Songs That You Like For Their Production
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aeroplane
In Urgent Need of Advice
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Yup, Tom Werman did those early Crue records that sound like rubbish. Tom Werman also produced Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry and their singer Dee Snider has been complaining for years that Werman's lousy production ruined that record. He was so pissed off about it for a long time that he (Snider) rerecorded the entire Stay Hungry album from start to finish several years ago.
And as I mentioned, Nikki Sixx says he doesn't even really like the early Crue albums that much anymore because they were produced so poorly.
When you compare Bob Rock's work with Motley Crue to their old records before they employed him, it is like night and day.
Same thing with Metallica. Aside from Ride the Lightning, their old work before the Black Album is mostly unlistenable to me. People can gripe about how Metallica sounded so much weaker on their later day records and the songwriting went downhill. I don't necessarily agree with any of that and I know the albums sure as hell sound better when Bob Rock is running things.
I wasn't aware that Tom Werman was so involved, I think he also produced some Ted Nugent albums if memory serves, and they are okay but not at the level of many others I can think of.
One album that Werman did a decent job with and surprised me was "Mirrors" by Blue Oyster Cult, I love that band to death, but always wondered what Alan Parsons or Roy Thomas Baker could have done with them. Anyway Mirrors is really well engineered, one of the best in their discography, but the band themselves didn't like the record for some reason...
One album that Werman did a decent job with and surprised me was "Mirrors" by Blue Oyster Cult, I love that band to death, but always wondered what Alan Parsons or Roy Thomas Baker could have done with them. Anyway Mirrors is really well engineered, one of the best in their discography, but the band themselves didn't like the record for some reason...
aeroplane
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I wasn't aware that Tom Werman was so involved, I think he also produced some Ted Nugent albums if memory serves, and they are okay but not at the level of many others I can think of.
One album that Werman did a decent job with and surprised me was "Mirrors" by Blue Oyster Cult, I love that band to death, but always wondered what Alan Parsons or Roy Thomas Baker could have done with them. Anyway Mirrors is really well engineered, one of the best in their discography, but the band themselves didn't like the record for some reason...
It makes for an interesting quandary.
Tom Werman has produced albums that sold millions of copies, so he is a "successful" producer. Heck, his Wikipedia page says he collected 23 gold and platinum albums largely for his production work.
However, a lot of artists he produced for don't seem to respect his work. Nikki Sixx and Dee Snider are just a couple. You've mentioned BOC. Wikipedia also claims Cheap Trick was unhappy with him. Yes, Wikipedia is sometimes a dubious source but why would anyone make that "fact" up?
That is surprising I didn't realize he was considered so successful.
Here's an album that was stunning on vinyl and has to be one of the best transfers to CD that I own of any 1970's rock album, and it's an AAD transfer to boot.
Glyn Johns and David Anderle produced/engineered this one. For those of you who won't give it a listen because it's country rock, you are missing out, this band is phenomenal and this recording is easily in my top ten of all time, from a technical stand point. The fact the music is great is just the icing on the cake.
Here's an album that was stunning on vinyl and has to be one of the best transfers to CD that I own of any 1970's rock album, and it's an AAD transfer to boot.
Glyn Johns and David Anderle produced/engineered this one. For those of you who won't give it a listen because it's country rock, you are missing out, this band is phenomenal and this recording is easily in my top ten of all time, from a technical stand point. The fact the music is great is just the icing on the cake.
AboutAGirl
oh, be nice
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Production is extremely important to me. I sometimes feel like I'm the only one who hears it, because it doesn't seem to matter to some, while for me it EASILY can make or break a song, album, or band.
I could list virtually everything I like in this thread. Because if the production isn't good, the music isn't good. Notes in a vacuum can only go so far, the production is what defines how the music sounds and, by extension, what it means and how it makes me feel. Good production can mean recording on a hand-held cassette tape recorder or going to Abbey Road but it has to be the right production for the material or you're shit out of luck.
I won't bore you with 300 tracks but here are a few songs where I feel the production is particularly immaculate.
Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open album sounds prefect from note one 'till the end. In my view it epitomizes the perfect pop production. In contrast to other Petty albums which tend to be very clean with beefy songs, Into The Great Wide Open takes extremely soft material and gives it a bit of a stark edge. The production is clean but it has a bit of a dark side to it, it sounds almost lo-fi at times with very subtle, subdued production and a scratchy drum sound. I love it to death.
Burzum's known for raw production but his self-titled debut album has a very unique sound to it -- it sounds like a band playing live in a basement. In fact it's one of the most "live" records I've ever heard, which is particularly impressive considered he overdubbed all the tracks himself. Simultaneously crisp, clear, and muddy-raw, it's a marvel of modern music.
You can't expect me to not mention Steve Albini's production. Although his output has becomes tragically more hi-fi in recent years, in the late 80s & early 90s Steve Albini had a regimen of pure brilliance with no-frills, bare bones production which allowed bands like Pixies, The Breeders, and Nirvana to reach catastrophic artistic heights which never would have been possible with smoother-than-comprehension production -- no more evidence is needed than the fact that the studio records these bands recorded without Steve sound worse than the worst shit on Earth.
I could list virtually everything I like in this thread. Because if the production isn't good, the music isn't good. Notes in a vacuum can only go so far, the production is what defines how the music sounds and, by extension, what it means and how it makes me feel. Good production can mean recording on a hand-held cassette tape recorder or going to Abbey Road but it has to be the right production for the material or you're shit out of luck.
I won't bore you with 300 tracks but here are a few songs where I feel the production is particularly immaculate.
Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open album sounds prefect from note one 'till the end. In my view it epitomizes the perfect pop production. In contrast to other Petty albums which tend to be very clean with beefy songs, Into The Great Wide Open takes extremely soft material and gives it a bit of a stark edge. The production is clean but it has a bit of a dark side to it, it sounds almost lo-fi at times with very subtle, subdued production and a scratchy drum sound. I love it to death.
Burzum's known for raw production but his self-titled debut album has a very unique sound to it -- it sounds like a band playing live in a basement. In fact it's one of the most "live" records I've ever heard, which is particularly impressive considered he overdubbed all the tracks himself. Simultaneously crisp, clear, and muddy-raw, it's a marvel of modern music.
You can't expect me to not mention Steve Albini's production. Although his output has becomes tragically more hi-fi in recent years, in the late 80s & early 90s Steve Albini had a regimen of pure brilliance with no-frills, bare bones production which allowed bands like Pixies, The Breeders, and Nirvana to reach catastrophic artistic heights which never would have been possible with smoother-than-comprehension production -- no more evidence is needed than the fact that the studio records these bands recorded without Steve sound worse than the worst shit on Earth.
troggy
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If they had no choice, then it wasn't the values that were crappy. For what it's worth, I like the 50's sound in general.
Here's an example of what I mean. I love the sound of this song.
That's not exactly what I meant, I realize they didn't have the best equipment back in those early days, and if I'm not mistaken many of the albums were recorded in Mono not Stereo. Regardless I will take the late sixties and seventies as the renaissance when it comes to making quality stereo albums available to everyone. Abbey Road is better than any recording of rock music from the 50's, and I consider it a watershed album in that regard as well as having legendary songs.
