Best Producer, Who do U Think?

[03gills]

After the last topici thought i'd start another one that's altogether more friendly, for my money it has to be Mutt Lange, with Bob Rock Coming close

[Heli]

Todd Rundgren by far!

[Emily]

Todd Rundgren by far!

no way :nope:

[evil nickname]

I do like some of the things that Mutt Lange has done (Bryan Adams' "18 Til I Die" is very well produced) but I don't think he's the best.
Neither is Bob Rock. I don't think that anything he's done is that spectacular, but what he did with Metallica on "St. Anger" goes beyond bad. That's just plain horrible.
Todd Rundgren, well, I like what he's done to "Bat Out Of Hell" a lot, but other than that I haven't heard much of him, so for me, he isn't the best.
Jim Steinman isn't the best either. He uses way too much Jeff Bova, so he's out.

So who's the best? I don't know. I like what Arjen A. Lucassen's done to his own albums a lot, I think Paul O'Neill (Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra) is great too, and Oscar Holleman has produced some very good records (mostly by Dutch bands).

But personally, I think their importance is being over-estimated. I think that the recording and mixing engineers play a far more important part in how a record sounds.

[Biter]

St Anger wasn't too bad. Better than reLoad.
Rick Rubin for me
*metalhead*

[evil nickname]

St Anger wasn't too bad. Better than reLoad.

Well, I happen to like ReLoad a lot, and I can't stand St. Anger. The way that album sounds is just wrong. Even I could make a set of drums sound better. If you'd say that you like the songs on St. Anger better than those on ReLoad, well, I could give you the benefit of the doubt. But you can't convince me that St. Anger sounds better than ReLoad.
And that's, imo, what we're discussing here.

*metalhead*

Me too.

[Biter]

Each to their own... I have only heard reload twice and it just didn't do it for me.
Master of puppets...now THAT was a brilliant Metallica album.

Anyway, I'm going through a bad music phase. I just bought Richie Sambora's solo albums...I seriously need good music... :drool:

[evil nickname]

Each to their own... I have only heard reload twice and it just didn't do it for me.
Master of puppets...now THAT was a brilliant Metallica album.

I only heard St. Anger twice or so, and it did even less than nothing for me. MoP is a great album, and has some of their best songs (Master Of Pupets, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Disposable Heroes - and Orion), but I rank it second, behind Ride The Lightning overall.

Anyway, I'm going through a bad music phase. I just bought Richie Sambora's solo albums...I seriously need good music... :drool:

I happen to think that Richie's solo albums are good music. Stranger In This Town is imo the best of the two.

[Biter]

yeah, I love Ballad of Youth. I also have David Bryan's album - Lunar Eclipse.
Ever heard of Rainbow or Asia?

[evil nickname]

Heard of them, yes. Heard them? Not really. I know a few songs by them, and I know that former Meat Loaf-guitarist Pat Thrall used to tour with Asia, but other than that, nothing. What they do isn't really my thing.

[Biter]

They are good to listen to if you are a bit depressed because they are cheese! You like Iron Maiden?

[evil nickname]

Maiden rules! I thought of mentioning Martin Birch, who produced most of their albums in the 80s, as one of my favorites before this topic went offtopic. I decided not to, since I only know one album he produced besides the Maiden ones, and that's "Made In Japan" by Deep Purple.

But Maiden made some very good albums in the (early) 80s. After that, it hasn't been that great.

[Biter]

Yeah, but i still think Rubin is god...
He makes slayer sound like slayer (if you get my drift)

[evil nickname]

He makes slayer sound like slayer (if you get my drift)

Not quite, since I Slayer also isn't really my thing, but I think I somehow know what you're getting at. He's like the piece of the puzzle that makes it all flow together, the secret ingredient, that sort of thing, right?

[AndyK]

The Glimmer Twins (That's Jagger/Richards) or The Bruce Springsteen/Jon Landau pairing are up there at the top of my list for consistent success and quality.

[Rob The Badger]

I too will vouch for Rubin as a top producer.
Also, I love Nigel Godrich's stuff as well as Stephen Street.
Brian Eno and George Martin also.

I also love Andy Warhol for making the dirtiest record ever sound even dirtier.

[03gills]

To me, Bob Rock is a better album engineer and mixer than he is a producer, i'm not a hardcore fan of Bon Jovi (but i'm still a fan) but i do like the engineering and mixing job he did for 'Slippery' and 'New Jersey' although i think 'Faith' is there best it suffered because 'Rock' didn't engineer and mix the record, he only co-mixed it with someone else.