Albums ruined by poor production/mixing

Many, many records today sound like crap, disregarding the (subjective) quality of the songs. Producers trying to be louder to sound good on crap sound systems and to cause a big first impact with loud, on-your-face sound. Sometimes this happens due to poor recording conditions (listen Blood Fire Death by Bathory), but on other cases where conditions and funds are more than enough, it's just inexcusable. Unfortunately, with a good pair of headphones or a great set of speakers, these problems only become more evident. Three relatively popular examples of recent times come to mind (please refrain from commenting on the bands' quality as the focus here is production/mixing/mastering):

- Vol 3:(The Subliminal Verses) by Slipknot - my favorite Slipknot album, and the only I still listen from time to time, was ruined by compression, all thanks to mr. Rick Rubin (allegedlygood with human resources management, but the man is probably deaf).

- Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers - the CD version has heavy clipping all over the place (one of the most blatant examples in Snow ((Hey Oh))), but the vinyl version has been well mastered and sounds great in comparison.

- Death Magnetic by Metallica - sound is an over-compressed joke, but luckily some fans remastered it in an attempt to get a more refined sound - even the Guitar Hero 3 version sounds better.

Has the (lack of) sound quality of an album ever pushed you away from it? Do you know of any more examples?

Right here. Much to my dismay Spawn Of Possession's second album is a squeaky clean, wankfest bore and the vocals are mixed too high. Just listen to this, especially compared to the awesomeness of the first album. :cry:

Hopefully the new album makes up for it.

This is the only album I can think of. I don't know exactly what it is, I still love the album, but the way it is mixed just makes the guitars sound a a little off to me, I don't know exactly what it is.

Right here. Much to my dismay Spawn Of Possession's second album is a squeaky clean, wankfest bore and the vocals are mixed too high. Just listen to this, especially compared to the awesomeness of the first album. :cry:

Hopefully the new album makes up for it.

Saturos3091

This is the only album I can think of. I don't know exactly what it is, I still love the album, but the way it is mixed just makes the guitars sound a a little off to me, I don't know exactly what it is.

Dreamerdude26

i preferred the first one as well, but I liked this one quite a bit as well. (Then again, I'm the type that happens to enjoy cleanly produced wankfests...:P )

Darth-Caedus

The Iggy Pop produced remaster of Raw Power. Apparently it's one of the loudest albums ever. Yeah, and that's why I'm still listening to the 1972 Bowie master.

[QUOTE="Dreamerdude26"]

This is the only album I can think of. I don't know exactly what it is, I still love the album, but the way it is mixed just makes the guitars sound a a little off to me, I don't know exactly what it is.

Darth-Caedus

[QUOTE="Darth-Caedus"]

i preferred the first one as well, but I liked this one quite a bit as well. (Then again, I'm the type that happens to enjoy cleanly produced wankfests...:P )

Saturos3091

...And Justice for All - Metallica. It's still good, but it would be 10x better if it was produced better.JC346

For some reason i love ...And justice for all's poor production. Sounded more raw and agressive then if it was squeaky clean. I know it was probably just a cheap trick to get more cash but to me it gave the album an eaven more rebelious tone.

Overall in my opinion its Metallica's finest work. It aint as new as KeA or RtL, or as epic as MoP but its just has a very evil tone that realy apeals to me.

ahhhh the sound quality is soo bad

[QUOTE="JC346"]...And Justice for All - Metallica. It's still good, but it would be 10x better if it was produced better.chaplainDMK

For some reason i love ...And justice for all's poor production. Sounded more raw and agressive then if it was squeaky clean. I know it was probably just a cheap trick to get more cash but to me it gave the album an eaven more rebelious tone.

Overall in my opinion its Metallica's finest work. It aint as new as KeA or RtL, or as epic as MoP but its just has a very evil tone that realy apeals to me.

Metallica - St. Anger

I'm mentioning St. Anger because there are many points in the album where there are some major snare issues (you can hear their vibrations in the Some Kind Of Monster intro).

Rush - Vapour Trails

Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond

I didn't have a problem with Death Magnetic since I downloaded it on amazon.com and that I lowered the level on my iPod a bit so my ears wouldn't be ringing as much as the CD version

I normally only notice it in debut albums.

Elbow - asleep in the back, and early beck albums come to mind

Separation Sunday, by The Hold Steady, sticks out for me as having bad production. The content is great, it's just the production is so lazily done and everything is off about it. Songwriting-wise, it's every bit the equal of their newest two albums, but production-wise it's not even close. They're suited for a cleanish rock production and they got a mangled low-fi result that doesn't mesh with their sound.Lockedge

I was going to say that! Boys and Girls in America and Stay Positive aren't anything to write home about either, which speaks to just how awful Separation Sunday sounds.

Every dying fetus album before Descend Into Depravity has god awful production.

I think it depends widely on what you're going for.

For example this or this works very well being recorded lo-fi, because of the stylistic choices the artist made.

It's when a producer decides that the American public has the IQ of room temperature and wants to hear their music "REALLY LOUD AHHHH" so they super compress it that I can't stand to listen to it. Examples being anything Rick Rubin has produced recently (did he learn anything from how well BloodSexSugarMagick was recorded?) and Top 40 rock.

This is the only album I can think of. I don't know exactly what it is, I still love the album, but the way it is mixed just makes the guitars sound a a little off to me, I don't know exactly what it is.

Dreamerdude26

It's a shame they only got the mixes correct after Johnny's death. Sigh... R.I.P

Metallica - St. Anger

I'm mentioning St. Anger because there are many points in the album where there are some major snare issues (you can hear their vibrations in the Some Kind Of Monster intro).

Wolf-Man2006

All he did was turn his snare off, so all you hear is the sound of the snare skin and not the sound of the snare itself.

[QUOTE="chaplainDMK"]

[QUOTE="JC346"]...And Justice for All - Metallica. It's still good, but it would be 10x better if it was produced better.Darth-Caedus

For some reason i love ...And justice for all's poor production. Sounded more raw and agressive then if it was squeaky clean. I know it was probably just a cheap trick to get more cash but to me it gave the album an eaven more rebelious tone.

Overall in my opinion its Metallica's finest work. It aint as new as KeA or RtL, or as epic as MoP but its just has a very evil tone that realy apeals to me.

At first i thought the same, but when i went trough the lyrics and listend a little harder i just noticed how twisted the songs were.

One - being a living carcass
Frayed Ends of Sanity - A man loosing his mind
Harvester of Sorrow - Man killing his family
Blackened - Destruction of earth
...And justice for all - Corruption of the law, politics
Shortest Straw - Being denied your freedom of speach (probably about the communist wich hunts)
Dyers Eve - Cruel reality of life, anger at parents (i think this was probably written by hetfield when his mother died and being instantly exposed to the unfair outside world)

etc.
As you can see (atleast to me) these lyrics are alot more... rebelious, evil, anger filled etc. then Metallica's previus work witch was usualy just a story of some event...

A lot of these problems are caused by production/mastering mindset at the time, and are usually not individual. There's also been a plethora of new "audio engineers" coming into the industry that are really just button jockeys and don't have proper ear training. With all the new technology coming out and the older guys being phased out, it doesn't surprise me that studios will actually let these people engineer these albums. Fortunately the industry is getting smarter about these kinds of things and hopefully the loudness wars are over.

-Betta

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]Separation Sunday, by The Hold Steady, sticks out for me as having bad production. The content is great, it's just the production is so lazily done and everything is off about it. Songwriting-wise, it's every bit the equal of their newest two albums, but production-wise it's not even close. They're suited for a cleanish rock production and they got a mangled low-fi result that doesn't mesh with their sound.PBSnipes

I was going to say that! Boys and Girls in America and Stay Positive aren't anything to write home about either, which speaks to just how awful Separation Sunday sounds.

Them Crooked Vultures...the album sucked anyway, but the production was just godawful. On par with the fiasco that was Death Magnetic.

All of the albums by Canibus

In Trance by Scorpions.

Most of the songs in it are just awesome and deserve a cover by the same band to compensate for that.

I KILLED THE THREAD!

[QUOTE="Wolf-Man2006"]

Metallica - St. Anger

I'm mentioning St. Anger because there are many points in the album where there are some major snare issues (you can hear their vibrations in the Some Kind Of Monster intro).

effena

All he did was turn his snare off, so all you hear is the sound of the snare skin and not the sound of the snare itself.

I see. Still a bit of a recording problem regardless.

All of the albums by Canibus

kozzy1234

We Are The Nightmare by Arsis wasn't too great. Bass is inaudible, guitars are too far in the front, vocals weren't great. A lot of people complained about the prominence of the drums, but I liked Darren Cescas work.

Badmorotfinger by Soundgarden. It doesn't sound full enough. Especially the drums. Compare a song from Superunkown to a song from Badmotorfinger and there is a big difference.