Albums you wish were recorded/produced with better quality?

[MeatheadMike]

I vote for Static Age by The Misfits (or really anything by the Misfits in the Danzig era).

The songs are punk rock cult classics (especially this time of year)... but sadly they sound like the recording engineer coated all the microphones with a thick layer of hot mud. I assume the band probably had about 30 minutes of total studio time and payed for it with a big jar of loose change they had from bottle deposits.

 

[HHJ]

Immolation - Failures for Gods.


I really like Misfits production.

 

[Losfer Words]

I against I - Bad Brains

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Everything Charlie Parker ever recorded.
Metallica's Ride the Lightning

 

[zuffazombee]

Almost anything by Guided By Voices. They've got a ton of phenomenal songs that are completely ruined by the ridiculously lo-fi recording & production.

 

[ArchGoat]

Sometimes I wish some Black Metal was better produced because alot of times the mix is not good. Im not complaining I appreciate it for what it is bad production and all but would be nice if the sound was clearer if Im going to name an album in particular well here's alot but I'll go with Chthonic Seediq Bale the drums are too low in the mix I like Blast Beats to be loud and assault my eardrums but here the drums are too low.

 

[JSN]

In the Nightside Eclipse by Emperor. The sound quality is next level bad. Static Age sounds like it was produced by Brian Eno compared to that record.

This is a perfect example. When they first kind of grunt gutturally or when they first scream, that should have so much more impact.

 

[Chomsky Honk]

Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness

 

[squeezewax]

The second Queen lp is my favourite but i rarely play it because the bass is very low in the mix, and it sounds tinny. The first album sounded perfect yet they must of listened to the second in the studio and agreed it sounded better than the first. How???

 

[MeatheadMike]

Immolation - Failures for Gods.


I really like Misfits production.

I get that punk rock is supposed to be a little raw/gritty and gets ruined when its over-proceeded, but even if you compare Misfits recordings from the 70s & 80s to other punk acts at the time (Ramones, The Clash etc) the Misfits production was light years behind...

I feel like a small child equipped with one of these could have recorded a better album than the Misfits in terms of sound quality

The songs deserved better imo,

 

[MeatheadMike]

Everything Charlie Parker ever recorded.

Yea it really sucks listening to lots of stuff recorded in those early days, in terms of quality.

Metallica's Ride the Lightning

It could have been better, but if I had to choose a Metallica record, I would pick Justice For all hands down. There's no bass whatsoever on the whole album, and the guitars are shrill and scratchy as all hell... could have been produced so much better.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Yea it really sucks listening to lots of stuff recorded in those early days, in terms of quality.



It could have been better, but if I had to choose a Metallica record, I would pick Justice For all hands down. There's no bass whatsoever on the whole album, and the guitars are shrill and scratchy as all hell... could have been produced so much better.

Agreed.
I meant in terms of Metallica albums I love; by the time they released Justice, I could see the writing on the wall.

Hell, I'd've been happy with the "not very produced by Metallica" Garage Days production.

 

[Satanical Eve]

Immolation - Failures for Gods.


I really like Misfits production.

I do love the Misfits production as well and it fits with the way the music is played.

For me I have a few albums that definitely should have been mixed and mastered properly from the beginning but weren't.

In regards to my favorite band Metallica it is the albums ...And Justice For All (Remember the where's the beef commercials for Wendys well this is the music version of that where's the bass), St. Anger (turn the fucking snare on Lars), Death Magnetic (Rick Rubin produced this and as usual Rick and company made album sound like it was bricked and suffered from major clipping issues. Rubin used to be a good producer in the mixing phase of production back in the 80's to mid 90's then in 1999 Red Hot Chili Peppers came out with Californication produced by Rubin and it was bricked and sounded too loud and had clipping issues)

 

[Fedorgasm]

St. Anger (turn the fucking snare on Lars)

The sound on St. Anger was terrible. I never even got to find out if I liked those songs or not because I couldn't even get through a 2nd listen.

Also, I loved Body Count growing up, but murder4hire had a really bad sound mix.

 

[Final Rehab]

Megadeth's first 3 albums, Killing Is My Business...and Business is Good!, Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? and So Far, So Good...So What! are great thrash metal, well-written and well performed but with terrible production, although Peace Sells is slightly the better of the three.

To @Overpressure and @MeatheadMike, if you haven't already you need to youtube "...And Justice For Jason" and "Cliff the Lightening" to hear those albums with enhanced/added bass. It's really like listening to them for the first time, I highly recommend the experience.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Megadeth's first 3 albums, Killing Is My Business...and Business is Good!, Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? and So Far, So Good...So What! are great thrash metal, well-written and well performed but with terrible production, although Peace Sells is slightly the better of the three.

To @Overpressure and @MeatheadMike, if you haven't already you need to youtube "...And Justice For Jason" and "Cliff the Lightening" to hear those albums with enhanced/added bass. It's really like listening to them for the first time, I highly recommend the experience.

Have listened to the AJFA with bass and it's pretty good that's for sure. What I will say is that I agree Justice was poorly produced but it really didn't affect the album's success I don't think, the quality of the songs is most important out of anything.

When you think about Metallica's discography, you could say that Kill Em All, Justice, St Anger and Death Magnetic were all poorly produced. Hell you could even make an argument that the Black Album was overproduced!

 

[Monkadelic]

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Metallica - ...and Justice for All
Smashing Pumpkins - Machina
Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night

Just a few I can think of off my head.

 

[MeatheadMike]

Have listened to the AJFA with bass and it's pretty good that's for sure. What I will say is that I agree Justice was poorly produced but it really didn't affect the album's success I don't think, the quality of the songs is most important out of anything.

When you think about Metallica's discography, you could say that Kill Em All, Justice, St Anger and Death Magnetic were all poorly produced. Hell you could even make an argument that the Black Album was overproduced!

Yea I've heard it before and just checked it out again. What a difference right... especially on AJFA. James completely scooped the mids out of his guitar amp because he thought it sounded heavy, and wanted Jason's bass turned down so it wouldn't compete with the guitar's low end sound. But instead of sounding heavy on the record, the guitars sound like scratchy tin cans. Lots of guitarists don't realize how much the bass guitar actually contributes to the rhythm guitar's overall tone on a record.

This is why bands should not have their noses in the mixing/mastering process and should just let the engineers do their job.

You should also check out the infamous St. Anger trash can snare mixed into Master of Puppets... good for a laugh...

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Yea I've heard it before and just checked it out again. What a difference right... especially on AJFA. James completely scooped the mids out of his guitar amp because he thought it sounded heavy, and wanted Jason's bass turned down so it wouldn't compete with the guitar's low end sound. But instead of sounding heavy on the record, the guitars sound like scratchy tin cans. Lots of guitarists don't realize how much the bass guitar actually contributes to the rhythm guitar's overall tone on a record.

This is why bands should not have their noses in the mixing/mastering process and should just let the engineers do their job.

You should also check out the infamous St. Anger trash can snare mixed into Master of Puppets... good for a laugh...

Lol I have heard that Puppets one before, fucking funny and hard to imagine that snare made a professional album by anyone, let along Metallica.