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

[Morgan C]

Sooooo where do you draw the line from not listening to a song because of a bad mix and not listening to a song because it's not your speakers and your room?

Can you guys not appreciate things like Robert Johnson's album because of the noise and "amateur sounding" production?

Will you never watch a band's video on youtube because it was recorded with a camera's microphone?

MANY recordings were done in less than ideal conditions production-wise and are still great songs, timeless in their own way, and even (*gasp*) pleasant to listen to. Everyone has their own standards of what they think sounds perfect and what just barely gets the music across. Yet the music WILL make its way across every time (unless its THAT clipped or what have you). It should ALWAYS be about the energy the music is trying to get across; thats what we listen to it for in the first place. The sooner people understand that not all music comes in a nice shrink-wrapped sonically crafted work with great understanding of music-theory and recording techniques, the happier you'll all be.

FFS I just watched a middle school band play an awesome instrumental rendition of Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son... obviously they didn't know shit about good guitar tones and room acoustics or even have the best timing, but I still was left wanting more when they finished playing. For the record, I AM NOT a Kansas fan by any stretch of the imagination. Music is everywhere if you look for it... or just keep thinking the world we live in is mostly noise, I don't care really. All I know is I would go insane if I thought that way.

Are you saying you'd enjoy your music just as much if it was clipped by 12db after mastering and then listened to through a dodgy radio station filled with static and constant dropouts? No? What about if you listened to Stairway to Heaven with quantized everything, Slate drums and POD guitars? A production like that would 'ruin' the song for me.

 

[Bereavement]

Are you saying you'd enjoy your music just as much if it was clipped by 12db after mastering and then listened to through a dodgy radio station filled with static and constant dropouts? No? What about if you listened to Stairway to Heaven with quantized everything, Slate drums and POD guitars? A production like that would 'ruin' the song for me.

lol, after you mentioned this, I had notion of thought about that!
actually I quite want to hear if this version exist lol.

 

[crillemannen]

Yet again a knock to the new Evergrey record that I just cannot get my head around. Am I just hearing something nobody else is? (or vice-versa!) It's lunacy, I just can't hear why it's being put down so much!

Haha WTF man Listen to the guitars for instance.. phase mess, fizzy, no bass, sounds like fukkin shit. Drums could work if the guitars where awesome but it sounds like poor crap

 

[DanLights]

lol, after you mentioned this, I had notion of thought about that!
actually I quite want to hear if this version exist lol.

That's easy, record a cover with programmed drums and POD guitars

 

[AEL89]

It's honestly kinda hard to say, because sometimes a poor production will irk me, other times a poor production will not bother me in the slightest.

For example, I find Metallica's "...And Justice For All" practically unlistenable because of the production. In general I find guitar tracks with the core mids scooped to fuck with heaps of highs, lower mids and bass to just sound incredibly grating, and the lack of bass guitar just further compounds the issue.
This is a big issue for me, bright harsh elements and core mid scooped heavy guitars.

Fuck man, I can't believe that! Best produced Metallica album by fucking miles for me. That album is much closer to being perfect than the black album is to me. The message it conveys makes perfect sense through the way its produced.

Its not just what you hear. In my opinion, an amazing production has to go totally against conventions sometimes.

Some people don't like the production on the last 2 Elbow albums! They must be deaf!

 

[Mattayus]

Haha WTF man Listen to the guitars for instance.. phase mess, fizzy, no bass, sounds like fukkin shit. Drums could work if the guitars where awesome but it sounds like poor crap

Nope! Just sounds like Evergrey to me man! Seriously, they've always had weird tones that sound odd, but they've never sounded badly engineered, and they still don't! I dunno, I@ll just have to agree to disagree with everyone on this one But just listen to the guitars on The Inner Circle for example. They're fucking weird! Just sounds like huge phasing issues and like they were recorded in a different building to where the mics were But fuck it, it still works and still sounds huge

 

[botus99]

Are you saying you'd enjoy your music just as much if it was clipped by 12db after mastering and then listened to through a dodgy radio station filled with static and constant dropouts?

"the music WILL make its way across every time (unless its THAT clipped or what have you)". Does it really matter what I would respond to your question anyway Take what you want out of my post, if you're looking for things to tear apart, fine, but realize that there is GREAT music with HORRIBLE sound out there. This thread indicates that.

Everyone has their standards. Don't get me wrong, I love listening to great productions, and who doesn't? I grew up taping things from the radio and trading live show bootlegs so my inclination for listening to perfectly recorded music doesn't come first in my book. I love good music. Good production is great, but not a necessity in great music.