70's sound and interpretation compared to today

BaldFriede wrote: Originally posted by Henry Plainview Originally posted by BaldFriede Originally posted by Henry Plainview I guess maybe if you grew up with crackling vinyl you crave imperfection, but I've never thought to myself that an album sounded "sterile" because of the production. At the moment I'm primarily interested in music that is partially or wholly improvised, but there's nothing with with glittering perfection on composed rock albums. I am not talking about imperfection of sound, I am talking about imperfection of performance. Even the best classical musicians make a lot of mistakes when playing live, but that's what gives the music its soul. If all the imperfections are edited out the result becomes sterile. Why? Would Beethoven be even better if he wrote a few mistakes into the score? There's no limit to how much soul we can imbue music with through mistakes. You are totally missing the point, it appears. No, I am not saying anything like that. Human beings are not perfect; there are flaws every time a human being performs music. If you don't believe me ask Efgeny Kissin, one of the best classical pianists there are. He said in an interview that he makes a lot of mistakes during concerts. And why mot? It is only human. But today's bands try to eliminate these imperfections in their studio productions, and this makes the music sound very sterile.

Henry Plainview wrote: BaldFriede wrote: Henry Plainview wrote: I guess maybe if you grew up with crackling vinyl you crave imperfection, but I've never thought to myself that an album sounded "sterile" because of the production. At the moment I'm primarily interested in music that is partially or wholly improvised, but there's nothing with with glittering perfection on composed rock albums. I am not talking about imperfection of sound, I am talking about imperfection of performance. Even the best classical musicians make a lot of mistakes when playing live, but that's what gives the music its soul. If all the imperfections are edited out the result becomes sterile. Why? Would Beethoven be even better if he wrote a few mistakes into the score? There's no limit to how much soul we can imbue music with through mistakes! yanch wrote: Also, most bands are now playing and recording with digital effects and equipment, which are not as much fun or interesting sounding as analog equipment. As a guitar player, I can attest to the fact that analog effects are warmer and finicky, which makes them fun, while digital effects are flatter sounding. Same goes for amps-give me a tube amp over a solid state amp any day-warmer sound, more dynamics. This is an opinion. There are many musicians who disagree with you. Last, but not least, is the actual skill of the players. Too many bands lack the true talent to play their own music outside of a studio and just jamming is foreign to them. They have to relay on studio tricks to produce "their" sound. Live they can't do it and they sound poor. Many of the 70's era bands laid down the basic tracks live in the studio and just added solo's and extra's to enhance the material. They were also capable of just jamming-that's why they sounded so good live, they could play their material no matter where they were and have fun with it live. Are you seriously suggesting that musicians today are less technically skilled than musicians 30 years ago?

Its  All about dynamics , put some music from the 70s on to Soundforge you will see the peaks and   troughs  put some  modern piece of recorded music you get one big block of sound , its all Mixed far to loud .  

Modern recorded music just doesn't seem to have any soul to the sound, all seems to have the same crystal  clear  sound .  would be nice to see some modern new prog bands go into the studio mic the  room up and boof give us some nice stunning music, with out Compressing and mixing the sh*t out of it but i wouldn't t hold your breath .

Edited by Hawkwise - August 11 2010 at 15:08

when we recorded "The Goat And the Donkey" we deliberately recorded it live in the studio,with a few friends. no overdubs, no nothing, and one take for each track only. we could perhaps have had a more perfect result, some will say "better" result if we had done it differently. but we wanted to catch the spirit of the music, and you only catch that when playing live

Anaon wrote: Hi! I'm thinking about this for a long time... I'm a 70's progressive rock fan because of the songs of course but also because of the sound and interpretation and even because of the way albums were recording in the 70's. ... Today, recording techniques are quite differen and many artists/producer are searching for "perfection" in sound and interpretation.

Good Lord, it's time to throw in my usual gratuituous reference to Mouth & MacNeil  to calm youse all down.

el böthy wrote: WalterDigsTunes wrote: Modern production encourages laziness, since lousy performances can be dropped onto ProTools and then strung together to create technically perfect Frankenstein's Monster that's not representative of how much the band actually sucks. Put them on stage and you'll see how terrible these new acts are. What's worse, modern recording, digital effects and other implements create a samey-stounding stew of sound that simply can't compare to the age where real musicians played real music and got it down on tape. Say "NO!" to new music. You´re ignorance baffles me

he's trolling

Or, he was dropped

WalterDigsTunes wrote: ptkc123 wrote: JJLehto wrote: I have to ask only because I havn't really dealt with you much Walter, and I am honestly curious. Is 1989 a line? Like after that, it does not even matter? And do you like bands that exist pre 1989 but released stuff after? Are all those now junk? Also, how over the top you are I find it very difficult to believe you are 100% sincere, but it provides me with nonetheless. I totally want to hear Walter's answer to this... I've often contemplated asking him this myself . Walter...? Walter...!? All post-1989 artists should just pack it up, get their stuff off the market and move on to something that's actually productive. Leave the music the pros, those Golden Age heroes who knew how to actually make music rather than the slop that gets lobbed at us by the kids.

LOL
You my friend are a troll among trolls
Your dedication sickens me.

Triceratopsoil wrote: el böthy wrote: WalterDigsTunes wrote: Modern production encourages laziness, since lousy performances can be dropped onto ProTools and then strung together to create technically perfect Frankenstein's Monster that's not representative of how much the band actually sucks. Put them on stage and you'll see how terrible these new acts are. What's worse, modern recording, digital effects and other implements create a samey-stounding stew of sound that simply can't compare to the age where real musicians played real music and got it down on tape. Say "NO!" to new music. You´re ignorance baffles me he's trolling Or, he was dropped

 

Very interesting topic! Those grow too fast for me, I just can't keep up...
About the main subject, I play with a trio that plays music driven by improvisation, and that's "made-for-live".
So we asked ourseleves this question before going to the studio: do we record live (all of us), or individually with MIDI correction...
We have quite a 70's sound, mixed with modern ones (piano, rhodes, organs, synth...), and we went with the live recording, as we thought that it would bring out the energy of the music in much more accuracy.
There is also the fact that we react a lot to each other's playing, so it makes it difficult to imagine an instrument-by-instrument recording.

Still, this is far from being a general opinion.
I think bands like Porcupine Tree, Oceansize, Meshuggah made the absolute right choice by going with the cleanest most produced sound they could get, because I think these bands need to have perfect productions in order for their music to sound best.

But I could very well see bands like Mastodon, La Terre Tremble!!!, or math rock bands recording live, because a 'rawer' sound is welcome, and energy comes from a great symbiosis of the instruments.

Another question comes to mind with this discussion:
Metronome or no metronome for recording? Do you need to be in perfect sync all the time?