Production.

[Matt]

How important is production to you? Do you prefer crystal clear clarity or lo-fi old school production? Do things like bum notes or slightly out of time bits bother you? Do you have any fave producers?

I'm a sucker for good quality production. It can mean the difference between me liking or hating an album. I get really frustrated by bad production in a lot of (mainly older) metal albums, especially when the songs are great. For example, if I wanna listen to some Sabbath, I'll usually chuck on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Sabotage over Masters Of Reality because the sound quality is so much better. Or Puppets over And Justice For All, or Spiritual Healing over Leprosy with it's bin-lid snare sound.

There are exceptions of course, some albums sound great in all their lo-fi muddy glory, and Kyuss did the lo-fi thing really well.

Thoughts?

Production is a big deal for me. The clarity depends on the band or genre though. I can tolerate poor production on older albums or early black metal albums. New albums should be near perfect imo because of the technology today, even a home computer device can produce a good album. It bothers me greatly if a band plays in and out of time, I guess I have thing for details.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

Production is a big deal for me. The clarity depends on the band or genre though. I can tolerate poor production on older albums or early black metal albums. New albums should be near perfect imo because of the technology today, even a home computer device can produce a good album. It bothers me greatly if a band plays in and out of time, I guess I have thing for details.

why is that metallica's 1990 album - the black album - had perfect production yet 1993 DM albums do not????

budget???

 

[Matt]

Yes, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Natural sound, strong drums, good organic production values on all levels. Strong clean guitar tone (unless purposely muddy) is good.

 

[cookiecutter]

Strong clean guitar tone (unless purposely muddy) is good.

I agree with you here. Devourment's early stuff would not be as good with a cleaner guitar tone, but I have a few CDs that would benefit from being able to distinguish the guitar a little more.

 

[OldScratch]

For production quality I usually prefer something that sounds in between the earliest Burzum recordings and Immortal's Dammned in Black. If it is any lower or higher it doesnt mean I'll hate it, that is just my preffered range. My ideal level for Black Metal would probably be Emperor's Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk.

This is what I don't understand. Damned in Black's production is pure power! It jumps out of the speakers - metal at it's most powerful, yet clear and commanding. "Anthems" to me has some excellent writing and playing, by I can hardly discern what is going on much of the time - the drums are rather low in the mix(particularly the rumbly kicks), keyboards and mid-heavy guitars are way out front, vocals somewhat muffled...it's just too involved for that type of production - so much of what is going on is lost to my ears. Maybe its just me...
Either way, production is and always has been a major issue for me, from long before this peculiar love-affair with so-called "grim" recordings or whatever it is called today ever existed. But like anything, I suppose we all hear and like different things so, thank fuck for EQ's

 

[More Murder]

It matters how the album was made to sound.

 

[Satanstoenail]

I'm with you 100% on this. I was enjoying the "old-school" production of Venom, Motorhead, Bathory or what have you in the early to mid 80's when it was "current-school." Though raw, the whole sound is entirely listenable, even powerful(say 'Black Metal', for instance) in all its primitive glory.
That said, however, I abhor the weak, mushy (or "Grim") production values that have have inexplicably become synonymous with BM or brutal DM, etc. A raw sound is fine...but I prefer drums to actually be audible, guitars full, bass identifiably present - that's just me I guess.
I still love a lot of early underground Black Metal, but often in spite of its weak production rather than, as some apparently prefer, because of it. And I have always wondered how great some it may have been had the sound been more full and strong.
To me, the essence of Metal is power - it is powerful, belligerent music. When the recording renders it thin, mushy or sloppy and without bottom, or body...it just loses the power for me. And though I can listen to some of it, it always seems to be missing something. I know others like it that way - to each his own.
It should be noted, however, that a full and powerfull production need not be sterile or obnoxiously digital either. Check out "Of Entropy and Life Denial" by Merrimack - brilliantly produced recent Black Metal. It can be done!

Well said. That's pretty much what I'm getting at. It makes no sense to me that some people prefer albums that sound like they were recorded in a bathroom, with scratchy guitars, no bass at all and drums way down in the mix. It's something that I've become much more fussy about as I've gotten older.

Scott Burns is the producer that springs to mind when I think of a death metal producer that I like, his work in the early 90's at Morrisound studios was awesome, he produced so many of the classic death metal albums and managed to give most of them distinct individual sounds. Atheist, Cynic, Pestilence, Death, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, the list could go on for ages.

 

[ohiogrinder]

Well said. That's pretty much what I'm getting at. It makes no sense to me that some people prefer albums that sound like they were recorded in a bathroom, with scratchy guitars, no bass at all and drums way down in the mix. It's something that I've become much more fussy about as I've gotten older.

Scott Burns is the producer that springs to mind when I think of a death metal producer that I like, his work in the early 90's at Morrisound studios was awesome, he produced so many of the classic death metal albums and managed to give most of them distinct individual sounds. Atheist, Cynic, Pestilence, Death, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, the list could go on for ages.

Scott Burns ruined Napalm Death.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Scott Burns ruined Napalm Death.

You would say that.

 

[entanglement]

The production of an album should suit the genre/atmosphere the music is made to represent. The production sometimes transforms the listener to a location the artist/producer is trying to depict through the music. An example of this is the production on Elysian Blaze's latest work 'Levitating The Carnal'. It is made to sound as if the music is being played in a cold underground cellar/prison. Done perfectly, too.

The classification of a production style as good/bad on this thread's first post is in keeping the production of today's modern rock bands in mind. Most people consider the album 'In the Nightside Eclipse' to be weakly produced (I remember the guy Montu calling it a dumpster-production if I'm not mistaken). But if you listen close and picture the album artwork to be the theme-set for the tracks, you would see every unimportant dampness in the sound to have a purpose. Musical production styles play a chief role in how good a metal disc turns out to be. Its almost like another instrument.

 

[Hubster]

Production for me all depends on the music, it's trajectory, the ideaology behind the music etc etc. I dont have a "single" expectation for production except that it must "frame" the music properly.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Scott Burns butchered many of the albums he recorded.

 

[Carcassian]

...and yet, the problem with much modern production is that it's too "shiny" and perfect. I like my production with a bit of grime, a bit of dirt and imperfection. Andy Sneap, for all of his undoubted technical prowess, has been instrumental in the emasculation of Arch Enemy.

I really like Colin Richardson as a producer. I haven't liked all of the albums he has produced, but I have always thought that the production has made the most of them. I would also laud veteran producer Kit Woolven, for his work with Cathedral - they never sounded better than when he was at the helm.

I do wish that someone could re-produce Among The Living though - that production is soooo quiet.

Scott Burns ? All I would say about him is that his production sounds very "dry" and lifeless - which, pun lovers would say, is as it should be in death metal. I always preferred the Swedish Death metal production, as it sounded much more "organic" and less processed.

 

[Hubster]

Peter Tagtgren

 

[Blue_Jay]

I like and listen to albums of bad production but I don't like them as much as other bands. Death's Scream Bloody Gore and Darkthrone (pick any album) are good examples.

 

[MasterOLightning]

Burns did a nice job on Death - Human. The album is a bit quiet, but I'm glad he really buried the bass, since DiGiorgio's playing annoyed the hell out of me on ITP. I think Human would have sucked had it sounded like ITP.

 

[Carcassian]

Burns did a nice job on Death - Human. The album is a bit quiet, but I'm glad he really buried the bass, since DiGiorgio's playing annoyed the hell out of me on ITP. I think Human would have sucked had it sounded like ITP.

Good point about DiGiorgios playing. His bass really, really irritates me. Yes, he's a good player, but does he have to add a flourish to every simple bass line ? JUST PLAY THE BASSLINE, CUNT!

 

[Scott Evil]

Peter Tagtgren

Fuck yeah!!

 

[Satanstoenail]

...and yet, the problem with much modern production is that it's too "shiny" and perfect. I like my production with a bit of grime, a bit of dirt and imperfection. Andy Sneap, for all of his undoubted technical prowess, has been instrumental in the emasculation of Arch Enemy.

I think the production should suit the band, if the band is technically brilliant then the production should be technically brilliant also. If the band is raw or rough then the production should reflect that.

I really like Colin Richardson as a producer. I haven't liked all of the albums he has produced, but I have always thought that the production has made the most of them.

Yeah he's done some great stuff.

I do wish that someone could re-produce Among The Living though - that production is soooo quiet.

And about a million other albums from the eighties.

Scott Burns ? All I would say about him is that his production sounds very "dry" and lifeless - which, pun lovers would say, is as it should be in death metal. I always preferred the Swedish Death metal production, as it sounded much more "organic" and less processed.

To me a "dry" production is more organic, as the sounds have less effects on them. I think the word you're looking for is "compressed". Yeah a lot of Scott Burns productions were pretty compressed, some overly so. But I generally liked his ability to separate sounds and get a band sounding as good as they should. Albums like Unquestionable Presence and Testimony of the Ancients stand up to todays productions easily.