Volunteers - Jefferson Airplane.

I can`t understand why. The producer Al Schmidt is the same as on the excellent previous one.

Gimme Some Neck - Ronnie Wood

Very good songs, and the playing was really good. The sound and the mix is crap, imo.

The songs came alive on stage with the new barbarians, though.

mediocre album - crappy sound: Steel Wheels, Dirty Work, Between The Buttons,
crappy album with a crappy sound: Undercover and every jagger solo album ( yeah, the snare sound ruins Wandering Spirit too)

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gimme Some Neck - Ronnie Wood

Very good songs, and the playing was really good. The sound and the mix is crap, imo.

The songs came alive on stage with the new barbarians, though.

Exactly right!

"No Anchovies, Please"

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gimme Some Neck - Ronnie Wood

Very good songs, and the playing was really good. The sound and the mix is crap, imo.

The songs came alive on stage with the new barbarians, though.

100% agree.
The drum sound is especially bad. What the hell were they thinking (or taking) when they mixed this thing?

See also the 1980's music thread currently on iorr. Many of those albums could be faulted for crappy sound. Two (& maybe more) of my favorite albums of all time come from the 1980's, and although I still love the songs within, sometimes the production (mainly drum sound) makes me wince as I listen.

Peace,
Mr DJA

x



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-11-21 16:35 by vudicus.

Appetite For Destruction could do with a remaster. It's sounds very tinny. Then again, with remastering these days, can anyone be trusted to not bodge the sound?

Gimme some neck is for me an album I have so many fond memories associated with that I never knew it was mixed wrong. My sentiments override all criticism. Seven Days indeed....

Ratt's first album was unintentionally lo-fi.

And maybe it's just me, but what about the drum sound on the pre-Hagar Van Halen albums - very hissy, no?

Let's say The Beatles - Rubber Soul and all Dinosaur Jr albums...Are you experienced with Jimi also...

Street Legal - Bob Dylan

Thankfully the problem was corrected on the remix & remaster that came out in 1999. Its like night and day.

Quote
Gazza
Street Legal - Bob Dylan

Thankfully the problem was corrected on the remix & remaster that came out in 1999. Its like night and day.

very true..sounds like it was recorded underwater

Quote
Claire_M
And maybe it's just me, but what about the drum sound on the pre-Hagar Van Halen albums - very hissy, no?

I wouldn't say hissy, but the drums on early VH albums were kind of boxy and swampy or whatever. There's less difference between snare, toms and kick compared to most rock drums. It kinda mixes well with Eddie's "brown sound" guitar. This was definitely intentional, at least after a while. If you listen to the intro to Hot For Teacher you can hear how the toms and kicks sound almost the same by purpose. On their debut album the drums sound a little more conventional, and actually a little more powerful. Personally I love that clonky funky Alex had in the early 80s, all the more because the overly gated, reverbed and trebly 80s drum style was getting more overused every day.

Other examples of great album crappy sound are:

Iggy & the Stooges - Raw Power (original mix)
Kiss - Hotter Than Hell

Although I happen to like the sound and mix of both. They don't disturb me or ruin the music, they just happen to be badly produced.

Hi LieB, you beat me to the punch with the VH albums. All six original DLR era as well as 5150 and 0U812 have no bass to them. Finally on the Carnal Knowledge album with Andy Johns helping out, there's some bass, which Mike Anthony was greatful for. Bought all the DLR era CD's again around 2000 when they were remastered, sounding alot better. Still waiting for the Hagar era to get the same treatment, although the Best of Both Worlds greatest hits is remastered and they sound alot fuller.
Also, Oasis What's The Story has a very muddled sound to it, perhaps intentionally. The 5.1 SACD version is amazing with the clarity of the instruments on 5 channels.

Argus (1973) - Wishbone Ash was an excellent album. But the sound was muddy.

Quote
Big Al
Appetite For Destruction could do with a remaster. It's sounds very tinny. Then again, with remastering these days, can anyone be trusted to not bodge the sound?

Funny. Every time I think about Appetite I think its due for a remaster. Then I listen to the album and it honestly sounds just as good as it did in 87. Don't know what it is, but that album in song and sound quality stays sounding phenomenal. I always say its one of the more perfect album mixes.

For me LED ZEP III sounds less clear than the previous I and II and IV..

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out.

JumpingKentFlash

I think Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers need a remastering. Sound is way to low and you can't properly rock out to it.

Quote
JumpingKentFlash
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out.

Is the best

__________________________

Quote
noughties
Volunteers - Jefferson Airplane.

I can`t understand why. The producer Al Schmidt is the same as on the excellent previous one.

That's easy to explain.. First of all Volunteers was one of the first recordings made using a 16 track deck and there were many complications regarding the tape machine... More importantly before each session everyone drank Tank/LSD cocktails. Al told me he had a real hard time keeping up with Jack and Jorma but was obliged to do so...

Quote
RollingFreak

Quote
Big Al
Appetite For Destruction could do with a remaster. It's sounds very tinny. Then again, with remastering these days, can anyone be trusted to not bodge the sound?

Funny. Every time I think about Appetite I think its due for a remaster. Then I listen to the album and it honestly sounds just as good as it did in 87. Don't know what it is, but that album in song and sound quality stays sounding phenomenal. I always say its one of the more perfect album mixes.

Thanks..

The Replacements..."Tim" and "Pleased to Meet Me"...tinny and awful-sounding.

Exile On Main Street and Goats Head Soup

Quote
DGA35
Hi LieB, you beat me to the punch with the VH albums. All six original DLR era as well as 5150 and 0U812 have no bass to them. Finally on the Carnal Knowledge album with Andy Johns helping out, there's some bass, which Mike Anthony was greatful for. Bought all the DLR era CD's again around 2000 when they were remastered, sounding alot better. Still waiting for the Hagar era to get the same treatment, although the Best of Both Worlds greatest hits is remastered and they sound alot fuller.
Also, Oasis What's The Story has a very muddled sound to it, perhaps intentionally. The 5.1 SACD version is amazing with the clarity of the instruments on 5 channels.

Yeah, I've noticed the lack of bass or fatness and always thought it was kind of unfair to Mike Anthony, especially since they were only three instrumentalists in the group and there's a fair amount of space for more sound on their records (compare with the Stones where Bill always had to share space with a buttload of musicians on the records). I think they could easily have fit a Jack Bruce kind of bass in early Van Halen. I suppose that wasn't their thing. Same goes with Mötley Crüe and sometimes Led Zeppelin (where John Paul Jones in unnecessarily low in the mix at times, e.g. on the Houses of the Holy album).

On the other hand, I don't like the production on a lot of modern rock albums because it's too fat and too "good". The limitations of 60s to 80s recording studios created interesting sounds and didn't wear our ears out. Today, new albums by artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake and even the Rolling Stones sound way too much for their own good. An obvious example is Raw Power, which went from ultra-thin and unbalanced in 1973 to being the world's most brickwalled record on the 1997 remaster. Ouch!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-10-02 23:53 by LieB.

Quote
RollingFreak
I think Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers need a remastering. Sound is way to low and you can't properly rock out to it.

Probably the two albums, together with BAB, with the best sound...

Gimme Some Neck does not sound perfect but albums like It's Only Rock N Roll sounds even worse:

Quote
RollingFreak
I think Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers need a remastering. Sound is way to low and you can't properly rock out to it.

Turn your volume up. That should do it.