| Heres my personal favs
Vintage
#1 Nora Jones - Don't Know Why You Didn't Come
incredibly mixed vox. Reminds me in so many ways of the
sounds i hear off Billy Holiday records, of course its not B.
Holiday!
Environment
#2 Anything by Bob Marley....Well how about Can this Be Love?
I always admired how they were able to make a studio
recording sound so staged and alive...especially on the
background vox.
Great Modern/Acoustic
#3 "In the arms of the Angel.." I dont really know the name of the
artist but i LUV how clear her voice sounds and yet the piano
retains a good deal of character throughout the song. Whats
really funny is I thought this should have been the theme
song to Titanic...I kind of thought that the Celine Dion song
was too Disney for the movie..meanwhile this song had that
old world feel to it lyrically which made it a plus for me.
Modern Pop/R+B
#4 Somebody beat me to it...but f##k Alicia Keyes and India Arie..Jill Scott's first album and for that matter the second and 3rd album sound INCREDIBLE... Her first album is my standard for maintaining the organics of the music i produce record and distribute..."Is it the way?" Still one of my absolute FAVORITE songs she's ever done...the live version is incredible also with the Sax solo...oh my god what a great artist...but also what a great team of producers, writers and engineers! Independent as hell you go girl!
Hip Hop/Rap
#4 How has anyone missed out on this guy? NAS...3 songs come to mind....Made You Look, Last Real N*gga Alive and Thief's Theme. THE VOCALS are SUPERB on these cuts that he did...I dunno what the recording chain is...if its all analog or digital a blend of both...what mike was used ...but the vocals are like God almighty on these songs without a HINT of distortion to the naked listener...I WISH...i could get my vocals this huge and crisp sounding...F*ck whatcha herd...these songs define an engineers role to the fullest. If any of the pro ME or AEs whatever on this board want to hawk their skills or value in the industry..then you will earn my money by providing me with proof that you can replicate the results of these 3 songs in a hip hop context...I have never heard anything similar from ANYONE EVER quality wise the sound quality speaks volumes...BELIEVE ME EVERY single rapper alive wants their voice to be heard this clear and intimate.
Rock
#5 Its a 3 way tie between Radio Head, Portishead and Bjork
Each one has the ability to give you various spins on the previous 4 examples i cited for being my influence and this alone makes them incredible in my opinion...not only as artists but also the calls that have been made when its time to engineer their albums i applaud them over the years for their committment to excellence and sometimes the not so excellent....
As a whole
LETS HEAR IT FOR THE RISK TAKERS you scared miscreant *****s! Im tired of people askin the "pros" questions and only doing what they do...the pros didnt get to where they are without experimentation and trial and error....Thank god that people like Dave arent all liars and thieves.
Dave thank you for pointing this out time and again.
You're a mans mans
Peace
Illumination
CEO, Mt. Olympus Records |