Modern production

[SoundMaster]

To my ears, the best sounding records were produced in the early 70s. No other time period, in terms of fullness of sound, and "honesty" of sound, has ever come close.

I understand that the first Sabbath record cost mere pennies - and few hours - to record & mix. Yet, to my ears, it really captures what three instruments and a voice would/should sound like in their natural environment. The first few Zep records are strong examples, as well.

 

[Unfaithfully Metalhead]

Mayhem - Chimera
Vital Remains - Dechristianise
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Slayer - South of Heaven

Perhaps a little overproduced but they came out great imo though Glen's vocals as always overpower the music too much and I wish he hadn't. But I loved Maniacs vocals on that album & imo the only album worth getting post Euronymous.

 

[Hatebreeder]

But I loved Maniacs vocals on that album & imo the only album worth getting post Euronymous.

European Legions?

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

the original copy of that had awful sound engineering, totally open/echoing type sound. I wouldn't call it overproduced, more just having awful sound mixing/engineering

Slayer - South of Heaven

seriously? the production on that album is heavy/aggressive as hell

I find all of these too loud.

you find early atheist too loud? what type of production do you like then?

 

[Unfaithfully Metalhead]

European Legions?

ahhhh no. We'll maybe.

 

[Hatebreeder]

you find early atheist too loud? what type of production do you like then?

They seem to have too much bass pumped up in their recordings. This is a problem with the wrong EQ settings on some stereos.

 

[Death Aflame]

Most modern production blows. However some bands make good use of it.

For instance:
-Disilusion with Gloria, the modern production perfectly suits the sound and atmosphere of the album
-Negura Bunget's OM

 

[skeptik]

Atheist's prominent bass sound is obviously there for a reason.

Negura Bunget is definitely a good example of a solid 'modern' production job.

 

[Hatebreeder]

Atheist's prominent bass sound is obviously there for a reason.

I know, I know. And I quite like it, too, it just sounds boisterous on the wrong sound setup.

 

[~Derek~]

It is good, but I still love that muddy old school Morbid Angel production, both fit when neccesary.

 

[TylerTheNuke]

I forgot my favorite producer's name, but I know he worked with king crimson. He said that it is basically harder to produce an album non-digitally, but that it ultimatly had a better result. He said that inexperianced and money lacking bands should use digital production, but that care should be put in it since bad production can completly ruin an album.

And yes, I agree that compression sucks. dynamic contrast is always good, except for bands like meshuggah who don't relent at all. an acoustic part should be soft.

 

[Satanstoenail]

I generally like modern production. The over-compression can be an issue, but I'd rather listen to something that's a tad over-compressed than something from the 80's that sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom and mixed so badly that I can't make out certain instruments at all.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

I generally like modern production. The over-compression can be an issue, but I'd rather listen to something that's a tad over-compressed than something from the 80's that sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom and mixed so badly that I can't make out certain instruments at all.

1993 - 1998 production FTW

 

[Ender Rises]

I hate most production on heavy albums. I want a hard, bass-heavy, strong sound and very few bands do anything near this.

 

[Koude Haat]

the shittiest "modern" produced album i've heard is Ihsahns adversary

 

[Vossyrus]

Some examples I strongly dislike:

Recent albums from Legion of the Damned, Vader, Krisiun etc. I feel are overproduced, not that I care much for those bands anyhow. The produciton has far too much emphasis on being clear, and the outcome is a very sterile sound. I don't mind this in electronic/gothic/industrial music but never in metal.

Cradle of Filth's Thornography was produced as if it was a pop/rock album. A terrible album to begin with but way to add the proverbial insult to injury.

 

[Koude Haat]

i also hated vaders new album for that reason. It's insanely fucking loud.

 

[Vossyrus]

i also hated vaders new album for that reason. It's insanely fucking loud.

I agree, I could barely get past the production values enough to give the album a fair listen...but how do you mean by loud? Do you just mean like the volume level? If so, it is and I dislike that, but I don't really mind per se because it will be louder when listening to my Creative Zen, for some reason my headphones volume doesn't go as loud as a normal set would. So on an album like Naglfar's "Harvest" I just can't listen to it on my ipod, the production on that album is just thin and poor and not loud enough.

 

[Koude Haat]

I agree, I could barely get past the production values enough to give the album a fair listen...but how do you mean by loud? Do you just mean like the volume level? If so, it is and I dislike that, but I don't really mind per se because it will be louder when listening to my Creative Zen, for some reason my headphones volume doesn't go as loud as a normal set would. So on an album like Naglfar's "Harvest" I just can't listen to it on my ipod, the production on that album is just thin and poor and not loud enough.

i mean that it was produced to be "loud" ever heard of "loudness wars" that mainstream music bands use when producing their records? its basically what vader did with their album. It makes it sound a lot shittier.

 

[Vossyrus]

i mean that it was produced to be "loud" ever heard of "loudness wars" that mainstream music bands use when producing their records? its basically what vader did with their album. It makes it sound a lot shittier.

I see what you mean, I've noticed it seems like this is something very common among Polish death metal bands vs the average death metal band.