ted hutt vs. brendan o'brien?

so eh... ted hutt vs. brendan o'brien?

Labhras wrote:

so eh... ted hutt vs. brendan o'brien?

Brendan O'Brien and it's not even close. Even with the crappy rip on NPR right now, this is the best the band has sounded (regardless of any song quality debate).

I think Handwritten sounds great regardless of what I think of all the songs. Can only imagine how good American Slang would have been if it was produced like this.

Reversely I would be interested to hear what Handwritten would be like if produced by Ted Hutt.

Christophe wrote:

Reversely I would be interested to hear what Handwritten would be like if produced by Ted Hutt.

You want it to sound worse?

I'd be more interested to see what Sink or Swim would sound like produced by Brendan

bakerfall wrote:

Christophe wrote:

Reversely I would be interested to hear what Handwritten would be like if produced by Ted Hutt.

You want it to sound worse?

I'd be more interested to see what Sink or Swim would sound like produced by Brendan

No I would just be interested to hear sonically how it would be different.

does anyone think brian's voice sounds a bit weird on some songs? i don't know the best way to describe it, it's like it's compressed or dead or had some frequencies taken out. GICK. i clearly don't have the words or knowledge to describe what i mean. if someone who somehow knows what i'm on about pls articulate for me.

it's got that brendan o'brien goo on it.

Labhras wrote:

does anyone think brian's voice sounds a bit weird on some songs? i don't know the best way to describe it, it's like it's compressed or dead or had some frequencies taken out. GICK. i clearly don't have the words or knowledge to describe what i mean. if someone who somehow knows what i'm on about pls articulate for me.

it's got that brendan o'brien goo on it.

There are def some effects on Brian's vocals on a few songs, but that's not anything new. Brendan O'Brien goo? It's just production, and I think they sound fantastic on it.

You make it sound like Brendan has a history of bad sounding records. A brief brendan production discography. Find me one that sounds bad.

PJ
vs
vitalogy
no code
yield
backspacer

STP
core
purple

Neil Young
Mirrorball

RATM
Evil Empire
Battle of Los Angeles

Springsteen
The Rising
Devils and Dust

i'm pretty sure he did magic and working on a dream as well. i liked how magic sounded but the rising has plenty of that goo i was talking about. songs like mary's place and you're missing, it's the voice particularly. i don't think he did a bad job or anything but i sure as hell wouldn't like him to have done SOS

Labhras wrote:

i'm pretty sure he did magic and working on a dream as well. i liked how magic sounded but the rising has plenty of that goo i was talking about. songs like mary's place and you're missing, it's the voice particularly. i don't think he did a bad job or anything but i sure as hell wouldn't like him to have done SOS

If you've only listened to the NPR stream, a lot of your concerns stem from the compression on that. I think Brian sounds great on the full quality rips.

I love the songs on "sink or swim", but the production on that album is understandably awful.

Just finished listening to the real rip of Handwritten and I think it's the best Brian has sounded on any album.

bakerfall wrote:

Labhras wrote:

i'm pretty sure he did magic and working on a dream as well. i liked how magic sounded but the rising has plenty of that goo i was talking about. songs like mary's place and you're missing, it's the voice particularly. i don't think he did a bad job or anything but i sure as hell wouldn't like him to have done SOS

If you've only listened to the NPR stream, a lot of your concerns stem from the compression on that.

this had occurd to me alright.

what don't you like about sink or swim?

Ted Hutt.

I think Elsie sounds incredible

and I'm not digging the sound effects on the vocals on Handwritten

I don't think the Sink or Swim production is awful. It's pretty much the only album of theirs where I don't think about the production at all when I listen to it.

BOB for sure. To these untrained ears, American Slang sounds really flat or something. Although the songs are very good, the sound is boring at times. I think Handwritten sounds like it has a lot more life to it, if that makes any sense.

simo wrote:

I don't think the Sink or Swim production is awful. It's pretty much the only album of theirs where I don't think about the production at all when I listen to it.

because there isn't really any production. It sounds like it's mostly just them playing live in the studio, almost no effects on Brian's vocals, etc. It is what it is, a first release that was done on the cheap. Nothing wrong with that, but sonically (not songwise), it can't stand up to subsequent releases.

Elsie is arguable the best sounding album I have ever heard, whereas I don't like the production on The '59 Sound, so I'm in two minds about Ted

I have no production issues with Handwritten, but neither is there anything about the production which sticks out, so I can't tell what Brendan contributed to the making of the album (after all, it's not just the recording element, it's also the critical feedback, the suggstions, etc.)

B O'B oversaw the cock up that was Springsteen's Magic. Fantastic album, well produced musically but so horribly compressed that it comes close to ruining it. No kick in the bass, the whole dynamic range pumped to the max to make it sound better on cheap headphones.

The Rising and Devil's and Dust were ok but Wrecking Ball sounds far better.

Elsie is the best sounding release put out by BF/TGA.

I'm reserving judgement on the Handwritten production until I've heard the CD.

I've been very critical on BoB in the past but I've gotta say that Handwritten sounds a lot better on CD than on that rip, just need to hear the vinyl now.

I'd like to see Gaslight work with Tristan Ivemy, think he's done some great work with Frank Turner

I've been very drawn to Ted for quite a while now, actually. He's one of the reasons that led me to listen to these guys in the first place, since I liked the production on the early Flogging Molly albums and other bits. He can be hit or miss, but I've generally enjoyed his work immensely, ESPECIALLY Elsie. That's one of the greatest records I have heard in my life.

The one thing I've HEARD about Brendan O'Brien is that he gives a lot of attention to the high-end aspects of rock records much more than low and mid-frequencies. When I first heard '45' I kinda threw a bitch-fit for this reason, because it's a very sharp-sounding song, but compared to the rest of the album it kinda stands on its own - which might have actually been the point in the first place. Handwritten sounds nice and full, as do songs like 'Mae' and 'Here Comes My Man', so the assumption that he gave too much attention to the high-end disappeared for me after hearing those songs. The one thing I do not like is the way Brian's voice is filtered. Every time he utters an 's' in the verses, it's almost like it rings. It kinda drives me up a wall, but it fits in certain songs more than others.

The one issue I have more than anything for modern records is, like what MarkBarlow said, compressed-sounding records. It's so frequent since mp3's are basically the main format for music these days, and a lot of pop music gets the shit-end of the production-stick because it seems like so many producers ignore the extreme high and low aspects of sound and just generate some bland excuse for a record. 'American Slang' seems more of an example than anything with this idea - it just sounds so constrained, and even distorted, which really disappointed me because there are quite a few things of that record that I love LIVE, so it makes me wish that they were given a different approach when they were recorded in-studio.

But even though American Slang is what it is, I LOVE LOVE LOVE '59 Sound for what it is. Brian's voice can be shrill in pieces, but I really enjoyed how they filtered his voice to reflect that of tons of classic '50's and '60's musicians. And even though American Slang is what it is, Elsie comes out a year later and it completely blew my mind. That is such a full record in all three aspects, and it's CONSTANT in its value. Nothing changes, which is something that I've heard from every single album he's produced, even if the value isn't what attracts me. 'Handwritten' to me is not a constant record. It changes a lot and that's one of the few things that drives me away from it. Needless to say, I still love this record immensely because of where it's coming from and how important it's become to the band as a whole, but it's not my favorite of the bands catalogue.

I feel like I should look around for some more O'Brien produced records to better justify my opinions, and this is also coming from a 20-year old who's just getting into production, so please forgive me if any of my opinions or the way I worded this sounds a little backwards or ill-conceived. Hopefully they made sense.

I do love that BO'B (or whoever, since we don't really know) through in the briefest moment of slapback on Brian's vocals during Howl (Now do you blow it out?). Was kind of cool to hear the first time.

Kosburn59 wrote:

I feel like I should look around for some more O'Brien produced records to better justify my opinions, and this is also coming from a 20-year old who's just getting into production, so please forgive me if any of my opinions or the way I worded this sounds a little backwards or ill-conceived. Hopefully they made sense.

I'd recommend listening to The Rising or Magic (both by Springsteen), for two reasons: 1) They are great records, and 2) he got a good deal of flack for The Rising (so as to not give you biased in-favor-of suggestions). O'Brien is good at making things sound big and unified, a different approach from previous Springsteen albums; many longtime fans thought his style made the record sound muddled. But I think his approach worked really well with Gaslight's sound.

i love the sound of magic but don't like the sound of the rising. thought i'd throw that in there

also like to throw in that i think things like the mandolin and what have you may have been BOB ideas. apparently he's good at coming up with stuff like that