Why Modern Music Production Sounds like Ass....

[DanTravis62]

Is a more complicated question than I originally believed.



The quote about 1:45 in, that the human mind starts processing the sound as "data" rather than "music" once it gets to a certain level of perfection makes a ton of sense.

It's why "None So Vile" sounds so chaotically beautiful while Rings of Saturn sounds like a Mayo-on-white-bread sandwich.

BTW steve albini sucks

 

[WizardAmpIphoneClip]

I was just listening to the mighty Metalucifer and appreciated the purity of the production and riffs. Literally sounds like there is no influence past 1983

 

[DanTravis62]

I was just listening to the mighty Metalucifer and appreciated the purity of the production and riffs. Literally sounds like there is no influence past 1983

There's so, so few records with production I like the past couple decades.

I remember when Satan's comeback album Life Sentence came out, it was like the first time I had heard a real drum set in 15 years on a big-time record.

I would have told you that you were insane, if you told me back then 2012? 2013? that in 2026 we would still be in the "Digital ice age" as the guy in the video says. It fucking sucks because everything sounds better when there's more chaos.

 

[BABMusic]

Funny because I'm listening to an album right now that was recorded in 1992 and the guitars sound very good. I always just assumed it was because most albums were recorded to analog tape at that time.

I also love the way Nevermind sounded (all instruments) even if Kurt didn't like it. In Utero sounded even better to my ears, although I didn't like the album as much as Nevermind. Those are just two albums by one band and they both sounded very different, yet both were good sounding.

 

[shadow]

I am usually skeptical of any argument that starts off as "everything suck because...". Lump sum generalization is too broad of a paint brush stroke, imo. But I can see the point of view of the video and the None so Vile and Rings of Saturn observation. But I don't necessarily see tight slick production as inherently bad, but as another style. Too much of anything will become monotonous. I guess that makes cycles of trends good, versus one and done we're stuck.

 

[DanTravis62]

Funny because I'm listening to an album right now that was recorded in 1992 and the guitars sound very good. I always just assumed it was because most albums were recorded to analog tape at that time.

I also love the way Nevermind sounded (all instruments) even if Kurt didn't like it. In Utero sounded even better to my ears, although I didn't like the album as much as Nevermind. Those are just two albums by one band and they both sounded very different, yet both were good sounding.

I'm not a huge fan of Nirvana but I 100% agree with you. They both sound good in their own different ways.

Just great production all around.

But honestly, everything from the 90s sounds amazing compared to now. We are in a "digital ice age" so deep, and so cold, that everything your ear hears just sounds like "information" instead of "music" as the dude alluded to in the video.

I swear to god, every time I hear some godawful Tammy Hanson "music" or whatever the god-forsaken Sirius XM™ satellite radio metal band of the week is, it just reminds me of working maintenance on an industrial automation line... like the sound of the production lines with all the mechanical noise that's always the same tempo, always the same pitch.

 

[DanTravis62]

I am usually skeptical of any argument that starts off as "everything suck because...". Lump sum generalization is too broad of a paint brush stroke, imo. But I can see the point of view of the video and the None so Vile and Rings of Saturn observation. But I don't necessarily see tight slick production as inherently bad, but as another style. Too much of anything will become monotonous. I guess that makes cycles of trends good, versus one and done we're stuck.

The problem is "tight and slick" versus "completely fucking sterile"

I would say the Satan album I mentioned above "life sentence" is plenty "tight and slick".

So is say, Dissection "Reinkaos" or even Testament "The Gathering".

All those records are tight and slick to me. But they sound like records. Like music, not like data.

 

[skoora]

Is a more complicated question than I originally believed.



The quote about 1:45 in, that the human mind starts processing the sound as "data" rather than "music" once it gets to a certain level of perfection makes a ton of sense.

It's why "None So Vile" sounds so chaotically beautiful while Rings of Saturn sounds like a Mayo-on-white-bread sandwich.

BTW steve albini sucks

Can’t say I’m a fan of Albini either (R.I.P.) No matter his spiel about being just an employee etc etc every project he’d did had his sound on it, especially the drums. I can hear drums and know he did a record within a few bars. Sometimes it works but it can be a plodding, ambient sound that can drag down some bands energy for me. Even though there’s some great stuff on Times of Grace, I feel Neurosis got really boring sounding after they hitched their wagon to Albini in the studio.

 

[Shask]

I'm not a huge fan of Nirvana but I 100% agree with you. They both sound good in their own different ways.

Just great production all around.

But honestly, everything from the 90s sounds amazing compared to now. We are in a "digital ice age" so deep, and so cold, that everything your ear hears just sounds like "information" instead of "music" as the dude alluded to in the video.

I swear to god, every time I hear some godawful Tammy Hanson "music" or whatever the god-forsaken Sirius XM™ satellite radio metal band of the week is, it just reminds me of working maintenance on an industrial automation line... like the sound of the production lines with all the mechanical noise that's always the same tempo, always the same pitch.

I was reading a lot about Morrissound Studio tones the other night because SO many of my favorite tones came out of that studio in the early 90s. Sludgy, scooped, but so massive and aggressive.

 

[VonBonfire]

But honestly, everything from the 90s sounds amazing compared to now. We are in a "digital ice age" so deep, and so cold, that everything your ear hears just sounds like "information" instead of "music" as the dude alluded to in the video.

I find digital recordings of guitars usually have pretty harsh highs, which IME is always par for the course for digital stuff. Then you convert it to MP3 and wish you had added more highs.

 

[BABMusic]

I knew a local band who recorded an album in 2011 that was entirely done to analog tape with minimal use of computers. It cost them a lot more, but it sounded pretty good. Most of the time when I hear a band I don't like the sound (not the compositions), it's usually because of the drums sounding too generic. This was one of their tracks that used analog tape.

 

[DanTravis62]

Can’t say I’m a fan of Albini either (R.I.P.) No matter his spiel about being just an employee etc etc every project he’d did had his sound on it, especially the drums. I can hear drums and know he did a record within a few bars. Sometimes it works but it can be a plodding, ambient sound that can drag down some bands energy for me. Even though there’s some great stuff on Times of Grace, I feel Neurosis got really boring sounding after they hitched their wagon to Albini in the studio.

Albini is a pervert diddler piece of shit

But I think he was objectively correct about a lot of engineering techniques, and a lot of his philosophy on "production" (or rather, a lack of it)

I don't think bands need to necessarily go "full albini" to make a listenable record, but I do think that bands have gone way, waaaaaay too far in the other direction the last couple of decades.

I was reading a lot about Morrissound Studio tones the other night because SO many of my favorite tones came out of that studio in the early 90s. Sludgy, scooped, but so massive and aggressive.

Fuck man, some of those guitar sounds out of that studio are incredible

The first couple that come to mind are iced earth and the mark era sepultura tones, and NEITHER of those are the "signature" guitar tone of the studio lol

but honestly every morrissound record had it's own vibe with it's own sounds

 

[DanTravis62]

I knew a local band who recorded an album in 2011 that was entirely done to analog tape with minimal use of computers. It cost them a lot more, but it sounded pretty good. Most of the time when I hear a band I don't like the sound (not the compositions), it's usually because of the drums sounding too generic. This was one of their tracks that used analog tape.

I hate the music, but that is an objectively pleasant record to listen to, aurally

Like that sounds pleasant to my ears even though the music makes me think of pitchfork poptimism

 

[VonBonfire]

I was reading a lot about Morrissound Studio tones the other night because SO many of my favorite tones came out of that studio in the early 90s. Sludgy, scooped, but so massive and aggressive.

I almost booked that studio back in '15 but went to the Springs Theater instead and dealt with that douchebag. Expensive mistake. $$$ does not always equal results if the engineers has a could-give-a-shit attitude. A more humble home studio with good equipment and a really good engineer who was into my project netted way better results.

 

[BABMusic]

I'm not the biggest Collective Soul fan, but I heard somewhere that they recorded the song Shine at someone's home and the demo was kept on the album.

I really liked the sound of STP's Tiny Music album, even though I'm not the biggest STP fan. That was another one recorded in a house in the 1990s.

 

[DanTravis62]

I'm not the biggest Collective Soul fan, but I heard somewhere that they recorded the song Shine at someone's home and the demo was kept on the album.

I really liked the sound of STP's Tiny Music album, even though I'm not the biggest STP fan. That was another one recorded in a house in the 1990s.

Yeah both of those are excellent sounding. It's crazy how looking back on it, the 90s were like a golden era of production.

I was trying to think of things that aren't really my style of music but that I think have excellent production from that era, and I thought of Sarah McLaughlin and The Wallflowers, even Hootie and the Blowfish

They all sound like they were recorded by real people with real instruments, even though the music is uh, not very good in some cases

 

[BABMusic]

..., even Hootie and the Blowfish

Ah man, I had forgotten about them. I thought they were the worst thing ever back in those days. These days, I've mellowed.

 

[DanTravis62]

Ah man, I had forgotten about them. I thought they were the worst thing ever back in those days. These days, I've mellowed.

I 100% thought all three of those bands were the worst thing ever... at the time, as a teenager.

Now? Looking back, if that was the "pop pablum" of the time? We were so lucky.

Like, jesus christ man, if hootie or the ASPCA or bob dylans nepo baby came out right now? In comparison to Nikki Minaj or Tammy Hanson or The Weekend it's like opening the window on a stormy night letting the rain smell in

 

[Klauth]

The best songs and albums were made when online forums didn't exist.

 

[DanTravis62]

The best songs and albums were made when online forums didn't exist.

Online forums existed all through the 90s when the albums we are talking about were created.