How bad does a mix have to be to ruin an album for you?

[Morgan C]

Jesus, what a horrible mix. WAY too much highend on the cymbals, drums have so much compression, it's just horribly balanced. Painful to listen to.


I don't even know what I don't like about this mix. It's a "good" mix, balanced well. But it makes the music sound boring. I thought this album was a real letdown, but listening to the same song live, it has SO much more energy and I actually like it, it has the same charm as their first two efforts.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkcZdhamaew&feature=relmfu[/ame]
edit: On further evaluation, this album still sucks live. Just less so.


Post away, and then hopefully we can all reassure ourselves that, despite 99% of our clients listening on iPod earphones with 96kpbs mono YouTube rips, our jobs still do have some impact.

 

[Ermz]

Doesn't have to be very bad at all, but that's just me. One has to come to peace with the idea that a vast majority not only don't care about production, but don't even have any conscious thought about it, nor recognize it as an entity unto itself. Ultimately, much of this is self-indulgence, and the hope to cater to the very few who exist that do care.

It is interesting to think about these discussions down the track, with several more years work experience. What once seemed so astronomically important is now nothing more than a small group of engineers with a predisposition to nitpick on aesthetic details that ultimately don't matter whatsoever in any practical sense. I always think of GearSlutz and how a community can feed itself its own delusions, until those distorted perceptions on whats important become all-enveloping.

 

[Williamn]

It have to be pretty bad before I cant listen to it at all.
This one was one of the few where I could just not get into it.


This mix just was way to weird for me in a bad way (but other people dig it, so as with everything else.. its a matter of taste).

Now I listen to or used to listen to alot of screamo, indie, black metal, death metal.. so im kinda used to finding the good things in a otherwised "flawed" mix

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

The question in my case is: "How good does the music have to be to make me not care about the bad mix?"

 

[Skinny Viking]

The question in my case is: "How good does the music have to be to make me not care about the bad mix?"

+1

 

[midget donkeys]

I am just a music fan and half assed guitar player. Audio quality can be pretty crappy and it really doesn't bug me that much. Something has to be like Metallica's last cd to really bug me. It actually made my head hurt if I listened to it for more than 10 minutes or so.

Arch Enemy's Rise of Tyrants has production that is no where near the coolness of Dooms day Machine. It didn't stop me from listening to it at all. I am listening to the songs. If the guitar or drum tone is not perfect it is not that big a deal to me.

For op's videos: That first song does have so much high end it becomes not so fun to listen to real quick. The second song is boring to me because the song is boring, not because of the mix.

 

[allplaydead]

I literally cannot listen to Cynic's first album for more than a minute. Quite a shame as I feel as if I would really enjoy it.

 

[robfromthedeep]

To me, it's the little things that bug me and piss me off over time, ie. a really sibilant high hat or something

 

[LeSedna]

I literally cannot listen to Cynic's first album for more than a minute. Quite a shame as I feel as if I would really enjoy it.

Damn I actually listened to them yesterday and thought the same. They have those awesome moments but the production is too obsolete to be really enjoyable for me, which is a big shame.

 

[grywolf627]

...Arch Enemy's Rise of Tyrants has production that is no where near the coolness of Dooms day Machine. It didn't stop me from listening to it at all. I am listening to the songs. If the guitar or drum tone is not perfect it is not that big a deal to me.

I was actually going to use that as an example of a mix that keeps me from getting into the album. But also as Jarkko implied: if the songs good enough...I won't care quite so much. Though sometimes I have to force myself to look past the mix to get to that point.

 

[aortizjr]

I think that it is really sad how we (audio engineers) can't hear through a rough mix.

I worked in college radio as a music director specifically for loud rock. I also did tape exchanges. Not to mention playing in local bands and exchanging demos and such.

Reality is that the music is what counts. Some of my favorite albums/demos are still vinyls and cassettes that were recorded horrifically. Bands like Cynic and Death have legendary songs. Compared to the crushed and overly bright shit we like today. Back then that was good production.

Our job is to represent the performance and the musical content.

But I would rather have a quiet, dull or distant recording than many today which are overly crushed, bright, fatiguing, and loud. I can actually listen to recordings done with a boombox mic longer than some of those.

 

[Fama]

That "Of Machines" was almost there, but I could listen to that I guess. I can stand pretty bad production, although it does somewhat affect the experience, but in the end it's all in the music.

Although I hate St. Anger for the production. I don't really mind the guitars that much, they aren't great but whatever. But I really hope someone burned the snare after recording. Or thrash can lid, whatever, can't really tell from the sound.

Edit: Oh and I don't mind the ones in the first post at all, I can see why you hate the sound in the first one (cymbals), but I don't mind, if the music was more my style and good I'd like it.

 

[jipchen]

For me a production can be really bad before it ruins a good album. 99% of the time it's the other way round: Good production and the shittiest music on the planet. That's ruining an album, and sometimes my whole day. I listen to a lot of shitty productions and it doesn't really bother me.

 

[AdamG94]

The production has to annoy me to the point I want to throw my iPod across the room in anger before it'll ruin a good album for me.

However, if the music is shit the best production ever won't make me listen to it

 

[professorlamp]

I can listen to this and enjoy it, so I can listen to anything

 

[TheDriller]

There are 4 types of album:

A: Great Music, Great Production.
B Great Music, Bad Production.
C: Bad Music, Great Production.
D: Bad Music, Bad Production.

A and B are equally cool for me, In that I'll get as much enjoyment from "Si Monumentum" as from "Wormwood".
D is a no-brainer but nothing in the world, come hell or high water, will ever convince me to actually listen to a C.

 

[CubanDude]

I actually think that the third song is quite good. Music-wise.

 

[DanLights]

I was listening to Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times yesterday, I used to love that album as a kid. I still love the songs and even the atmosphere, but wtf crazy phasey harsh ear raping guitars over distant drums with the worst snare sound ever. And absolutely no bass so it seems just making the guitars super loud would make them "big".

It saddens me cause some of the songs on that album are pure gold, but I can't listen to it anymore

 

[Mattayus]

To this day I've never got into BoO thanks to this track someone sent me to 'showcase' them (this was new at the time)



I hate it, even now it makes me puke, even though song-wise it's good

EDIT: Holy shit, even their new stuff is no improvement!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CGwnwKaF10&feature=related[/ame]

 

[DolphinSplatter]

lol you make seem as if "good mix" is some type of set standard
a bad mix is one that doesn't let me enjoy the music...

on that note, I think Focus by Cynic is the shit. I wouldn't change a thing.