For me it would  be Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever.

Probably Sgt. Pepper's, if only to watch George Martin work his magic with a 4-track recorder.

Bill, tgo

Wow.
Can't pick one.
White Album popped in my head first, then Dark Side of the Moon, but really Animals is my favorite Floyd album, Apostrophe would be cool.... 

All of them! 

Sitting in on any Zappa session would have been a treat.

Aoxomoxoa (Grateful Dead)

Several excellent choices named already.  I'd have a hard time choosing between the 3 albums that changed the studio from a room where you recorded into an instrument in its own right:  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pet Sounds, and Anthem Of The Sun.

But the one I really wish I'd been in the studio for is the one my friend Mick Scott & I planned out in the late '70s with me producing him, that never got made.

Peter (who loves Mick's one album - but thinks he could have done better)

Many already mentioned would work for me, but I'll say Are You Experienced - would love to see the live-band recorded stuff, then the studio overdubbing magic!

I had a hard time choosing as there have been so many superb albums created in my taste in music that would have been an honour to observe. I've seen a number of youtube videos of studio sessions and the whole process is fascinating. 
I think the pre-computer workstation sessions with tape, a whole band playing the tracks live together then overdubbing and all hands on deck for mixing would be preferable to me. 

Not to be a pill... but I enjoy working in the booth, but I do not enjoy being in a studio for any other reason. Particularly overdubs, punch-ins, fixes, etc. I don't even like being there for mixdown. 

So I guess it comes down to what we're talking about. I guess if I could have the gift of invisibility, I'd like to have watched John track the bass parts on the eponymous Fleetwood Mac 'White' album or Rumours, either one. I'd like to know what takes he didn't like, and why, for educational purposes. But that's all.

You beat me to it.  To be there for those 2 Fleetwood Mac albums would be my choice too.

When I say studio i mean any or all areas of the recording process that results in the album.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on November 06, 2026, 02:26:23 AMNot to be a pill... but I enjoy working in the booth, but I do not enjoy being in a studio for any other reason. Particularly overdubs, punch-ins, fixes, etc. I don't even like being there for mixdown.

So I guess it comes down to what we're talking about. I guess if I could have the gift of invisibility, I'd like to have watched John track the bass parts on the eponymous Fleetwood Mac 'White' album or Rumours, either one. I'd like to know what takes he didn't like, and why, for educational purposes. But that's all.

Of the three albums I recorded with the bands I was in, I couldn't see the fascination with the mixing process.  Of the 5 members 3 did mixes post production.  It delayed release by a year as the 3 competing mixes competed for the "final mix."  We were great at creating music....crap at producing music.  I wished we hired professional folks and focused on creating new music.

The FOH guy & I (stage & monitors) were assistant engineers on the first album by the band we worked for.  There every second (and loved it).  Helped with some artistic decisions, did most of the set-up for the studio's house engineer.

That was '81.  It came out in '84.

I bought the CD online about 6 years ago - and was irate to see that the skill-free twit they replaced me with (due to lies from the light geek) in '82 got a production credit - he was nowhere in the vicinity o & f the session - and got no mention at all.

Then I listened to the final mix & master that the studio's guy did and was glad my name wasn't on it (FOH told me he begged them to take his name off it, but they wouldn't).

FOH & I agreed that they they would have been well advised to have him & me do the mix & master instead.  And the strange thing is, that guy & I worked together for another band a few years later; same studio, same engineer, and it sounds great.  My bud & I were neither one involved in that one.

But still, I enjoyed the session, and wish I'd done more of it.  I decided at some point that live sound was more my thing, but studio is fun.

Peter

I'm a sucker for punishment, so I'd probably want to be a fly on the wall for either Larks Tongues in Aspic or Red by King Crimson.

The first one to come to mind for me was: Yes - Close To The Edge.  It actually might have been somewhat unpleasant to be there, but the stories about the process by which the pieces were written and recorded are fascinating; and the results quite wonderful.