I listen to a lot of older rock too.

But if you want to hear a great production on a dance music track check out Leftfield - Phat Planet.

Someone made a reference to Michael Jacksons stuff. This is the period and genre for me that start to squeeze the life out of music. I find MJs stuff very lifeless and lacking in character and depth in terms of production values. There is something in those productions that just gets on my nerves. That probably makes me weird though... he he.

Cheers
Nem

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quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 Someone made a reference to Michael Jacksons stuff. This is the period and genre for me that start to squeeze the life out of music. I find MJs stuff very lifeless and lacking in character and depth in terms of production values. There is something in those productions that just gets on my nerves. That probably makes me weird though... he he

Doesn't really make you weird at all, a lot of people criticize the 80s as a period of very plastic, artificial-sounding recording and mixing, with overuse of effects like reverb and gating and some pretty tinny keyboard and FM synth sounds.

Personally I can appreciate both the "cold" sound of the 80s and the more "natural" warm sound of 60s and 70s, but I know lots of people prefer either one or the other.

My mixing tutor at uni has some original multitracks for queen bohemian rhapsody he lets us make or own mix of them in the analogue studio. its crazy you can hear the band messing around before and after and all the audio they never used.

You be amazed at how rubbish the technology was if you dont know already. You will have bass bleed on vocal tracks, hiss on the others, crackling leads you name it. Still sound brilliant that must be where the mixing engineers skill came in.

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Processing a highly structured and complex pattern of sensory input as a unified percept of "music" is probably one of the most elaborate features of the human brain.....understanding how music is perceived and how it may elicit intense sensations is far from being understood.

Modern recording genius can be heard on Keane's album from 2006 ish, but the name escapes me.

Jacko's team totaly revolutionised sonic scuplting, making music pump and sound so tight. Compare 'don't stop' (till you get enough) from 1978 to Kraftwerks stuff. The latter was great and quirky but lacks energy and pump not too mention being very quiet.

Anyone like jean michelle jarre recordings - things like equinox. Utter genius and for me the god father of trance. Knew how not to be cheesy before cheesy synth sounds were even invented

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I like JMJ as well, and he really is like proto-trance. A lot of his sounds are just like those you would hear in trance, especially the early to mid 1990s stuff.

Check out Talk Talk- 'I believe in you'
I still maintain one of the best recordings I have ever heard..

quote:

Originally posted by Sonic_c You be amazed at how rubbish the technology was if you dont know already. You will have bass bleed on vocal tracks, hiss on the others, crackling leads you name it. Still sound brilliant that must be where the mixing engineers skill came in.

Its not rubbish technology as such - its an undertanding that everything doesnt need to be absolutely seperated and clinically isolated in order to get it sounding fucking great, and that if the band is working together well playing at once then who the hell needs so much seperation anyway! Thats where things went wrong in the 70s and 80s- too much isolation and everything sounding dead.

In modern dance music things have to be isolated because the kick, bass, and often the lead are all huge and hog the mix, so lots of EQing is necessary to separate them all and then compression to cram the track together and squash the peaks resulting from the huge sounds.

or you could just lower the volume 10dB

I absolutely agree with some things having so much life added to them by the producer/the mastering. I can definitely appreciate good mastering.

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quote:

Originally posted by Darkarbiter I absolutely agree with some things having so much life added to them by the producer/the mastering. I can definitely appreciate good mastering.

Though all the above discussion was about recording and mixing. It's unknown (to me) how much the mastering changed the sound of those records, if it changed it at all. Ideally, (and this used to happen) the mastering engineer would be secure enough in themselves to say "this sounds great, I don't need to do anything to it".