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Recording during the 70's

Not sure if I'll get a response but all I can do is ask. It has been my understanding for many years now, that as the Recording Industry moved from tube equipment to solid state ... say from late 60's to late 70's, it took almost a decade for sound engineers to get "the bugs" out of the ss equipment which is why recordings from the 80's generally sound better than those from the 70's (let's put the common practice of over-modulation and the compression of dynamic range aside and I'm using rock as a reference). There were some exceptions however in the 70's, SuperTramp LP's for one (somehow wonderful recordings) and you will know others ... but there are many LPs from that decade that were just horrible ... love Jethro Tull's Agualung, but that album along with say, what Boston (another great group) put out .... terrible .... seem to be representative generally .... so much mush. Thanks for reading and replying. 
tak1
erik_squires
16,593 posts
 
The technology is important, but you forget consumer trends. Recording engineers aren't just artists, they are paid to make successful releases. That means following whatever gear, however people are listening.  A recording made for a boom box of the 1970s or 80s won't cut it with the best systems out there.

To give you some idea, check out this NPR report:

https://www.npr.org/2009/12/31/122114058/the-loudness-wars-why-music-sounds-worse

Even with great technology you can make really bad choices.
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi,
generally British and European pressings in the 70's were fine to excellent and on good quality vinyl, especially on pop and classical, German, French on classical. That affects also reissues. On the contrary USA ones were questionable especially on reissues. 
jetter
3,084 posts
 
@slaw
 I find that people like the OP

And you are whom, Charles Emerson Winchester III?
Post removed 
tak1's avatar
tak1 OP
24 posts
 

This is both enlightening and interesting and I thank all for your thoughtful contributions. Clarification: First, my stated “understanding” of the recording industry was told to me many years ago by someone who was in the business and this was in my head all that time, never finding anything to contradict that – guess I didn’t look hard enough. I do have knowledge of the many "parameters" if you will, audiophiles use to describe what they are hearing in playback, but I suppose my observations in many of the LP's of the 70's (and the motivation for my question) center on focus, clarity and noise level .... so pressings would certainly be an issue I was not aware of .... but ….. I've got a lot of LP's (and CD's) from the 80's (as well as 70’s) and I'm just not hearing the same kind of negative elements with recordings, in general, from the subsequent decade. Anyway, thank you again.


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