Aims and goals and attitudes towards productions

[Downtuned]

What do you aim for in mixing and mastering?

I used to really beat myself up over mixes as I was constantly comparing them to commercial releases and it was quite depressing. Sometimes I would hit a golden patch where everything was great then in later projects my mixes would fall in quality and going backward is soul destroying.

Nowadays if I can hear everything and it has the punches in all the right places I'm happy and it doesn't need to be as loud, although I'm delighted when it turns out that way.

I think people sometimes forget about the actual music and obsess way too much on the production. I know a few people who would instantly turn off a CD because the snare doesn't sound right or the guitars are too dark etc. which is just throwing another spanner in the works for metal people trying to get their material heard.

I'm not excusing bad productions but some of my favourite albums have been what you would call 'a bit raw' but they had a sound that would probably be lost if it was done with all the modern sheen.

Has quality standards turned into obsessive snobbishness?

 

[smy1]

No, it hasn't. Only 0,01% of the listeners even notice recording/production quality. And those are usually musicians/engineers. 99,99% only care about the song/attitude/energy/message/image.

It's always been like that and with the advent of cellphone and laptop speakers or earbuds, it has only become more so.

 

[egan.]

What he said. Also, I take issue with the notion that rawer recording is necessarily less involved and obsessive. I think if anything what we hear today is that ultra fake and polished is actually cheaper/faster/easier for both the musicians and the engineer.
In defense of engineers, I think it's a natural reaction to be obsessive about sound when that's your job. To give a parallel anecdote, I occasionally get big dialog projects for games. When I'm working on these I literally can't listen to talk radio or books on tape b/c I've conditioned myself to zoom in on every mouth noise, lip smack, or errant sound. If you're focused on those things all day long it's tough to turn off. I think that's why when there were budgets the industry supported separate producers, engineers and mixers. Perspective is key.

 

[Daybreak]

I would say that the recording/production is as much a part of a song as the chords on the guitar is, or the lyrics of the vocals. As I see it, production is the bridge between the musician's ideas and the listener, and the production's purpose is to emphasize the feelings the song is meant to evoke. I think people care more about production than they think, many bands are big pretty much only because of their producers skill. Take Asking Alexandria as an example, the "Damn, this is heavy!"-feeling some get from their music is (at the least) 80% to the production's credit - It wouldn't sound as badass if it was recorded in a rehearsal space with an iPhone. The production contributes to how the song is perceived.

 

[B36arin]

Also, I take issue with the notion that rawer recording is necessarily less involved and obsessive. I think if anything what we hear today is that ultra fake and polished is actually cheaper/faster/easier for both the musicians and the engineer.

I couldn't agree more!

 

[Downtuned]

Interesting points.

I'm actually much more of a fan of....not old but quieter productions. I was listening to Killswitch Engages Alive Or Just Breathing the other day and I was struck as to how quiet the track were compared to other albums, but it's still one of my favourite metal productions.

And I still think that the actual music is paramount over any production. I used to be a big gore/death metal fan in the early 90's and some of the productions were atrocious but the music shone through.

So what is your personal aims and goals when it comes to the mix and master?

 

[hahallur]

The main thing is that people nowadays are used to a certain standard. This goes for music and film. If its great people don't really notice how great it sounds/looks. If there are flaws they'll immediately spot it and take issue.

Take of example one of today's biggest metal acts Opeth. Most of the fans I talk to haven't listened to their first 3 albums or didn't until after being fans for years because they first impressions are "hey this sounds like shit".
Then again those 3 albums might be Opeth's best work musically.

Lesson here is, quality matters, people just perceive it differently. Saying 99,99% don't care is just flat out wrong. Trying to "make it" with a sub par quality record is IMO, next to impossible.
That doesn't mean your album has to sound like Andy's best work to be good, it's more that it can't deviate very far from the industry standards, unless its supposed to, e.g. blackmetöl.

 

[Line666]

Sometimes people say they like the production because they like the song. Other times people say they like the song because they like the production. The two are one and the same to the general listener and can obfuscate each others positive or negative qualities. Production isn't really a notion most people understand on more than a primitive level - it's the air in the lungs of the song, it gives life to the art but most people don't stop to understand how or why it is important - they just breathe it in.