How to ruin a perfectly good album

GhostInTheRuins

A few years ago I got a loan of Nevermore's Enemies of Reality off a guy I worked with. I listened to it and couldn't believe how **** it sounded, it was like I was listening to it underwater, so I forgot about it as it was impossible to listen to. Then a few months ago I finally got my hands on the remixed and remastered version and I have to say it's now one of my favourite ablums. The sound is so improved it's shocking.

It just goes to show what a can happen to a great album when it's left in the wrong hands and mixed by incompetent fools.

Has anyone else got examples of albums that could have otherwise been great if it wasn't for how they were mixed/produced?. The only other one that springs to mind is Black Sabbath's Born Again, that had potential, but unfortunately all you could hear was bass and drums.

Moojuice

Nevermind by Nirvana. It is hard to listen to as it is so overproduced. In Uetro is so much better, the production style suits the music perfectly. Nevermind has too much of a sonic sheen to it.

Creamy Goodness

biffy clyro - puzzle

shows the awful side to gggarth and he had some cracking one eg. rage against the machine.

Mossy Monk

Moojuice wrote:

Nevermind by Nirvana. It is hard to listen to as it is so overproduced. In Uetro is so much better, the production style suits the music perfectly. Nevermind has too much of a sonic sheen to it.

Couldn't agree more. I always thought In Utero was the better sounding.

Den_M

Yeah the difference the Andy Sneap mix made was unbelievable. there's layers of guitars that were buried in the mix before.

GhostInTheRuins

Den_M wrote:

Yeah the difference the Andy Sneap mix made was unbelievable. there's layers of guitars that were buried in the mix before.

The worst thing about it is that was the first time I'd heard them and instantly presumed all their other albums sounded the same, pity, all those years I've been missing out haha.

I'm just looking at the EoR booklet and it says it's originally produced engineered and mixed by Kelly Gray. Is that the same Kelly Gray that was in Queensryche for a few years do you know?

mike65

I only have a couple of clunkers - A Cheap Trick album The Doctor by
Tony Platt who killed what songs there are with an array of tricks and over compression. Its like being slapped for 40 mins.

Nobodys Perfect (live) by Deep Purple is bad, hard to know if its the
soundboard or what was done with the tapes afterwards.

Mike.

Karl Hungus

I had a similar experience when Enemies of Reality came out.

I'd liked them before, as my introduction to the band was Dead Heart In A Dead World, but when I heard Enemies, I pretty much didn't listen to them again untill This Godless Endevour came out, but with a renewed interest in the band I then got the Andy Sneap remix of the Enemies, and now it's probably my favourite of theirs.

SirLemonhead

Rogues En Vogue by Running Wild

The guitar tone has to be heard to be (un)appreciated.

It sounds like fizz ran through about 3 wah pedals.

spiritcrusher

Didn't Kelly Gray make an absolute fvck-up of another another album from a different band? I remember reading that a while back. If it's true the man shouldn't be let in the door of a recording/mixing studio again.

Den_M

It was strange because Dead Heart...sounded great for the time and then along came Enemies which sounded like it weas recorded underwater. I remember hearing it for the 1st time and still being wowed though cos the riffs were unbelievable.

A Primal Nut

...And Justice For All is probably is the obvious one what with lack of bass altough I don't mind it. Could have been better though. Speaking of Metallica, St. Anger as well although that would have been ****e anyway.

Malice

A Primal Nut wrote:

...And Justice For All is probably is the obvious one what with lack of bass altough I don't mind it.

I was going to say Justice For All Too. The absence of the bass from the mix really annoyed me when I heard it first. Then I realised how horrible and squelchy the drums sound. There are some absolutely awesome songs on the album but they're ruined by the mix

judas101

Moojuice wrote:

Nevermind by Nirvana. It is hard to listen to as it is so overproduced. In Uetro is so much better, the production style suits the music perfectly. Nevermind has too much of a sonic sheen to it.

overproduced - maybe, but brilliantly over-produced if you get me.

The job Vig did on that album is the only reason Nirvana became mainstream. We wouldnt know who they were otherwise.

On topic, a lot of the old jethro tull stuff had horrible mixes. remastered stuff sounds way better.

Corruptedmorals

In Utero sounds deliberately 'rawer', Kurt wanted it that way to alienate the Nevermind fans.

As for EoR, never heard the old version, always passed it by because the cover art sickened me. The remix has it in negative- not sickening! Good choice to wait, it seems.

JC 2K3

One of early Dinosaur Jr.'s best points was that they're so raw, yet the production on Dinosaur is just too bad. On the other hand, I felt later Dino albums(after YLAOM and Bug) were far too cleanly produced.