Get Off My Lawn, Modern Metal Engineers

[Soopahmahn]

Let's discuss albums that are thoroughly fucking ruined, sonically.

I tried to like LoG's Resolution album, but my main handicap was not being able to listen to more than 2 songs at volumes over 90 fucking dB because the mix is so squished it hurts my ears. The high hat alone is so harmonically hot it drills into my right ear. It actually hurts. The last album that was this bad to me was Disturbed's self-titled, though I can usually make it through that one. And of course there's DM.

What the fuck?



Follow-up, I do wonder if the CD version would somehow be more open than the 256kbps Amazon MP3 that I downloaded. I'm aware of the usual differences, but I wonder if a horrible encoding process could be to blame for the mix sounding so freakin' hot.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Soopahmahn

Follow-up, I do wonder if the CD version would somehow be more open than the 256kbps Amazon MP3 that I downloaded. I'm aware of the usual differences, but I wonder if a horrible encoding process could be to blame for the mix sounding so freakin' hot.

Who knows, but maybe they'll remaster it for Guitar Hero.

[noodles]

Ah, the Søren Andersen school of production: everything on 11, all the time, peak limited. Big wall of sound, where you can hear everything, but still hear nothing. It gives you a headache, I fucking hate it.

[Mattayus]

Anything Rick Rubin and his half-wit "engineer" Greg Fidelman touch. They both need to step the fuck away from music now, they really do.

[jacksonplayer]

Redemption's This Mortal Coil is almost unlistenable because of the brick-walling. A real disappointment because the music is great. Their stuff has dense arrangements with two guitars and keyboards, so the "everything louder than everything else" approach to mastering is a disaster for them.

I find that the new Van Halen album is also squashed a bit, but not as bad as so many metal albums are these days.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by jacksonplayer

Redemption's This Mortal Coil is almost unlistenable because of the brick-walling. A real disappointment because the music is great. Their stuff has dense arrangements with two guitars and keyboards, so the "everything louder than everything else" approach to mastering is a disaster for them.

Yeah, I like Kernon's mix, but man does the mastering drive me nuts...

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by Mike

Yeah, I like Kernon's mix

That's the first time I've read that in regards to TMC

[Drew]

You know, I'm sure it's not nearly as bad as some names that will come up here, but Alter Bridge's ABIII has always bugged me. The intro track has this long vocal, synth, and clean guitar intro, and at about the minute mark when the band kicks in and the guitars get distorted, there is zero change in perceived volume. If anything, the mix sounds less full at that point.

It's not as egregious as Death Metallic, but I think it's a perfect example of the danger of the volume wars and how much dynamic matter.

EDIT:

Alter Bridge- Slip to the void ( AB III) -...

...though for some reason it isn't as pronounced on Youtube as it was on my iPod...

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Matt C

That's the first time I've read that in regards to TMC

There are a few that agree with me - it's not as "clean" as most people like, but I think it correctly captures the mood.

The mastering, OTOH -

[Deathmonkey]

There's such an accepted formula now for what records are supposed to sound like, and how to get them sounding that way. It happens in all genres. 3 or 4 producers hit on a sound, and then everyone and their Mom jumps on that sonic bandwagon, and within a year, everyone wants to sound like that one hit. People are too lazy and too scared to make interesting sounding records these days - and I don;t blame em. The music consuming public buys into this as well. If it doesn't sound just like every other record they just downloaded, it isn't good.

I'm constantly amazed at 1) how many metal records sound exactly the same, with that EMG-into-6505/Recto white noise guitar with that one high mid spike, all the drums replaced with these ticky ticky samples, buried bass, and as previously noted, squashed and EQed within an inch of its life and 2) how many metal records just sound BAD - some of it is the kvlt reaction to Dimmu Borgir's pristine production, but there's a couple of bands I really like recently where their label is just putting out their basement recordings, untouched by a single recording professional's hands. I get that it's economics, but holy cow, some of these records are unlistenable.

I think there's a real tendency in the recording industry to cling to what is perceived to work. And I think there are a lot of people that really don't know what the fuck they're doing - they lurk the Sneap forums, or TapeOp, and all use exactly the same EQ curves and compression presets, and they think that copying some other engineer or producer's process move for move makes them an engineer. Instead of being able to help reveal the unique sound of a band, they just force everything into this mold of what they perceive as being "right". These are the dudes that every time you post a mix, their first comment is about cutting at 7k, or highpassing the cymbals or some shit. Dude, just listen to the fucking song.

One of the things I like about the progressive djent movement is that a lot of these records have a lot more texture and breadth to them - stuff like Chimp Spanner, Keith Merrow, the fella that posted about his 8 string yesterday, a bunch of dudes like that have these layered sounds in different EQ ranges, and it sounds really good to me, even with programmed drums n stuff. People might not be big fans of the Axe FX, but it does give artists options to use different sounds rather than just setting up the same TISS IS MAH MAPZ sound for every guitar on the record, know what I mean?

But ironically, the Axe FX being digital (and allowing preset sharing) is it's own trap, and those djent sounds and EQ curves are becoming more and more widespread, and ending up sounding less and less unique.

I know for my own stuff, I get totally paranoid that it doesn't sound "professional" enough, or that I've made some glaring mistake that will leave me open to being raked over the coals by snarky, dick measuring engineers who are just as insecure as I am. Which leaves me open to trying to copy everyone elses sound, or getting stuff mixed and mastered exactly the same way, knowing that if it doesn't have the same shitty but way too loud sound, no one will take it seriously.

So it sucks, and we end up with squashed as Hell records with that horrible, fatiguing high end.