Great Recordings: Daft Punk, Random Access Memories 

the level of obsession with sound design and recording techniques of daft punk are super inspiring. reading about the production of "Giorgio by Moroder" completely blew me away: "When Moroder arrived in the studio to record his monologue, he was initially perplexed that the booth contained multiple microphones; he wondered if the extra equipment was a precaution in case one of the microphones broke. The recording engineer explained that the microphones varied with origin dates that ranged from the 1960s to the 21st century, and that each microphone would be used to represent the different decades in Moroder's life"

I discovered this album yesterday at age 68 and it's now possibly my favorite album. I very much enjoyed your video here....so it's not just me....lol. What a treat. Thank you!

Indeed R.A.M. Is one of the greatest albums, just to get some of you guys how this was recorded, They used a Sennheiser VSM 201, not any but Herbie Hancocks original copy as well, It costs around 40.000 dollars and it has a very clean sound thats pretty much how the vocoder vocals was done, also Mick Guzauski (The Mixing Engineer of Random Access Memories) Says That "One of the ideas for this album was that Daft Punk didn’t want to process digitally. The music had to be recorded digitally because it had to be edited, but a lot of it was recorded to analog tape and then transferred to Pro Tools. For mixing, it all came from Pro Tools at 96 kHz into a 72-input analog console. Sometimes we had to combine in Pro Tools if we had more tracks than faders. But it was mostly mixed to analog and they wanted to process everything in the analog world as well. We mixed the album at Conway Studios in Los Angeles over the summer. The studio had another Pro Tools room in addition to the control room that we were using, so the guys in Daft Punk could add elements to the mixes, listen to what I’d done, edit, or make other final tweaks, and then get the changes to me right away in the control room. It was a very collaborative process. We actually worked on a song until it was done, so the schedule was nice and relaxed. Some days were long, a few were short, and when they were happy with how a song sounded, we were done. I didn’t have to do a single recall on the whole album. It was a dream project. The music and performance have to be there first. Sonically and mix-wise, I was very cognizant of not limiting a lot of things and avoiding drastic processing. I wanted to use compression sparingly so the whole thing could breathe and the dynamics could be unrestricted. This wasn’t a project where we cut the low end back and boosted the 5-7 kHz range to make it scream. We never tried to make it loud and I think it sounds better for it.The funny thing is, when it’s on the radio, even though it isn’t anywhere near as loud as many records, it does sound bigger. Radio compression makes the peak levels the same as something that’s been highly compressed and hyped. I don’t think we lost a lot of apparent level in keeping the low bottom end strong." And then he talks about plug-ins "Some plug-ins definitely did a better job than we had analog outboard gear for. We used the UAD Precision De-Esser quite a bit on vocals. Sometimes we used a hardware analog DBX 902 instead, but if we needed serious de-essing, the UAD plug-in worked better and gave us more control. That’s pretty much it, and the rest was analog outboard gear, though we did use a few digital reverbs - a Bricasti and EMT 250. I have to say that the UA plug-ins sound so close to the hardware. We happened to have the physical equipment there and the guys really wanted to use it - we had a great EMT 140 reverb and if you find a good one there’s nothing like it - but when we A/B’d the real analog gear with the UAD plug-ins, just out of curiosity, it all sounded extremely close. I use those plug-ins all the time. use the EMT 140 and EMT 250 reverb plug-ins a lot, and also the Manley Massive Passive EQ Plug-In. I have a real one of those, and the physical and digital versions are very close when it comes to sound. I also use the 1176 and LA-2A plug-ins, and I’ve played a bit with the Ocean Way Dynamic Room Modeling Plug-In on a couple of projects. That one’s brand new, so I haven’t used it extensively yet, but I really like it. It gives a nice, natural early reflection sound, especially if you use reverb on top of it, so it doesn’t sound like there’s this gap between the sound and the reverb. It just sounds like you recorded something in a room before you processed it.I use the Harrison 32C/SE Channel EQ when I’m in a nostalgic mood.The UAD plug-ins sound a lot cleaner than the original hardware did. They have the same character, but the plug-in sounds good while the console sounded kind of hash-y. Then there’s the Precision Limiter and the De-Esser, both of which I use a lot. Others I’ll use once in a while, but those are the ones I go to all the time. Were also recorded in these locations, although Daft Punk recorded most of their own vocodered robot vocals in their own studio in Paris. Following every session with live musicians and/or singers, the core team of Bangalter, de Homem-Christo, Franco, Lerner and Channing would spend time sifting through what they had recorded, and the Daft Punk duo would then build and alter and edit their tracks using these live recordings, in similar ways to how they'd used samples for their earlier albums."

You may not realize it, but your knowledge of the musicians' catalogs and some of the instruments has uncovered some "easter eggs" about the album's composition and production that most die-hard Daft Punk fans like myself had not yet realized. We knew about the different mics in Giorgio by Moroder, the refusal to use any computers on the album (except for when editing "Touch"), and the intention behind having Nile Rodgers on rhythm. However, I think you stumbled across a new discovery in your point about Get Lucky where one drummer transitions to the next, from JR who was prominent in the mid-70s to early 80s, to Omar Hakim, whose highlight era was the mid- to late-80s. It's a pivotal moment in the album where the main transition from the "natural" 70s style to the more "mechanical" and technology-infused style of the 80s occurs, and is executed in Get Lucky when both the vocals and drum rhythm changes from human to robotic. I had not realized that it was not only a change in the drumming pattern, but a change in drummer completely, and the drummers correspond to their respective "eras" within the song/album! Also, your observation about 2-level keyboard, Bach, and the similarity in album intros was a new discovery as well! Thanks so much for making this video!

It almost makes me sad they never realised another album, but RAM was so perfect I don’t think they could have done something else considering their perfectionism.

What have I stumbled upon! Listening to you talk about it, the way you do, makes me fall in love with the album all over again. And it's Interesting to see So many people listening to Daft Punk for the first time. Looks like a great channel and good community.

Comment from Pitchfork by Mark Richardson : "If people still went into stereo shops and bought stereos regularly, like they did during the era Daft Punk draw from, this record, with its meticulously recorded analog sound, would be an album to test out a potential system, right up there with Steely Dan’s Aja and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Daft Punk make clear that one way to “give life back to music” is through the power of high fidelity." Daft Punk's Random Access Memories - one of my favorite albums. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!

Loved your take on RAM!

I remember putting on this album on a car ride, thinking it’ll just be a fun electronic Daft Punk project. Was immediately blown away with how good it sounded, the middle of the album gets incredibly good, all the live instrumentation, the production. It’s quickly grown to one of my favorite albums of all time, possibly #1. I would have killed to hear another Daft Punk album in this style, but I’m glad they ended on this perfect note. Incredible album, it’ll be one of the first albums I listen to once I get a Hi-Fi setup and I’ll definitely buy the FLACs

I've never really listened to much Daft Punk, but you've completely sold me this album. I've heard a few songs from it, but never experienced it properly all the way through. I'm glad this came up in my recommended :)

The very common “you’ll hear things you’ve never heard before” adage when people discuss hi-fi gear has its merits, but I’ve had more fun seeking out new things to listen to that are outside of my normal listening habits. It’s made my hi-fi journey one that is just as much focused on discovery as examining what I already know, and I’m better for it.

The Game Of Love is the stand out for me on this album, just sublime.

This is the first album I ever bought at the age of 14, and at the age of 22 I still regard it as my favourite of all time. Thank you for this video.

How counterproductive is that silly copyright nonsense. This would only encourage us to buy more data/streaming/CD/record of Daft Punk.

My recommendation is Violator by Depeche Mode. A masterpiece of electronic music, perfectly produced and elaborated by Flood (who also did Joshua Tree by U2 f.e.)

great video. you really read my mind when it comes to music and sound. this is the greatest album recorded in the 21st. century. when i first heard of this album i was watching the grammys and saw these two guys with weird helmets accepting the award for i think the best album of the year. i thought what a joke never hearing the album. years passed and this album was on a lot of audiophile lists. i finally bought it and heard it and was stunned and shocked how good it was. the sound and music are incredible. i do not judge what i have never heard anymore. i will take the time and listen for myself. great video as always harley. keep your great work going!

This album is like shrooms. We all need to give it a try, and listen to its answers.

Thanks, this heightened my appreciation of Daft Punk tremendously. Would love to hear your opinion on the band Parcels' debut album, which Daft Punk produced a few year later. There's a fantastic live version of the entire album with video from the Hansa Studios in Berlin.

This is one of my reference album for testing components. I recommend you search for the Japanese version of this CD album. There is an extra track “Horizon” which for me is the best song. That song has so much Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon influence on it yet also Daft Punk signature sound.

I listened to Random Access Memories after seeing this video; this album made me feel like I was being injected with life and emotion, I felt like a dead leaf compared to the rich vibes of joy and life that this band was emitting. Thanks for the suggestion to check them out!

This is my favorite album in all times, and I have listened to lot of music in my life. This unified mood along the entirely album and the spacecraft quality of the record make it the milestone it is. Thank you for the review!

Dear Mr. Lovegrove, it’s always a great pleasure listening to your great experience and professionalism about HiFi systems and music recordings. Thanks.

WOW, absolutely great video :D "Great Recordings RU-vid Playlist" is going to be my favorite now! Thanks a lot for your efforts to make all those videos ;-) Warm greetings from Poland, Przemek

really glad this popped up for me. This absolutely is one of my all time favorite albums, so to hear analysis on the recording side of things was extremely interesting! Guess it's time to re-listen!

I must be the only person in the world that thinks that pretty much all their work is repetitive and overrated. Especially on R.A.M... while some aspects of the audio sounds good, the music itself is almost always so incredibly repetitive in a bad way. Repetitive can be fantastic (Todd Terje - Delorean Dynamite for example) but DP's albums always get tiresome since they never spice it up enough. They mimic some very early 80's / late 70's tracks in this album, which is cool but they don't quite get the there since their sound is so.... idk, thin or flat.... Anyway, all I hear is how "phenomenal" this album is from people, but I certainly don't get it, that's for sure.

This is my first time watching your videos and WOW I'm blown away!! Thank you for your wonderful take on this wonderful album and helping an amateur like myself appreciate this even more

At that moment at 15:00, that exact part in the song came on nearby.

Heard this album for the first time this week when I bought the viynl, a genuinely incredible album and a true tragedy now considering its thier last

I THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND; Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album by Phoenix!

One of the best songs of this Album is without contest "Touch" and i advise anyone to relisten to it several time, despite the great space opera feel to it, the theme of this song is very deep and philosophical. Been listening to this Album since its release through the years, and this song grew on me throught the years , and will surely continue to do so, amazing !

i like how this is a recording channel and you never mentioned the most interesting part about the recording of Giorgio by Moroder

Thank you for sharing your passion with the world. :)

I feel that Daft Punk is today's Steely Dan.

I think you in-depthly breaking down a Tame Impala record would be beautiful. I believe you would appreciate the craftsmanship of Kevin Parker.

RAM was just different from any other electronic album I've ever heard. There was something very personal, almost vulnerable, about it's composition, which is almost a contradiction with electronic music. It's usually loud, rhythmic, catchy, but very detached.

I just stumbled across your channel and thoroughly enjoyed your comments on Random Access Memories, enough to listen to the album for the first time on Tidal (MQA). I have to agree it is very well recorded and produced. The real gem (for me) was the comment below regarding Steely Dan's Two Against Nature. I have been a SD fan for decades yet somehow this album has eluded my attention. So I gave it a listen and it is a wonderful recording! It will be joining my other SD albums (Aja and Goucho) in my collection ASAP. Oh, and I am now a subscriber to your channel.

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel was another icon drummer: Manu Katche from France. A jazz drummer who plays just about anything and really good.

Just came across this channel and left with a sensation of pure welcoming. This is by far one of my favorite records of all time and I agreed on every point that was said in this video. My recommendation for you today would be Still Life (Talking) by Pat Metheny; very interesting record and yet one of my all time favorites too. Thank you and enjoy your music.

10:10 the first words on the album being: "I've been mad for ******* years..."

For me, to grow up listening to daft punk each and every year is like an accomplishment. From dirtiest and rough edges of Homework to sudden elegance of Tron, its such a growth to behold. Daft punks discography is like a guideline of “taking it slow, slowly matured”. I believe Justice and Breakbot going in the same route. And you bet i will do so. Maybe in 20years from the release of RAM, they will release the b side, like radiohead or what not. But my fantasy of daftpunk cant never be quenched. Radiohead’s OK Computer is on par with Random access memories imo, considering it was released in ‘97. Interesting stuff.

Now rewind to Homework. Nowhere near the same amount of money, production, technique, artists etc. yet far more ground breaking.

The vinyl has been truly well mastered

I love these kind of clever and well produced video podcasts: articulate people talking passionately about great sound and masterful music recordings, even leaving their own comfort zone at times. It's contagious! Unfortunately, I've never paid any real attention to this opus of Daft Punk. But their iconic artist look as futuristic disco knights was second to none and hard to miss. I was aware however that funky and disco heavy weights had contributed because I'm into Afro American music. By the way, I've always considered the artwork of the album an obvious (typo)graphical nod to Michael Jackson's Thriller... released on the same record label. But for some reason I never fell in love with electronic dance music tagged "French Touch". Too little Soul... So, what I will do now is purchase a physical copy of Random Access Memories and give it the attention it actually deserves. Thanks for making me curious and for broadening my musical horizon. As they say in Flemish: "Zeer gewaardeerd".

No wonder I like this record. I just played it, and I didn't realize the incredible musicians that played on all of the sessions.

Great video, great album! For something somehow similar try "Oliver - Full Circle"

Been listening to this album for years, this video just made me appreciate the album even more.

I appreciate superb sound design, high quality recording and musicians but I ironically I don’t like daft punk. Average music - as I hear - and with all those computer effects which make their songs sound the same..

Within and Touch are my absolute favorites on the album

random access memories is TIMELESS

I was at my local Hifi shop and a young kid (maybe 12 years old) pointed to a vinyl copy of the album and said “mum can we buy this, it would sound AWESOME on vinyl”! I must say, I totally agreed with him and bought a copy myself. Great album

This is my least favorite Daft punk album by a country mile.

I'll keep it a short comment. Just saying It's a great album, it's not enough. It brings so many emotions and memories when listening. To me as well as many other here in comments, a wonderful peace of music which I will return for the rest of my life.

Last February, I bought an original 2013 first pressing release, cut by Chab. I gave it to my older son, who is 34. I also bought two CD. Hopefully the vinyl will remain virgin.

He needs to listen to either Boards of Canada’s “Music Has the Right to Childern” and Aphex Twin’s “…I Care Because You Do” those are my suggestions

Daft Punk are androids from the future who have traveled back in time to teach us about love through music.

One of the things I love about Daft Punk was their quality over quantity. There's only a small handful of songs they have that I'm not super crazy about but all in all I'd say about 95% of their music is absolutely amazing

My least favourite Daft Punk album actually, Homework and Discovery are just simply on another level.

The sound engineering parallels Thriller. This album is sonically beautiful. Thank-you Pearl Acoustics for your joy! Daft Punk will be missed. ✌

Hello. The soundtrack of the TRON Legacy movie is also very very good.

From the first time I listened to it (RAM) I knew Daft Punk had created their masterpiece.. So clean sounding, with honor paid to many of musics greatest talents. I first became a fan in the late 90's with "Homework" and have followed their journey ever since in the EDM scene. They spent the first part of their careers giving the underground dance scene some of their best work, followed by giving the Pop scene some of it's best.

On my channel here where I build loudspeakers I use Daft Punk as reference music to try my new speakers :)

Thank you so much for this. I've grown up with Daft Punk and hearing you talk about it was magical, as a person with very little musical knowledge. It's like you're putting into words all the things I love about the album ♥️

I grew up with their first album, Homework, when I was starting college.

I've been a fan of this album from the time it was released. I still come back to it a few times a year. Really enjoyed your video.

I bought this album today at the age of 49 -because of you- and already after listening to it once, it blew me away..! I've always loved Get Lucky, but the whole album is just fantastic on my Hi-Fi 🤩 Already 27 seconds in on the first track you know you are in for something special, because of the shift there 😄 Thank you for the reference 🙂 PS! Love your channel and your work.. You seem like a really nice man.. Thank you 🙂

This has been a favorite album of mine for several years, but I left this video appreciating it even more than I did before. It really is something special and your comments were truly insightful. I'm looking forward to watching your other "great recordings" videos and maybe finding some new music. Another album I would recommend is "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes. It's a beautiful album that I've always appreciated for it's recording quality. Their self titled album is also quite well recorded, but I haven't spent quite as much time with it, and thus don't have quite as strong of an opinion on it. Edit: I should note that there is an interesting Sound on Sound article on the recording of Helplessness Blues that is worth a read for anyone interested.

i got myself the24 bit 126kbps file of this and listen to it daily Piece of history in my tiny hifi DAP

This videos are great! More album reviews, that would be nice!

Yeah Nile Rodgers ... any further questions?

My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everybody calls me Giorgio.

Dang I didn’t know they took the steely dan approach to the album?

In 20 years this album will be recognised as one of the greatest of all time.

Total shot in the dark here, but I would love to hear your opinion on World Famous Tour by Wavedash. I come from a much more aggressive and party-oriented electronic music background, and to me World Famous Tour serves as an amazingly creative tasting platter for many of the subgenres and tropes in modern "EDM" music. For example the usage of lossy compression as an artistic choice or autotuned whistling which both stand out as very innovative and unique ideas. No song ever stays still and things are always evolving and changing with a great sense of musicality throughout

Thank you for introducing me to this album. It blew me away! This is a masterpiece. The quality is astonishing! I must buy the vinyl.

If you're open to different music types you may like Burial's Untrue album.

Those cool guitar chops at the beginning of Give Life Back to Music, right after the fanfare, are played by Paul Jackson Jr probably the best rhythm guitar player out there. He truly shows this, so much needed, life in music.

Giorgio by Moroder just blew me away. Listened for the first time and woah, that buildup, the drop, the everything. You described that track so well!

RAM is their finest

Another phenomenal video Harley. I think this could have easily been an hour long and still would have been as interesting.

Tron Legacy was a better album that was a masterpiece

Daft Punk Random access Memories are a Modern true Masterpiece of Recording and sadly one of the last albums from a split up duo no longer working together. Working with some of the best Musicians and using only the best recording gear this concept album will stand the test of time. Daft punk set the standards for Swedish House Mafia after watching a live concert by Daft punk they set their goals and later formed the Power trio. Alot of the Musicians playing on Random acess Memories Nile Rogers best Rhythm guitar player Ever. Nathan East one of the best Bass players Omar Hakim that after playing on the track Georgio now have his ace drum solo lines. Omar Hakim played super tight drums on Money for Nothing by Dire Straights but not the intro part that was played by Terry Williams. All players featured on Random access Memories have appeared on old albums that inspired Daft punk on the way to there own musical glory. Mike Guzinski is the most humble mixing engineer ever and Make master Mixes only using his laptop and plugins. Only artists not obsessed with apprence and looks understand how good he is.

You should have a listen to James Blake's "Assume Form"!

Loved this video! I grew up with Daft Punk, being a kid from the early 90's. This is my absolute favourite album of theirs. Groetjes uit België.

The Avalanches - Since I Left You?

The lyrics are very potent in this album, songs like Within and Beyond are deeply spiritual.

so many masterpieces came from france.. early 90s they played on small house partys togheter with thomas bangalter, busy p, justice, mr oizo, the whole edbanger crew... just kids which wanted fun and partys, all them felt into the passion for envelope good music. a decade later they realised how big their influence was for modern electronic music.. that spirit is what i miss on todays upcoming "artists".. it's lost why people listen to all that crap out there in the charts and they happy with it. i don't get it!! ... soulwax also big godfathers!!

I've had this album since it first launched and assumed it was a studio/PC album until watching this. Now I've gone back to it and listening on a Cambridge Audio Edge A amp its incredible. Thanks for sharing.

Oh yeah... you can get further my friend. Try hardstyle 😂

Nicely done once again. Thank you. I would recommend listening Nils Frahm Solo album. I really love that album, especially Circling track. He seems to be placing his microphones very close to the piano strings because you can really hear them vibrating on some tracks. His album Alll Melody is excellent as well. Track My Friend the Forest is a standout track for me personally.

Fantastic analysis. You have the same vibe as Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundry when he's reviewing video games (which is a good thing, since I mostly watch video games review, and this video felt familiar to me)

I bought this album on vinyl this week on the strength of your review..I listened to it for the very first time last night and it was amazing...

I heard that from my second son. I think I will listen 👂 to it by January 2022. My son doesn't like it much but I will give it a shot. Merry Christmas ⛄ Harley.

i really enjoy this video, already watched it like 5 times. i shared it with my friend and they enjoyed a lot, you are the perfect person to do this and you should do a lot more with this albuns. currents by tame impala, everything now by arcade fire and lock-in by fat freddy’s drop.

I rarely listen to full Albums. When i just listen i mostly play my Best of Playlist with mixed Genres. But to name a few of my favorite Albums - Burial - Untrue Apparat - The Devils Walk Berner - The Big Pescado Doja Cat - Planet Her Dominique Fils-Aimé - Stay Tuned Children of Zeus - Balance Ivy Lab - Fidget EP Jonsi - Shiver Kaleida - Think Låpsley - Through Water Lina Maly - Könnten Augen Alles Sehen Mac Quayle - Mr Robot Soundtrack Marian Hill - Act One Metrik - Ex Machina Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend Yaeji - What We Drew Yelawolf - Mud Mouth Yosi Horikawa - Wandering EP Trentemøller - The Last Resort but ive so much solo tracks itself or just a few picks from different Albums. Its hard to find Albums where you can listen to all tracks, specially in electronic musix where youve a lot of solo / single releases

Thank you Harley, love your commentary! Please keep it up, a real joy. I only wish I could listen to your system in that room one day… I’m sure it’s a well balanced delight. Appreciate your efforts, enjoy the music :)

I'm new here, just stumbled upon this video in my recommendations. Is something like Kanye's Dark Twisted Fantasy considered a well recorded/well produced album as well? I think it gets quite a lot of praise of one of the better produced and recorded albums.

love the theme of this video! may i suggest a very contrasting album next? Queens of the stone Age's Songs for the Deaf, I always have loved the sound of that album!

You should review the two Parcels albums. Great modernisation and homage to the 70s style

I love this album because you can tell the difference between the analogue recorded tracks and the digitally recorded tracks

I've loved Daft Punk since Da Funk in '97. I'm excited to learn of The Parcels from so many contributors here in the comments section. Gonna check them right here on the Tube.