10 "Must-have" Albums with Audiophile-Quality Sound (The Bob Ludwig Episode!)
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Finally, the KING of all Mastering Engineers, Bob Ludwig gets his own episode in the 7th of my continuing series highlighting fairly easy-to-find and/or "under the radar" albums with OUTSTANDING sound quality! I've settled on 10 albums to feature that were not featured in my first two "catch-all" videos. Check out the new Playlist on the channel to see them all! What's your favorite album mastered by Ludwig?
===Video Chapters===
00:00 Channel Update and Intro
03:19 A Quick Overview of Robert Ludwig's professional career
06:00 Album 1
09:44 Album 2
11:05 Album 3
13:10 Album 4 + bonus needle drop
15:45 The Saga & Recording History of Steely Dan's Gaucho
24:45 Album 6
26:25 Album 7
28:55 Album 8
31:05 Album 9
33:35 Album 10
36:00 "The Elephant In The Room...."
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Thanks so much for this video! I loved all the stories of the albums. Makes me appreciate this amazing recordings even more.
Aja, The Nightfly and Gaucho are easily in my top 10 favorite albums. Sonically and content wise.
Keep it up,. I love your content and commentary on these albums -- you are helping me improve my vinyl collection. I love it when I already have one of your recommendations, as I feel I need to go on-line and hunt them down as soon as possible to give them a good listen on my system.
You really know your music. Ignore the complaints that you talk too much. The more information the better in my opinion. Keep doing what you’re doing and thank you. Gratefully appreciated 👍👍👍
A wonderful and insightful guide through some wonderful music. The greatest narration. Big thanks …
Wow ! Probably the most informative vinyl blog I’ve seen on here . Very interesting . You’ve got me checking my pressings now as I own a good few of these . Just one thing , don’t forget the excellent Emotional rescue Stones album from 1980.
I am thoroughly enjoying your videos. Thanks again for posting them. Lots to learn here from you and your viewers. It's nice to get an industry insiders view about fine recordings.
Albums that leap to my mind are The Babys - Broken Heart for production value and Supertramp - Breakfast in America & Crime of the Century for sheer audio quality. Put on your headphones for that Supertramp, close your eyes and they're right there in the room with you.
Thank you for your videos. Really great music history and awesome music recommendations!
Another great video in this series. Can’t wait for your future big video w/Kevin Gray ! That will be another monster
Tattoo You....WOW...You've done it again!! I followed your recommendation and found a Masterdisk RL pressing. It sounds like a fancy audiophile lp. Truly wonderful stuff. Thank you so much for improving my life!! Sound has a truly physiological effect on us....well on my anyways. Take Good Care, and Thanks again!!
Love it! Awesome that you are profiling all these awesome mastering gurus!!!
Cheers Danny
I agree. These videos are great.
Really glad I found your stuff, great great work.
Much appreciated!
Great video there and some classic ( and interesting) albums. Must see if i have any R.L. mastered albums in my collection. Greetings from the UK.
Another great video-I have most of these, the Rupert Holmes has me intrigued, will have to seek that one out.
Best channel in VC, highly appriciated for great recommendations, found few in my collectiion. Keep em coming 👍 cheers from Finland
My personal Favorite Ludwig Cuts are:
Zeppelin - II
Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Yes - 90125
AC/DC - Back In Black
AC/DC - For those about to Rock
The Police - Synchronicity
Rush - Moving Pictures
ZZ Top - Fandango
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Dire Straits - Brother's In Arm
This is my first time watching any of your videos. Excellent information. I especially found the Gaucho story to be interesting! I love how you did a double take when you said "You Might Think" during the Rick Ocasek part. Anyway, looking forward to watching your other videos and also to pulling some of these albums out for closer inspection when I get home.
Thanks much! I think this is one of my most watched vids, thank you for commenting. 👍🏻
This is great content and an education. Thank you for making these videos 👍
Thanks for the kind words and happy it's helpful
I have a few of these new stories and your easy manner thanks for sharing awesome list
Wow! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Another great video Tim! Gaucho is underrated for sure, that is routinely towards the bottom of any Steely Dan album ranking, but It’s one of my favourites I love it - and it sounds fantastic. Green is an incredible album, I particularly love the harder hitting stuff on Side 2 - the “Metal Side”. Very fond memories of playing that to death on my Sony Walkman wherever I went back in ‘88! Start me up! Now that is one of the all-time best album openings - Keith Richards is the man!! Iconic album cover too (tho of course Keith looks way cooler on the back than Mick does on the front.)
Thanks for this. I'll look for some of these.
Really cool idea for a video series! I did a search on Discogs and I have 66 Bob Ludwig mastered albums (some CDs, some LPs). A few of my favorites: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms, Queen - A Night at the Opera (remaster), ZZ Top - Degüello, Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy, Rush - Moving Pictures.
The opening bars of Babylon Sisters sounds so good it’s delicious!
Great historical narrative - thank you
I love your videos. The recording engineers & mastering engineers are the unsung heroes in the music industry.
Thanks much
It's nice and refreshing to hear some music on an audiophile channel which isn't jazz.
Thank You so much for this informative & fun video on Mr. Ludwig. He is on my Top 5 fav remastering engineers.
I subscribed to your channel.
Thanks For Doing This Work.
Appreciate you! 👍🏻
@@Universityofvinyl And I'm a fan of your work as well.
Please keep up the good work. I really value it & am learning a lot from you already.
Watching your videos always leads to expense! But worthwhile. That Buckingham Nicks is great, great mastering.
Toto IV is a brilliant recording and mixing. A masterpiece.
Just discovered your channel and thoroughly enjoyed the classic rock
Back stories- thanks
Thanks!
Great choices! I always love finding RL in the deadwax. Always a nice surprise.
Just got boys and girls for 10 bucks.
the doobie brothers 1973 album, the captain and me, sounds like it was produced yesterday, fantastic sound quality
Great stuff! Thanks
I am a huge fan of The Cars, and Heartbeat City is my all-time favorite album. Thank you for recommending "this side of paradise." I just bought a sealed copy and agree, it sounds like a continuation. Thanks!
Heartbeat City sounds excellent. Mastering is made easier if the original recording is of good quality, and engineer/mixer Mike Shipley was responsible for this one.
No Surrender and Bobbie Jean are two of my favorites on the Born in the U.S.A. as well, Downbound Train is another, great riff. I agree with you, these songs are very personal to me.
Thank you.
Downbound Train is an easy underrated gem
Wow. Thank you for the inside info on Donald Fagan and Walter Brecker. That was what vivyl was all about... "The Inside Story.." Thank you ery much
Hey UV... This was a lot of fun!... You present a smart and informative platform for all things music.... Gaucho needs more buzz---a contemporary and sophisticated album, it's like The Long Run was to Hotel California(see Aja!), a tough act to follow....Thank you for the intel on this one and Take Care, Ghostrider Rick
Thanks! Check out my Steely Dan vinyl guide videos
1. Esquivel - Music From A Sparkling Planet
2. Opal - Early Recordings
3. Harry Partch - Delusion Of The Fury
4. The Original Telstar - The Tornados
5. Fred Lowery - Whistle A Happy Tune
6. RD Burman - Sholay OST
7. Lee Hazlewood - Love And Other Crimes
8. Ilayaraaja - Anakilli OST
9. Ilayaraaja - Azhagey Unnai Arathikiren
10. Born Bad - Volume Four
Gaucho is truly amazing👍
Love the Lounge AX photo in the background
Thanks!
Great video, thanks for putting it out! One correction that you might want to make (possibly with a graphic): It was Donald Fagan who signed with Warner and made Nightfly, not Walter Becker. I'm sure that is what you meant to say but just wanted to mention it since I noticed the "video typo":). Thanks again for the content.
Oops, good catch
Great video again. I cheched my record collection. 7 from 10 i have, good rate and you're 100 % right, they sounds amazing. Buckingham/ Nicks i will check out. Greetings from 🇩🇪
Thank you Manfred!
My favorite baseball stadium which is no more hangs on your wall. A lot of childhood memories. Great video.
Thanks, gotta love Tiger Stadium 👍🏻
Wow I have very similar musical tastes as you! I never thought of the mastering engineer having such a impact on the record but it seems obvious now.
Hello, This is my second time watching this video. I wanted to hear about "Steely Dan's Gaucho" album. Wow, what a history about it. I checked my copy and it is a "MASERTDISCK" RL. Great video.
Thank you
Of the albums I've purchased, the one that stands out for quality of sound is Bireli Lagrene - Foreign Affairs
It always amazes me how you remember all the details without a teleprompter LOL I’ve been armed and dangerous in my local record stores with my lists from your presentations. In the past week found 3 Bob Seger records with WALLY Mint! and a bunch of KENDUN,Sterling Sound Productions. Thank You for sharing your knowledge enjoying every moment!
Good finds!
I picked up a Journey Escape 1981 today is a masterdisc but has what appears to be a JW inscribe under it in the dead wax?
The Marantz is very cool 😎
Good episode. You are a wealth of knowledge! Quick question...do the studio remix engineers you mentioned remaster from analog or digital (or both)? I know that in the 80's nearly everyone was starting to record in digital (gasp!).
Ok, if you’re speaking about reissues, the holy grail is to master from the original analog master tapes. In the case of digital, as long as they are remastering from the original files or source files transferred to tape, it’s all we can hope for. You don’t want to see 2nd or 3rd gen source material
So I took some time today to organize my collection and while organizing I would randomly grab a record to play. I played She's The Boss by Mick Jagger, Think Visual by The Kinks and Sting's ...Nothing Like The Sun. along with several others. I hadn't play these three in a while and took notice of the great sound. After playing each record, thanks to you, I checked to see who mastered the record. These three were all mastered by Robert Ludwig and it shows.
I agree about Boys and Girls, not only a high water mark for Bryan Ferry but one of the best albums of the 1980's!
🎶 An album I've revisited (on CD) many times since it's release 😀
Omar Hakim is the great drummer on the album. Played with Weather Report, Miles Davis as well as Sting on Dream Of the Blue Turtles
Love me some Omar....
After I watched this video I stopped by a local antique store that also sells used vinyl records...and I found the Escape album from Journey ... it has the Maserdisk mark on the dead wax .... Thank you for recommending it! It's sounds amazing...and I paid $15 ... it's in very good condition! Hopefully I will be able to find the rest of them...
Land Of Dreams - in my top 10 all time. Genius compositions ..
A couple harder to find RL’s are late 60’s reissues of The Doors Soft Parade and The Butterfield Blues Band East West
Really enjoyed this video. Just subscibed. Nice one.
Thanks for the sub!
Buckingham Nicks album certainly did show the connection as you said.
Great video... lots of good info about the music behind the music. Love your setup....looks like you have a Sony PS-70 or 75 turntable with Nagaoka 110 cartridge connected to a smaller Marantz receiver? Can't beat those Sony turntables for pure good sound. Once you experience a turntable with a Biotracer tonearm, you may never go back! Also, your other system with the Sansui and H/K 730 receiver.... Harman Kardon are so under the radar and one of the best buys in vintage audio.... no Marantz tax on these! 😂Now I need to find my copy of Buckingham Nick's to see if it has the Sterling Stamp!
Thanks, I still have the HK 730! I’ve evolved my main system to an integrated McIntosh MA 6100 and purchased a Thorens TD 145.
Hello I just discovered your channel with this vid and immediately subscribed of course ;-) Thank you for great content. Cheers.
Thanks!
I’m sitting quite smug at the moment as even as a teenager I had bought 7 out of 10 of those albums . I think 2 under rated CD,s are Journey Raised on Radio and Bruce Hornsby The Way It Is . They sound fantastic even on a fairly average sound system. Excellent production and Engineering.
The Second Arrangement is now available on here remastered by some members. Love the Dan story. Land of Dreams is a favourite Randy album.
For me, i did not know album 4. I'm going to look into it.
I picked up a nice Steely Dan Boxed Set..It's Steely Dan's 'Citizen Steely Dan'
It's nicely Remastered...sounds great IMO.
Gaucho is a damn masterpiece. Such as all Steely Dan albums. I really love them.
Agree, a true masterpiece
It sat on my turntable for many months
Yeah, I'm a hard core fan myself. Used to have Royal Scam on 8-track. Good cruising music.
Same feelings here. I saw them live at Jone's Beach late August 2003, opened with Babylon Sisters. Something really special, I love them too.
Fabulous album Kathy and I saw them in Vancouver - they opened with "Aja" a truly great concert!!!!!
De gustibus. SD would, and probably is, good music to torture people with on infinite repeat. I'm glad you love them, but it is not from a lack of exposure that I can say, no!
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
Love your channel. So much great info. I wanna start a channel , just need to take the first step. On the buckingham nicks is the RL on both sides or only b side?
Mine only has RL on one side, join the fun, take the plunge. Cheers, Tim
Great series and it's for sure you're not an undercover sales executive for record labels ...although discogs should probably sponsor you😋 thanks for the well presented and interesting clips
Hahaha, good idea on the Discogs sponsorship, all in good time….
Found 3 so far in my collection. Gaucho which I already knew was RL, Born the the USA and Boys and Girls which I had just found for $2 a couple of weeks ago and bought on a whim. All great sounding and very different recordings. Thanks for the info. Have you done one for AZ yet?
Stay tuned for AZ ;)
So interesting. As a baby boomer I appreciated all of those choices. Thank you so much.
I have a pristine copy of Buckingham/Nicks...the vinyl itself, the jacket has a bit of wear. It is really an underrated and overlooked vinyl gem.
Thx for watching!
Just discovered I have the same Bryan Ferry album! Nice.
I'd say that many albums that came out under the perceived genre of "yacht rock" were superbly produced sonically (usually by Ludwig or Grundman to name a few); and even within that genre, the roster of who's yacht rock and who isn't is still up for debate. I do have that Boys and Girls LP which I found for under $10!
- Red
When you mentioned that Some Girls was the last Rolling Stones album prior to Tattoo You you overlooked Emotional Rescue in 1979.
Yep, realize that now…..
One of the great Robert Ludwig masters which I never see anyone talking about (but they should be), is 'The Stranger' Billy Joel. Masterdisk 'RL' in the dead wax. Great video!
Yep, I have a copy but not the RL, need to upgrade
@@Universityofvinyl Fortunately ‘RL’ pressings of ‘The Stranger’ aren’t too terribly difficult to track down, once you’re on the lookout for it. Columbia issued White Label Promos of ‘The Stranger’ for the ‘RL’ pressings, so that helps it to stick out a little more while searching for it.
Hey great video. Live in Lancaster Pa and have eight used record stores in the local area. Found SD Goucho and RS Tattoo You RL masterdisc. Got Gaucho in NM for $17.50 and Tattoo You for $10. What a steal. Tomorrow is the Keystone Record Collectors monthly show so going mining for more.
So the immaculate copy of the RL Escape RL album turned out awesome. That hint about the embossed raised jacket was a great hint. The find was inexpensive and audio sound was so sharp a separation was amazing.
MCA's release of Aja (Asia) has great sound quality like Gaucho. I consider Gaucho the counter part to Aja...like two paintings in a Craft House paint by numbers box.
You really need to hear the AB1006 first pressing - it isn’t expensive - worlds better and rivals the $$$ Cisco pressing
Nice Martin.
Hello, can you tell us what speakers you use with your Marantz 2230. Also do you the built in phonostage or do you have a separate one? If you have mentioned this on previous videos i apologize im new to your channel. I have a marantz 2225 myself and wanted some advice. Thank you.
Hi! I have a pair of vintage Boston Acoustics A200s which my 2230 seems to power very nicely. I don’t have a separate phono stage but might consider one. I have a room tour video where I go into more detail. Thanks for watching!
Gaucho is a great album, my favorite track off of it is Time Out of Mind. Raised on Radio by Journey was also mastered by RL. If you don't have it you need to get it, sounds incredible and not a bad song on the whole album! - Russ
Time Out of Mind is fantastic - some awesome guitar playing by the great Mark Knopfler on that track.
Fabulous Baker Boys soundtrack,is mega quality.
At last, a man with musical taste.
Any pre-1978 studio album by Gentle Giant deserves the inclusion in such lists... Yezda Urfa, being called "Gentle Giant on steroids" deserves it, as well. Yes - Fragile, Fantasy - Paint A Picture, Queen - I...
Need to get a Ludwig copy of BITU, but I do have Tunnel of Love (1987), also mastered by RL and easily available. I recall preferring TOL to BITU for sonic clarity, less reverb and distortion tricks with Bruce’s vocal. Side 2 on TOL also is an absolute no-song-skip gem.
I just picked up a mint Live 75/85 today, looking forward to spinning it
The real story of the Buckingham Nicks album is that Mick was auditioning studios and the Sound City folks used the BN recordings as a demo of the studio. Mick then tracked down Lindsey to ask him to join FM. And yes, he didn't want another woman in the band at that time.
Yes, and STILL many people get the chronological order of the story wrong. Even this guy with the horrific mouthful of teeth.
Ludwig cut a bunch of R.E.M. albums..."Green" is one of them. Great stuff!
I suggest " Living Colors " Album by Dave Samuels mastered by Bob Ludwig !!!! Beautiful LP and beautiful sound !!!! Special !!!!
WOW! No wonder you are going so strong, you went from 2000 subscribers a year ago to nearly 60,000 now! 😲
Ah, Gaucho... My very favourite Steely Dan album by FAR! The sound quality when I first heard it on my system (I bought it shortly after it came out) was bloody AMAZING! At the time my friend and I would use that as one of the Demo albums on my system. I had always thought it was one of the first digitally mastered albums, but apparently recently I heard that it actually was not digitally mastered. I'll hafta go back and check out the song you like best, I only really remember the stellar Hey 19 and even better yet, Babylon Sisters.
My humble apologies, but I am not really a Singer/Songwriter person. Vocals/stories just don't usually interest me. As a guitar player and composer (using both expressions *extremely* loosely) the instrumentation, compositions, and arrangements are what I like. Although, I DID sample the Bryan Ferry and I must admit that it has nice, almost hypnotic arrangements.
And yes, again... 😊 I think Heaven on Tattoo You is one of *THE* most beautiful songs I've heard. And *YES!* You can talk about Zeppelin *ANY* time you want mate! 😁
Great commentary, thank you for watching
Sorry (or happy) to say, I was a 90's kid and had zero idea what that Journey album was... still not a priority, but I may give it a second look now in a garage sale.
16:00 Gaucho now on UHQR vinyl.. Amazing
Thank you for your insight! I listened to my Steely Dan first and then to my Zeppelin II which is not a Ludwig. Does the Ludwig just have more bass drum? I have no problem with the bass on this copy but maybe bass drum could be more pronounced. Thank you again. I'll also listen to Journey later.
The Zepp II has more of everything and is pushed to the limit in a good way
great video
I have a horribly cursed scratchy-sounding copy of Gaucho. Put me off to the album as it soured my first listening experience. Now I have to find a good copy to give it another listen.
10 years after ,space in time. Pink floyd animals, the who quadrophenia. Its a beautiful day.
Gaucho. A masterpiece. Did the assistant engineer survive? Led Zep 2. My first rocker.
Peter Gabriel's So❤❤❤❤
Just caught this… subscribed. Not sure yet if you’ve covered John Golden, but he’s one that is “right up there” in my professional experience. - TONE.
Thanks Tone! I have a playlist dedicated to mastering engineers and have an episode on Golden. Thanks!
@@Universityofvinyl gonna check it out!! John’s a good friend. Amazing engineer!
What do you think about Mobile fidelity pressings ? I have a copy of AJA thats sounds great
Definitely like them, especially the 2nd gen
i love that boys and girls ! slave to love is great ... every single note
Cheers🙏