Favourite engineered album? - Page 3

And Eric Johnson "Ah Via Musicom...simply art

I'm going to agree with Paul Simon's Graceland Album. Also a big fan of Stevie Wonder's Innervisions.

All of Steely Dan's albums sound fantastic to me, on CD or vinyl. Some say they're overproduced, but I think they are very natural, dynamic, and balanced. Texture and soundstage are outstanding.

As mentioned above, the Dan's albums and Grace by Jeff Buckley. Also the recent remaster of NIN Downward Spiral.
Many, many Rudy Van Gelder dates whether he was doing them for BN or Prestige. Lester Koenig's work on Art Pepper's dates or Tomorrow Is The Question by Ornette.
Manfred Eicher receives lots of crap for his process of recording but I think it's chuffin' ace.
Nick Drake's dates were all recorded very well as was Radiohead's OK Computer.

I agree totally. I love the album, but I've notice a good amount of sybalance on every version/release.

Some Favorite Engineered Albums

I truly love Kraftwerk's "The Mix" - their greatest hits, remastered to sound better than the originals! A fine testament and tribute to the fathers of electronica!

Front 242 1st effort (with Animal, etc.)

Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury - great live recording energy

Don Dorsey - Bachbusters - "Switched-On Bach" with improved fidelity!

Wendy Carlos - "Switched-On Bach" because it was the first and is a wonderfully engineered work - the first popular electronic synthesizer album that featured the engineering itself as the compositional tool, and broke ground in many, many ways. The hard to find Well Tempered Synthesizer is also very impressive.

Lustmord - Metavoid - exploits depth panning, that is, goes beyond depth illusion from reverbs alone, and is very spacious and visionary.

Most recent Madonna exhibits high-end production values - Music, Ray of Light, etc.

Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus - another live album with full energy captured

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen - Anthems - truly this is an example showing the start of it all - engineering as music - amazing ear opener and very 3D

Delerium - Karma - pretty darn well done and set many current standards

Basement Jaxx - Remedy - also set many current standards

David Bowie - Low - a milestone in many, many ways mixing the pop idiom with deep compositional and engineering insights, created along with Brian Eno assisting on several tracks

Ruud conducting Grieg's Holberg Suite and Music for Strings - very moving current release on SACD hybrid

Weather Report - Heavy Weather - a milestone for jazz recording styles

Yes - Magnification, The Ladder both produced better than earlier stuff

Yes - earlier stuff!!! (except Relayer - practically a mono mix...) Lots of experimentation in those days

Sorma - Illusion - very good "world electronica" - well controlled and energetic mixing and engineering

The Police - Regatta de Blanc - excellent recording of a threesome - should be used by THX as a speaker adjustment tool - "Get the drums on this recording to sound right on your system, and everything else will fall right into place!"

That's a little for right now just off the top of my head! Thanks for starting this thread - I've subscribed to it and will be watching it regularly!

Terry

Certainly agree with many recommendations including:

Gracelands, Aerial, DSOTM, Brothers in Arms (the HDCD version is superb and my reference album).

Some unexpected gems are "Tommy" by The Who, Some Sinnead O'Conner albums and Maryanne Faithfull's "Broken English". I find Buono Vista Social Club extremely well done as well. Tubular Bells 2 (HDCD) is another fav.

I know there are more in that "top shelf" category but these are just some I keep coming back to.


Cheers,

TonyAAA

Holly Cole - Temptation

[QUOTE=SFbayArch;2685079]Joe Jackson's Body and Soul

You can hear the nuances of the space in which he recorded this album.

Ditto this - I have been listening to this album 20 + years on vinyl and cd and have given it several times as a gift to friends who care about audio. While I am not surprised to see it mentioned, I never really knew that anyone else thought so highly of it, and was very glad to read the links posted above about it. Thanks for that info!

I forgot to add:

DeeDee Bridgewater - Live at Yoshi's - great live jazz album, vibrant energy captured in recorded form

Live from Studio A - jazz violinist Johnny Frigo, with Bucky and John Pizzarelli, among others - one of the great Chesky albums, never fails to put a smile on my face.

Ray LaMontagne - Till the Sun Turns Black - great sense of balance, lovely warmth in the strings in particular, and a very sensitive treatment of hoarse, edgy vocal sound - overall, it's beautifully recorded and engineered.

there are always others - these are on my mind a lot lately.

Body and Soul

I felt the same way...as if I were the only person who really thought this album was something special.

I first purchased it when it was initially released during my senior year in high school in 1984, on vinyl LP, and subsequently recorded it to cassette where I played it mostly on my Walkman going to and from school, and later at college...

...I didn't really discover its audiophile qualities till I purchased it again maybe a decade later...circa 1994, this time in Compact Disc format as I was forced to retool my music collection into CDs...

but this CD stood out amongst the others...and despite the fact that all the songs weren't necessarily the style of music that I preferred, for some vague reason, I continued to listen to it over and over...

...and then, about 5 years ago, I discovered the TNT Audio website and read the article about this classic album as an audiophile reference standard....it once again brought back this wonderful recording to the front of my music library......

isn't it great to discover a gem you already own?

Just dusted off my copy of "regatta de blanc" Not heard it for about 10 years forgot how good it sounds.

thanks for reminding me

Agree on Jim O'Rourke. Sam Prekop's self-titled release is an incredible, richly textured album. A very enjoyable listen both for the music and the production.

Im going to have to second Porcupine Tree - in absentia, it is absolutely beautiful. Also I'll add that if you haven't heard Dredg, check out the album Dredg - Catch Without Arms
their older albums are great too.

Oh, and I also think the new tool album 10000 days sounds good. If you like house/trance type of stuff you should go listen to Shpongle immediately. Their newest album is called Nothing lasts... But nothing is lost and is amazing. All their old stuff is great too. I have the new album lossless if anyone wants to hear.