Yes, this is one of the many amazing things about music, that not many people get to discover...
Sorry this will be a long post, but it's a really neat part of music history that probably most people take for granted, or are generally unaware of, because recording is more or less an easier process now.
Recording albums had just barley started getting taken seriously around the Early 60s, (prior to this most music was released primarily as singles), and recording started to become an art in itself, especially around the late 60s and early 70s.
Some of the most legendary rock bands were so legendary not just for their music but for developing new techniques in the studio and for how they made their recordings.
For example, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles are two of the biggest bands who changed the way popular music was recorded.
The album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is regarded as one of the most revolutionary albums in terms of recording.
The Beatles of course are well known for having some of the first Stereo recordings, where some instruments are on one speaker and the vocals are on another, if you ever tried listening to The Beatles with one earbud in, then you know what I'm referring to.
All of the Zeppelin albums are great and must haves, my personal favorite being Physical Graffiti.
Zeppelin I for example was recorded with such a small amount of money, but Page was such a genius in the studio, and that album ended up making back 2000x in profit, which is an incredible amount.
The Drummer for Zeppelin, John Bonham, is also very well known for the massive sound he was able to produce with his drums, he arguably paved the path for the way Rock Drums were to forever sound.
Rush is my favorite band, and I feel like all of their early albums are masterfully mixed.
The Doors did some unique stuff as well, there's the well known story that Jim Morrison sang L.A. Woman in a bathroom to get the perfect reverb sound.
Pink Floyd had a ton of revolutionary stuff on their records, there are many in depth articles that go into how a lot of their sounds were recorded.
I've heard stories that the entire Highway to Hell album by Ac/Dc was edited to sound a quarter note lower than how it was recorded, to give it a darker overall sound.
As someone who loves music (particularly 60s/70s) it's really interesting to know about the recording process of what goes into some of the most classic albums, something that most people (especially today) probably take for granted, there are many many stories, and I think it is a really neat little niche of knowledge to discover.
If you go onto a wiki page for any classic 60s/70s album, they go into depth on how it was recorded and what they did to get all the unique individual sounds, which at the time were revolutionary.
Any time I get an album not only do I listen to it but I do a bit of research on it and learn how and why it was made, music is a very neat and integral part of human history.
But to answer your overall question... I don't really know a lot about the subject but if you are listening to MP3's, or anything off of the internet, it will generally be random quality, all across the board. Even across an entire album as it's most likely just generated from random MP3's.
This is why if you listen to a library of MP3's on shuffle, you'll notice you constantly need to adjust the volume, because some tracks are high/lower than others.
I think to fully understand how well the real album was recorded you need a physical copy of the album, either on vinyl or CD, and listen to it through a stereo system that has speakers, this should generally be a better quality.
However, even then the quality can change, as it'll sound different depending on the format (Vinyl/CD/8-track), or if it's a remastered version, or old etc.
Also the genre of the music can really affect the recording, generally because of the budget that was allowed.
For example, Slayer's first album Show No Mercy is one of the most horrendous examples of a recording I can think of. Nearly all early Thrash Metal / Punk didn't have much of a budget, and is pretty low quality.
Recording is a serious thing now, and very important. That's why there is even college degrees dedicated specifically for it.
If you want to learn more about it just look up some of your favorite albums, and if it's a well known album there will be information on it.
Quality album recordings.
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Yes, this is one of the many amazing things about music, that not many people get to discover...
Sorry this will be a long post, but it's a really neat part of music history that probably most people take for granted, or are generally unaware of, because recording is more or less an easier process now.
Recording albums had just barley started getting taken seriously around the Early 60s, (prior to this most music was released primarily as singles), and recording started to become an art in itself, especially around the late 60s and early 70s.
Some of the most legendary rock bands were so legendary not just for their music but for developing new techniques in the studio and for how they made their recordings.
For example, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles are two of the biggest bands who changed the way popular music was recorded.
The album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is regarded as one of the most revolutionary albums in terms of recording.
The Beatles of course are well known for having some of the first Stereo recordings, where some instruments are on one speaker and the vocals are on another, if you ever tried listening to The Beatles with one earbud in, then you know what I'm referring to.
All of the Zeppelin albums are great and must haves, my personal favorite being Physical Graffiti.
Zeppelin I for example was recorded with such a small amount of money, but Page was such a genius in the studio, and that album ended up making back 2000x in profit, which is an incredible amount.
The Drummer for Zeppelin, John Bonham, is also very well known for the massive sound he was able to produce with his drums, he arguably paved the path for the way Rock Drums were to forever sound.
Rush is my favorite band, and I feel like all of their early albums are masterfully mixed.
The Doors did some unique stuff as well, there's the well known story that Jim Morrison sang L.A. Woman in a bathroom to get the perfect reverb sound.
Pink Floyd had a ton of revolutionary stuff on their records, there are many in depth articles that go into how a lot of their sounds were recorded.
I've heard stories that the entire Highway to Hell album by Ac/Dc was edited to sound a quarter note lower than how it was recorded, to give it a darker overall sound.
As someone who loves music (particularly 60s/70s) it's really interesting to know about the recording process of what goes into some of the most classic albums, something that most people (especially today) probably take for granted, there are many many stories, and I think it is a really neat little niche of knowledge to discover.
If you go onto a wiki page for any classic 60s/70s album, they go into depth on how it was recorded and what they did to get all the unique individual sounds, which at the time were revolutionary.
Any time I get an album not only do I listen to it but I do a bit of research on it and learn how and why it was made, music is a very neat and integral part of human history.
But to answer your overall question... I don't really know a lot about the subject but if you are listening to MP3's, or anything off of the internet, it will generally be random quality, all across the board. Even across an entire album as it's most likely just generated from random MP3's.
This is why if you listen to a library of MP3's on shuffle, you'll notice you constantly need to adjust the volume, because some tracks are high/lower than others.
I think to fully understand how well the real album was recorded you need a physical copy of the album, either on vinyl or CD, and listen to it through a stereo system that has speakers, this should generally be a better quality.
However, even then the quality can change, as it'll sound different depending on the format (Vinyl/CD/8-track), or if it's a remastered version, or old etc.
Also the genre of the music can really affect the recording, generally because of the budget that was allowed.
For example, Slayer's first album Show No Mercy is one of the most horrendous examples of a recording I can think of. Nearly all early Thrash Metal / Punk didn't have much of a budget, and is pretty low quality.
Recording is a serious thing now, and very important. That's why there is even college degrees dedicated specifically for it.
If you want to learn more about it just look up some of your favorite albums, and if it's a well known album there will be information on it.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Page#Music_production_techniques" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Page#Music_p...</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles'_recording_technology" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_rec...</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys#Songwriting_and_production" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys#Son...</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_engineer" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_engineer</a>