It’s ignorant to blame Rick Rubin for the sins of the mixing and mastering engineers
 

I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember reading from multiple bands that it was something Rubin pushes for from engineers. Regardless, in looking at Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica (another rock band that only worked with him once), you can see those respective albums (Shiny 1 and Death Magnetic) were the only ones in the bands' catalogues to push the generally compressed and brick walled sound to the maximum. I actually thought Monuments to an Elegy and Cyr were some of the best sounding records the band did in a while (talking purely about sonics here; not songwriting or performances).

Funny thing is, I never really noticed just how insanely bad Shiny 1 sounded until someone made a thread about making a playlist of the best SP/WPC stuff from 2017-2020. The songs from Shiny sounded like a bad MP3 from 2002.

May I present to the court, Exhibit A:

https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/1...24bit_Download

i'm not clicking on that porno link

But I thought you liked cock?

it's clearly always been billy's fault. I can't imagine RR bothering to argue with Billy.

Billy "bla bla bla"
RR "do what ever you want - you obviously just pay me the big bucks to put my name on the record." as he rolls over to take a nap on the couch.

Exactly how I see that going. RR makes one suggestion, and he's like... "My work here is finished!" *chefs kiss

That's like saying "Don't blame Phil Spector for the wall of sound on almost everything Phil Spector produced"

Now some blame rr for the album shiny?
Before it was mike, then the guy who produced scheissgeist, then it was the absence of iha, then then then

Plesse accept that zhe magic is gone.... i mean we cannot expect a grannyband to rock like they did in their 20s when they were fighting to get sone radio play.

I have not heard a single pumpkins song on the radio for the last 3 years. Ah, sry once they played bullet


I am only here for a laugh...not for the shitty music

RR actually sort of handpicked the songs thst would become The Shiny oh so fucking bright vol 1.

sometimes when i'm sitting in the bathroom taking a monster shit and it just keeps on coming and i'm sitting there all quietly and ponderly like as drops of ripe sweat start to form and bulge on my tomatoesque forehead, i think to myself man you know what, like if SP 8 1/2 were to actually get a decent fucking producer, know what not just good like a GREAT ass fucking producer, somebody with proper taste and class and skill, someone who truly fucks, who could motivate them to come up with something real between them instead of all this bald eagle world domination "gotta compete" corporate rock band bullshit, and then MIX IT RIGHT like without this dusty old bored farting noise right neatly on top of subdued and heavily oppressed music, then i tell ya man they could really give us somethin', they can definitely give us somethin'

Other times, when I sit in the bathroom and poop, I keep walking, looking slowly there and meditating, because drops of sweat start to grow and swell on my forehead like a tomato. In my own son SP 8 1/2 who has a good entrepreneur, good taste, professional and qualified, as if he really had good manufacturing, I know they are not the only ones there, Really sex, they can be forced, rather than people under the control of the world eagles stand, put forward real ideas, the stupid stone company "must compete" I tell you, can if they give us something, they can give some of our Masu things

Is this that thing where you just keep on tapping the suggested word on your phone keyboard?

For the first time in the world is one of the universe is a complete list of the universe is a complete list of the universe is a

Mine runs into a loop fairly quickly.

Wait, you guys browse netphoria on your phones?

No it isn't.

Californication
Death Magnetic

Those two things alone convince me it's Rubin.

This doesn't happen with Cyr or Monuments, as mentioned above. Whatever their problems are, their drums aren't dry-sounding as shit the way they were on Shiny V1.

Guy makes rock albums sound like shit and has been for years. Blaming Billy for everything under the sun is fun and all but this wasn't on him

Anyone that chooses to work with Rick Rubin kind of brings it upon themselves when the record ends up sounding like shit.

It's exactly the same thing it really is truly.

i kno rite?

masochism at the highest level for real

If the brickwalling is the problem i'd usually blame it on the mastering. But maybe not in this case

producers aren't mastering engineers.

i am not a fan of rick rubin but i thought he did a good job with ogilala.

if a record was brickwalled hard it's basically either because the label or the artist themselves asked for it because they see themselves as big competitors in the music market

i really miss when music was mastered nice and softly and you could actually turn it up and hear the details and the parts lucidly and the music didn't sound like a fucking rolling trash can with heavy compressor breathing on it

warm take:
in 20 years people will regard the currently modern grotesque compression and loudness wars the same way we now think of 80's digital reverb and neon shoulder padding

Did someone say shoulder pads?!

The "wall of sound" has more to do with instrumentation and adding additional tracks than it has to do with mixing and mastering. Duh. Producers in the 60's had a different role than producers of today. Do your homework before you run to a greek chorus of idiots to ape you on. You do what you have to do you pig. but i'm telling you, you think you know what you are doing here with me, but you don't. If you just want to go to war, keep running your mouth.

it's only going to get worse, brother

Lol

You mean with nostalgia or disdain?

Because if it's the latter, I think people already do and have done for a long time now.