What year in music sounds the best to you?

[u b k]

Imagine if you could slather your productions with the tone and vibe of a particular 12 month period, past or present, what would it be?

I'm not even talking about how good the music was, most of us seem equally jazzed by sound as by music. I'm talking purely about the sonics that were in vogue.

What are the qualities that you find yourself admiring, or wanting?

Me, it's a tossup between 1975 and 1977, but I'm gonna go with 1977. 77 just had the fatness, the dryness, the density, and the clarity in all the right proportions.

Honorable mention to 1998, that was the last year I still heard a lot of what I would call massive but tasteful compression that wasn't totally killed by brickwalling. By 99, the limiting had pretty much taken over and crushed all the remaining transients to my ears.


Gregory Scott - ubk
.

[digibird]

Bingo. 1977. I'm sure that being 16 that year is a big part of it for me, but it really doesn't get better to my ears for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Those years ('75 - '77) are also beautiful in the " keep turning up the volume, keeps sounding better" dept., on headphones and Klipsch tower speakers. Especially loud electric guitars, just beautiful. No pain on volume gain, just vibe, energy, and power. Man, you're taking me back, and I really like it.

[maxpidge]

Originally Posted by digibird

Bingo. 1977. I'm sure that being 16 that year is a big part of it for me, but it really doesn't get better to my ears for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Those years ('75 - '77) are also beautiful in the " keep turning up the volume, keeps sounding better" dept., on headphones and Klipsch tower speakers. Especially loud electric guitars, just beautiful. No pain on volume gain, just vibe, energy, and power. Man, you're taking me back, and I really like it.

77', i was five, but i still love it!!!!

[author]

Technology -- and the skills to use it -- improve all the time.

To me, the world didn't end in '77. I think records sound better and better.

[bcgood]

1987

[picksail]

I like a little from every year.

Hard to pick a favorite. I love so much music.

It's all good.

Though I am fond of the sounds from both '74 and '80.
Probably because I'm nostalgic about the music.

One thing is for certain, every bit of this music sounded current for it's time.

No different today.

[huggie]

I'm going with 1978.

Vinyl was still king!

Examples of why this is the year for me:

Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove

Cameo - We All Know Who We Are

Bob Marley - Crisis

Blondie - Heart of Glass

The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated

Van Halen - Runnin' with the devil

The Cars - Just What I Needed


Make sure you listen to them off Vinyl!


Hugo

[John Eppstein]

1966

NO,

1972

NO,

1978

NO,

1984

NO,

1934

NO,

1949

NO,

1954

NO,

1957

NO,

1959

NO,

1725

Aw, phukett......

[Batchainpuller78]

Interesting decade of music '65-'75
Sound i'd like to get '58-'64

The stuff with Esquivel, Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, Rudy Van Gelder recordings, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Raymond Scott, Herbie Mann, Sinatra, well the list is long
but that late 50's early 60's has to my taste some of the best sounding recording ever.
You are in the room with the players everything is very warm, lush, thick yet crystal clear

[baikonour]

'67 to '74

[thethrillfactor]

1981-1982.

Honorable mention 77-78.

[Seb RIOU]

1955, in Memphis ... being Sam Phillips.

[butterfly]

Imagine if you could slather your productions with the tone and vibe of a particular 12 month period, past or present, what would it be?

...............Funny I was thinking about this very thing last week, in fact I often think about it. So many fantastic albums were being made in the mid 70's, a real golden age. Frank Zappa, Led Zepplin, Steely Dan, Doobie Bros. List is endless. I wonder if anyone is still making music like that anymore, I mean it must be possible right?
With the right players, room, engineer and gear. Or was there just something in the air?...................erm 74, no 75, 76? I dunno can't decide.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by butterfly

...............Funny I was thinking about this very thing last week, in fact I often think about it. So many fantastic albums were being made in the mid 70's, a real golden age. Frank Zappa, Led Zepplin, Steely Dan, Doobie Bros. List is endless. I wonder if anyone is still making music like that anymore, I mean it must be possible right?
With the right players, room, engineer and gear. Or was there just something in the air?...................erm 74, no 75, 76? I dunno can't decide.

Sure, it's just not "fashionable".

Check out Taj Mahal's latest album - on vinyl.

[The True Buck]

1975 - Wish You Were Here

[JoeM'Geek]

I'd go with '77 as well...just the right balance between natural and artificial sounds for me. Though really that spans a good few years...probably '74-81 or so.

Having said that- I'm a big garage fan...from a listening perspective I still love lots of technically shitty recordings- and I don't know if the recording of real sounds ever needed to 'progress' beyond 'Sunflower' by the Beach Boys from 1970. Things sound different now to what they did then, but whether they are BETTER or not is just down to personal taste.

[79_Limited]

A toss up for me is 1965 or 1987.

[author]

Why don't you all put blankets over your speakers?

Instant time machine...

[narcoman]

can't really settle....

I love Funcadelic - Fundadelic - which is '70 I think

but I also love

Lullabies to Paralyse which is 2005 ish....so.....

Like a LOT of late 60's to early 70's rock. More what we'd call garage or stoner rock now - .... so Stooges etc. But also like Dirtbombs - a modern band.

Or even stuf like Kyuss from the late nineties...

In orchestral circles my fave recording is modern and digital.... Rattles work with the Berlin Phil throughout the last 6 or 7 years.....particularly his Brahms stuff in 2008.... great sound.

And yet again - i've found myself strangely drawn to records i HATED in the 80's !!! Phil Collins !! Fer crying out loud - I used to LOATHE that stuff... but I've recently foudn a new dimension to the textures in cheesey stuf like "In the air tonight".... I've even finally come round to appreciating what I used to consider some of the worst sounding recordings- Steeley Dan !! - despite all those who used to laud over their technical excellence. Well - now I like it !!


must be getting old..

Having said that - I LOVE Tchads mixes of a band I worked on a few years ago ... Little Fish. Sounds amazing.....Not loud, not squashed. So can't really say! I guess I just like the stuff I like .....

[henge]

Wow, barely anybody mentions the 2000's or '90's!
For me '76 to the early eighties.

[dip]

1979, great for rock, best for disco music

[Batchainpuller78]

Originally Posted by henge

Wow, barely anybody mentions the 2000's or '90's!
For me '76 to the early eighties.

telling isn't it

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by u b k

Me, it's a tossup between 1975 and 1977, but I'm gonna go with 1977. 77 just had the fatness, the dryness, the density, and the clarity in all the right proportions.
Gregory Scott - ubk
.

Can you give us some examples to check out?

Great list Huggie!

R.

[The True Buck]

Originally Posted by author

Why don't you all put blankets over your speakers?

Instant time machine...

I use a hot towel! I have good results with my oven, just don't use the microwave, way too harsh and digital sounding to my ears. Think I will upgrade my studio with a stone oven for warmth!

[cavern]

81-82
the stones
bowie, modern love/china girl

[u b k]

Originally Posted by Ol' Betsey

Can you give us some examples to check out?

The sonics I love most are nothing new to most folks: Hotel California, Saturday Night Fever, News of the World, Rumours, The Stranger...

And for those who feel the need to defend modern music, please allow me to clarify: my question is not "what is the last good year for music after which everything sucks total ass?" My question is merely "What year most embodies the kinds of sonics you find pleasing to the ear?"


Gregory Scott - ubk
.

[rty5150]

whatever years the kevin shirley dream theater albums came out...oh yeah, when the journey revelation album, too.

[adeptusmajor]

Originally Posted by narcoman

but I also love

Lullabies to Paralyse which is 2005 ish....so.....

that was a great sounding album, as was "era vulgaris"

i just love the midrange sound of the gtrs.


but in contrast, when i saw QOTSA live the last time around, it was probably one of the worst sounding shows i have been to. everything was washed in an overly aggressive midrange boost, none of the instruments had any clarity, and it was literally painful to listen to.

just a godawful indecipherable blur, what a bummer.

[deeper]

Strictly sonically speaking (not considering the actual music) I enjoy the sound of many recordings from the early fifties (Nat King Cole, Sinatra) and late fifties, early sixties (that Atomic Age Lounge Lizard Swinging Bachelor Pad stuff -- Mancini, Enoch Light, Esquivel) and the late sixties (Pet Sounds, Abbey Road, Traffic) and the early seventies (Genesis, Steely Dan, the Who).

Music from those years often makes me giggle with delight, just because of the SOUND of the trumpet or clarinet or bongos -- or even because the reverb is so tasty! God, the reverb chambers they had back then!

But after 1974, to my ears, sonics became deader, sterile, over-compressed. Killed by the disco era, with the overly deadened studios. Killed by the destruction of the great studios with real reverb chambers. Further killed in the 80's by the rush to digital format, with crappy converters and waaaaay too much brittle high end. I still favor the sound of tape recordings.

[HOTC]

I use to hate the 80s music as a kid(well im still kinda a kid)
but now most of my fav sounding records are from then
Spirit Of Eden
Seeds Of Love
Hounds Of Love
..Like theres tons of great sounding records from then..prefab sprout stuff
Classical music I actually think the newer records are sounding amazing
got some RCA remastered classical cds and they sound beautiful