good sounding rock albums? - Page 4

I agree Boston sounds great! And I also get very angry at the fact that my Red Hot Chilli Peppers cds dont sound very good. I have this same problem with the White Stripes.  I have been listening to Biffy Clyro's The Vertigo Of Bliss and it surprisingly sounds very very good and is incredibly creative to me. I just love it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max598 

I agree Boston sounds great! And I also get very angry at the fact that my Red Hot Chilli Peppers cds dont sound very good. I have this same problem with the White Stripes.

 

Everybody seems to think that the problem with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers comes from the actual recordings or that the vinyl will sound better. Both are wrong.

The recordings are actually very good. People are stunned when they hear my Californication with no distortion, proper EQ and huge dynamic range. The recordings are fine...it's the mastering that's the problem. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers vinyl, if new, is sourced from the CD masters...Stadium Arcadium being the only exception.

The White Stripes are the same. The recordings are fine...it's the mastering on the CD's. For all of the White Stripes, you want to get the UK vinyl issues. All sound excellent, especially Elephant. For Icky Thump, the domestic issue is awesome.

That is interesting.  What exactly does that mean though, the mastering? For me both of those bands sound good, but there is a lot of crackeling and stuff, it's wierd.

For many years, I've wanted to apply purist techniques to a rock recording.  I'm happy to say the first iteration was just released.

A few years ago, an independent artist named Jason Vitelli contacted me about mastering his first album, "No Photographs".

I found Jason's music so compelling, his lyrics so literate and his voice so sensational and his melodies so unforgettable, I asked him if he'd be interested in doing a project with me for Soundkeeper.  Happily, he said he was interested.

The only thing was "No Photographs" was recorded with Jason playing almost all the instruments.  Since my recording technique involves capturing a real performance, direct to stereo, with no mixing or overdubs, Jason needed to assemble a band.  He auditioned many players and finally, last year, has brought together a great group of players.  I contacted my good friend Dave Ramsay (a superb piano player and one of my all-time favorite guitarists) and asked him to join.  After hearing Jason's music, Dave came onboard.

Earlier this year, we recorded the new album, "Confluence".  It features 17 songs ranging from solo tracks with Jason at the piano, to duets and trios, to all out electric rock with full ensemble.  "Confluence" was recorded with only one microphone - hence, only one, coherent time signal - per playback channel.  I used a stereo array comprised of a matched pair of mics, separated by a baffle of my own design (which I wrote about in my article called "Recording in Stereo".

The signals from the microphones went directly to the mic preamps and A-D conversion in my Metric Halo ULN-8 and from there via Firewire to the hard drive of my Mac laptop.  Both the Mac and the ULN-8 were plugged into a power conditioner and both were isolated from vibrations.  The signals were recorded at 24/192 and the final release is available as a CD, a one-off, slow-burned CD-R made directly from the CD master, a 24/96 DVD (in DVD video format, with no video, playable in most DVD players) and files-on-disc versions for computer music servers (24/96 and 24/192 in .aif or .wav format, customer's choice).

I believe this is the first pop/rock recording done in "purist" fashion.  The "mix" was done prior to recording, by moving players and amps around the stage until I had the balance and soundstage I wanted.  Once the red button was pushed, nothing else was done to the signal.  No mixing console, no compression, no "special effects" - just the sound of the band as I heard them from the position of the microphone stand.

This is the first time I've heard rock music with the same "in your chest" feel I get in the presence of a band but that never seems to make it to the recording, where dynamics are eviscerated and processes applied at the whim of the producer and/or engineer.

Photos from the recording sessions and samples can be heard here.

There are additional samples from one of the tracks, where the 24/192, 24/96 and 16/44 versions can be compared.  Those are here.

While the next release down the pipeline, scheduled to come out around March 2012 is jazz, I look forward to more rock projects as well.

Best regards,

Barry

www.soundkeeperrecordings.com

www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Try to find an old MCA The Who Who's Next CD with a running time of 43:25. One of the best sounding CDs I own.  Also the MFSL Tom Petty Damn the Torpedoes is very good.

The new Audio Fidelity reissue of Crosby Stills and Nash's first album's excellent.

hey guys, have lurked here for a while..thought i'd my $0.02

great canadian band called rheostatics had great songs that to my tin ear :) were recorded very well

my fave album was called melville fyi

now to find some uk pressings of white stripes...thx again and good thread

I have no shortage of great rock albums (many already listed above) but one that sticks out on my list as of late is:

Danzig - Danzig III: How the Gods Kill


 

the Zep albums usually sound very well though difficult to acces for 21st century ears :)

I am listening to Who's next right now and the sound is really good. But usually the 70s' stuff sounds great (King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Stones, Black Sabbath). I even like something like Aqualung by Jethro Tull which was considered as a bad sounding record at the time

I can also suggest Robert Plant's solo album band of joy which sounds wonderfully warm if you would like something new that sounds good

Or without being pretentious, I would suggest our album where I think we managed to keep a lot of dynamics. listen to extracts here: www.dirtysoundmagnet.ch  There are also some songs on youtube or on spotify but it sounds better on record of course. Tell me what you guys think

p.s.

Led Zeppelin's remaster in the complete box set is atrocious. The absolute worst sounding stuff I've ever heard. The LPs were forward and powerful. The CDs are muffled and the vocals sound like they're a block away.

Isn't Page remastering all of their back catolog? Hopefully it will sound as good as the Beatles stuff a couple years back when it was rereleased...

Page is the one that messed it up last time.