ForssAwakens
Well-known member
Hot chip
Sound totally different live, which is great as your paying for a different experience live
Sound totally different live, which is great as your paying for a different experience live
I concur to all three of this. Although when I saw the specials live the sound quality was terribleKasabian
The Specials
Foo Fighters
Oh yes, I so recognise this - never got to Abbey Road, like! We used to record, and then mix days later, working with the engineer/producer. You'd listen through the studio speakers, leave thrilled skinny and then get the thing home, play it and.......oh dear. Tin City. Makes me shudder even now, 30 years later.It was very expensive to record in the past, particularly if you wanted to do it well. It might be better to try and recapture live sound, in one take, all playing together but even then it would cost the earth to mix it down afterwards. Very few bands could afford to do this properly and would do a quick mix. John Peel sessions could be far higher quality because they had top engineers, top equipment and always using the same studio and also there was a clear deadline and that sharpened the minds etc and got the adrenaline flowing.
A second point would be that analogue sound has to be massively compressed for vinyl and this could often go horribly wrong. What you heard through the studio speakers could end up being nothing like what you heard through your home hi fi.
I also once went to Abbey Road Studios and was present when our half inch tape recordings were cut/transferred towards an acetate for vinyl. I was shocked at a turn of a dial the engineer would fundamentally re-mix the sound. Being present I got the sound I wanted, no one is usually at these sessions and so all you can do is sit at home and wait for the Test Pressings. But if you listen to the Test Pressings and decide this is not my recording it would cost you a fortune to remix it again. It isn't often done.
I had a friend in Europe that did the job of that Abbey Road engineer, he would mix the recordings onto vinyl and he had somehow to work out the optimal sound and balance of the sound. Getting that right must be so, so difficult. I interviewed Mark E Smith once and he told me that he day after day he had listened to the mix of his album, Ersatz GB until he couldn't work out what was good and bad. He finally decided just to draw the line. I told him I thought he had got it right, he thanked me and said he was relieved to hear people liked it.
My mate in Europe actually had a breakdown in the end. He had to go away from his job for several weeks and give his ears and himself a rest in a hospital.
It is really, really hard to recapture live sound or the sound you want on recorded records/CDs, unless you have a lot of money or luck.
Love “Rosalie” from Live and Dangerous but you have to play it at an ear drum bursting volume!2 bands who's definitive albums were live one's.
Thin Lizzy and UFO
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This is how Dylan recorded nearly all of his albums. You hear the odd mistake but each track is a performance.It might be better to try and recapture live sound, in one take, all playing together but even then it would cost the earth to mix it down afterwards.