Why Modern Music Production Sounds like Ass....

[nightlight]

It’s the homogenisation of production. I see the problem getting worse as AI continues to make headway into modern music production.

 

[Shevek]

Early 2000’s, I’m not an emo guy but I do like Jimmy Eat World when they’re rockin’ out and Bleed American came on I’m my phone shuffle and I’m not sure there’s a better sounding rock record since, except for maybe their own follow up, Futures and 2003’s Blast Tyrant by Clutch.
Both powerful and loud without feeling brickwalled and amazing tones and mixing for all the instruments and vocals.

Blast Tyrant is a fucking amazing sounding album.

 

[DanTravis62]

production only needs to be so good (to a point) a well-played well written song is most important (as the 80's proved) when the pro tools bedroom mixing jockeys came to the front and over compensated production of bad songs...just to say, " I can fix it(you) good music started to go away. and forums were a HUGE part of that destruction. similar to what happens here, "dude...I got a new amp/cab/modeler/speaker/guitar/pedal (fill in the blank)" I have the best IR's now! great, but you still can't write a song or even play a riff longer than 30 seconds. (might have something to do with that fat sack of weed on the table in front of you?) the reality is, cheap and lazy wins 99.99 % of the time. back in the day you had to work for it. the only thing I see/hear now that involves work amongst "creators" (if you want to call it work is...covering (if not blacking out) yourself with ink. there-someone needed to say it.

You aren't talking about forums, you are talking about one specific forum

the andy sneap forum

which definitely had a huge influence on the pro-toolsification of metal

but the entry-ism of people who can't write a song or play a riff longer than 30 seconds was much later on than forums. That was COVID. And it has fuck-all to do with weed, it has to do with hobbyists playing pretend.

 

[Klauth]

The latest downgrade to the production world is that glen fuker guy! I don't think any one single person has done more damage to metal production than him.

 

[stephen sawall]

Image over substance has NEVER been as bad as it is today, and is seems almost everyone embraces FAKE performances instead of real ones.....let alone original ones.....

The Multi-Purpose Celebrity of today makes me want to puke. They've definitely made money faster than ever before mostly via merchandising/brand whoring, etc. Some of the pop chicks have already caught up to freakin' McCartney in wealth, but they have no artistic relevance whatsoever IMO. Pop trash.

(PS: Get off my lawn! )

I've always seen pop the same any other type of music. It's just a product. If by image you mean merchandise that is the entire music industry. There isn't anything else. I don't see any more emotional content or substance today as any other era.
It's always been mostly crap. I don't expect that to ever change.

 

[DanTravis62]

I've always seen pop the same any other type of music. It's just a product. If by image you mean merchandise that is the entire music industry. There isn't anything else. I don't see any more emotional content or substance today as any other era.
It's always been mostly crap. I don't expect that to ever change.

That is not remotely true. There is objectively less substance or emotional content now.

 

[DanTravis62]

And when I say "objectively" im not using hyperbole, I mean objectively @stephen sawall

there have been multiple scientific studies on this, the big one was in scientific reports though

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

And when I say "objectively" im not using hyperbole, I mean objectively @stephen sawall

there have been multiple scientific studies on this, the big one was in scientific reports though

View attachment 457392

He didn't talk about the "Millennial & Z Tick", that ultra-annoying vocal uptick they can't seem to help adding at the end of every other sentence for no fucking reason.

 

[DanTravis62]

He didn't talk about the "Millennial & Z Tick", that ultra-annoying vocal uptick they can't seem to help adding at the end of every other sentence for no fucking reason.

Oh my god that shit is so annoying. That plus the "Generation Alpha melody" probably are going to give me a stroke.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

Oh my god that shit is so annoying. That plus the "Generation Alpha melody" probably are going to give me a stroke.

My understanding is that they seem to think it makes them sound "smart" or "right", and proves they are gaining the advantage in a debate somehow (because they are so smart and like intellectual, OMG).

 

[Shask]

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

Another personal favorite are the Terry Date Albums. Far Beyond Driven, Cleansing, Astrocreep, etc....

 

[stephen sawall]

I can't disagree with that if you look at the influence of hip hop and Country, etc.
I have noticed the arrangements are starting to get a bit more complex the last two years. It was so simple the last 15 years.

 

[DanTravis62]

I can't disagree with that if you look at the influence of hip hop and Country, etc.
I have noticed the arrangements are starting to get a bit more complex the last two years. It was so simple the last 15 years.

Let's hope just like the 80s production ice age gave way to the 90s, the 2010s and 2020s autotuned slop piles gives way to a thawing of the ice age in the 2030s.

 

[DanTravis62]

Another personal favorite are the Terry Date Albums. Far Beyond Driven, Cleansing, Astrocreep, etc....

It's funny

Basically every great sounding record that i've heard from the past 20 years has been recorded by an older engineer like that - Terry Date specifically did "Repentless" and Havok's "Unnatural Selection" which while I don't really like either record, the production is great on both of them.

That Satan record I mentioned earlier was produced by Dario Mollo who did black sabbath and glenn hughes records, too

There's so few new producers and engineers who are innovating in any way, or even making things that sound pleasant to me

 

[DanTravis62]

BTW if we are talking about terry date, we have to talk about one of my favorite 80s albums of all time, liege lord's master control

Which was recorded before cowboys, before white zombie or nu metal happened, before terry date had an expensive studio

he always had the talent

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

I can't disagree with that if you look at the influence of hip hop and Country, etc.
I have noticed the arrangements are starting to get a bit more complex the last two years. It was so simple the last 15 years.

There was a radio commercial I heard maybe 10 years ago that was literally ONE bass note over and over, about 40 times....dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, etc. I thought "well that's new..... I guess". The canned autotuned vocals that went with it were not new at all, however. I no longer listen to the radio or ads when I'm driving, only music I bring.

I hate AI Bro Country songs/ads most of all, and I can usually detect them by the very FIRST snare drum hit.

 

[Shask]

It's funny

Basically every great sounding record that i've heard from the past 20 years has been recorded by an older engineer like that - Terry Date specifically did "Repentless" and Havok's "Unnatural Selection" which while I don't really like either record, the production is great on both of them.

That Satan record I mentioned earlier was produced by Dario Mollo who did black sabbath and glenn hughes records, too

There's so few new producers and engineers who are innovating in any way, or even making things that sound pleasant to me

I was doing some research recently because I didn't know why it seems like everyone else loves those 2000's Metalcore type tones, and most of them sound like flat nasal honk to me.

Thinking about a lot of my favorite tones, almost all of them came back to Morrissounds / Scott Burns, Terry Date, and the Colin Richardson / Rhys Fulber Fear Factory stuff.

 

[DanTravis62]

I was doing some research recently because I didn't know why it seems like everyone else loves those 2000's Metalcore type tones, and most of them sound like flat nasal honk to me.

Thinking about a lot of my favorite tones, almost all of them came back to Morrissounds / Scott Burns, Terry Date, and the Colin Richardson / Rhys Fulber Fear Factory stuff.

Those 2000's metalcore type tones weren't an innovation of themselves, they were people trying to copy what Fredman and sneap were doing in the late 90s with carcass, in flames, and the gothenburg sounds, and they came up with their own bastardized version of it

Which became the EMG/808/5150/V30/57 tone that everyone is so sick of, even though they were missing what gave fredman and sneap the depth of field and lack of "honk" - in fredmans case the 55 degree second 57, in sneaps case a bunch of outboard gear

 

[Mike Oxhuge]

My opinion is also that a bunch of producers get lucky and chosen to produce some new upcoming band so they assume it is because they are the next Eddie Kramer, etc... and never bothered comparing their sonic diarrhea to any universally accepted standards.

 

[Klauth]

back in the day, I remember people saying, "the future of gear is gunna be amazing" and now that Ive lived long enough to experience it...it was better then.