Productions nowadays...

[Seizure.]

Guys..

Something has been bugging me lately.
Were probably all guilty of it:

Samples on drums.
Heavy Compression/Limiting.
Major editting.

The lot.. its a big aspect of your useall "modern metal" production right?
But lets be honest? How much are we helping music in general with this?

I allready hear alot of people complaining about how "plastic" and sterile productions sounds nowadays.. saying that they feel they are listening more to how well the producer has editted, sampled and quantized every single drumhit and guitar lick then that they are listening to the musicians themselves.

To not even mention the LAARRRRGGEE amounts of compression every one is using which okay, makes your track more louder then the other on a compilation.. but your album unlistenable because your ears can't handle more then 15 minutes of brickwall mastering!

I'm TOTALLY guilty of this myself, but i thought about and just got scared a bit.
I just hope were not making a whole bunch of albums were we will be ashamed off when we look back at when were 20 years older (just like we laugh at some of the horrible sounding albums from the 80's right now right?)

And were also not helping musicianship in general by letting musicians get lazy because they know every hit they play can be quantized later anyway!!

Will guys like Matt Bayles and Steve Albini (which produce wonderfully natural productions!) be laughing at us for those insane productions in 20 years?

Opinions on this? it's just been bugging me for a while and had to vent somewhere right!

 

[KeithRT99]

i'm just trying to make the artist sound as good as possible. Although, we could use alot less talentless hacks like britney spears in the music industry.

and who gives a fuck what matt bayles and steve albini think? They do what they do well, but why should i care what they think about what i do?

 

[Seizure.]

i'm just trying to make the artist sound as good as possible.

Obviously, so am i..
But if it takes a few hours a track to quantize and edit drums it means that that drummer or band should practice more and shouldn't be in the recording stage yet right?
But theyb still go ahead because we will fix it in the mix anyway.
Is that a good progression? That was kinda the thing i was on about you know..

and who gives a fuck what matt bayles and steve albini think? They do what they do well, but why should i care what they think about what i do?

I mentioned them because most of their productions give me the feeling that its realy the effort THE band put into it i'm listening too.

 

[Gnash]

Man, if you ever had to use a reel to reel and had to "Fly In" shit from another machine, or just had a 4 track casette as your recording device, you would not even think of this quandry. These are GREAT fucking times for music production. Ears of the beholder, my friend.

 

[TheDude]

I try and try to make my productions to sound sterile and lifeless, but I just ...fail. My demos though, with programmed drums, POD out of the box, and some serious copying/pasting going on, it's kind of sterile. But it's only a demo, so who cares, right?

 

[Kazrog]

I have always, in any era, gravitated the most toward very clean, clinical sounding productions. Def Leppard's "Hysteria" and Yes' "90125" for example were records that fascinated me as a 12-year-old kid, I would love to throw on the headphones and just trip out on the perfectness of the sound.

I see modern metal production techniques as the logical descendants of that school. Why not make the record sound perfect? I guess it just doesn't get old to me. The sterility of a record like Fear Factory's "Demanufacture" still inspires me as much as it did when it was new. I love that shit, fake sounding drums and all! I don't think it's a phase when I've gravitated towards this sort of thing my whole life.

I love Queens of the Stone age, too, and I think their productions rule in their unique, fucked up, vintagey way, but I don't think I'm going to go down that path anytime soon myself. I do love vintage gear, though!

 

[metalkingdom]

Man, if you ever had to use a reel to reel and had to "Fly In" shit from another machine, or just had a 4 track casette as your recording device, you would not even think of this quandry. These are GREAT fucking times for music production. Ears of the beholder, my friend.

I've flown many a hook in my day. Yes it sucks and I don't miss it...that much. It did take a shitload of hard ass work to learn to do that type of stuff like second nature.

There are really only a handful of guys out there who do what you're talking about really well. The real problem is that the standard has been lowered. Most of the cookie-cutter shit that people think sounds good sounds extremely boring to me. Like Highlander - there can be only one (or two or three in this case).

You're gonna have to be original to really make it. That will never change.

 

[Nebulous]

I don't mind what studio tricks are used nowdays. In the end, if I see a band live and they don't cut it, that's where it matters IMO. You can have a perfect sounding album, but if you don't pull it off live an convert fans, that album is worthless.

 

[scorpio01169]

I don't mind what studio tricks are used nowdays. In the end, if I see a band live and they don't cut it, that's where it matters IMO. You can have a perfect sounding album, but if you don't pull it off live an convert fans, that album is worthless.

agreed....it really depends on the listener, for me i prefer natural sounding productions but will listen to a robot production too

 

[nwright]

I have always, in any era, gravitated the most toward very clean, clinical sounding productions. Def Leppard's "Hysteria" and Yes' "90125" for example were records that fascinated me as a 12-year-old kid, I would love to throw on the headphones and just trip out on the perfectness of the sound.

I see modern metal production techniques as the logical descendants of that school. Why not make the record sound perfect? I guess it just doesn't get old to me. The sterility of a record like Fear Factory's "Demanufacture" still inspires me as much as it did when it was new. I love that shit, fake sounding drums and all! I don't think it's a phase when I've gravitated towards this sort of thing my whole life.

I love Queens of the Stone age, too, and I think their productions rule in their unique, fucked up, vintagey way, but I don't think I'm going to go down that path anytime soon myself. I do love vintage gear, though!

+1

Todays techniques are an extension of what great albums of the past, IMO, tried to acheive in precision and clarity, but just wasn't able to get to.

Also, IMO, of course in 20 years some people will look back and cringe at their work, but that's life. As times and tastes change, our impression of our work will as well.

 

[everybody's x]

Personally, I'm not in the "art" business. I am in a service industry, whether I like it or not.
A band comes in, they want to sound like X or Y, with a tiny budget and shit equipment and my job is to get them there or get it to a reasonable facsimile.
My taste (or lack of) has no bearing on the process, maybe someday it will. Until then I will keep giving them the flavor of the month which is exactly what they are asking for.