thebanishedone said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage from '79 is a good example of how a record can sound thic without being overproduced. The sound is AMAZING. There's a lot going on but never too much. Back then probably 24 tracks was the maximum you could lay on the tape, maybe 32.

But I can't think of one record from the 70s that sounds overproduced. Also, having a great dynamic range helps a multilayered production not sound cluttered. Joe's Garage seems to have great dynamics. So maybe that's part of the secret. Prince's The Rainbow Children has expansive dynamic range as well, allegedly, but some people think it's overproduced.

i dont think they think its over produced i think they dont like the loudness thing going on

Usually loudness across all the tracks does mean overproduced, certainly in this day and age, where there's always too much going on. But think of Prince's seminal Dirty Mind and Controversy albums. They sound loud. Dynamic range present or not, the sound is amazing. That's because there aren't a lot of tracks; the sound is thin despite the weighty bottom end.

As for the Rainbow Children, the sound engineer said there was a lot of dynamic range. So it's not loudness across the board. There's a huge amount of bass and lower frequencies. You need the sound system for it, which I probably don't have. But if I did have one criticism of P's post 2000 albums, it's probably that there's too much low end. If I acquired £10,000 worth of speakers to play it through maybe I'd change my mind.