"Bridge Over Trouble Water" sounds artificial
I’m on the side of the fence that says I enjoy hearing what old radio tunes really sound like on a good quality modern hifi rig.. It’s often nothing like what you remember....so many things happening that were obscured prior. If it’s relative lo-fi like from a car radio 50 years ago one pines for, lots of inexpensive options still for that. |
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”. |
