You love the music, but not the sound...

[Daddyjt 9,612]

Having a quality system is a funny thing - At least in my case, it has opened up different types of music to me, based solely on the quality of the recording.  Music I would normally never listen to, finds its way into my system, based on great sound alone, then I end up actually enjoying a new type of music.

 

So working this backwards, what album(s) do you love for the music, but wish the quality of the recording were better?

 

For me, it's AC/DC Back In Black - the album flat out rocks, but the sound quality could be so much better....

[zumbini 6,147]

Many of the albums I grew up with fall into the "great music, $uck a$$ sound" category.

For instance, the untiled Blue Oyster Cult and Wishbone Ash albums sound great on AM radio.

But I find the albums difficult to listen to and the CD releases weren't much better.

[soulofsound 40]

I know what you mean Mark.

 

[TNRabbit 371]

K.D. Lang: Angel With A Lariat

 

Her debut album was solid gold material but one of the WORST recordings I've ever experienced. Some of the songs were redone in her "Reintarnation" reissue & are better.

 

I've always felt ALL Jimmy Hendrix's material fell squarely in this class.

[Balok 1,667]

Derek and the Dominos.  Layla and other assorted love songs.  The remastered CD (from 1991, I think) is crap and my LP copy (don't know when it was made) is even worse. 

[Retriever 1,127]

Led Zepplin Kazmere. Only way it ever sounded decent was running it through the Ol dynamic range expander!

[Daddyjt 9,612]

K.D. Lang: Angel With A Lariat

Her debut album was solid gold material but one of the WORST recordings I've ever experienced. Some of the songs were redone in her "Reintarnation" reissue & are better.

I've always felt ALL Jimmy Hendrix's material fell squarely in this class.

 

K.D. Lang's "All You Can Eat" is one of my all-time favorite albums.  The recording is quite a bit better than her earlier stuff, IMHO.

 

I couldn't agree more on Hendrix's stuff - it's almost like he just had his buddies mix and record most of it.

[Daddyjt 9,612]

Led Zepplin Kazmere. Only way it ever sounded decent was running it through the Ol dynamic range expander!

 

I remember listening to this on my parents' Sanyo tube receiver in Quadraphonic surround!  Sounded like pure magic back then, but not so much now...

[staticvar 56]

I always felt Pink Floyd "Animals" was a great record but had a muddy mix...that's why what some of you are doing to the C-1 as well as the C-4000 is so important...those old less than perfect master recordings need quality tone control to have a chance at sounding great again...

[PDR 1,194]

You know......K.D. Lang is some sort of cousin of mine.

My grandfather was born in Consort Alberta, her home town.

The whole town was related one way or another.

 

I dont usually tell people this......so keep it on the down low please...... 

[staticvar 56]

K.D. Lang: Angel With A Lariat

 

Her debut album was solid gold material but one of the WORST recordings I've ever experienced. Some of the songs were redone in her "Reintarnation" reissue & are better.

 

I've always felt ALL Jimmy Hendrix's material fell squarely in this class.

  I bar tended her record release party for Angel With A Lariat...That was a long time ago...she brought her Mom and it was a wonderful night...I watched her go from house band at the Side Track with her "Joy Boy's" in 1984 to what she has made of herself today...great singer..

[staticvar 56]

 

 

You know......K.D. Lang is some sort of cousin of mine.

My grandfather was born in Consort Alberta, her home town.

The whole town was related one way or another.

 

I dont usually tell people this......so keep it on the down low please...... 

Perry...that makes you a Blue Blood...it's all good.

[oldtexasdog 2,456]

Jethro Tull  As Thick as a Brick

[Gene C 1,748]

Black Sabbath "The Eternal Idol" album needs serious studio help, I really like that album too. A most recent one from Rush is "Clockwork Angels" enjoy every song on that album but some songs are so bass laden it takes away from the integrity of their sound. Any of you other Rush fans noticed that too?

[staticvar 56]

 

 

Jethro Tull  As Thick as a Brick

I agree James...Thick As A Brick has great stuff and suffers from mud. I'm still sending those Dynaco Xfmers to you...A tube pre with stellar tone control... would be sweet. It's taking me a little more time to get my stuff together...Whatever you do with those puppies is up to you...they're your's...I just can't send them all at once...

[Nahash5150 10,690]

Metallica - And Justice for All is a legendary F-up recording of an otherwise great musical endeavor.

 

Van Halen - For unlawful carnal knowledge was recorded in pure crap. The CD is absolutely horrible.

 

Queensryche - Empire same as above, supposedly remastered in 24bit, hah!!!!!! Nice try.

 

And now I'm very disappointed so I better stop. 

[Zoom 373]

Rush - Fly By Night.   Although the original mix is ok, Anthem, Best I Can, and Beneath, Between and Behind would sound (even more) fantastic with today's studio tech.

 

2112 was just released remastered (again) and in 5.1 surround.  Can anyone tell me how you can 'create' individual rear channels when none were recorded in the studio??  wtf

[TNRabbit 371]

 

 

2112 was just released remastered (again) and in 5.1 surround. Can anyone tell me how you can 'create' individual rear channels when none were recorded in the studio?? wtf

 

Most of the stuff was recorded on individual tracks, you can separate them out and place them anywhere you want. The 5.1 surround version of the Dark Side of the Moon is excellent.

 

[dcl 3,276]

All of the early Pat Metheny'Group recordings on ECM are on my remaster wish list. Nonesuch is issuing remasters of the later work. Mahavishnu Orchestra recordings could use a redo, the sound is a compressed muddy mess. 

[Blues Pwr 766]

One of the LP's I was most disappointed with is :

Rainbow   "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll"

Sounds like a blanket had been placed over the speakers no dynamic range at all,

 or as described earlier mud.

The CD was even worse than the LP I eventually gave away my copy(cd) I was so disgusted with the quality.

 

 

[danowood 2,167]

One of the worst recordings I've evern heard was on Wand Records by the group the Kingsmen.  Louie Louie and others one the album were good solid songs, but the recording sounded like it came through mud.  Here is a Ballad of the Kingsmen (a garage band from Wahsington state) which gave some pretty good history.

 

[zumbini 6,147]

I remember the Louie Louie lyrics controversy of the mid 60's very well.

Every garage band in the country learned to play the song, my own included.

The real lyrics were unpublished, and the vocals on the recording sucked.

So it shouldn't be too surprising that we made them up. 

 

For those who weren't around in the 60's Snopes.com has a great write up HERE.

[RichP714 3,163]

Neil Young: Time fades away

 

 

 

Fantastic songs recorded horribly, and Neil's voice was even more shaky than usual

 

You can hear the pain in his voice, especially during 'Yonder stands the sinner' 

[hochpt21 2]

I'm a big Pearl Jam fan, and they have a song called "Spin The Black Circle," and seem to always support vinyl, but most of the vinyl I have from them is super compressed.  Even their cd's seem dull and compressed sounding.

 

Their best sounding recordings are their live albums.  Fortunately, they release soundboard bootlegs (cd's) of almost every show, and those sound phenomenal...almost the only way I listen to them now (unless I'm at a show )

[HappyTrails 498]

First, I have come to appreciate a well engineered recording almost as much as the artist themselves.    There are quite a few vinyl's that either sound great or like crap.  I hear so much new stuff that is engineered for headphones so it seems.

 

But here is one that really disappointed me.  Movie was great!  Made me dig through my collection looking for sound city recorded albums.  I own several, Rumors, Damn the Torpedo's are the 2 the come to mind, and they are well recorded.

 

So, the movie made me buy the vinyl almost immediately from Amazon.  Boy was I disappointed.    Ghrol seems to like to compress and then bump the loudness, the new trend in digital recordings.   I will say my range expander helped some on this album but a major let down in sound quality