Blogger Joseph Chudyk uses Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ recorded sound to illustrate a point about using auto tune in the studio. In his interesting commentary he writes:

Now lets move over to the same year… Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. They recorded in a top studio (Sage And Sound). Plant could’ve gotten ANY sound he wanted. Even the same sound that the Jonas Brothers achieved (my apologies Mr. Plant). BUT, he chose the natural sound of the instruments. ‘Earthy’ could be the term used, only because we have to come up with something to describe natural sound because we’ve forgotten what that is.

The 2008 TEC Awards were presented on October 3, 2008 in San Francisco California. Raising Sand won an excellence in creativity award for Record Production/Album.

In addition, T-Bone Burnett was inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes those whose careers have best exemplified the spirit of creative and technical excellence in professional audio.

Raising Sand, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Recording Engineers: Stacy Parrish, Mike Piersante, Jason Wormer
Mixing Engineer: Mike Piersante
Mixing Facility: Electro Magnetic Studios, Los Angeles
Producer: T-Bone Burnett
Recording Studios: Electro Magnetic Studios, Los Angeles, Sage & Sound Recording, Hollywood, CA, Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN, The Village Recorder, Los Angeles
Mastering Engineer: Gavin Lurssen
Mastering Facility: Lurssen Mastering, Hollywood, CA

T-Bone Burnett is working to put a system of standards in place so that the CD the consumer buys is of the quality that the record’s producer had intended. His system, titled CODE, is the product of several years of research with a team of engineers. Burnett has applied for several patents in conjunction with this system.

Burnett was spurred to put his system in action when the first pressing of the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss CD, Raising Sand, did not sound as he intended. Since then he has approached labels, pressing plants and engineers in an effort to set quality standards for audio recordings.

The first CODE release was “Life, Love, Death and Freedom” from John Mellencamp. Elvis Costello’s 2009 release will be the next.

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The sound production for the Raising Sand tour was provided by Michigan-based Thunder Audio. The sound system was based on Meyer Sound’s self-powered loudspeakers.

Robert’s long-time engineer Roy williams commented: “Two very different artists getting together means very different expectations among the audience as well, but after a few shows, we realised we had a Raising Sand audience. It allowed us to add more dynamics to the mix, going from a whisper to a scream. The audience was receptive to this because they knew where the artists were coming from.”

Read more at L&Si Online