- This topic has 10 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Ok so i’m abit drunk, and difficult. But i just had somewhat of a negative revelation here now. After listening to the new Sonic Youth album (The Eternal for you ignorants out there
) i put on LLM. And MAN!!!!!! There’s a whole lotta difference in production on thoose two. In comparison, LLM sounds like a drunken hobo fiddling at the mixing desk, where as The Eternal sounds like the god of production behind the board. So many big differences. Try it. You’ll get the picture!I know this is rather old news, but my question is; Where did they fail??
Any thoughts?
Personally, i would slap some more bass and exciter on the main mix for starters…
(Sorry guys….you ‘re still the gods of music!!)
I’ve listened to The Eternal quite a lot now, but i must say it is definitely isn’t my favorite SY album (which are Daydream Nation, Sister and Murray Street. I love the sound of The Eternal too, but i love the LLM sound too, and a lot. It is very different indeed. Both good jobs imo.I think SY sounds (production wise) more like a straight forward rock band, while LLM has a very spacy, trebly sound, with many many layers. I love it the way it is.
Have you ever tried putting them on right after one another? You’ll be surprised! Trust me. It’s not that the LLM production doesent’t suit the musical ventures. It’s just the overall sound that’s so freaking far from the SY album. And considering that both are pretty guitar oriented and “natural” sounding, i think it’s a shame that they seem so far apart soundwise.
That being said…i’m eagerly awaiting the new album. I’ve got a feeling it’ll be far better produced…
There’s quite a bunch of records that sound crispier than LLM. LLM is a bit too muddy. I don’t think they failed though. Because you can’t fail without trying. I suppose it was on purpose, a statement against loudness war maybe?
And I wouldn’t name SY as a reference. They’re another story. They build their sound on ringing overtones. They need more top end by nature, so to speak.
Listening to Black Mountain’s In the Future right now, that’s more of a neighbourly territory. Sounds fat but not annoying, or tiring. A suggestion, btw, for non-knowers. Nice album.
Who knows Supernaut. But after taking abit of a dive into BH/BC, i once again find myself scratching my head wondering: What went wrong on LLM? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a kickin’ album. But i can’t help but wonder what it would sound like with a better production.
Ah well…enough past…let’s focus on the future!
The Eternal is definitely one of the best sounding rock albums of the year, I’ll give Sonic Youth that (the album itself is also really good, another quality SY-release).
But I’m willing to bet is was recorded completely digital, because it just sounds so crisp and precisely put together. I don’t know how how LLM was recorded but it sounds a lot more analog to me. It’s also mastered relatively soft and dynamic, you have to crank the volume a bit to make it sound better. This is something they must have done on purpose. As if they chose not to go with the ongoing loudness war. The Eternal is mastered in a much louder way.
I’m actually comparing them both as I’m typing this but I’m doing this on a laptop, so…
Hi guys,
Being a live sound engineer and doing a bit of recording myself, I got interested in this Loudness-wars of course
I just happened to read a nice article about it. About a book written by Greg Milner ‘Perfecting Sound Forever’.
Probably gonna buy the book anyhow, since it’s really interesting for me….
There is also a link to an interview on Talk of the Nation (radio-show) in this link. Interesting what callers have to say about Loudness, MP3’s vinyl recordings, analog vs digital etc… (30 min radioshow, click link top left ‘listen now’)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105762127
for freaks only?
Gert
thanks man! I’ll certainly check it out. Being somewhat of a musician myself, i find myself struggling with the production side of things. Frankly i’m sort of a noob when it comes to this. So there’s probably many factors which i haven’t taken into consideration when comparing those two albums. But like written in my first post; I was abit drunk, and felt the urge to point out the big difference between those two albums. That being said..i hope for a cleaner sounding Child of the future.
I find myself struggling nowadays with the right settings for my turntable.
Went back to vinyl again and bougt myself a used Technics SL 1200…
Changed the needle into an Ortofon Concorde.
Find a lot of info, maybe too much on the net bout this.
Actually you can look at it as an analog tape recorder, setting the angles right, azimut, tracking etc….
Another thing to tweak at home so to speak. Any tips are always welcome!
Also started wondering why so many vinyl recordings sound different. Due to the cutting of the vinyl perhaps?
I guess that for a reproduction of the captured, recorded sound, the needle of the record player has to be exactly aligned as the cutter of the vinyl. I guess there’s even a lot more to it than this.
I guess that is what you guys are also experiencing when listening to the differences between LLM and The Eternal. Haven’t got any of the albums on vinyl, so it’s hard to tell for me.
It’s just a thought…
And hoping for a crystal clear sounding 20th anniversary!
AADAP on vinyl rocks btw!
Found a few useful videos on YouTube on how to set up a Technics SL 1200 a few days ago.
Just wanted to post this in case you guys are awaiting the new MP album and want to listen as correctly as possible!
Not that I expect all of you guys having an SL 1200, but it still is a standard anyway, so I guess there might be a few (hundreds?) of them. Bearing in mind that a wrong setup can ruin your records and we certainly don’t want this to happen!
Type the words ‘technics SL 1200 Viperfrank’ in the search engine and you will probably learn a lot more about record players.
That’s what I did!
Have fun tweaking!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.