"Bridge Over Trouble Water" sounds artificial

The internet is actually quite useful for researching information about the actual recording of this album.  If you're truly interested, there's even a documentary movie where the songwriter, vocalists, instrumentalists and engineer/producer describe making the album.  They really weren't thinking about car and portable fm radios.  BOTW was a high dollar prestige product from the largest record label at that time.  I wonder what the SQ matrix quad mix sounds like?

I read BOTW was produced using Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” production techniques. Read up on that and explains a lot.

The first part with just vocal and piano is a much simpler production. It sounds like the piano was closely stereo miked which spreads the keys across the soundstage.


I used an original CD release of BOTW album streamed at CD resolution using flac format to listen to and assess BOTW the song/track. 

For the hit pop release that it was intended to be the recording is pretty good actually overall. Just don’t compare it to a good quality classical recording. Apples/oranges. Though the piano/vocal only first part is not radically different from many.

I tried my 1985 CD of Bridge Over Troubled Water.  It says it's a digitally mastered analog recording CK9914.  It definitley is smoother than the hi-resolution version I downloaded from Qobuz, but not natural music.  There is low frequency bass that does not sound like any musical instrument I have ever heard.  Some of the vocals do sound like real human voice and some vocals are clearly engineered.  Thanks.  I will try the LP next.

From Wikipedia:



“Joe Osborn played two separate bass tracks, one high and the other low.”

Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound approach was not intended to sound “natural”. 

mapman, a good perspective. A song that our familiarity and memory come's from hearing many times (fifty years ago) via top forty station and am car radio, now listened to on our hifi system, is ear-opening!