What characterizes a "Jeff Lynne" production?

Steve would be your man for this .......but I can tell you how I identify it.
His drum sound is always the same.....it almost sounds like he sticks a mic on the snare, one above the drummer, and that's it! It's almost a mono drum sound.....and VERY compressed! His acoustic guitars always have that real glistening sound.....I wish I knew how he got that. He also always has some kind of descending riff on a 12 string or 6 string electric....real clean and echoey. Think "You Got It" or "This Is Love" from Cloud 9. Plus those Jeff Lynne layered (quite messily) background vocals!

 

Get George Harrison's last LP "Brainwashed" Lynn's stye & production is all over it! It's a very good album, second only to "All Things Must Pass"

 

Here's an old thread that might answer some of your questions:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8490

Personally, I've never been able to figure out why some people feel such abject hatred towards Jeff Lynne's production style. It seems like people feel it isn't cool to like ELO anymore, so anything he touches gets slagged off mercilessly. If someone doesn't like an album he produces, no matter who the artist is (even The Beatles, for crying out loud!), Lynne gets the blame. As if the artists themselves didn't want the album to sound that way, but Lynne forced it on them.

I for one still love ELO, and think Jeff Lynne's productions sound just fine.

 

i have always loved ELO.....and I don't think the 2 new Beatles songs sound too ELO-ish......if ELO was very Beatle-y, what did you expect those 2 new songs to sound like.....Metallica?????
His drum sound has improved a lot....they sound great on Devil's Radio....but look who's playing drums! Whatta you expect?

 

I don't listen to ELO myself (so far), but I do think Jeff's style of production is at least interesting. I don't know if I'd want to listen to his stuff alone for a whole day, but I like it.

Regarding the snare sound, I believe I've read somewhere that he mixes a little (white? pink?) noise with the snare sound, run thru a gate. That could be the way he gets that massive sound.

 

Sync up the hi-hat and acoustic guitar to play the same thing. Remove all the bottom and most of the lower midrange on the vocals. Run through processor. Add a pinch of bass and drums. Allow to dry. Flatten with a rolling pin. Sprinkle with icing sugar. Serve.

 

Id have to agree with Donald on this in that I also can pick out a Jeff Lynne production very often. I love ELO but it does bother me when another artists album has that ELO flavor. I feel like I'm listen to Xanadu.

 

This is the sound of a Jeff Lynn record.

 

Even between Jeff Lynne productions, there is a degree of Lynne-ing that is able to be evaluated. Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever sounds somewhat natural in some ways (how's that for a definitive statement), while the follow-up Into the Great Wide Open might be slightly over-Lynned, in that the percussion and rhythm instruments really don't sound even close to any sort of reality.

I happen to like many of his productions - nothing wrong with the producer imparting a strong sonic fingerprint (like Lynne or Daniel Lanois) as long as the artist knows when that production no longer suits him/her and has run its commerical/artistic course.

 

With some producers like Jeff Lynn and Daniel Lanois the producer shares some of the spotlight with the artist. Mutt and Phil Spector are the same way. Some producers like George Martin, Richard Perry and Gus Dudgeon are a little more neutral.

 

Gus Dudgeon....I love his sound....very under-rated guy

 

Usually when Jeff produces another artist, he plays multiple instruments on every track, provides prominent background vocals, and in many cases co-writes the material. Given all that, how could his productions not have that distinctive sound?

 

One of my favorites too.

 

Maybe the problem some people have isn't so much with Jeff Lynne himself, but that his trademark drum sound reminds them too much of Bev Bevan?

 

I love non ELO Jeff Lynne-produced records. I just don't like ELO at all- the songs don't do anything for me. Most of the stuff he's produced are the artists' best albums. His production work is very radio friendly.

 

Hey boss, let it out. We're here for ya!

I have the same complaints for Lanois and Mutt. Every Mutt Lange record from the 80's and 90's had the same snare drum on it. Drove me nuts!!!!

Nigel Godrich was starting to do the same things over and over. The feedback delay sound was cool until it was over-used. I think he's realized this and is backing off a little now.

 

Lanois..........everything sounds like it's in a cave!!!! A REAL big cave!

 

I liked it for Wrecking Ball and a few others but give it a break already. Even the stuff produced by his engineer, Malcolm Burn, has the same sound to it.