The Sound Engineer

[Jac Hawk]

I've recently got round to plugging my TT in after a move, anyway it struck me that no matter how exotic and finely tuned our equipment is, it can all be undone at the production stage. For instance, i have a copy of Outlandos d'Amore by The Police and it's almost painful to listen to and makes every setup i've ever heard it on sound crap, it's as if the sound engineer took the day off and let his deaf mate have a go, whereas other recordings in my collection would make even the most humble setups sing, so to the question, what's the worst recording (not based on musical content) you own?

over to you.........

[AlfaGTV]

The two worst victims of loudness wars:
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Death Magnetic - Metallica
Both really good but totally unlistenable..

[Jac Hawk]

another one in the "not the greatest job by a sound engineer" category is The Joshua Tree by U2, it's not quite unlistenable, but i remember buying it on vinyl in Woolworths when it came out, i literally couldn't get home quick enough to give it a spin, the feeling of being short changed still pisses me off to this day

[southall-1998]

Oasis- ''What's the Story Morning Glory?''

S.

[Jac Hawk]

Oasis- ''What's the Story Morning Glory?''

S.

is it on CD or vinyl Shane?

[southall-1998]

is it on CD or vinyl Shane?


I only have the CD version. Not sure about the latter!

S.

[Macca]

Oasis- ''What's the Story Morning Glory?''

S.

It isn't that bad in terms of compression but it is bad. Likewise Californication but it is still playable. Worst I have is a Best Of The Bee Gees. 99p Motorway service station buy. The compression is beyond belief. And some compilation CDs that came free with The News Of The World are pretty bad. Mastering aside I can't think of anything on vinyl or CD that I have that I would say is bad in terms of the actual recording. Although I don't have a copy of the Joshua Tree.

[danilo]

Hmmm Recently heard PJ Harveys' 'Let England Shake' as a Youtube video MP3.
Liked it enough to buy the CD version.
Effing thing proved as virtually unlistenable. Utter crap recording, worst one I've bought, as quick descriptor.
MP3 via Utube was/is (went back to it for comparison) Much Much better. Which is really Strange. Yes it's a Genuine CD.
Bought it from Amazon. In retrospect I should have had Amazon refund me. Their customer service is first rate.
I suspect a Lot of garbage recordings go out the production door.

[Rothchild]

Yeah, my hifi would be so much better if it wasn't for all these dreadful records I have to play on it.....

Sly and the Stone 'There's a Riot Goin on' is a great example of bad recording (from a technical perspective) but it doesn't matter because it sounds great.

[Clifford.T Ward]

Don't know if anyone listens to this but one of the worst recordings at the mastering/engineering level is the CD reissue "Refugee" by Refugee .....it is so disorted in places....sad because the vinyl from the 70s is excellent.

[martian sunrise]

a lot of the 90s desert rock stuff is appalling.

[Joe]

Lou Reed's self-titled solo album wins first prize. Great songs murdered by ham-fisted production and godawful drumming. Hearing the Velvets' versions of some of these songs reinforces just how bad the production on 'Lou Reed' is. Nice cover art though.

Second prize goes to Blondie's Parallel Lines, but I suspect this is more a pressing than a production problem. The album (a German vinyl copy) sounds like it was recorded through a blanket, but I have a copy of the single of 'Sunday Girl' and that's fine.

[AlfaGTV]

Hmmm Recently heard PJ Harveys' 'Let England Shake' as a Youtube video MP3.
Liked it enough to buy the CD version.
Effing thing proved as virtually unlistenable. Utter crap recording, worst one I've bought, as quick descriptor.
MP3 via Utube was/is (went back to it for comparison) Much Much better. Which is really Strange. Yes it's a Genuine CD.
Bought it from Amazon. In retrospect I should have had Amazon refund me. Their customer service is first rate.
I suspect a Lot of garbage recordings go out the production door.

This was good info! I like PJH, but haven't realized until recently.
I have one vinyl, the reissue of her 1995 effort, To Bring You My Love... I'll thread carefully in stocking up on her other efforts...
(If you like PJH, try Marianne Faithful - Before The Poison, a production where both PJH and Nick Cave influences the sound! Sounds stunning on vinyl too!)

[pgarrish]

another one in the "not the greatest job by a sound engineer" category is The Joshua Tree by U2, it's not quite unlistenable, but i remember buying it on vinyl in Woolworths when it came out, i literally couldn't get home quick enough to give it a spin, the feeling of being short changed still pisses me off to this day

I normally find the better the system, the worse that U2 sounds.... so your system must be OK :D

[British high fidelity]

another one in the "not the greatest job by a sound engineer" category is The Joshua Tree by U2, it's not quite unlistenable, but i remember buying it on vinyl in Woolworths when it came out, i literally couldn't get home quick enough to give it a spin, the feeling of being short changed still pisses me off to this day
I have the original pressing and still every now and then play it and praying its got better and it hasnt, and yes pisses me off, one of the worst mastering EVER!

Sent from my LG-H961N using Tapatalk

[Jac Hawk]

I normally find the better the system, the worse that U2 sounds.... so your system must be OK :D

At the time it was a Thorens TD160B mkII, SME 3009 Ortofon VMS30 mkII, Mission Cyrus 2, Kef reference 101 and a Rogers sub

[cuddles]

I think 'Raw Power' must be the most notorious candidate for a poorly produced LP. The guitars come crashing in and out of the mix, the drums thudding away in the background and the bass guitar barely audible. The thing is it's probably the greatest rock record ever and just shouldn't sound any other way. In fact its impact would be diminished if it sounded any other way. Me and my mate used to laugh at the audacity of the fact that they actually released it the way it sounded.

If I could quote Julian Cope - ' The first time I ever played “Raw Power” I thought there was something wrong with my stereo.

The second time I played it, I knew there was something wrong with my immediate surroundings.

The third time I played it, I knew there was something wrong with music: Namely, with 99% of my record collection and 99.9% of all the records I had ever heard: past, present AND future.' :lol: