the greatest era in recording history is...

[Captain_Pants]

I enjoyu the eighties personally. Saw a LOT of cool electric gear come out in the eighties. And especially with the creation of MIDI..

[badperson]

the mid 60's thru the mid 70's.

Okay, okay, I'll qualify that opinion a bit. I'm a musician, not an engineer. I bought my 001 to get ideas down and to learn a little something about the recording process. In fact, I think that's been the most important factor. Playing with mic placement, etc. Another thing that's been important is to get better playing "when the red light is on." Even home alone, my playing is different when I'm straining to play along with the click track when other parts don't go perfectly along with the time, etc. I've gotten a lot better at playing naturally while I'm recording. But I digress...

So I'm not a professional engineer. The reason I think the mid 60's thru the mid 70's was the best era, for all musical genres (IMHO) is, first of all stereo. Mono, even though that recording era is important too, will never be as good as stereo. we have two ears, and our brains triangulate a sound, to determine depth, etc.

Also, in that period, multi track grew, but didn't grow too much. they had those old tube boards with the great tube amps, so they could get a much better sound than with earlier stuff. but, they didn't have a zillion tracks like they do now, nor tons of plugins. Reverb was real reverb, not simulated on a computer. they also had limits, namely in the number of tracks, track bleeding, and so forth.

I guess what I feel is that they had the tools to get a great sound, but they also had limits. Engineers had to think creatively to solve problems. Engineers just don't have to do that today. You can compress, add as many tracks as you want edit the **** out of a poorly performed part.

Examples of recordings I like from that period; Led Zepplin, the Doors, Miles Davis, a lot of classical stuff (I'm partial to a lot of the Leonard Bernstein orchestra performances.)

I realize 1) I'm not an engineer, and 2) My historical knowledge is pretty spotty. this is my impression.

Agree?

thanks [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Roy Howell]

badperson,
Good timing, man. Things have been slow around here lately. Too many people are using this valuable forum to talk about technical stuff (can you imagine?)... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Anyway, I tend to agree with you. There was indeed a pre-MTV/video period that was pretty healthy, musically. There are exceptions all the time, within every decade of course. But, the period you mentioned was quite a magical era.

I tell you, my father came up during the Swing Era (like right out of high school, he got Frank Sinatra's autograph while checking out the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in Manhattan). And I have a feeling if I had been around then, I may be blowing a horn instead of playing guitar these days... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] So, it seems to've been a pretty powerful era as well.

~Roy

[Okion]

Right now, because it is being done by individuals in their homes. More is being done than ever before, and there is a way for individuals to distribute their creations world wide!