adorshki
Reverential Member
OK, a couple more observations: You asked about stuff that had personal relevance for us, and I note a LOT of '60's stuff in your list. So let me add another '60's gem:
"Cheap Thrills"
Now hear's another couple of observations: Some vinyls were known as good "reference discs" for the quality of your system, back in the day.
Here's 2 I know of:
"Casino Royale" (the '67 soundtrack with a magnificent cut of "Look of Love"
written buy Herb Alpert, and speaking of Alpert, co-founder of A&M records, most of their stuff was excellently recorded and printed, including an obscure gem:
Procol Harum: "Broken Barricades" which contained the first hints of Trower's later Hendrix-influenced stylings.
Another surprise: "Steppenwolf the Second" (the one with "Magic Carpet Ride") This is the one I go to to reassure myself all is as it should be with my system. It has the best spatial presence of any recording I own, you can literally hear instruments in specific physical locations, and the separation between tracks and overdubs is excellent and extremely well balanced, nothing buried in the mix. Plus the music's pretty darn good too.
Bear in mind that vinyl doesn't outclass CD's just because it's vinyl. It has to be a good quality pressing on good quality vinyl. There was a period in the mid '70's following the first "oil crisis" in which the quality of vinyl was hideous . The records are soft and thin and floppyand even gray looking. The grooves wear out prematurely and never did take a mold all that well.
If you're really looking for the "good stuff", it's the stuff that's heavy and stiff due to high carbon content. Takes a mold better and grooves last longer.
Other things that influence the feeling of great presence in a recording are microphone placement capturing the ambient sound reflections in the studio. That's almost becoming a lost art since so much music is recorded a track at a time in a sterile audio environment, and the musicians may not even be playing together.
I would date that to the influence of the Beatles with "Sgt Pepper" 's revolutionary impact on the pop market and the techniques they employed making that disc. To me "Pepper" (and most of the recordings that followed) always sounded overly compressed, and I always preferred "Revolver" 's and "Rubber Soul" 's audio ambience. On those discs they still played the basic arrangements together, with minimal overdubs.
Anyway, there's some insight in case you didn't know. :wink:
"Cheap Thrills"
Now hear's another couple of observations: Some vinyls were known as good "reference discs" for the quality of your system, back in the day.
Here's 2 I know of:
"Casino Royale" (the '67 soundtrack with a magnificent cut of "Look of Love"
written buy Herb Alpert, and speaking of Alpert, co-founder of A&M records, most of their stuff was excellently recorded and printed, including an obscure gem:
Procol Harum: "Broken Barricades" which contained the first hints of Trower's later Hendrix-influenced stylings.
Another surprise: "Steppenwolf the Second" (the one with "Magic Carpet Ride") This is the one I go to to reassure myself all is as it should be with my system. It has the best spatial presence of any recording I own, you can literally hear instruments in specific physical locations, and the separation between tracks and overdubs is excellent and extremely well balanced, nothing buried in the mix. Plus the music's pretty darn good too.
Bear in mind that vinyl doesn't outclass CD's just because it's vinyl. It has to be a good quality pressing on good quality vinyl. There was a period in the mid '70's following the first "oil crisis" in which the quality of vinyl was hideous . The records are soft and thin and floppyand even gray looking. The grooves wear out prematurely and never did take a mold all that well.
If you're really looking for the "good stuff", it's the stuff that's heavy and stiff due to high carbon content. Takes a mold better and grooves last longer.
Other things that influence the feeling of great presence in a recording are microphone placement capturing the ambient sound reflections in the studio. That's almost becoming a lost art since so much music is recorded a track at a time in a sterile audio environment, and the musicians may not even be playing together.
I would date that to the influence of the Beatles with "Sgt Pepper" 's revolutionary impact on the pop market and the techniques they employed making that disc. To me "Pepper" (and most of the recordings that followed) always sounded overly compressed, and I always preferred "Revolver" 's and "Rubber Soul" 's audio ambience. On those discs they still played the basic arrangements together, with minimal overdubs.
Anyway, there's some insight in case you didn't know. :wink:
