The best sounding (produced/mastered) tracks/albums

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Was listening to Avalon by Roxy Music this morning.... not high res, but nicely produced all the same. Anything Bob Ludwig touches is normally good...

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I was listening to the re-mastered Alf by Alison Moyet in high res.

It was close to getting a mention on here as the instruments sound great - but her voice doesn't sound good at all... not sure why, very thin sounding - yet she does have a super set of pipes!

Jazz is my thing and soooo many jazz recording are superbly done - and yet the genre is quite niche in comparison to the main stream.

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Tranceportation by Sonar with David Torn has some interesting and well recorded tracks. The first track, Triskaidekaphilia has some deep bass for those that can.

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StescoG66 said:

I have the original album in vinyl and it blows this hi res remaster in to the rushes. What on earth have they done to it.......... it’s woeful, especially on the vocals but the entire thing is thin and grating.

Another old corker to dig out is This is the picture from Peter Gabriel’s So album, and Tracy Chapman Talkin’ bout a revolution

Betoko has piqued my interest though

That's interesting on the vinyl comparison... I recall Joe Cocker's 'Sheffield Steel' being great on vinyl and just 'OK' on digital versions.

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Funk said:

A new album to me - thanks.

What a collection of players on that album, amazing. Shame it's not in high res.... very nice sounding though.

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It's CD quality on Qobuz - is that Deezer link definitely high res? It's coming up as CD on my system.

No great matter, it's a good album all the same.

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Ah! I have some new speakers and can definitely hear the difference.... CD is fine but 24/96 or 192 usually sounds better.

Here's one that's not high res, but sounds good:

Blue Bossa by Brian Bromberg. Just a double bass, nothing else. Quite interesting.

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Funk said:

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Ah! I have some new speakers and can definitely hear the difference....

Ooh, what you got and what are you driving them with..?

I have a pair of KEF LS60's - they replaced a very good pair of Ruarks driven by Musical Fidelity mono blocks with a variety of front ends, most recently an NAD M10.

The KEF's are active and have 3 dedicated amps per speaker along with 6 drive units per speaker. They are very revealing in terms of production and mastering - some things sound great, not always high resolution recordings, but most of the time it's the higher res stuff that sounds better... more detail, more dynamic.

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Bunny is a Rider - Caroline Polacheck from the album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

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Try Uakti and the track 'Trilobita Solo 2'. Not recorded in high res, but very well recorded all the same. An interesting track.

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S600BSB said:

Floating Points - Pharoah Sanders and the LSO.

Gave it a go - as I do for pretty much everything mentioned - but I couldn't get into it. A bit of a whimsy with an overplayed motif.

Hahahaha, I've become a critic.


As an aside, many (if not most) of Van the Man's seems to be in 24bit - very smoothly produced. Mellow, obviously, but enjoyable if you're in the mood.

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S600BSB said:

Thanks for the recommendation of Silent World. Had a listen then ordered the vinyl. Superb - and a fabulous vinyl pressing too.

Oh excellent! I'm so glad you like it. I discovered it by accident and it's a favourite album now.

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From the album Jazz Sabbath by Jazz Sabbath - Evil Woman.

Not high definition, but well recorded and the drums sound great.....

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AC43 said:

I've just had the final part of a £1.5k upgrade to my car audio done and almost immediately went to Fagan's New Fontier from his Nightfly album. Amazing production. The album was a vinyl staple demo in hifi shops in the early/mid 80s

I am a huge Steely Dan fan - and of Fagan's solo work too.

Unfortunately I overdid Nightfly when it came out - I listened to it on repeat for about 3 years. I rarely listen to it now - a bit of a shame!

If you can find Northeast Corridor by Steely Dan (2021), it's worth listening to in 96/24bit. Great production but sadly missing Becker of course.

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Magikarp said:

Hourglass / James Taylor is sublimely engineered and produced.

It is nicely done... some interesting musicians on it too - Stevie Wonder, Sting, Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Yo-Yo Ma.

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Have you heard 5th House by Dominic Miller? One of my 'go to' albums....

There are also some great albums by Manu Katché - Third Round in particular.

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LeoSayer said:

I don't understand how some productions sound great and other sounds bad.

Take the example of 2 albums by the same band, same studio, same producer recorded only 18 months apart...

If you listen Ghost in the machine by The Police and then follow it up with Synchronicity then I notice a real step down in quality.

It is alchemy!

I owned a recording studio for many years - semi pro... fully equipped live room and control room etc. Production is a dark art, I never really mastered it to be honest... it's a Rubik's Cube of variables - not just EQ, panning, reverb. I am in awe of people like Bob Ludwig (for example) where everything he masters/produces is gold.

The difference between good and mediocre (as you know) is vast - hence this thread.

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The album Moonstruck by Chris Jones is well recorded... not exactly my kind of music (a bit country/folk) but it's very well done. The acoustic guitar is very well recorded with some big bass notes coming through on my new sub!

Sad to read that the artist died aged only 46.

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Funk said:

Indeed, Chris Jones was one of the recommendations early on in the thread!

To give your new sub a workout, fire up the live version of Hotel California from the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over; the when the percussion kicks in it sounds immense.

Must have missed it - or, more likely, my memory failed.

Will check out the Eagles, I do have the album, but haven't listened to it for a while.