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Albums ruined by a poor production?


zorrow

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Posted

How about anything Kevin Shirely has done? Aerosmith, Zeppelin, the Black Crowes -- he managed to take the life out of all of them.

Those Black Crowes albums are great!

Bruce Fairbairn on the other hand. What a nutter. Turned everything into 80's mash. AC/DC, Aerosmith, you name 'em, they suck.

Shirely only did By Your Side, which even the band thinks is their worst record.

It's their worst record if you DONT like to party. As it is their partiest record. Personally I love it. It's just swings. Great riffs. Uptempo dance a vaganza.

He got them off the bong and into the up tempo groove again. I thank him for that. It's their most under rated record in my book.

If these two tracks dont' get you up from that chair you are resting your ass on, then you don't know the groove baby!

Ad tracks like Welcome to the Goodtimes, Go tell the Congregation and Go Faster - you really can't call it a bad record huh. :D

Oh, don't get me wrong. I like the songs. The Crowes have never put out a bad album, although some are clearly more inspired than others. Virtue and Vice is one of my favorite Crowes tunes, as well as Horsehead. But the production on the album doesn't let the music breathe, which is Shirely's trademark.

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Posted

Good thread. Cheap Trick's One On One comes to mind.

Kevin Shirley is one of my favorite producers. Black Country Communion, I think he did The Winery Dogs, so much great sounding stuff IMO.

Now, if he would have only produced And Justice For All...

I like the sound of the first Dio record, BTW.

Posted

On the subject of drums, I agree that the early '90s was the point where things got really good. I've been blasting In the Meantime by Helmet lately. The bass drum is brutal - kicks a hole in your chest. That's the good stuff.

Moving Pictures was a good example of a killer drum sound from an era that had a lot of crap drums. It had a solid as hell kick drum and a real sounding snare without the cannon reverb shit. Love it.

Posted

There's so much "poor production". And some of it is so important in the overall scheme of things. I prefer "Fire" by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown for "poor production". Listen....

On second thought, I wouldn't change a thing.

Posted

How about anything Kevin Shirely has done? Aerosmith, Zeppelin, the Black Crowes -- he managed to take the life out of all of them.

Those Black Crowes albums are great!

Bruce Fairbairn on the other hand. What a nutter. Turned everything into 80's mash. AC/DC, Aerosmith, you name 'em, they suck.

Shirely only did By Your Side, which even the band thinks is their worst record.

It's their worst record if you DONT like to party.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I like the songs. The Crowes have never put out a bad album, although some are clearly more inspired than others. Virtue and Vice is one of my favorite Crowes tunes, as well as Horsehead. But the production on the album doesn't let the music breathe, which is Shirely's trademark.

Yeah, I get what you mean. I like the sound on this album. I am biased though. I travelled with a back pack in Asia in 1999 and this was one of the few albums I had with me on the trip.

The Black Crowes Live album on the other hand. Jeees, talk about bad mixing. RIch Robinson produced it, and is listed as a mixer as well. His guitar is in the right speaker, loud and clear.

The 2nd guitarist is in the left speaker. It sounds like the mic is not even in front of the amp. It's dull and sounds like it's picked up by the drum mics or something :) . The solo parts are way muffled and in the back of the mix.

Chris vocals are also burried and muffled. And the drums got this dead arena sound. The bass is just low at a sub level, and un distinct.

The whole mix is covered in sub bass frequensies. I wonder why the person who mastered it didn't remove it. I had great expectations for this album, got it and it was a turd.

Don't let a band member do the mixing, that is always a no no.

Posted

Imagine how good AJFA would sound if you could hear the bass...

AJFA is my least favorite of the earlier Metallica stuff. That mix would have made a world of difference. To me it's not just that the bass was obliterated by rhythm guitar, the overall sound is also VERY scooped. This mix improved the drum sound as well.

Posted

"The Black Crowes Live album on the other hand. Jeees, talk about bad mixing. RIch Robinson produced it, and is listed as a mixer as well. His guitar is in the right speaker, loud and clear."

Totally agree. That record sounded terrible. Most of the soundboards the band sells sound better than it. It didn't help that Audley Freed decided to bring a Bogner to a Crowes gig. Bogners are great amps for sure, but not for the Crowes.

Posted

"AJFA is my least favorite of the earlier Metallica stuff. That mix would have made a world of difference. To me it's not just that the bass was obliterated by rhythm guitar, the overall sound is also VERY scooped. This mix improved the drum sound as well."

Probably because I got into Metallica right before And Justice dropped, that became the definitive sound for that kind of metal to my ears. When the Black Album came out, I felt like vomiting.

Posted

Motorhead's Orgasmatron was produced by Bill Laswell, and while the drums sounded like cannons, I didn't like Lemmy's bass tone on that album at all; while he plays bass like a guitar, on this one it sounded too much like a guitar. Big difference. That being said, Motorhead's sound has definitely matured over the decades. Some of the early stuff, like the songs on Beer Drinkers, apparently wasn't supposed to be released at all, according to Lemmy, IIRC

+1 on Raw Power, Sabotage and Never Say Die

The ZZ TOP SIx Pack might qualify in a unique, back-handed/after-the-fact manner, according to many longtime fans of the band

Rush's Grace Under Pressure didn't do much for me, sonically.

EDITED TO ADD: B.O.C.'s On Your Feet or On Your Knees. Terrific performance, in a mix that was way too murky.

Posted

The ZZ TOP SIx Pack might qualify in a unique, back-handed/after-the-fact manner, according to many longtime fans of the band

Um, it DID qualify. Nothing wrong with the original releases/recordings as they were on vinyl. Unfortunately, that isn't what was got in the CD Six Pack, IMO.

Posted

The ZZ TOP SIx Pack might qualify in a unique, back-handed/after-the-fact manner, according to many longtime fans of the band

Um, it DID qualify. Nothing wrong with the original releases/recordings as they were on vinyl. Unfortunately, that isn't what was got in the CD Six Pack, IMO.

Yeah, it qualifies. More than volume and frequency adjustments were done to that set. I don't hate those mixes like most people do, but the originals are indeed superior. If for no other reason than you can hear the brilliant, subtle nuances of Frank Beard's drumming.

Posted

Yesterday and Today 'Struck Down'.. under Bill Graham even..

Alcatrazz 'Live Sentence'

After all these year they jump to the front..

I actually think "Struck Down" is brilliant.. the whole mix is run through a flanger, phase shifter, or both. Then, add a boat load of reverb and echo!

Posted

The entire catalog of Oasis, REM, and U2, because you can hear them.

Have you actually listened to REM's stuff on IRS records? They're like a different band. If you have and you still hate them, then okay. Also, how can you hate "Wonderwall" by Oasis? Or "With or Without You" by U2? Those are great songs by any standard.

Posted

I can't stand Wonderwall. Hate it. Worst song in all of history, in my opinion. The guy already has a whiny voice, why did they have to write lyrics that emphasize the whinyness of it?!?

Actually, I probably wouldn't have much problems with any of the bands if it weren't for their lead singers voices.

And I recognize that if I spent several hours listening to their entire catalogs, I might find a few songs that wouldn't make me wish I were deaf.

But exaggeration for effect is what makes the internet go round.

Posted

If it helps, just remember that I like Styx and Night Ranger, and allow for my strange tastes.

Well you got me there. I can't think of a single Styx song I like. :P

Posted

This looks promising (to me):

51xkKUdrJSL._SY300_.jpg

Was searching for this before I posted. Just a sonic abortion made worse due to the songs being really cool.

Bob Rock's work after the Veruca Salt album he did as well as A lot of Rick Rubin stuff, starting with Californication, sounds like shit to me as well. You can tell that a whole lot of stuff was clipped to tape and then just got worse when it get smashed in mastering.

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