New CD´s sound is scaring the sh*t out of me

[Radiogal]

I´ve been working with this artists second album and have some additional recordings and editing left before the final mixes.

My artist came to my studio recently and wanted me to listen to some new Nashville records with Carry Underwood and Miranda Lamberts.
As a reference....

So my artist said she´d like her next album to sound like these new records with Carry and Miranda. "It´s the modern Nashville sound" she said.
She liked the narrow feeling of these records. The vocal sound..

She pressed the PLAY button: .......

Well, I got shocked, my heart starting crying out loud.
These albums suffered from distortion and lack of air. Everything was smashed in my face, sounding over compressed. All vocals were autotuned and they gave me the creeps.

All my values and ambitions aiming for the best sound quality and "only the best is good enough" got shot in the soul.

My statement: "I want my records to sound great even after 15 years from now". That´s why I don´t wanna adapt to much to "modern" sounding records as "the sound" will get out of time within a year from now, as mastering preferences will constantly change.
I want my records to be High Fidelity and usable as audio reference for HiFi nerds.. like Dire Straits "Brothers in arms" was back in the eighties when people still bought "sound quality" and put money in great sounding HiFi gear.

These modern records really sound like real CRAP to my ears.
It´s hurting me, my ears, my soul, my brain!!! And I can not understand why, why as these productions are done with million dollar gear and hot shot producers and musicians..

Do they really think THIS SOUNDS GREAT????
What?? Are they deaf???? It´s really scaring the sh*t out of me!

Why does it sound like they all use Behringer desks, Cubase LE, some bad sounding free plugins and using autotune on singers who do sing in perfect pitch to start with?????? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????

My heart is crying out loud! I really don´t wanna go there, ever!!!!!
HELP!!!

[FMiguelez]

.

I hear you, RadioGal...

The only thing you can do is try to educate your artists who WANT to be educated.

If you want to give them an example of a nice VS crappy production, I'd suggest:
Get a mastering engineer who specializes in making those "modern-sounding" records.
Send him one of your productions UNMastered and have him destroy it, like some of them do (squashed and limited, etc).

When you have a client who is NOT obsessed with the loudness wars, let him hear YOUR master of your production along with the one you sent to the mastering engineer.

Make them sound at the same relative volume. And show your artist the difference. Make him notice how an über loud track messes everything up. This way it is easy to do A/B comparisons.

If after this the artist STILL insists on being as loud as possible, then just shrug and cry!
Otherwise, he will be convinced and educated, and if he lets YOU do his production using YOUR style, he will be much happier and get a much better sounding album.

Just make sure they don't mind their songs being comparatively lower in volume than the rest of their iTunes library.

There is already the new generation who grew up on only über-loud mp3s. The ones who listen and judge their stuff on earbuds... to think they NEVER listened to a great-sounding CD (pre-1995) or LP is just sad... they don't know what they are missing

Now, as you just realized, you will be confronted with either: pleasing the client making things "their way" (bad sounding) and doing productions that will make you shiver (in a bad way), OR you being happy and proud of your production (but with an unhappy client)

[KEVORKIAN]

Geez... I just checked out the first song on the latest Carrie Underwood CD to get an idea of what you described and it is clearly distorted even on iTunes!!!!!!!!

That's just plain awful.

[Radiogal]

Yeah, with these bad sound references one can ask ourselves why we should care buying expensive high quality gear at all??? We could save ourselves a lot of money!!!

Well I signed this artist to my label for a long time ago. This is our second album together. She´s reasonable and saw me suffer. We joked about it too.
Fortunately I´m in the drivers seat recording, producing and releasing it all. So in the end this record will be as I want it to be. It´s going to be a great sounding follow up album after all, otherwise I won´t release it.

It´s just so disapointing to see "the crap quality flue" infected my artist...too.

[KEVORKIAN]

Yeah, with these bad sound references one can ask ourselves why we should care buying expensive high quality gear at all??? We could save ourselves a lot of money!!!

The only hope for higher fidelity in the near future is as bandwidth and storage space increase, hopefully people will move to lossless formats as they are already widely supported.

Although it's sad that in 2010 this is the best that can be hoped for.

[NazRat]

You're in it for Love or Money. It's usually clear where someone else is at. If you're in it for Love, you still have to embrace Money.

[newrigel]

I´ve been working with this artists second album and have some additional recordings and editing left before the final mixes.

My artist came to my studio recently and wanted me to listen to some new Nashville records with Carry Underwood and Miranda Lamberts.
As a reference....

So my artist said she´d like her next album to sound like these new records with Carry and Miranda. "It´s the modern Nashville sound" she said.
She liked the narrow feeling of these records. The vocal sound..

She pressed the PLAY button: .......

Well, I got shocked, my heart starting crying out loud.
These albums suffered from distortion and lack of air. Everything was smashed in my face, sounding over compressed. All vocals were autotuned and they gave me the creeps.

All my values and ambitions aiming for the best sound quality and "only the best is good enough" got shot in the soul.

My statement: "I want my records to sound great even after 15 years from now". That´s why I don´t wanna adapt to much to "modern" sounding records as "the sound" will get out of time within a year from now, as mastering preferences will constantly change.
I want my records to be High Fidelity and usable as audio reference for HiFi nerds.. like Dire Straits "Brothers in arms" was back in the eighties when people still bought "sound quality" and put money in great sounding HiFi gear.

These modern records really sound like real CRAP to my ears.
It´s hurting me, my ears, my soul, my brain!!! And I can not understand why, why as these productions are done with million dollar gear and hot shot producers and musicians..

Do they really think THIS SOUNDS GREAT????
What?? Are they deaf???? It´s really scaring the sh*t out of me!

Why does it sound like they all use Behringer desks, Cubase LE, some bad sounding free plugins and using autotune on singers who do sing in perfect pitch to start with?????? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????

My heart is crying out loud! I really don´t wanna go there, ever!!!!!
HELP!!!

They're called "trend setters" and people follow instead of lead. They use autotune because if they sing good, they wouldn't use it! What GREAT singers use autotune? None that I know of anyway. Yes the kiddie music uses it but it's trend and that doesn't stand the test of time. But don't you know that that stuff is done by "musical geniuses?" The trend has even worked its way into country which is hilarious IMO.

[newrigel]

Geez... I just checked out the first song on the latest Carrie Underwood CD to get an idea of what you described and it is clearly distorted even on iTunes!!!!!!!!

That's just plain awful.

And they most likely won a grammy too he he!

[mhschmieder]

The scary thing is that there is now a creeping trend to introduce the Loudness Wars to classical and jazz CD's!

I feel sorry for you having to deal with this issue on material that would not historically have been "pushed" at all. Sounds similar to the disaster that was Paul Simon's latest CD a couple of years back.

[jroadrage]

Yeah, with these bad sound references one can ask ourselves why we should care buying expensive high quality gear at all??? We could save ourselves a lot of money!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm sure that there is some legitimate science behind a lot of the claims made by some high end audio gear manufacturers but I think that the law of diminishing returns is becoming increasingly apparent as the consuming public becomes more and more tuned to hearing waveforms that look like 2X4s. It's like spending thousands of dollars on a fine wine to serve at a dinner party after your guests have each polished off a gallon of turpentine.

[Pappy725]

You're in it for Love or Money. It's usually clear where someone else is at. If you're in it for Love, you still have to embrace Money.

Dude! That sounds like a great hook. You need to write the rest of that song!

RadioGal, I'm with you on this one. What's the use of trying to be musical if all that's going to happen is it all gets crushed in mastering? Hang in there, show that girl the truth. (or let her listen to it)

Praise (your deity here) for people, um, musicians like you!

Pappy

[Phil O]

These modern records really sound like real CRAP to my ears.

I haven't heard the latest Carie Underwood CD, but now you're making me want to buy it just to hear what you're talking about. It's sad to hear that Nashville is going that route. Nashville was our last bastion of hope for quality sound. I feel your pain, RG. I've become over-sensitized to AutoTune myself (not to mention over use of compression). I can pick it out of a mix without trying. It is so annoying that it sticks out like a sore thumb. And yet it has become a popular effect, particularly in hip hop. I can't stand it!

My advice is stick to your guns. Make the best recording you can and try to educate your client. One of the comments I get most about my recordings is I get great sounding vocals. I'll let you in on my trade secret...I simply don't compress the hell out of them. A good performance on a good mic and a good pre usually results in a track that needs very little processing. And that's the way I like it.

Hang in there girl. Some battles are worth fighting!

Phil

[newrigel]

These modern records really sound like real CRAP to my ears.

I haven't heard the latest Carie Underwood CD, but now you're making me want to buy it just to hear what you're talking about. It's sad to hear that Nashville is going that route. Nashville was our last bastion of hope for quality sound. I feel your pain, RG. I've become over-sensitized to AutoTune myself (not to mention over use of compression). I can pick it out of a mix without trying. It is so annoying that it sticks out like a sore thumb. And yet it has become a popular effect, particularly in hip hop. I can't stand it!

My advice is stick to your guns. Make the best recording you can and try to educate your client. One of the comments I get most about my recordings is I get great sounding vocals. I'll let you in on my trade secret...I simply don't compress the hell out of them. A good performance on a good mic and a good pre usually results in a track that needs very little processing. And that's the way I like it.

Hang in there girl. Some battles are worth fighting!

Phil

A vocalist with great technique can sound phenomenal with compression... a hack singer well... like a hack.

[zed]

Geez... I just checked out the first song on the latest Carrie Underwood CD to get an idea of what you described and it is clearly distorted even on iTunes!!!!!!!!

That's just plain awful.

Yeah, I did too. It is horrendous. It is hard to imagine that anyone could stand listening to that for very long.

Feel free to torture yourselves, right here: http://www.amazon.com/Play-On/dp/B002TT ... 8&sr=301-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Do they really think THIS SOUNDS GREAT????
What?? Are they deaf???? It´s really scaring the sh*t out of me!

It is difficult to imagine what they may be thinking. With all the money behind such a project, and all the finest gear, and the supposedly "talented" people involved, it makes no sense to have produced recordings that sound so awful.

[johnnytucats]

I hate it also. This has to be contributing in some small way to decreasing record sales...if one doesn't feel good after listening to one's new CD purchase, one is unlikely to make another such purchase.

I was in Nashville when this trend took off. The pop world was, of course, already there. Part of the problem is the fact that radio compresses the music so much and makes a good mix with dynamic range sound just plain weird. The producer/record company thinking is, "If it's gonna be smashed and crappy, let's at least be in control of it."

Soon it made its way to demos. Publishers and songwriters know that on a pitch tape or compilation of songs under consideration for an artist that the loud ones are going to get more attention.

I hope someday engineers will be taking the best tracks of this era and giving them a remix...a mix with more dynamic range.

BTW, does anyone else here think that, in addition to whatever else they did, on the new remastered Beatles albums they've done a good bit of this sort of squashing?