Grind Core... Where to start?!

[colonel kurtz]

And Napalm Death's "Scum" doesn't sound like a raw and cheap budget recording for some mysterious artistic master-plan but rather the simple fact that they hadn't much of a budget to work with and the initial recordings were only supposed to be part of a split record, not their debut album.

+1,000,000

most(read pretty much ALL) shitty sounding old metal albums sound like shit not because the band wanted them to sound like shit, but it's because they were a bunch of broke-ass kids with crap-ass equipment who had dick for a budget

you think the guys from napalm death wouldn't have wanted the albums they dropped around 90-91 to sound like the black album? fucking please.

fpeople just ended up adopting the whole "it needs to sound like shit to be true to the genre" dogma because they didn't want to admit that they're too fucking broke to make a decent sounding album because they're playing a bunch of noisy-ass bullshit that 99.9% of the population doesn't a flying uck about!

 

[AllanD]

I disagree, which one of these makes you think "Damn, that's grindcore!"

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQidsbSjL-w&feature=channel[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxcoV3zKKSE&feature=related[/ame]

From my point of view, the dirty raw production is part of the genre. The Napalm Death song didn't do it for me at all, neither did much after Scum. The dirty sound was what made it, well, GRIND! Carcass isn't really a good example, they weren't a grindcore band anymore when they started using new technology.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

Pretty sure I didn't say that was grind- I would just go for that type of approach for the band the OP is recording, so I posted that video and those bands.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

A more appropriate response to the grind issue:

 

[slashvanyoung]

From my point of view, the dirty raw production is part of the genre. The Napalm Death song didn't do it for me at all, neither did much after Scum. The dirty sound was what made it, well, GRIND! Carcass isn't really a good example, they weren't a grindcore band anymore when they started using new technology.

That Napalm Death song doesn't sound much like Grindcore any more foremost because ND changed stylistically quite a bit over the years, embracing both Crust Punk and plain Death Metal more.

People associate that raw under-produced sound with Grindcore because they heard it on the genre defining records. As I said, it's the same with Black Metal. But people thinking that this was a concious artistic decision are just delusional. If those records had better production back in the day, people would turn that argument around.

I'm not saying a Grindcore record shouldn't have a raw sound these days (I an dig that very much), but limiting oneself to that for dubious reasons is just plain moronic. And having a genre defined by production values is surely not what Grindcore is about. Also raw and natural doesn't equal to sounding like shit.

 

[jimwilbourne]

I personally recommend 57ing everything.
all the drums. I'd even 57 the kick, myself.
bass DI. but only if you want some heavy low end.
if not, I'd mic the hell out of a bass combo amp.
mic the guitars with a 57. the thought of doing a DI for guitars on a grind band just doesn't even seem right.

I agree with Fragel. I MIGHT replace the kick.
but if it isn't doing damage, then keep everything pretty raw.

I also agree with Garath.
try the practice amp idea.
if I were you. I'd just try a bunch of different things with them.
whichever sounds the most outlandish is probably what I'd go with.

Grindcore is definitely all about raw & brute speed.
Chaos.

Overmixing a Grindcore band destroys the Chaos. which destroys the genre.

how about this: if you find yourself mixing a song for more than 30 minutes, you probably over mixed it.