The Mix that SUCKS THE MOST! TOPIC

[wishtheend]

Arsis - A Diamond for Disease: Whole thing sound like a lowbit MP3 - the high end is mangled! Love the songs, but damn. uke:

 

[Proggm]

Composition-wise, I loved all Into Eternity’s albums - but (sorry andy) hated the production in all of them.

 

[paladin shredder]

Composition-wise, I loved all Into Eternity’s albums - but (sorry andy) hated the production in all of them.

i think buried in oblivion sounded fine, guitars could have used some more balls though. but to this day i just can't listen to the scattering of ashes because that kick sounds obnoxiously fake/triggered. those are the only two albums of theirs i've heard.

andy, how could you have missed such critical things while you were mixing these albums? i will never purchase another andy sneap produced album as long as i live! (extreme sarcasm)

 

[Dom Ostarig]

Most of Melodic Metal stuff..... sonata arctica, hametrfall etc....

 

[Metaltastic]

Ok, this thread needs to die a quick death, cuz I fucking adore In Flames and Sonata, and this baseless bashing of their productions (and thinly veiled bashing of their music, especially in the case of Metallica-masturbator Soultrash) is harshing my buzz, which is substantial at the moment.

 

[Rupturemetal]

DIE THREAD DIE !!!!! DONE

 

[Aaron Smith]

I actually think the overall mix on "The Fall Of Ideals" sounds good, especially the guitar tone...but the kick drum attack sounds way too unnaturally clicky for my taste. The exact opposite is what I love so much about Andy's kick sound- it has a very prominent attack ("soggy" is a word I've seen Andy describe it as, which describes it well), but it in no way sounds unnatural or artificially boosted...it just sounds entirely real, and ridiculously punchy and full.

The snare is pretty awful on The Acacia Strain's "The Dead Walk"... I'm still trying to figure out if it came out sounding that bad only after mastering, or if Adam D really just made a bad decision in mixing.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

I'll quote Brian Posehn:

"Compared to Coldplay and Nelly, even shitty metal rules!"

 

[K Odell]

I like the guitar tone quite a bit on "The Fall Of Ideals" myself. But I also find the drums to be pretty annoying bc they tend to have a very programmed sound to them. As for records that I am not real fond of the mixes......hmmmm
I am not very fond of my own band Bloodjinn's cd "This Machine Runs On Empty"s mix and I definantly hate their older stuff.
Other than that.....well I don't know.

 

[dan weapon]

Yeah I don't think the Fall Of Ideals mix is that bad, although I lose interest in the songs after the first few to be honest!

St Anger is an obvious one.

As I Lay Dying's "Frail Words Collapse". Fuck me. There is loud-fake-sounding-kick and then there is loud-fake-sounding-kick...

Slaughter In The Vatican by Exhorder is pretty horrid compared to the metallica and pantera releases at that time.

 

[Machinated]

I don't find The Fall of Ideal's too bad, my only gripe is how fucking loud it is.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Oh man , I have to agree with The Dead Walk too... sweet shit. Basketball kick, and plastic snare

 

[wishtheend]

As I Lay Dying's "Frail Words Collapse". Fuck me. There is loud-fake-sounding-kick and then there is loud-fake-sounding-kick...

+1 Even though I dig a few songs on this album, this mix is awful.

I got to agree with the previous about Into Eternity. Their most recent album I think sounds the most fake/edited. There are parts where you can hear audible punch ins that make the guitars seems really fake. Vocals are always way too loud.

Buried into Oblivion was good - I think I like that singer more than Stu.

 

[Meisterjäger]

My first band's original demo was shite. Really really bad...

But as for a big band that should know better, my vote goes to...

God Forbid - IV: Constitution of Treason

Mud central.

 

[Joematthews]

Bass drum and snare on frail words collapse is soooooooo bad. The snare especially sounds horrible to my ears.

Joe

 

[dan weapon]

Spiral Architect "Sceptic's Universe".
Great playing - but I hate albums where the bass is too in your face, just because it's the bassist's band. The Primus-effect basically...

I really like the mix on God Forbid's last couple of records! Never noticed them being muddy?!

 

[HatewerK]

Fear Factory's "Transgression" and partly "Archetype" (the guitars) - after listening to the thunderous and ripping mixing of Divine Heresy's debut, now we all know where the good taste in sounds was! And this comes from a hell of a FF fan.

EDIT: yeah I know that Christian said that the blame was on Toby Wright, but come on... doesn't he have ears?

 

[Exocaster]

The original mix of Nevermore's Enemies Of Reality before Andy remixed it. Its sole redeeming virtue (besides their playing, of course!) was that it sounded to me like a pretty decent representation of what a Mesa Rectifier actually sounds like in a room. Points for that. But the distorting vocals and buried, lo-fi drums were reprehensible.

I remember Nile's In the Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka being really, really unbalanced. I haven't listened to it in a long time, so I might be off here, but I remember really thin sounding guitars that were seriously overpowered by really bad sounding drums.

Morbid Angel's Heretic is pretty unpleasant. All V-Amp and JCM 900 DIed, IIRC, with thin, wonky sounding drums. Sounds like a demo; just flat, no depth or body whatsoever.

Honorable mention to Pain's Rebirth for having one of the harshest, ear-fatiguing guitar tones I've ever heard. Peter Tägtgren's vocals sound really off-key to me, too.

IMO, St. Anger and a lot of black metal should be excluded from the discussion. Those are intentionally bad mixes as an artistic choice.

I don't think Death Magnetic is that bad at all, really; the mastering is pants- it's really fatiguing- but the mix isn't terrible. My biggest complaint there is that the kick gets buried. Lars' snare has been mixed way loud since Justice (which I don't mind the mix of either- it's not "good" in the traditional sense, but suits the mood of the music), and sounds fine IMO. Well, when it's not clipping.

 

[Dom Ostarig]

Ohhhhhhh this thread must live!!!!! hahaha Things we hate show more from us than things we like.

 

[nwright]

The biggest let down for me recently in terms of a mix/master than underwhelmed me was the latest Arch Enemy. For me as an Angela era fan, I think it has some of the best songs, and as an album as a whole all of it together is strong. But I usually can't get through half of it because of how grating on the ears it is in the high mids, highs, and the drums are anemic at best.

If only this album had Mr. Sneap's touch on it...