The Rising--Good recording?

Springsteen and several E Street Band members have commented on how much they like the sound of The Rising--the production, engineering and mixing--giving much credit to Brendan O'Brien. Anyone like to comment? I find the recording not to my liking. All of the instruments too often seem to be on the same plane--no depth--and somewhat brittle; the vocals are at times hard to understand; overall, the sound is not all that involving.

 

I've just listened once so far, but I generally agree with your impressions on the sound, especially with the vocals being hard to understand. That's bad news on a Bruce record.

 

You did say Brendan O'Brien, right?

Say no more...

Never liked his "sound". Pretty awful on the Matthew Sweet, PJ and STP records. Way too heavy a hand on the compression button.

 

Before you write off the sound of the Rising.....try the vinyl. I'm sure that someone will post that it is based on the same digital mix as the CD, there is no difference, etc., etc., and that I'm crazy to prefer it over the CD, but I do---by a wide margin.

 

I also prefer the vinyl over the CD, but I do think that overall this is not the best recording considered what we might usually get in 2002.

The vinly does have a somewhat "digital" quality to it, yet it has much more depth and presence than the CD.

 

As for the vinyl, I think it sounds like crap - not to insult anybody. The CD? Well, it's a typically commercial 2002-sounding recording. Loud, in your face, extremely bright and heavily compressed. I'll agree with the first poster who said all the instruments sound like they're on the same plane. The thing is, if Bruce was trying to make a dent in the current music industry and have a commercial success, then he made the right move. Something that sounded like The River or Born in the USA just wouldn't cut it today.

 

I'm not saying the vinyl is audiophile, it's just better than the CD. In fact, I burned a minidisc of the LP for my car and, with some space remaining, included a few tracks from the vinyl of the new Dylan album, so the minidisc goes from the last track on the Rising to Po Boy. The difference is quite apparent.
Then again, Born to Run is no sonic masterpiece, but it sure is good.