What's the worst professional mainstream mix you've heard

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Teacher said:
Cloneboy you talkin about just M&M's lp's are Lp's dre is associated with in General? Cuz 50's Get Rich or Die Trying, Games "Documentary", Dre's Chronic 2001 sound great to me, but M&M's last 2 albums full of cheesy sounding production, so i'd agree if his vocals didn't always sound great IMO
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As I stated "everything I've heard by Dr. Dre"... I haven't heard everything the man has produced. But the stuff I have heard I did not like compared to other hip hop. Chances are there is stuff out there that I would like, but I'm not exactly eager to hunt down.

However, the Eminem stuff I heard from my brother was really bad sounding to me.
 
Clit Torres said:
Although I agree with most of your comments here, I think your judgement of Korn and Pantera are clouded by your own personal taste. Both groups have a particular sound that they have developed and IMHO have consistantly put out well produced/mixed albums.
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I view the Korn/Pantera sound as an extension of the "...And Justice For All" syndrome. Same idea: too-loud guitars holding the bottom end and clicky drums; but at least with Pantera and Korn you can hear the bass. Heck, Pantera even allow the bass to have a decent sound, which is more than I can say for Korn.

(God how I hate slappin' and poppin', god how I hate bass sounds with no mids.)

That being said, Korn sounds *way* better to me than Pantera. Even if you take away the plastic drums Dimebag's guitar tone isn't pleasing to me. I can't stand solid state amps used for distortion sounds. GROSSENING! :)

Clit Torres said:
BTW, I liked Kirks lead tone on "And Justice"...... :eek:
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Personally I liked Metallica's sound on "Ride the Lightning" best. Kirk's lead tone on that album was ripping, fat and real. In fact, I prefer the production on RTL over any other Metallica album--especially the "Black" album (which, except for the drums, sounds lifeless).
 
I tell you an album I thought was freaking great at the time but now sounds like poo is Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie. Sounds all muddy on a lot of tracks. But the songs are still way cool. Another case of musician thinking they are engineer again I think.

On the drums for Korn - I think their drums sound pretty good myself. THat guy is always doing some funky jazzy stuff that contrast really well with the heavy guitars and stuff. Follow the Leader is about the last album of theirs I really liked though.

I have this compilation CD from some concert (Pledge of Allegiance Tour, I think), and it has all these metal songs together and then towards the end they throw in a DMX song. Talk about contrast of mixes! Cracks me up when it comes on with its open sounding "beats" after all the guitar-heavy metal stuff. Anywho......
 
I recently had the displeasure of listening to some of Butch Walker's productions. I swear my home recordings sound better. It's nothing but digital clipping the whole way through.

Living Colour's first album sounds pretty bad in retrospect. Digital reverb city. The guitar sound reminds me of someone beating a galvanized trash can. Cool band, though...
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
Thursday "War All the Time"
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They stole the name of that album from Poison Idea. I now dislike them even more.
 
REM- What's the frequency kenneth. Lead vocals under the music. I never could understand that. I hate forcing my ear to get what the signer says.

Lapieuvre
 
Cloneboy -
are you including Dre's original "Chronic" and Snoop's "Doggystyle" albums in your concensus that all his music (that you've heard) sounds like shit? I agree that Eminem's albums sound sterile and plastic, but i like the fact that they explore huge distances between loudness & silence (maybe only because they can afford a lower noise floor than I can). Example: the song on the Marshall Mathers LP that goes "youuu don't - wanna fuck with shaaady..." great jumps between loud & whispery. But yes, all Dre's drums of late have had the envelopes turned down so fine on them that they sound like they came out of a plastic can.

but.. The Chronic & Doggystyle are big, bassy, warm, & full of mirth. Same with the old NWA shit, a big Public-Enemy style analog vibe. Not having a $10,000 system, I'd be interested in your take on how those sound in yours.
 
Did Dr. Dre produce and engineer those?

It's been a *long* time since I heard anything off those albums. I'm not exactly Mr. Hip Hop, if you know what I mean.

Chances are the older stuff sounds better anyways.

Probably not up to the Public Enemy standard though. Some of the finest productions I'm aware of. Tons of samples and noise, but everything is clear and where it needs to be... with an ample low end that never gets tubby or too much.
 
wow.... yeah, Dr. Dre did produce The Chronic & Doggystyle, although there is doubt that he did ALL the production (some say he had uncredited help from Dat Nigga Daz, Warren G, & others). But as far as I know, he did the engineering & mixing, even if he can't write a rap to save his life.

As for NWA, I think production was Dre & DJ Yella. Doogystyle & The Chronic are a whole different era though, equally on par with Public Enemy in my opinion, but too different to tell other than personal taste... NWA on the other hand goes PERFECTLY with Public Enemy (no small coincidence then that Ice Cube left the group to work with PE's production team for his first solo LP). Good clean basslines, dynamic drumbeats & cuts, lots of crazy hi-end shit going on, cool & often humorous vocal samples.

I didn't like Dre's new style when I first heard it, but it did grow on me, much like Timbaland. now if you wanna talk current mainstream hip-hop productions that sound terrible, you could do much worse than Em & Dre's stuff... just check out Lil Jon. it's horrible, but for some reason, kind of good in an early Rick Rubin sort of way.
 
though not all the way through, in some parts i have to say that Damien Rice's album O is crap. In some parts the vocals are really upfront and then go really distant. He also gets quite over the top towards the end of some songs with distorted vocals etc. Where if it was me the songs don't require it. Plus there is loads of digital clipping coming in all over the place.

Pisses me off cause the sonds are really good.

Dave
 
Oh, I forgot one:

Nine Inch Nails "The Fragile" - Muddy mix cluttered with too many chopped up, disparate elements. A strange mix of sounding unfinished yet over-polished at the same time. It is obvious that this was a 'design by committee' album rather than one man's vision. Typical NIN harsh upper midrange as well. Are there any NIN albums that are well-produced? Doubtful.
 
St Anger

This is the worst sounding album ever I think Bob Rock is full of himself. Let's try something different, I'm Bob Rock I can do no wrong.Well guess what, the performances were bad the snare was from hell and Hetfield should stick to what he does best growl. Remember your not an Opera singer. Stick to what you know. Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightening, Kill em All. They had passion and feel this was done all before pro tools. I love pro tools but it is easy to get carried away with it. Then end up with crap like St. Anger. ego+studio+money=garbage!
www.jamjunction.com
 
Fire Dome said:
though not all the way through, in some parts i have to say that Damien Rice's album O is crap. In some parts the vocals are really upfront and then go really distant. He also gets quite over the top towards the end of some songs with distorted vocals etc. Where if it was me the songs don't require it. Plus there is loads of digital clipping coming in all over the place.

Pisses me off cause the sonds are really good.

Dave
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In Damien's defense, he recorded most, if not all, of this cd with questionable equipment in various bedrooms/livingrooms/front yards/etc. I think it works for what it is.

Travis
 
lapieuvre said:
REM- What's the frequency kenneth. Lead vocals under the music. I never could understand that. I hate forcing my ear to get what the signer says.

Lapieuvre
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How is that different from REM's first three or four albums? That's just their thing--they lost a lot of fans when Michael Stipe started enunciating his lyrics.

That's OK, they picked up a few million more :cool:
 
jamjunctioncom said:
This is the worst sounding album ever I think Bob Rock is full of himself. Let's try something different, I'm Bob Rock I can do no wrong.Well guess what, the performances were bad the snare was from hell and Hetfield should stick to what he does best growl. Remember your not an Opera singer. Stick to what you know. Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightening, Kill em All. They had passion and feel this was done all before pro tools. I love pro tools but it is easy to get carried away with it. Then end up with crap like St. Anger. ego+studio+money=garbage!
www.jamjunction.com
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Check out the documentary "Some Kind of Monster" for the reasons why St. Anger is so terrible.

I'd honestly blame the band more. Lars got mad whenever Bob wanted to redo or edit anything, and Hetfield was more concerned with being a baby than recording the album. They wanted a lofi garage sound, which would have been cool if it sounded like Garage Days Re-Revisited, but to pull that off they'd actually have to have the songs rehearsed ahead of time instead of cutting and pasting riffs that 'sounded kewl' together from random jam sessions.

The entire making of this album is like the lost episode of Spinal Tap. EVERYONE is guilty. Just blaming Bob Rock is missing out on the blame that Lars, James and Kirk definately earned.
 
weezer - pinkterton... great great great great great songs... they produced it themselves. listen to the drums on it. eek. still, love the album though and it's lack of mixing makes it more interesting for me to hear and sounds more raw.
 
The worst is Acid Bath, When the kite string pops.

hands down.
 
This is in a different direction than most of this thread, but I'm still disappointed with the CD mix of the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour. The whole album is thin sounding and in "Baby, You're a Rich Man" you can barely hear the signature oboe lines.
I don't remember those problems on the old vinyl versions.

Terry
 
Thought of another disappointment - the remastering of the AC/DC cd's. They sound over processed compared to the first cd versions.

Terry
 
grn said:
weezer - pinkterton... great great great great great songs... they produced it themselves. listen to the drums on it. eek. still, love the album though and it's lack of mixing makes it more interesting for me to hear and sounds more raw.
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I definately agree that the lackluster sound of this album made it more interesting, I've always preferred it to their more polished stuff. A lot of people think I'm crazy when I say that, but some bands to me just sound better recorded raw, which would explain why I still listen to the Misfits. :D
 
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