JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Gotta get a bad album off my chest...away from artist website

Another album I have to vent about...of course I will not name names...

This is a pop album, by the way.

Imagine good writing expressed by a lovely, delicate female vocal.

You would think that vocal would be front and center (as most vocals should anyway). But instead imagine that voice SMOTHERED in heavy drums, guitar, classical strings, and god help us -- BRASS. The instrumentation is bad enough, but they are all roughly equal in the mix...you can barely hear the artist! She's in there trying, but the clueless producer makes her vocal compete with the drums and all else. A much lighter touch is called for...an experienced jazz producer might have known what to do with this artist.

Unfortunately, the producer of the album is.......wait for it..........THE ARTIST. She did this to herself, apparently. There is one possible explanation, though. There is another person credited as 'artistic producer' and 'co-arranger'.

I bought the CD from the girl herself at a live show the other night, with one guitar and one mandolin accompanying her. Wonderful, excellent performance, and totally different from what I hear on the CD.

I'm not gonna tell her though. She's already gotten a couple of good reviews from the music pubs, so what do I know?

But man, if I got my paws on the multi-tracks, I would make a very different mix. (Maybe this is why I often prefer demos to released tracks many times.)

Humm,
If I didn't know better I would supect you were listening to ZUUS Country. Most of the background music is so ragged and jumbled up as to suggest a tornado in a car wreck to a thunderstorm. Where those artists learned how to play music is a mystery to me. Write on!

I think sometimes we look way to deep into these things.

Sometimes, and most times the sound is how the artist wanted it, just as they wanted their melodies, and their lyrics.

It's nice to listen to something without overthinking. Not like our demos sound any better to somebody else.

If you break down a hit song, you could find a million things wrong if you want to, but it's still a hit, somebody is liking it

I have never bought pop albums for that reason plus many others. Then again, some people would think that my chosen music (bluegrass) is bad, but then again, not everyone likes the same thing.

Usually when vocals are buried it is because the producer (or the engineer who often is the REAL producer especially when the artist is listed as the producer) is into guitars or drums or bass or using all his sliders at once.

When it is vocals too low and it is truly mixed that way by the vocalist on purpose, it is usually lack of confidence in herself as a singer. I find that often is the case.

You have every right as a fan to tell her what you thought of it.

Ironically, I know a GREAT female rock artist who has won a plethora of awards put out an album, in the middle of many amazing ones before and after it, where her vocals were buried and she let it got to the duplicators that way and couldn't do anything about it once she realized how buried she really was.

Always listen to your mixes in an average old car stereo among the multiple places you should test it out. It might have sounded awesome in the studio with perfect everything, but in a care or laptop or mp3 player it sucks. Happens all the time.

Let her know, in a nice way, as a fan who loves her voice and BOUGHT the CD. That feedback MATTERS believe me!

Brian

Just a side note but I believe that it's pertinent to Brian's quote. According to Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, John Lennon was insecure about his own singing voice and actually hated it. Emerick used to double track Lennon's lead vocals to his satisfaction.

Exactly. Goes back to the point, that an artists release is usually how they want it to be. What we think is wrong or off, is the way they wanted it. We cant assume that they are just plain deaf

Im not sure if the OP was referring to popular artists, or some artist on soundclick or somewhere like that, which changes everything.

My favorite artists never asked me how their music should sound, or what I think they should write, they just do it.

And I rarely if ever said "gee that sound is terrible" just usually never is. If I want to hear terrible sound, I have to look no further than my own recordings!

Eris Clapton has said he wishes he could bury his vocals as well as JJ Cale did. They were buried but you could hear it clearly. If the vocal is too up front it's usually a sign of a bad mix. There is a delicate line between too up front and too far back in a mix. Ultimately the vocals should sound like a natural blend with the rest of the music. A vocal is after all just another instrument in the song.

I sometimes think that today's Artists and Producers have too many gadgets to play with when doing a recording.

For a couple of songs that were made before stereo and represent what a finished product should sound like Google these songs and take a listen to the Mix.
THE WILD SIDE OF LIFE Hank Thompson and
THE WAYWARD WIND Gogi Grant.