Is Supertramp harsh sounding or is it just me (or my setup)?

I listen mostly to baroque and classical music. But my wife has some seventies LP's that I dip into now and again. I have been putting Supertramp's "Even in the Quietest Moments", and "Crime of the Century" on a bit lately but I cannot escape the impression that the sound is very harsh, or tiring. Is this a feature of Supertramp recordings or is it just very difficult music for systems to reproduce?

My system is Rega P25/ nait 3 /NacA5/Rega Alya.

Deane

Deane,

No, saying Supertramp are unlistenable is not harsh.

Many would agree with you.

DS

*** All the views expressed within this e-mail are the sole responsibility of DS, and as such are subject to chaining ***

do not know how they did and do their records
but most supertramp (especially the live )recording sound alittle bit bright and the bass
lines have sometimes a little less level than the rest.My best attempt to describe that is to say it sounds sometimes similar to an mp3.
nevertheless there are tons of information on their records.
personally i would name the sound more "flat" than
"harsh"
O.J.

Deane - You have tempted me to play "Even in the Quietest Moments" tonight - have n't played it in a while!

Although I have the LP the record player is in the loft so I have played the CD - remastered version.

I would say that I found the sound bright - lots of treble on "Give a Little Bit" but overall I found it smooth and a good quality sound that was not harsh. On "Fool's Overture" the bass sounded good. I grew up listening to this stuff, so maybe it is an acquired taste.

Happy listening - try "Breakfast in America" if you have it - one of my favourite ever albums - just totally brilliant from beginning to end with the tilte track being the weakest on the album

Cheers

I've got an old copy of Crime Of the Century on a MFSL record. I think it sounds great...just VERY DATED. Good band though.

Hi Deane

Supertramp vinyl albums were on A&M from memory, and can tend toward having a thin bright sound for sure.

Like 'Expat' you have tempted me to dig out the big black platters. I have 'Crime Of The Century' (which I think is a great album) as a half speed master on vinyl; and remember it sounding pretty good.

Time for a re-assesment perhaps?

I remember 'Crisis What Crisis' sounding a bit toppy and thin on A&M vinyl. I'll give that a spin as well.

Funny timing with this question.

I was hankering to hear "Crime" last week; I remembered it as sounding really great way back when (esp. when the whole band kicks in after the intro to "School"). Unfortunately, I only had a cassette version at my disposal, albeit a pretty good one (recorded from vinyl via a Nakamichi Dragon deck).

On listening, it was EXTREMELY bright and harsh. I was stunned. I intend to pick up the cd remaster so I can figure out how much of the experience is due to the cassette, and how much to my failing memory.

Hi

I don't know very much about the recording process but remember reading something on the sleeve of an old jazz album about the musicians choosing their sound engineers very carefully. I was thinking perhaps the bright sound had something to do with the engineering. ("bright" is the word I was looking for but I couldn't find it in my head when I posted the topic.) If it is the sound engineering then I'm assuming that Supertramp wanted that sound. Which brings me to another question:

How much control do musicians have over the finished result of their recording sessions?

BTW I've read a few posts about LP's suffering from the digital process but some of our digital LP's sound marvellous.

Deane

quote:

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Originally posted by Deane F:
Hi

I don't know very much about the recording process but remember reading something on the sleeve of an old jazz album about the musicians choosing their sound engineers very carefully. I was thinking perhaps the bright sound had something to do with the engineering. ("bright" is the word I was looking for but I couldn't find it in my head when I posted the topic.) If it is the sound engineering then I'm assuming that Supertramp wanted that sound. Which brings me to another question:

How much control do musicians have over the finished result of their recording sessions?

BTW I've read a few posts about LP's suffering from the digital process but some of our digital LP's sound marvellous.

Deane

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Supertramp was one of those rockbands at their ti´me that used a lot of "very progressive" equipment during the seventies and beginning eighties.Imo it was annother way than the one of jethrotull. Tull
had more conservative equipment but alots of it (synthezissers with tons ovf manuals)
similar to karajan supertramp became Willingly or not wilingly the "frontmen" of "new recording technique"
and similar to Karajans recordings with deutsche grammophon and sony ,supertramps recordings have a big lack of experience concerning those "new technics".
to talk about recording technologie:
compare yello:in the eye and Princes "musicology "
or even mical jacksons "history mix"
to records like madonnas "ray of light"and you will notice immediatley that the first three named albums are far ,far beyoned.I am mnot criticizing madonnas music ,nor will i say the other´s are better,but as an objective listener
(and soundingeneer)i am sure there are better soundingeners than madonnas or supertamps.
(n o t included supertramps album:things never change(not sure if the title is correct but its agreat peace of professionsal studio work)
O.J.

I remember that 'Breakfast in America' on vinyl was bright enough to hurt my teeth with Kans. Great fun though with intelligent lyrics and excellent musicianship. Much like the Eagles in that respect. Whatever happened to intelligent pop music?

Nime

The very first time I heard the famous Linn-Naim triamp system (LP12/Grace/Supex/32/Snaps/Naxo/3x250/Isobariks) was with Breakfast in America at Russ Andrews in Edinburgh. It left an indelible mark on my memory that single handedly spurred me towards aquiring some active DBLs many years later. Bright it was for sure, but tonal balance seemed unimportant given the scale and sheer boogie factor.

Ron
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