Mixing Cliches (You know, that overdone crap)

[JuSumPilgrim]

I once did a lousy, cheesy, satirical rap/rock song called "Blista on My Trigga Finga." All about poppin' caps and smokin' crank. At the time ('97) I though the trend was dying... no such luck!!

It CAN be done real well though-- I dig the old Powerman 5000 stuff. More funk than rap though.

As far as Tool goes, I still like "Opiate", but I could never take in any of their other records in one sitting. There's something seriously pretentious and annoying about them, IMHO.

When "kung fu radio" came out, I was the music director at my college radio station and we played that record endlessly. "neckbone", "earth vs me", "swim with the sharks", etc. Most of that record really sounds great. I wouldnt call it groundbreaking, just great performing, singing, song ideas, etc. They definitely pointed things in a new direction along with another love em or hate em band: Clutch.

Good call on undertow. That was Tool's peak. Everything since then is cool but pales.

 

[mixsit]

Fizz.
Fizz, fizz and more fizz.
Enough with the 12khz already.
Wayne

 

[Chibi Nappa]

does anyone agree with my gated reverb comment?

cause.......
it's true..... honestly......

Man, do I know what you're talking about there. Drums sounded like explosions because of that damn gated reverb. I keep dreaming that someday somebody will come along and re mix those great 80's Guns n Roses and Aerosmith albums with some taste!

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Man, I'm just getting so sick of that whole "vocals panned dead center" thing.

Now, this might just sound a little silly, but it's true. I am sick of panning cliches. The drum kit doesn't have to be centered, you know. Especially if there is another percussionist in the band. I just did a live album for a band with a full drummer, a guy on random percussion, and a guy on bongos. Drummer mostly left, other percussion mostly right. It sounded great and everything had its space to live. Bela Fleck's newest live album also has Future Man (drums) panned right. If bass/vocal/drums don't want to be center, don't force them there.

 

[Sonic Valley]

I think all this stuff with putting music behind the vocals is being done like all the time and it's getting to be too much.

 

[crawdad]

Lately, I've been playing station roulette with my car radio. I've got one station set to classic rock, one to oldies, one to light pop one to country and another to PBS. I'm having a blast listening to the different mix styles, especially use of things like echo, verb, gated reverb, etc. The 60's and 70's are dominated by the plate reverb and echo was used but not so much as an upfront effect (unless you count Hendrix and Zeppelin). Coming into the 80's the echo and gated reverbs prevailed and echo was used a lot as a repeating effect. I was actually amazed at the huge washes of effects on some tunes.

Here in 2002, I hear a lot more recordings that are leaning toward that dry and upfront sound. I'm getting so used to it that my old mixes make me shudder when I can hear the reverb!

Well, I checked out some CD's that had what sounded like dry lead vocals. By inverting phase and playing back in mono, you can hear verbs, echoes and chorusing sometimes. Its just that its mixed back so far you don't really hear it working in an obvious way.

 

[fenix]

some of you mentioned "overcompressing". I think some of you are jealous cuz you can't compress that much and have it sound as good as the pro's.

 

[Boo Boo Foo]

Congratulations gentlemen on a fantastic thread.

In particular, I enjoy the air of magnanimity I'm seeing here - that is, there are people posting in this thread of all ages and everyone seems to be quite prepared to acknowledge greatness in recordings going back to the Sun Studios era thru the Abbey Rd era thru to the present, and I'm quite thrilled to see such a display of objectivity to be honest.

I won't prattle on - both of my current pet hates have been covered...

Namely, the chronic overuse of noticeable voice correction software and the chronic oversuse of Mastering Software to partake in (as one dry wit put it) "Loud Wars".

I posted earlier today in another thread regarding the "Nevermind" album by Nirvana - and in that post I gave Butch Vig quite a spray for his last album with "Garbage" - that is, regardless of the merits of the albums tune's themselves, the record is so OVERSQUASHED it's just plain lifeless - it's like listening to an experiment in software more than it is an effort at making a great record.

Another thing that I really hate at the moment is the sheer overwhelming number of cover versions. Has anyone noticed this? One morning a few months ago, I stayed overnight at some friends and we watched the Saturday morning video hits countdown and the Top Ten had 5 cover versions in it! For crying out loud! Are we suffering THAT much of a dearth of quality songwriting?

In closing, I still have a magnificent REGA Planar 3 turntable with a lovely moving coil cartridge - it's eerie how lush some of my vinyl still sounds after all the years - the dynamic range is certainly superior - take a listen to "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin on vinyl to see what I mean. Jimmy Page may have remastered the mixes for CD, but the original vinyl truly recorded the original performance - in all of it's anticipatory angst to be sure.