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Best Producer Ever
Topic Started: Oct 5 2006, 06:58 PM (595 Views)
Yankee8156
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Loretta
This past week I picked up the Back To Mono box set ($14.99 on Amazon for 4-discs, about $19.99 everywhere else. It's an excellent compilation of Phil Spector's best material, including one of the greatest albums ever made, "A Christmas Gift For You".....if you don't have it, GET IT.) It got me thinking about who the best producer of all time might be.....after all, how many producers have an entire box set devoted to their material?

Phil Spector is up there, but I don't think he's number one. I'd put him at number three. He's by far one of the most important ever....his music is one of the reasons that I fell in love with mono recordings...everything is concentrated, nothing is widely spread out, and because of that it hits you like a ton of bricks. The Wall of Sound might be the single greatest producing innovation ever. All of the instruments, at once, stacked together, with powerful vocals makes for one of the most mind-blowing musical experiences ever. It's like a controlled chaos. The aforementioned A Christmas Gift For You is one of the greatest albums of all time. It's the only actual Wall Of Sound album since Spector's work was mostly single-oriented. It's Brian Wilson's favorite album of all time, and inspired a great deal of his producing, which brings me to....

While Spector has his merits, Brian Wilson is the better producer of the two. Even though his whole producing career was an attempt to copy Spector, and top him, he managed to do that extremely successfully. While Wilson's recordings might not pack quite the same punch as Spector's, he took that "controlled chaos" sound and made it less chaotic, and more symphonic. Wilson's sheer musical talent and ear for music gives him the edge. Spector worked with the Wrecking Crew, a collection of some of the most talented studio musicians ever (Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, etc...), a group Wilson didn't get his hands on until Pet Sounds. Those guys will tell you that Wilson was the best producer they ever worked for....better than Spector. Wilson was able to acheive a Wall Of Sound-like recording style without Spector's famed echo chamber. Spector was rather laissez-faire in the way he doled out the music to his studio musicians, allowing them to make decisions on their own. Brian knew exactly how he wanted......when we hear a Beach Boys recording (particularly from Today! on) we hear a song and collection of instrumentation......Brian heard each individual instrument playing exactly at the right moment before it was even played. He was able to take the individual sounds he heard in his head, put them together, and understand exactly what would make the perfect record. Brian was pretty much conducting a symphony for a pop record. Like Spector, Wilson turned mono into a powerful method of communication.

But alas, Brian Wilson isn't the greatest producer of all time either....I'd say he's the second greatest. The greatest, I think, has to be George Martin. What Martin did was take four very unrefined musicians and facilitated their rise to the status of greatest band of all time. Martin, like Wilson, had that symphonic touch, and the addition of that to The Beatles records, particularly on Sgt. Pepper, helped take the group up a notch. Martin's records are much cleaner-sounding than Spector's or Wilson's and translate into stereo much smoother than the other two. His work on Abbey Road alone, making that the most modern sounding non-modern album, promotes him to this spot. It's hard to argue against Martin, so I won't even try.

I think this is one of the toughest questions I've ever posed to myself....the three are so close. I think Andrew Loog Oldham is right up there, but there's a bit more separation between him and the other three. Anyone else?
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"George had just come off tour, I'd flown in specially from England, Ringo had flown in specially, too, I think, and John wouldn't show up! He wouldn't come from across the park! George got on the phone, yelled, 'Take those fucking shades off and come over here, you!' John still wouldn't come over. He had a balloon delivered with a sign saying, LISTEN TO THIS BALLOON. It was all quite far out." -Paul McCartney
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TheSmashedGuitar
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Love Will Tear Us Apart, Again
George Martin, definately.

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etphonehomeyo
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baba booey!
phil by far, but i don't really feel like going into it right now.
has anyone ever read be my baby by ronnie spector? there's some great/funny/crazy phil stories in there.
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JeorgeMcStarkey
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I can't tell the difference between producers.
Click? VH
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youngbeatle
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I'm in love with an uptown girl
Spector for many bands. Best producer for an individual band has to be George Martin.
Better Dean the Bean?
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ZachAppleThrows
Apple Scruffs
David Bowie & Mick Ronson.
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rubber jenny soul
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I'm the bleeding volcano
George Martin
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otlset
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Dear Prudence
Big George Martin.
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Vermeer rocks!
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St. Thomas
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i love katie
george martin.
-thomas

last.fm
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working_class_hero
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Captain ASR
George Martin, easily
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Last.fm

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Kira
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Hate me, do it and do it again.
Nigel Godrich is the shit.
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beatlematt
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THE JANITOR
Robert "Mutt" Lange has had great success as well. The list of groups he produced is just as endless as a Beach Boys summer. The list of other artists he has written with is also more than my number two can handle.
I can't qualify his talents or influences but indeed he has been fortunate to work with some great musical artists.
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Crimson dress that clings so tight She's out of reach and out of sight

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St. Thomas
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White Collar Boy
Oct 6 2006, 04:11 PM
Nigel Godrich is the shit.

producing is too easy nowadays. it's all done with computers. he's got a keen sense for music, though.
-thomas

last.fm
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Carpenter
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Yankee8156
Oct 5 2006, 10:58 PM
This past week I picked up the Back To Mono box set ($14.99 on Amazon for 4-discs, about $19.99 everywhere else. It's an excellent compilation of Phil Spector's best material, including one of the greatest albums ever made, "A Christmas Gift For You".....if you don't have it, GET IT.) It got me thinking about who the best producer of all time might be.....after all, how many producers have an entire box set devoted to their material?

Phil Spector is up there, but I don't think he's number one. I'd put him at number three. He's by far one of the most important ever....his music is one of the reasons that I fell in love with mono recordings...everything is concentrated, nothing is widely spread out, and because of that it hits you like a ton of bricks. The Wall of Sound might be the single greatest producing innovation ever. All of the instruments, at once, stacked together, with powerful vocals makes for one of the most mind-blowing musical experiences ever. It's like a controlled chaos. The aforementioned A Christmas Gift For You is one of the greatest albums of all time. It's the only actual Wall Of Sound album since Spector's work was mostly single-oriented. It's Brian Wilson's favorite album of all time, and inspired a great deal of his producing, which brings me to....

While Spector has his merits, Brian Wilson is the better producer of the two. Even though his whole producing career was an attempt to copy Spector, and top him, he managed to do that extremely successfully. While Wilson's recordings might not pack quite the same punch as Spector's, he took that "controlled chaos" sound and made it less chaotic, and more symphonic. Wilson's sheer musical talent and ear for music gives him the edge. Spector worked with the Wrecking Crew, a collection of some of the most talented studio musicians ever (Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, etc...), a group Wilson didn't get his hands on until Pet Sounds. Those guys will tell you that Wilson was the best producer they ever worked for....better than Spector. Wilson was able to acheive a Wall Of Sound-like recording style without Spector's famed echo chamber. Spector was rather laissez-faire in the way he doled out the music to his studio musicians, allowing them to make decisions on their own. Brian knew exactly how he wanted......when we hear a Beach Boys recording (particularly from Today! on) we hear a song and collection of instrumentation......Brian heard each individual instrument playing exactly at the right moment before it was even played. He was able to take the individual sounds he heard in his head, put them together, and understand exactly what would make the perfect record. Brian was pretty much conducting a symphony for a pop record. Like Spector, Wilson turned mono into a powerful method of communication.

But alas, Brian Wilson isn't the greatest producer of all time either....I'd say he's the second greatest. The greatest, I think, has to be George Martin. What Martin did was take four very unrefined musicians and facilitated their rise to the status of greatest band of all time. Martin, like Wilson, had that symphonic touch, and the addition of that to The Beatles records, particularly on Sgt. Pepper, helped take the group up a notch. Martin's records are much cleaner-sounding than Spector's or Wilson's and translate into stereo much smoother than the other two. His work on Abbey Road alone, making that the most modern sounding non-modern album, promotes him to this spot. It's hard to argue against Martin, so I won't even try.

I think this is one of the toughest questions I've ever posed to myself....the three are so close. I think Andrew Loog Oldham is right up there, but there's a bit more separation between him and the other three. Anyone else?

Actually, as much as you (and I) may like the sound of the early Stones records, Oldham knew nothing about music at all. He was only a producer by name. The true 'producers' of most of the songs during the Oldham era were the actual engineers of the songs, and (when they learned to do it themselves after a while in the studio) The Stones themselves. Take Aftermath. Oldham had shit to do with mixing the songs on that, it was the Stones who would say what they wanted and the engineer Dave Hassinger who would carry it out. Their Satanic Majesties Request is credited to being produced by The Stones, but you don't hear any decline in quality whatsoever, on the contrary. Glyn Johns and Eddie Kramer, two of their engineers, also deserve some credit for production, as Oldham was musically incompetent (and admitted it himself; he wasn't even in the studio when most of the songs were mixed down)

I think if you want to give credit to a producer of the Stones' records, it's gotta be Jimmy Miller. He came in during Jumpin' Jack Flash and produced from then (1968) to 1973 (which coincides with the Stones 'greatest' period), including all of the 'Big Four' albums: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile On Main Street.

While I'm not really a fan, I do agree that Wilson deserves some credit as a very good producer. He did some cool things in the mid-sixties and Pet Sounds is very well produced, even if I'm not a huge fan of The Beach Boys in general.

George Martin, I think, is probably the greatest producer ever. While The Beatles were already good musicians and songwriters, I don't think they would've had the success they did later on in their career had they ended up with a less competent 'producer' like Oldham, for instance.

And Tom is completely right about Nigel Godrich. While he does make good records, it's way too easy to do so (from the Production point of view) nowadays. I've been taking Sound Engineering and Music Production class (and so has Frankie) for about 3 years now, and we've nearly mastered the tricks of the trade. I actually feel sort of guilty a lot of times, when the click of a mouse can do the same things (or even better things) than The Beatles did even though they often labored for hours to get the right sound. I doubt Nigel feels the same way when he gets his pay check, but I'm certain that it's as easy for him as it is for the rest of us. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, Nigel Godrich has produced good music, but he is nowhere near the same league as the guys that were doing some of the same stuff he does 40 years ago.
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St. Thomas
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^^ best post ever.

and the production on exile on main st. is gorgeous - i will duel you if you say otherwise.
-thomas

last.fm
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