Best Prog album Producers and Engineers.
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=99876
Printed Date: March 13 2025 at 05:35
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Topic: Best Prog album Producers and Engineers.
Posted By: SteveG
Subject: Best Prog album Producers and Engineers.
Date Posted: September 30 2014 at 15:38
| Here's one for the Tech heads. List the best Prog album producers and/or engineers and their particular albums you like. And list what you like about the producer's or engineer's work. |
Replies:
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 30 2014 at 15:44
| Eddie Kramer for his outstanding work as engineer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He also mixed the songs. Everything that's important to hear in a Hendrix song, you will hear. His early subtle stereo panning and unobtrusive use of volume is what makes a song like Along The Watchtower really standout. |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: October 01 2014 at 09:51
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No takers for this thread so I'll throw in a one. Terry Brown for his early work with Rush and helping Queensryche with their bid to go prog metal on Operation Mindcrime and the follow up album Empire.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: October 02 2014 at 09:46
Still no takers.  Ok, then. David Hentshel for his crisp production on many Genesis albums, especially And Then There Were Three with great ADT used for Collins chorus and his big sound on Renaissance's A Song For All Seasons album, that made some of the lesser songs better than they were.
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Posted By: cemego
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 18:30
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My favorites: Trevor Horn, David Hentshel, Rhett Davies, Brian Eno (not a prog producer but a great one), and Todd Rundgren. ------------- listen to streaming stuff! no commercials! http://wmom.servemp3.com:8000/listen.pls |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 19:19
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The first that springs to mind is former Beatles engineer, Geoff Emerick, who was the mixing engineer for Triumvirat's Spartacus album. Also: Producer Peter Hauke, who was with Bellaphon Records, and produced progressive artists like Nektar, Pell Mell, and Dzyan Producer/Engineer Conrad "Conny" Plank, so important in the emerging German progressive movement, so many involvements, what comes to mind is the Eloy debut and Helmut Koellen's solo record, but there are countless others. ECM Producer Manfred Eicher, mainly a jazz label, with some progressive artists I like such as Terje Rypdal and Eberhard Weber. Producer/engineer Eddie Offord, who worked with Yes and ELP, among others. (like the Andromeda debut album) I don't know how to technically describe what they have done, but it works wonders for me as far as appreciating their art.
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Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 19:34
Phil Spector.  ------------- |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 21:10
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For producers/engineers/mastering/mixing specialists...... Nick Davis Bob Ludwig Chris Kimsey Terry Brown Greg Calbi George Marino Ted Jensen Alan Parsons Steven Wilson Robert Srzedniccy Jens Bogren Dave Meegan -------------   
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Posted By: sublime220
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 21:23
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Danger Mouse will always be my one and only, but here are more phenomenal producers: Chris Thomas Nigel Godrich Todd Rundgren Rick Rubin Phil Spector George Martin I could go on and on... ------------- There is no dark side in the moon, really... Matter of fact, it's all dark... |
Posted By: cemego
Date Posted: February 25 2015 at 21:25
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how about bob clearmountain ------------- listen to streaming stuff! no commercials! http://wmom.servemp3.com:8000/listen.pls |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 01:54
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Eddie Offord (ELP and Yes) Steven Wilson (sh*t loads of stuff) I also like to give a shout out to Peter Collins for his impressive work on Rush - Power Windows but its probably less well known that he produced the IQ album Are You Sitting Comfortably? and did a fine job. after that I'm struggling as I don't know that much about producers/engineers without looking them up |
Posted By: Svetonio
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 03:52
| Nick Mason did a great job at Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, Gong's Shamal and Steve Hillage's Green. |
Posted By: The Sloth
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 15:57
| Have to give the award to Eddy Offord. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 17:34
was there anyone else? This thread has *geek alert* written all over it... you get the 'prog geek' tag for a day at PA's if you could or did name more than 3 OTHERS than Eddy Offord. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
The Sloth wrote:Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 18:26
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Shel Talmy: Pentangle and Roy Harper, Peter Sinfield: KC and Roxy Music and Thom Allom: Strawbs. The geek is in the house.  ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 18:52
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Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: March 01 2015 at 12:02
Bingo!! I know that you, Jose have heard the goods. Agree with this list tenfold! I will just add a few that have struck me well lately. Arien Lucassen. This guy is no slouch! He really knows how to produce and mix an album. The electric Castle is a great example. Perfect tonality of strings. You hear them shimmer with such vibrancy. ;) Phil Magnoti-- (fates warning). This guy knows how to treat vocals. Never harsh with any Hashy sibilance. Andy Jackson-- this guy epitomizes how to lavishly produce an album beautifully. Good example. Fields of the Nephilim's ELIZIUM. It's perfect. Trent Reznor and Alan Moulder-- dear god these guys know what they are doing. The way they treat piano and acoustics, album mixing for industrial electronic music. None much better. Zero noise floor. Francois Kevorkian-- one of the best mixers in the biz. An absolute perfectionist. Good example is Depeche mode's VIOLATOR. ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: geeeaidan
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 08:27
Always loved the production on the Tom Fuller Album.. Probably not as well known but worth a mention I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tn_-XE5t64" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tn_-XE5t64
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Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 10:47
| John Acock who Steve Hackett chose to co-produce his first seven albums. A good, lush, wall-to-wall sound because of it. Not to be confused with John Alcock, producer of Thin LIzzy's best duo, Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox. |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: March 16 2015 at 12:24
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Peter Van Riet. Excellent work with Pendragon. Karl Groom of threshold for remastering the Twelfth Night live album (Ljve and let live.) It's sounds more than bearable because of him. Not bad given the album was originally a 2 track recording. ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: adam525
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 00:11
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Eddy Offord Ken Scott Bob Ezrin Alan Parsons |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 06:30
No, not really. He may be a good "enabler" but a producer he isn't - the production on those albums owes more to the people he was working with. When you look at what he produced with less-able people (Principle Edward's Magic Theatre and The Damned) the results were nowhere near as great. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Roj
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 07:58
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Alan Parsons must get huge kudos for the production on DSOTM (the original version). Compared to other albums released around that time (and indeed after that) it's light years ahead, so rich and deep sounding. |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 08:19
Agreed. Their bizarre first choice to produce Music For Pleasure was Syd Barrett and they subsequently described Mason as 'clueless' (but this is like asking Charlie Watts to play guitar when you can't get Keith Richards  )------------- 
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Posted By: Svetonio
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 08:20
| Pete Henderson was producer on amazing albums as Supetramp's Paris and Breakfast In America, Rush's Grace Under Pressure... And Mr Henderson was also an engineer on quite legendary prog rock albums by Zappa and King Crimson: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-henderson-mn0000272174/credits" rel="nofollow - http://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-henderson-mn0000272174/credits |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: April 30 2015 at 08:39
The one that always makes me smile is Def Leppard hiring Jim Steinman to produce their follow-up to Pyromania because Mutt Lange had declined their request (due to exhaustion) ... after weeks of non-productive activity (that apparently included Steinman insisting that the studio carpet be changed) someone pointed out that Todd Rundgren produced Bat Out Of Hell not Steinman. Soon he and the band parted ways and Hysteria was eventually produced by Mutt Lange.
------------- What? |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: May 01 2015 at 01:41
I've never understood this. DSOTM could have been much better with a 'live' sounding production imo. 1973 was the first year when bands started 'compressing' their sound and I hear this right across the board. Albums like Trilogy and Close To The Edge sound much better to me and those were recorded a year earlier. I realise this is entirely subjective though.
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: May 01 2015 at 09:42
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Hi, I don't know ... I have some serious reservations about all this, and sometimes I look at these people as the "mom and pop" that helped clean up the ideas, so they were visible. However many clothes and jewelry mom and dad might have helped you and done laundry with, in the end, YOU had the ideas and this room, or place, or person, helped realize them. I find this specially true in the German Cosmic/Kosmiche scene, when the idea was to create a feeling and explore it ... "get into the vibes of the music" ... and it succeeded, even if some folks do not seem to appreciate it, and consider it poor music, and what not. It wasn't about the notes! It was about the extension of the feeling, like you would not want to do that with your significant other. It's a weird thing to say ... but the 20th century was about "individuality", and then we think that Miles Davis was not independent, and neither was Stravinsky, Picasso, Dali, Bartok ... and so forth ... and in this case YES, GENESIS, ELP, AMON DUUL 2, CAN and so many others, that I sincerely believe had a much more appreciation for their art, than just a song for the radio top ten! This was about them, not their producer, even though many of them tried to get into the act and make their name famous as well, since they were also getting their percentage, the same as the members of any band! I think that the next "biggie" will not be about the producer .. it will be about the artist, and many record companies and people will immediately try to side with them to get a piece of the action! But it will be more likely, as has been the case in almost all of these folks listed, that they will bring something new with them ... and the producer will not exactly be a household name. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: May 01 2015 at 10:14
The fact that Mason produced Wyatt's Rock Bottom AND Gong's Shamal qualifies his "great producer" status to the hilt. Thanks, Svetonio, for mentioning it. |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 01 2015 at 10:31
No, not really. They are great, well produced albums, but that is not because he was credited as being the producer - it is a reflection of the artists and engineers involved, not of Mason's skill. None of these artists used Mason for their follow-up albums or any album since - that speaks volumes does it not? ------------- What? |