There are a million ways to ruin a recording. From bad mixes to an overzealous use of effects, and at any stage of the process, you can turn your hard work into something no one will ever want to listen to (or at least pay for). The point is some music isn’t fit for an audience. But sometimes, musicians and producers don’t seem to know the difference.
Take for example Tool’s 2001 album Lateralus:
I love Tool. They make complex music – a mix of heavy rock and metal played in difficult time signatures and laced with industrial sound throughout. Their lead singer, Maynard James Keenan is one of the most dynamic rock vocalists of our time. And they make it a point to write thoughtful (although usually angry) lyrics. So when I first listened to the album, I had one question: Where the hell are the vocals?
Mixing music is like pouring several glasses of water into one. It’s all about proportion—too much from one means not as much from another. Lateralus fell victim of pitting too many instrument tracks against the vocals. I’ve been told the lyrics tell a deep story about the nature of humanity, but I’ve never heard it. I would rebuy the album if it were remixed and remastered. But as it is, I just stash it away with the other CDs I’ll never listen to. I’m talking about you, Batman Returns soundtrack.
I wanted to ask some music listeners about the worst recordings they’ve ever heard, so I solicited some responses from Facebook.
Sometimes a recording can start out bad and just get worse from there. Todd Buckingham, a network engineer from Dayton, told me about his experience in high school with an infamously bad recording.
I love Tool. They make complex music – a mix of heavy rock and metal played in difficult time signatures and laced with industrial sound throughout. Their lead singer, Maynard James Keenan is one of the most dynamic rock vocalists of our time. And they make it a point to write thoughtful (although usually angry) lyrics. So when I first listened to the album, I had one question: Where the hell are the vocals?
Mixing music is like pouring several glasses of water into one. It’s all about proportion—too much from one means not as much from another. Lateralus fell victim of pitting too many instrument tracks against the vocals. I’ve been told the lyrics tell a deep story about the nature of humanity, but I’ve never heard it. I would rebuy the album if it were remixed and remastered. But as it is, I just stash it away with the other CDs I’ll never listen to. I’m talking about you, Batman Returns soundtrack.
I wanted to ask some music listeners about the worst recordings they’ve ever heard, so I solicited some responses from Facebook.
Sometimes a recording can start out bad and just get worse from there. Todd Buckingham, a network engineer from Dayton, told me about his experience in high school with an infamously bad recording.
“It was a song I liked. A local band trying to cover Kiss' “Rock and Roll all Night,” said Buckingham. “We had a TV studio in the high school and we reused the same track when we were making fun of something.”
Other times it’s not the musicians that ruin the recording, but a terrible engineer.
Richard Lykins, a manager at an engineering firm from Kettering, is a huge Metallica fan, but when he heard their album Death Magnetic, he did some research into why it sounded so bad.
“While the music was a return to classic Metallica type riffs, the recording itself is indeed crap. I’ve read in forums how a lot of music nowadays is recorded at high levels to try to be louder than the next guy, and this album was recorded in that manner. At the same output level, Death Magnetic seems like it may be 50% louder than say Master of Puppets. It’s like it’s intentionally recorded poorly,” says Lykins.
So some closing advice to recordists out there: Before you start handing out copies of your music to your friends or a distributor, find someone else to give it a critical listen and take their suggestions seriously. You don't want to end up an example of what not to do or the butt of a running joke at your local high school.
