Worst commercial mix you've ever heard? MIX CRIMES

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Alchemist3k

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I just had to pst this after listening to Gary Numan's 'Pure' album. The mix is simply dire, I have virtually no skill in mixing but even my mixes sound far superior. That album is the muddiest, cloudiest most undefined mix I have ever heard which is a real shame because the music isn't bad. Worst of all is the vocals, they are so ill defined that I find it almost impossible to tell what he is singing.

Nominate your mix crime now!
 
how about 'OVERCOMPRESSION' Crimes?

IMHO, the new U2 record is just about the most over-compressed thing that I have ever heard....with a close second coming to the 'A Perfect Circle' record...


what ever happened to dyanamics????? not that the record is that powerful to begin with...but they've squeezed all of what life was there right out of it.....
 
Britney's "I love Rock'n'Roll" is very odd. And I don't like her new haircut.
 
U2's The unforgetable fire is a piece of shit...


And, I don't like that dull sound of Matchbox 20's debut.... Hi hats and cymbals need to be crisper.. and the drums need more punch.

Joe
 
VOXVENDOR said:
U2's The unforgetable fire is a piece of shit...
Joe
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Awww come on Vox, we all know why "Unforgettable Fire" sounds like it does. ;)

Now, the worst mix I have in my collection here at home has definately got to be R.E.M.'s "Monster." It's godawful.
 
jitteringjim said:

Awww come on Vox, we all know why "Unforgettable Fire" sounds like it does. ;)
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Is that the "because it was not produced by Mutt Lange" joke? Or do you know something that I don't? If so please tell, cause I love to know about that record. I really love it, although I agree it sounds funny.
 
jitteringjim said:


Awww come on Vox, we all know why "Unforgettable Fire" sounds like it does. ;)
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Part of it was recording here in Hamilton, at Grant Avenue...

http://www.grantavestudio.com/index.html

I'm sort of lost on your comment.... But, Is it because of Brian Eno touching the console... We all know what happens when he does that! :D
 
Re: how about 'OVERCOMPRESSION' Crimes?

pratt said:
IMHO, the new U2 record is just about the most over-compressed thing that I have ever heard....with a close second coming to the 'A Perfect Circle' record...
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I mentioned this in another thread, but I'd have to say the RHCP's "By the Way" is a sad tale of compression and limiting gone out of control.

Probably two of the most disasterously-produced albums I've heard take me way, way back to my youth (and my heavy metal days) . . . when I barely knew what production meant. And they both came out around the same time, come to think of it. :D

. . . "Bark at the Moon," by Ozzy Osbourne, and "Born Again," by Black Sabbath.
 
i think the songs on The Unforgettable Fire far outweigh its production, or lack thereof......
 
Sammy Hagar's "Marching to Mars" took the loudness contest too far.

It is so compressed and loud, I can't put it in a CD changer. If I set the levels to a different CD, my ears get blown out when the changer switches to M2M.


NITRO's "O.F.R." was also terribly mixed aside from the terrible vocals. ;)
 
Theres a band out now called, "Pulse Ultra" who are pretty decent musically but their record "Headspace" out on Atlantic sounds like it was run through too much processing or the wrong mastering comp (T-racks??? :eek: ). Its not warm or anything, just lacks definition, like theres a cloud over it. Like it had too many generations of processing. Also the guitar sound sucks. Truly unremarkable.

Its always good to be hearing flaws in major label productions...eh? Engineered by David Schiffman no less (chilli peppers, system of a down, dave navaro, alanis, etc ) and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge (sugar ray, stevie nicks, melissa etheridge and a truckload of other major label stuff).

:) :)
 
jitteringjim said:
Now, the worst mix I have in my collection here at home has definately got to be R.E.M.'s "Monster." It's godawful.
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Yeah, but it's supposed to sound like shit to make it more rocknroll. Kinda silly. Ah well. Good songs though.

I would like to nominate the three first albums with "Roxette". Man, they sound like SHIT. And the song suck. I really have absolutely no idea how they could get even one single hit, or how I could think they were "OK" at the time.

The end of the 80's really sucked musically.
 
Couple of things you have to take into consideration:
Fashion changes - what you might consider bad sound now might have been judged as great in its day.
Equipment changes - it was not always possible to do what is possible now.
Taste - something that might sound bad to you now might have been done on purpose as an artistic preference. A good example is the Gorillaz CD for instance.

By the way - something I was amazed at - ever heard the recording quality of Alicia Key's CD?
 
Its ironic that the majority of the poorly mixed songs mentioned in this thread made LOADS of money. Makes me want to learn how to suck.
 
cloudchamber said:
Its ironic that the majority of the poorly mixed songs mentioned in this thread made LOADS of money. Makes me want to learn how to suck.
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All that proves is that it's the song that sells..
 
VOXVENDOR said:


All that proves is that it's the song that sells..
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Spot on. I've got a "Best Of" CD y the Alman Bros. Fantastic songs but I was taken aback by the sound. The snare sounds like someone smacking a cardboard box with a flat stick.:eek:
 
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