Producers, Recording Engineers and Studio Wizards: POLL RESULTS

Indedependent of whether the music is to one's taste or not, the production blew me away on that album, esp. on "Breaking the Girl" and "Give It Away"

OTOH i can't begin to imagine why Andrew Dice Clay even needs a producer

pretty much everything he's done post-1990 has been egregiously bad, with a couple exceptions

Always loved what he did on Ballbreaker (1995). Really wish AC/DC had stuck with him for another record or two.

shit doesn't improve with the addition of more shit

pretty much everything he's done post-1990 has been egregiously bad, with a couple exceptions

― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, October 20, 2011 6:30 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

I quite like the way those first two System Of A Down albums sound!

I kinda felt like I had to vote for Rick Rubin. Even if I don't love a lot of what he does, his influence is colossal, for better and for worse.

i umm'd and ahhh'd re rubins inclusion as well, but in the end, dropped his name in my list for the same reasons.
however, now i'm beginning to wish i had remembered george clinton as a producer.

a definite f*ck up on my side.

GC was my #1. Had to be.

rub it in whydontcha.

I listened to two of the greatest debut albums of the '80s this past week, R.E.M.'s Murmur and the Smithereens' Especially For You. And then realized I didn't vote for Don Dixon. And then noticed he wasn't even mentioned in the nomination thread. WTF?

21. Rudy Van Gelder (176 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote)
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/rvg.jpg
Credits: Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, many others

I really shortchanged jazz producers on my ballot, simply because I don't have a good feel for how jazz (or classical) production affects the sound. In rock, r&b, and hip-hop it's much more obvious for me since I've produced recordings in those genres. I can listen to a Miles Davis album and love the music, but for whatever reason can't imagine what the same music would sound like had it been produced by somebody else.

I was hoping for top-5 for RVG.

B-b-b-b-b-b-but 69-73 Miles simply wouldn't exist without Teo?!

That's some bullshit right there, Nick.

xp That's true, but Van Gelder (as an engineer -- dunno if he was ever credited as a producer) established the practices and techniques that all future such recordings were based on, for all intents and purposes.

Van Gelder's the style of production was relatively unobtrusive - the idea was just to capture the live performance as well as possible, so it becomes all about clarity: mic placement, room dynamics, etc. which is obviously a totally different skill from, say, programming a drum machine...

the

rvg! just amazing to think how many ridiculously amazing sessions he recorded.
was watching an interview with him recently and he said he could never really appreciate the music being made, just because he was caught up in the technical aspects of everything. wasn't until decades later that he really could enjoy the records.

re teo : OTM nick .
the sleevenotes for BB reissue alone makes you realise just how insanely involved/progressive Teo was with the whole process...
will be interesting to see where (if!!) he is placed in this rundown.

[xpost ! blimey .. thought it was a forgone conclusion re teo ..]

I think Nick's OTM about Teo, fwiw. you listen to those Miles sessions box sets, they make Teo's contributions readily apparent.

and now for something completely different

20. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (180 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote)
http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/JJamJLewis1.gif
Credits: The Time, Janet Jackson, Klymaxx, Chaka Khan, Alexander O'Neal, others

http://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Jam-Terry-Lewis-Songs/dp/B000PS98MS

this is one of the greatest things I own

I assume Teo will place in the poll, though...I mean, how could he not?

You know these dudes produced sixteen number one hits? Not bad for two Time sidemen who didn't even play on their band's records.

could do without a lot of the new jack swing stuff but these two definitely have a certain magic

xp

recently saw some Time appearance on American Bandstand from when Jam & Lewis were still in the lineup and it was awesome

the amount of talent in that band was nuts

one of several major jumps in total points coming up

recently saw some Time appearance on American Bandstand from when Jam & Lewis were still in the lineup and it was awesome

Misread this as "saw Jam & Lewis on the cover of Time." That would've been cool.

i think the rvg #1 vote was mine. expected him to be top 10

19. Teo Macero (207 points, 9 votes)
http://secretsociety.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/25/teo_macero.jpg
Credits: Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Mathis, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Charlie Byrd, Stan Getz

Huzzah!

Great interview with Teo here.

I think Nick's OTM about Teo, fwiw. you listen to those Miles sessions box sets, they make Teo's contributions readily apparent

I'd really love to devote a bit of time to exactly this but how many box sets would I have to buy? Miles and those other giants have epic discographies.

The thing about Teo is he didn't just record the sound beautifully (though obv that's a big part of it); on BB & IASW he started doing the editing thing in a totally new way. Mind blowing for jazz at the time.

19 ?!?!

but how many box sets would I have to buy?

the On the Corner, IASW and BB sessions tell you all you need to know really

(and I haven't listened to all of them myself btw cuz they are loooong)

18. Trevor Horn (226 points, 9 votes)
http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/mar05/images/horn4trevorrack.l.jpg
Credits: The Buggles, Yes, ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, others

If he'd only done those first two Frankie singles he'd still be near the top of my list.

Meh

wasn't sure what to attribute Horn's placing too tbh

Britishes? prog fans?

Fans of synthesized horn blasts?

Teo Macero deserves to be way above this dude.

Er, Belle and Sebastian fans?

I'm just not clear on why he's so lauded or what about his production style is particularly revolutionary or influential - I mean ABC and Frankie are fine as synthpop acts go but I don't really hear anything in the production that's really all that different from say, Duran Duran or Talk Talk or whoever

It's his surname.

I've never been big on New Pop, we need one of the people who know all about that to explain Horn, I think.