Worst Recording Ever

[MartinT]

Great music but hatchet job on the engineering?

For me the worst used to be Elkie Brooks 'No More the Fool'. They used electronic processing on her voice (Aphex?) as if it needed it, and her voice certainly doesn't. Simply awful.

More recently, my vote for the worst recording ever, where the engineer definitely should have been taken outside, is Coldplay's 'X&Y'. Quite how this steaming pile of poo could have been released with more digital nasties than I have ever heard in one album is beyond me. It's a crying shame as the music is good, but it's almost unlistenable.

[DanJennings]

it's been talked about so much everywhere, but it's true:
Metallica - Death Magnetic - What a shame...

great songs, distorted awful production

[Stratmangler]

Anything Metallica released before "The Black Album" sounds shite, all boom and tizz and no tone.
That's not to say that the music is crap, just that the sounds on the recordings are horrible.
It took Bob Rock telling them that it sounded shite (well that and having a great guitar and amp collection that he shipped into the studio) before they actually started to properly get their act together.

[Stratmangler]

Now that I think about it, Yes' "Going For The One" is quite poorly recorded and produced.
Which is a shame, 'cos the material is brilliant.

[UV101]

Is it the actual recording or the fact that def technitians seem to think its OK to use compression to make louder recordings at the expense of dynamics?!?!?!

The higher up the hifi chain you get, the more noticable it gets. Personally i've not seen a tone control on my system for 20years+ so I like you cannot compensate for the lack of bass for example (not that it would resolve the problem!).

For me, the worst production came in the form of "whats the story" Oasis and any other album they have released. Its dissapointing to know that the master will almost cetainly be of awesome quality. I did find a good recording on Oasis once, it was on an MYV unplugged compilation so the young idiots who do the production normally would have been kept away from the final production!

Check out the "loudness war", it explains all!

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[Rare Bird]

Now that I think about it, Yes' "Going For The One" is quite poorly recorded and produced.
Which is a shame, 'cos the material is brilliant.

No they wernt poor recording they were bad on Vinyl. You get the YES on Rhino CD you'll soon change your mind ;)

[magiccarpetride]

Great music but hatchet job on the engineering?

For me the worst used to be Elkie Brooks 'No More the Fool'. They used electronic processing on her voice (Aphex?) as if it needed it, and her voice certainly doesn't. Simply awful.

More recently, my vote for the worst recording ever, where the engineer definitely should have been taken outside, is Coldplay's 'X&Y'. Quite how this steaming pile of poo could have been released with more digital nasties than I have ever heard in one album is beyond me. It's a crying shame as the music is good, but it's almost unlistenable.

Pretty much any recording produced since the loudness war started (some 8 years ago?) Music mastered under the loudness war regime is absolutely unlistenable on any high resolution sound system.