Jeff Lynne production sound

I don't know if he could do a roll, but he did some very creative, Keith-Moon-style drumming on the old Move records, which of course Jeff Lynne did not produce.

 

This was kind of mentioned in another recent thread somewhere, but there are definitely producers that leave their own sonic imprints - Phil Spector's and Daniel Lanois' productions are unmistakable; it is not because they haven't done a good job as producers....

 

True. The same could be said for Glyn Johns. There is a specific drum and bass sound/style. Yet I wouldn't change a thing on any of his records.

 

Since you asked, I don't care much for Jeff L.'s production at all. And I do find that it tends to overpower everything else utterly and completely, so that regardless of the artist it all sounds quasi-ELO. (And yes, I can imagine the late "John Lennon and the Threetles" recordings being done much better. But I'm still glad to have them.)

 

If we want to compare production styles--consider the work of William Wittman and Rick Chertoff for CBS in the late 1980's-early 1990's. No matter which artist they worked with: Patty Smyth, The Outfield, Cyndi Lauper, The Hooters, etc.-the discs all sounded the same! Compression galore, squashed soundstage, sound harsh and glaring. Everything sounded like it was being pumped out of a DBX box with its coding switched off! Unbelievable. Makes Jeff Lynne sound tame, by comparison.

 

Yet I shudder at the thought of how The Fixx "Calm Animals " (nice sounding record) would have sounded if Lynne had done it in place of Wittman

 

Beagle,
Sure, Calm Animals is not bad, but just think how great it would have sounded if produced by Rupert Hine!