I'm not sure what type of music he is interested in so i will go back to the spirit of his original question.
Along with the artistry of the musicians, producing and recording the artist is in fact, it's own art form. Different studios and engineers produce different qualities of recordings. Different producers have various ideas on how the music should sound. Artists who are popular enough to actually exert some influence also can have their own ideas on how their recordings should sound.
A common complaint, especially for rock and pop music, is that there has been a trend for a while now where the most important thing is to be as loud or louder sounding than other artists. This results in a more flat lined equalization process where it is difficult to hear the subtleties in the recording. Details tend to sound blended together and there are no subtle changes in volume for different instrument blends.
I'm no expert. I too started learning about this the hard way when I bought speakers that could demonstrate these differences. Some of my once favorite CDs now get played less because others sound so much better.
I'm often impressed by the smaller lesser known recording studios. Used to be it meant a vastly inferior sound but lately it seems they are the ones who can manage to not fall into the 'just make it loud' trap.
Case in point. Lennie Gallant's - Live CD. I searched his websight to find the recording studio but I'm positive it's a smaller Atlantic Canada studio. Yup, this is a plug for a hometown boy, practically my back yard. But he is an amazing artist who seamlessly jumps from folk to Acadian to just a few radio pops with an indie sound. This one comes to mind as the clarity is quiet good, especially for a live CD. Guitar strings, violin, deep thuds of the bodhran, it's all there to be heard without effort.
Last edited by Murph; 04/11/07 05:36 PM.
