Good documentaries on "making of album/tracks"??

Branshen

Anyone have any recommendations for documentaries showing the recording and production of pop, folk, jazz albums? I'm particularly interested in recording of live instruments and maybe even orchestras for pop? Stuff like Adele, Coldplay, Sam Smith, mumford and sons, bon iver, basically anything with acoustic instruments. 

Any good ones out there?

oaf

Dunno about documentaries but I've often found the arrangements by Paul Buckmaster to be great examples of acoustic (especially strings) additions to pop songs. Look out for his 70s stuff in particular (Elton John, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, etc) although he was still active until recently. More arrangement than production I guess but you might find something interesting/inspiring.

thegummy

The "Classic Albums" series is entertaining but it's not too technical, it's more about the story of the people behind it as it's made to appeal to normal people.

If you want the other end where it's extremely geeky, there's a website called Pure Mix that has tons of videos of well known engineers talking about how they recorded and mixed songs in very high technical detail.

Funkfingers

Rummage through the archives of Sound On Sound magazine. You will find features on location recording, mic'ing specific ensembles, room treatment and the Classic Tracks series in which engineers or producers recount how famous songs were constructed.

Anything authored by Paul White and/or Hugh Robjohns is usually helpful. Even in articles about recording artistes you do not rate highly, the control room interviewees occasionally let slip some tip that you can use.

andy_k

check out Eric Valentines youtube channel, very in depth track dissections.

thegummy

If you're interested in more than documentaries, there's a book called "Behind the Glass" which is like a God-send if you're interested in how records are made.

Probably one of my favourite books I've ever read.

Branshen

Brilliant suggestions. Thanks all! 

mart

thegummy said:

If you're interested in more than documentaries, there's a book called "Behind the Glass" which is like a God-send if you're interested in how records are made.

Probably one of my favourite books I've ever read.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zGSkrly4L._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
  

thegummy

That's the one! It's steamy.

dangriffiths

For modern stuff the Song Exploder podcast is great too

mudslide73

XTC recording Towers of London.. 

Branshen

Thanks guys! amused to see a 240p video in 2019! Seems to be a good video regardless!

mrleon83

Check out produce like a pro on YouTube, he has a bunch of ‘inside the track’ vids , oh and also beato - what makes this track great on YouTube, really interesting documentaries 

Branshen

mrleon83 said:

Check out produce like a pro on YouTube, he has a bunch of ‘inside the track’ vids , oh and also beato - what makes this track great on YouTube, really interesting documentaries 

Have seen a bunch of those. Agree that they're great. 

Jalapeno

The Classic Albums video for Steely Dan's Aja is brilliant, as is Donald Fagen's Concepts for Jazz/Rock DVD where he explains how he wrote some of their greatest tunes.

Jalapeno

In fact all the Classic Album videos are worth a look.

I found Some Kind of Montser fascinating, more so for the break downs (of Hetfield in particular) than the mechanics of recording.

Jean-Luc Goddard's film of Sympathy for the Devil recording sessions is interesting, as is The Beatles' Let It Be sessions (also has a bit of the Some Kind of Monster personell tensions).