[atlantaprog] Re: another aspect

>Quite possibly the single greatest recorded drum track  in rock n roll
>history was also recorded in that time period (1971)...  It was recorded
>with on 2 mics, and in a big foyer, not in a recording studio.  It was
>about as low-tech as you can get.  It was the drum track for "When the
>Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin.

Wasn't it a single stereo mike?

Anyway, that track always sounded rather "trashy" to me, but I think I
understand why it was recorded that way.  A lot of those old albums are
just drowning in reverb, but it's all in the background, or else there's no
upfront component, so everything sounds like it's 500 feet away.

>... I
>think that the White Album sounds great!  Sgt. Peppers was recorded
>before that and is a frickin master piece!  Listen to the Beach Boy's
>Pet Sounds!  Really great stuff there.  Just about every record that is
>recorded today rides on the shoulders of the techniques pioneered on
>those 2 albums.  Not only is the technique amazing, but the SOUND is
>great too.  There is no digital delay, and there is no pristine reverb
>added in the overall mix like a lot of people do today, so a lot of it
>was "upfront" and not so spacious, but that was the style back then,
>nothing more.

I think the White Album sounds great *for its time*, and for a rock record;
there are some classical albums from the '50s that sound great even now,
BTW.

Alan Parsons was being interviewed in *Keyboard* back in the '80s, and he
made an interesting observation:  Those old records sound good to us
because the LEAD VOCALS are recorded with such care.  For Parsons,
recording the lead vocal is the decisive moment in album production.

>It's technique, not equipment or technology.

What I think it might come down to is the idea that good engineering
technique itself seems to have spread throughout the culture of popular
music in the last dozen years or so.  You're more likely now than in the
past to be able to find someone who can make you sound like a major-label
artist (if indeed you don't have the technique yourself).  Most of those
people use the digital stuff, so they credit the digital stuff with
sounding better.

Really, the turning point, I think, was the drum sound.  It's hard for me
to be satisfied with *any* drum sound anymore; they're either too thin
('60s and '70s) or too fat ('80s) or too messed-with ('90s-now).

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