Interview with producer John Shanks about ADKOT

[ZahZoo]

Way too much compression and packing the whole sonic range full of noise just really kills ADKOT... I have no idea why these dumbasses mixing/mastering rock music think this adds value to the recordings... As I've said before... cramming a size 12 woman into a pair of size 5 pants doesn't work!!

What's odd... there's some really well mixed/mastered pop music being produced. Unfortunately I don't care much for the music but the quality of the sound dynamics is top notch. Heard something from Bruno Mars recently that felt like it came straight out of 60's/70's from a sound quality mix... So I know there's industry people who aren't fucking deaf in the mixing room!

[Von Halen]

Interview with producer John Shanks about ADKOT

I have a question for you mixologists. (Calm down Sesh, I'm talking music, not booze) What Exactly is the benefit of compressing the music? Why are they doing it at all, if it muddies up the sound?

I listen to a lot of new music. A lot of heavier stuff. Those guys seem to know how to mix. I don't know if it's because they aren't overthinking it, or what. I know Avatar is too heavy for most of you homo's, but that band seems to be mixed well, album after album. The first time I saw them live, I didn't expect the same sonic thunder I heard on the recorded music. Especially from the drums. But damned if they don't have it figured out.

I think with VH, it's like every other aspect of what they've become. They just over think everything. Probably a similar phenomenon to Ed's "tone chasing". The guy had one of the greatest most recognizable tones in the history of music, and he's done nothing but fuck it up. If he wants to chase tone, and sound different, he should do it on other projects. Let Van Halen sound like Van Halen.

I remember when the third Boston album came out, and a friend said "It sounds like Boston." Well yeah dumbass. It is Boston. That's their sound.

The formula that made these bands successful is the right formula! Stick the fuck with it! It's not like when I was young, and bands were putting out albums every 6 months or so. When you're putting out an album once a decade, it should be even easier to stick to the formula.

[Nickdfresh]

The only thing Sesh mixes with vodka is ice and saliva...

[FORD]

The way I understand it, all this "compression" bullshit in modern music production is done for the benefit of the MP3 crowd. Since lossy formats like MP3 are called "lossy" because they lose a lot of the frequencies on both the top & bottom ends of the sound. So when you want people to buy your music in a lossy format (via Itunes or whatever) then you take the lazy way out and mix it for that market, and then use the same mix for the CDs (or god forbid, vinyl... though I do remember somebody previously posting on this board that the vinyl version of ADKOT sounded different than the CD. Haven't heard it myself, so I'm not the authority on that)

[DavidLeeNatra]

The way I understand it, all this "compression" bullshit in modern music production is done for the benefit of the MP3 crowd. Since lossy formats like MP3 are called "lossy" because they lose a lot of the frequencies on both the top & bottom ends of the sound. So when you want people to buy your music in a lossy format (via Itunes or whatever) then you take the lazy way out and mix it for that market, and then use the same mix for the CDs (or god forbid, vinyl... though I do remember somebody previously posting on this board that the vinyl version of ADKOT sounded different than the CD. Haven't heard it myself, so I'm not the authority on that)

That "someone" was good ole Gregory...

It's like the "committee" Dave used for the Skyscraper mix...a bunch of Ghetto blaster and walkmen because "that's what the kids will use to listen to the album". Adkot sounds nice in my car but not half as good on my studio monitors. Skyscraper sounds thin and shitty everywhere.

Compression is for radio and mp3 but terrible if you don't listen on headphones or on a cellphone.

They became fucking studio rats. And Shanks is a pop producer. Not a good mixture. If you want a back to the roots vintage album sound visit the Stones' "Blue and lonesome". They reduced to the max.

[FORD]

Gregory probably sold his vinyl copy after Alex Jones told him the vinyl was some sort of Jewish Lizard Commie Conspiracy to turn him gay (or whatever)

[ZahZoo]

I have a question for you mixologists. (Calm down Sesh, I'm talking music, not booze) What Exactly is the benefit of compressing the music? Why are they doing it at all, if it muddies up the sound?

Technically compression packs more noise into a small frequency range... in a simple math example... normal range is 1-10 compressed range is 3-7. Then while they pack it all in a smaller box they boost virtually every frequency. Like setting your bass, mids and treble tone settings to 11...

It's all meant to make it sound big coming out of tiny ear-buds or shit speakers on a phone or computer.

[Terry]

Technically compression packs more noise into a small frequency range... in a simple math example... normal range is 1-10 compressed range is 3-7. Then while they pack it all in a smaller box they boost virtually every frequency. Like setting your bass, mids and treble tone settings to 11...

It's all meant to make it sound big coming out of tiny ear-buds or shit speakers on a phone or computer.

With ADKOT, I have primarily listened to it via cd through speakers on either a boom box or a car stereo. I've also listened to the tracks via headphones through my hard drive, and headphones from my boom box.

In every instance, when the volume is turned up loud, the clarity noticeably diminishes and the sound becomes blurred/muddy.

At lower levels, the sound is ok (in terms of clarity, at least).

[ZahZoo]

Gave ADKOT a listen last week... Another thing that muddies the mix is Wolfgang using way too much overdrive/distortion with his bass. Tone wise it's really similar to Ed's distortion tone and combined they are sharing too many of the same frequencies. The songs where the bass isn't over-driven sound much better... IMO.

The mix also has very little stereo separation... Sounds like everyone other Al's kit is upfront and centered rather than splitting things left/right. Overall it could be a much better album if it were mixed and mastered more like the traditional methods employed from 70's/80's...

[DONNIEP]

Gave ADKOT a listen last week... Another thing that muddies the mix is Wolfgang

I couldn't agree more.

[Seshmeister]

He sounds so frightened of the band 5 years later, it's easy to imagine that he wouldn't have taken them on even if they were making decisions he didn't agree with.

I don't think this would have been the producer/band dynamic you saw with Metallica and Bob Rock.

So you have Ed who professes to never listening to any music at all for the last 30 years, Alex who is deaf with severe tinnitus and the inexperienced Wolfgang calling the shots for the music recording.

[bru87tr]

The way I understand it, all this "compression" bullshit in modern music production is done for the benefit of the MP3 crowd. Since lossy formats like MP3 are called "lossy" because they lose a lot of the frequencies on both the top & bottom ends of the sound. So when you want people to buy your music in a lossy format (via Itunes or whatever) then you take the lazy way out and mix it for that market, and then use the same mix for the CDs (or god forbid, vinyl... though I do remember somebody previously posting on this board that the vinyl version of ADKOT sounded different than the CD. Haven't heard it myself, so I'm not the authority on that)

The vinyl sounds like shit too. Better shit, but still shit.

Really sucks too, cause it is a really good album.