Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
For some reason lately, I've been listening to music on the radio. While I've
heard all of the songs thousands of times (oldies), I'm hearing and appreciating things I've never heard or appreciated before. Even on FM radio, it's amazing how well many records were engineered over the years. You guys who record for a living can probably name or maybe even know the engineers of some of the biggest hit records, but my knowledge is not that deep when you get past Geoff Emerick. Who engineered "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys? (The edits are terrible, but the recording is quite good.) What about The Carpenters? How about "Bridge Over Troubled Water?" All this is to say that, the tracking and mixing engineers on a lot of records are as talented if not more talented than the artists. Most of them are unsung heroes in the music world. So long as people are undiscerning enough to listen to MP3s of Taylor Swift, engineers will never get their due recognition. However, as a student and fan of yesterday's music, I really appreciate these guys not settling for "good enough" when they could have gotten away with it. |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
|
#3
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
On 7/14/2011 7:14 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
You guys who record for a living can probably name or maybe even know the engineers of some of the biggest hit records, but my knowledge is not that deep when you get past Geoff Emerick. Who engineered "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys? (The edits are terrible, but the recording is quite good.) What about The Carpenters? How about "Bridge Over Troubled Water?" During that period, the major labels had their own studios with staff engineers in white lab coats. Many of them got their names on records, and a handful of them made a career as hired guns when record production became independent of the label. Still, most engineers are only known by name to other engineers, and we learn about them by reading articles in magazines like Mix. All this is to say that, the tracking and mixing engineers on a lot of records are as talented if not more talented than the artists. They don't necessarily sing better or write better songs (though some do) but today's independent recording engineer needs to be a lot more than someone who can set a mic in the right place and run the tape. Even some of the late 20th Century studio jobs like "Pro Tools Operator" (the one who assigned all the inputs to the tracks and did all the edits during the coffee breaks) have pretty much evaporated as the engineer has had to do those tasks himself in order to meet the budget. -- "Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and interesting audio stuff |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
|
#5
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
On Jul 14, 8:19*pm, david gourley
wrote: mcp6453 put forth the notion in...news:6 : For some reason lately, I've been listening to music on the radio. While I've heard all of the songs thousands of times (oldies), I'm hearing and appreciating things I've never heard or appreciated before. Even on FM radio, it's amazing how well many records were engineered over the years. You guys who record for a living can probably name or maybe even know the engineers of some of the biggest hit records, but my knowledge is not that deep when you get past Geoff Emerick. Who engineered "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys? (The edits are terrible, but the recording is quite good.) What about The Carpenters? How about "Bridge Over Troubled Water?" All this is to say that, the tracking and mixing engineers on a lot of records are as talented if not more talented than the artists. Most of them are unsung heroes in the music world. So long as people are undiscerning enough to listen to MP3s of Taylor Swift, engineers will never get their due recognition.. However, as a student and fan of yesterday's music, I really appreciate these guys not settling for "good enough" when they could have gotten away with it. 'Good Vibrations' was Cal Harris according to my box set notes. The 28th take was the master. * Roy Halee for 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' and most of S&G's hits. david i take note of how good the sound quality of many of these "oldies" without the benefit of 24bit 96kbps technology. of course some are terrible.. but the fact that some are good shows what was possible to make good recordings with stone knives and bear skins.. Mark |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
Of course, Rudy Van Gelder for all those great Blue Note records. |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
Mark wrote:
of course some are terrible.. but the fact that some are good shows what was possible to make good recordings with stone knives and bear skins.. Stone knives are as sharp as glass shards. What is difficult is to get a stainless knife as sharp as a flint knife. During the stone age Denmark had a thriving flint export to most of Europe. Mark Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#8
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
mcp6453 wrote:
[omitted, commenting on the header] A recording does in my opinion constitute A work, just as a photograph does it and droit morale should be similarly applied, ie. it should be illegal to omit sound engineers name from the credit list. It can be as good a strategi for collecting listenable software to collect engineers as to collect musicians or composers, quite possibly some of the time better. Kind regards Peter Larsen |
#9
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
Mark wrote:
i take note of how good the sound quality of many of these "oldies" without the benefit of 24bit 96kbps technology. of course some are terrible.. but the fact that some are good shows what was possible to make good recordings with stone knives and bear skins.. Try Oscar Pterson (Ray Brown) "You look good to me" off We Get Requests from mid 60s. They really did have bass in thosae days after all (and treble) ! geoff |
#10
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
"mcp6453" wrote in message ... . So long as people are undiscerning enough to listen to MP3s of Taylor Swift, engineers will never get their due recognition. I think that you are understimating the benefits of good production and overestimating the masking effects of modern compressed file downloads. |
#11
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:14:58 -0400, mcp6453 wrote:
All this is to say that, the tracking and mixing engineers on a lot of records are as talented if not more talented than the artists. Most of them are unsung heroes in the music world. Arguably this could be subjective. There were many a sound engineer in the day that were well acclaimed for their expertise. One of the best possibly would have been, Eddy Offord. A well produced album is usually a collaboration between artist and engineer. OTOH I have played in situations where the engineer was actually a detriment to the bands sound, more than a few times. You would be hard pressed to claim that for instance a great acoustic hall could make it's own music. Without the artist providing a tapestry of ideas, the engineer has nothing to work with. I've heard it said for instance that Led Zeps first album was recorded on a simple 8 track machine with Page heavily involved in the process. Same with Hendrix, Pete Townsend and Tom Scholz, etc. and the list goes on. I find it hard to believe that given today's "artists", a sound man (engineer) in those days could make a "black eyed pea" sound like anything more than what it is, baseless hype and garbage. |
#12
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
On Jul 15, 9:55*am, wrote:
I find it hard to believe that given today's "artists", a sound man (engineer) in those days could make a "black eyed pea" sound like anything more than what it is, baseless hype and garbage. actually, a black eyed pea is really a bean, but for some reason they call it a pea.... |
#13
Posted to rec.audio.pro
|
|||
|
|||
Recording Engineers as Artists
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:13:26 -0700 (PDT), Nate Najar
wrote: On Jul 15, 9:55*am, wrote: I find it hard to believe that given today's "artists", a sound man (engineer) in those days could make a "black eyed pea" sound like anything more than what it is, baseless hype and garbage. actually, a black eyed pea is really a bean, but for some reason they call it a pea.... That has a much better ring to it than, "black eyed pea pea" |
Reply |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Home Recording Artists | Pro Audio | |||
Q for the recording engineers | Audio Opinions | |||
Q for the recording engineers | Audio Opinions | |||
A Great Gift Idea For Aspiring Recording Artists | Pro Audio | |||
Engineers, work with Billboard Hot 100 Artists!! (NYC) | Pro Audio |