Who is your favourite sound engineer?

[BigKenLittle 6]

I've read plenty of topics on the subject of CD sound quality, all of which falls squarely on the shoulders of the sound engineer... Who has golden ears in your opinion? Who has ears of lead?

Pick a favourite and a least favourite... and you don't have to limit yourself to just John Williams' works, what do you think of Bruce Botnick's work for Jerry Goldsmith or the Dennis Sands/Alan Silvestri combination... C'mon folks... who rocks your stereo?

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND RECORDING

and the winner is ... Lyle Burbridge (Tie) for E.T. and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Runners-up... Armin Steiner for Spacecamp, Bruce Botnick for Twilight Zone the Movie, Eric Tomlinson for Aliens

WORST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND

goes to... pretty much anything recorded by Dan Wallin (in particular, The Accidental Tourist)

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Shawn Murphy did some really great stuff (Hook, Sneakers, Casper, but nowadays nearly everything he touches sounds like sh*t - though the recent Yo-Yo Ma/Williams album does sound impressive.

Botnick's Goldsmith albums sound great (as does his old Stones and Doors stuff, by the way). I agree that Aliens sounds great. Simon Rhodes is fine, too, very natural-sounding.

Some of my favourite truly great-sounding albums are Goldenthal's Sphere, recorded by Joel Iwataki (Final Fantasy sounds great, too), Rosewood (recorded by Dennis Sands) and Poledouris' Starship Troopers (whoever recorded that). Oh, and Endelman's The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain, recorded by James P. Nichols, sounds great as well.

Marian - who like great-sounding albums.

[Hector J. Guzman 1]

Whoever did American Journey, it sucked! Celebrate Discovery! is all screwed up, it doesn't sound natural, as well as other tracks... the best sounding one from that album you know what it is? Summon the Heroes. That one does sound pretty good. But, it's from a different release... I wish they would have recorded with the Boston Pops... :roll:

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

American Journey was mostly done by Simon Rhodes, and it sounds fine. Except for Call of the Champions, which is a really bad Murphy-job.

The Summon the Heroes track comes from the old, spectacular-sounding album - which was also mixed by Shawn Murphy...

Marian - who thinks Shawn Murphy has done REALLY great stuff, but most of what he does nowadays is crap.

[Hector J. Guzman 1]

It might sound good, but I bet that if you had been at the recording session, that's not what you would have heard... that's why I looked forward to Lucas' Skywalker studio, he said that when you recorded something, the instruments would not need to be amplified by electronics, but as natural as the microphones would recieve the sound... that's why I don't like the sound of American Journey, for example there's a timpani playing right after the opening fanfare that you can hardly hear... and it's not because Williams might have asked the timpani player to not play it, or that he played it softly

[Hector J. Guzman 1]

It might sound good, but I bet that if you had been at the recording session, that's not what you would have heard... that's why I looked forward to Lucas' Skywalker studio, he said that when you recorded something, the instruments would not need to be amplified by electronics, but as natural as the microphones would recieve the sound... that's why I don't like the sound of American Journey, for example there's a timpani playing right after the opening fanfare that you can hardly hear... and it's not because Williams might have asked the timpani player to not play it, or that he played it softly

[Morn 8]

Eric Tomlinson and Lyle Burbridge. Eric Tomlinson, his recordings have a nice smooth texture. But he could have more clearity

[Jamesyboy 3]

THE 2 guys are:

1-Shawn Murphy &

2- Simon Rhodes

They are both incredible.

Jamesyboy - who wonder why people love Armin Steiner..his sound is so dry!

[Eric Hester 0]

BEST:

"the one armed man" Shawn Murphy for HOOK (it was hard to narrow it down to one!)

WORST:

"the one eared man" Dan Garcia for THE WATER BOY (f*@%ing horrible)

Best,

Eric

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

that's why I looked forward to Lucas' Skywalker studio, he said that when you recorded something, the instruments would not need to be amplified by electronics, but as natural as the microphones would recieve the sound...

And we've all heard what Shawn Murphy made of it - it took me years to hear the piano and xylophone in Imperial March and Asteroid Field on the Star Wars Trilogy album. And that disc still sounds surprisingly good when you crank up the volume, though the piano stuff and other bits already foreshadow the current Shawn Mushy.

The American Journey album certainly doesn't sound perfect, but I think it sounds fine. If there's something you can't hear, at least it's not because it was "removed" during mixing, and Murphy's latest albums (like A.I. sound to me like that's exactly what he does nowadays.

Marian - who thinks transparency is most important.

Superman (expanded) - Sounds really bad, too.

[Hector J. Guzman 1]

Well, I'm pretty sure some instruments were mixed down.

[BigKenagain 0]

One that I forgot to mention earlier is Eric Tomlinson's recording of James Horner's Brainstorm... Probably, Tomlinson's best work to date. The "Lillian's Heart Attack" track is something I used to take with me when shopping for speakers with friends. The dynamic range is a real test for speakers and it goes from "0-60" in nothing flat. For a really interesting experience, try listning to this with headphones (at a reduced volume of course) then you get the full effect fo the stereo seperation and range... WOW 8O

Big Ken: who will now listen to the CD again... and re-evaluate his new surround speakers...

The Picnic, from Much Ado About Nothing; Patrick Doyle

[Morn 8]

Yes, he really mixies stuff well and gives the recording a great tone. However... he lacks clearity of modern recordings or the ET recording.