Critiquing Andy?

Genius Gone Insane

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Aug 19, 2003
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I'm hesitant to post this but I'll do it anyway (you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, right?): Andy, would you find it helpful if we gave you any so-called constructive criticism on your work? Everyone (including myself) is always teabagging your work and I'd like to hear some ideas about what you could have done better with some of your stuff. You know, just to learn from. Of course I'm not talking about saying "Arch Enemy's new album sucks" but something more like "I think snare at the bridge in XXX song could have more verb on it", shit like that....Not to start fights or anything, just to weed out mistakes, or better yet, things that could have been done better. There are a few things that I might have done differently on some of Andy's stuff--granted, if I mixed an Arch Enemy album it would probably sound worse than St. Anger--but I'd like to hear some critical input.

Better yet, what I think a lot of forum people here would like to hear is maybe some self-critique from the Sneapster himself. I believe I recall him stating a while back something to the order of him usually not being 100% satisfied with his work. Anyway, please no one throw bananas or eggs at me for this post. :zombie:

BTW for personal safety I'm not posting shit until someone else is does haha.
 
you might notice I tend not to critique other peoples work as you have no idea (and believe me you don't) what people are given to mix, also the time constraints that labels put upon the producer/mixer. Every album I finish, theres alway an "if only I'd" hanging over it for a few months. All I can say is I put 110% into everything I do, and what you are hearing is alot of hard work and personal effort, and remember I am moderator man!!
 
GGI -

Andy has a signature sound... He is very much a "go to" guy for big labels and a lot of big bands.

If you want to critique other members tones/mixes//guitar lines, or sounds - that is one thing. I cannot really understand where you are coming from to tell Andy that "track 2, at 1:36 could have sounded SO much better if you did THIS" type of reasoning.

Then again, you did cover your ass quite intensely with your opener, but... I don't think anyone on this forum has any place to tell Andy what to do.
 
Andy Sneap said:
you might notice I tend not to critique other peoples work as you have no idea (and believe me you don't) what people are given to mix, also the time constraints that labels put upon the producer/mixer. Every album I finish, theres alway an "if only I'd" hanging over it for a few months. All I can say is I put 110% into everything I do, and what you are hearing is alot of hard work and personal effort, and remember I am moderator man!!

That was as polite of a "no" as one could ask, and just to make sure that I offend no one with that post let me add that Andy's work looks more like 200% than 110% and that he's helped out me and pretty much everyone else on this forum way more than anyone could hope for. So thanks for that, Andy.
 
Tbh, there's something I really hate about Andy's mixes...
They sounds so so better than mine...
 
It's a very subjective thing to critique a mix. Mixing is really a matter of personal taste and perception. It's easy to criticize the work of amateurs, but a different thing altogether when you're dealing with seasoned pros.
 
hmmm....well, I agree that mixing is a matter of personal taste and perception...however, I think it's just as easy to criticize the work of seasoned pros, as well as amateurs.

...just because somebody is a seasoned pro doesn't mean they don't make mistakes....

typically the case for people like us...we know what sounds good....and how things should sound...so, criticizing is easy...just getting things to sound that way on our own is the difficult part...
 
daemon097 said:
hmmm....well, I agree that mixing is a matter of personal taste and perception...however, I think it's just as easy to criticize the work of seasoned pros, as well as amateurs.

...just because somebody is a seasoned pro doesn't mean they don't make mistakes....

typically the case for people like us...we know what sounds good....and how things should sound...so, criticizing is easy...just getting things to sound that way on our own is the difficult part...

What is a "mistake"? How do you know that whatever you consider to be a mistake is actually something that was intended? How do you know what "sounds good"? What may sound good to you doesn't necessarily sound good to another.

For every recording that you think sounds like shit, there's someone else who thinks that it sounds great. For every recording that you think rules, someone else thinks that it sucks.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you ain't a professional in the area that you're criticizing your opinion doesn't mean shit outside of your own mind.
 
ok I've got big balls :err: but I aint touching this one......................................

If andy needed help he would get it from seasoned pro's, and unless you've got andy's tracking/mixing/mastering chops your opinions kinda invalidate themselves.

toooo subjective :loco:
 
metalkingdom said:
What is a "mistake"? How do you know that whatever you consider to be a mistake is actually something that was intended. How do you know what "sounds good"? What may sound good to you doesn't necessarily sound good to another.

For every recording that you think sounds like shit, there's someone else who thinks that it sounds great. For every recording that you think rules, someone else thinks that it sucks.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you ain't a professional in the area that you're criticizing your opinion doesn't mean shit outside of your own mind.

That's the great thing about this stuff is that you really can't make a mistake that is 'clearly wrong.' Uh....wait, uh, Enemies of Reality, uh, hello?