who also teaches where I work and he is a great mastering engineer. He was telling me he had to master an album recently for vinyl release and he was amazed at how hard it was and restricting compared to mastering for digital.

I have forgotten myself as I mastered a few vinyl releases myself many moons ago. So we are in a new age in terms of our playback medium and it sounding the best it has ever sounded IMO. As for Steely Dan the last two releases were all digital productions and they sound amazing and by far the best Steel Dan sounding mixes ever. Viynl can sound very good for sure. One great period for vinyl was the Sheffield Lab series they did sometime back where live performances were mixed live and sent direct to the cutting lathe without any tape multi tracking involved and they do sound amazing. I have got a very high quality turntable set-up here so I can say it IS good.

Just because pop music may be sounding worse due to loudness wars and mp3's and such many other styles and genres are forging ahead. Pop music is just such a small percentage of what is out there musically. I have been listening for the last 55 years say so I have heard how things sound Jazz wise and many other styles wise from say 1960 but all the music that came before as well. We invested in good Hi Fi setups early which was a great thing too.

Jazz especially is sounding just so good now and there is no comparison period. Just listen to the very latest modern Jazz recordings and hear the detail and sound. We can record now the way it was done then and still get that sound and probably better as a result of modern technology but we have other options now making the music sound incredible. Transients and the noise floor has never been better. Big band music sounds the best now, small ensembles you name it everything sounds better. 

I am an electronic music enthusiast too and the finest digital productions of this type of music kill even the best vinyl productions from years ago. Some great music came out of all that of course and I am not talking about the music at the moment so much anyway. 

If you set you standard on something was not perfect and quite inferior actually you will only ever get to that point and then you will start to think that better sounding technology is worse than your reference. Instead make the finest digital productions we have done your ref standard and try to always meet that instead. As a result of modern technology my own productions have never sounded better than they do right now.

mike_mccue


I'm listening to Norah Jones, Come Away With Me... which is 10 years old... and I couldn't agree more Jeff.

It's a great time for finding great music to listen to.

all the best,
mike

love that album Mike - you have to be in the rigt mood to listen though.
 
Norah Jones' latest is a milllllllllion miles away from that - she really has reinvented herself

I listened to Axis: Bold As Love (again) today and it still amazes me.

I tried listening to some current pop, Q-100 in Atlanta yesterday afternoon while driving home. I liked one song, tolerated another, really did not like some Rihanna crap song.. none of it amazed me. The song I liked was Bruno Mars: The Lazy Song. 

Still, the stuff that Jimi got done in the studio was truly amazing. 
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is amazing if it was truly recorded on a 4 track deck. 
Pet Sounds is amazing.

Frank Zappa made some amazing records.

Leadbelly made some fine recordings but for all the hype I have yet to hear a Robert Johnson recording that I like enough to listen to twice.

Tommy was an amazing record to me... the 1st Allman Brothers Band record was amazing as was Idlewild South. Those two impressed me more than the Fillmore record... guess I am an oddball.

Live/Dead is an amazing recording. It was recorded in 1969 at the Filmore West and the Avalon Ballroom. From wiki: The songs were recorded with a mobile 16-track studio Owsley "Bear" Stanley also asked Ron Wickersham to invent a mic splitter that fed both into the PA and the record inputs with no loss in quality.




I visited the Height in 1968 but I didn't see the Dead... I saw some other stuff though, heh.


J