I've been annoyed by many mixes over the years, but some stand out more than others.

You know the ones - you're sitting there thinking, "What the fuck were they thinking making the vocals so loud?".

I'll start:

Tortoise - It's All Around You

I quite like this album, but the first 3 songs have a bass mix that is almost impossible to listen to on any sound system without a dedicated subwoofer. It's just waaaaaaaay too bass-heavy in my opinion.

My speakers start shaking with low-end madness if I try to turn this up, and that makes me reach for the EQ, which I hate doing. If I listen to the CD in my car, it feels like my head is going to explode.

Seriously, Tortoise, what the fuck was with the bass levels?

OK, now give me your mix peeves.

Karate's "Unsolved"

I don't believe there is any compression on the mix, so it's not very "loud" to begin with. But the 3rd track, "Sever", which is pretty "rockin" compared to the rest of the album, is significantly lower in volume than everything else.

Turn them shits up.

Guided by Voices Propeller. What a fucking classic record, but the whole thing sounds like shit. The mix is bad, there's a ton of tape noise. If you can hear the vocals, you can't hear the guitars and vice versa. It sounds like they recorded it on a fucking cheap 4 track in the basement or something.*

Geez!


















*Sarcasm

Are You Are Missing The Winner by the Fall sounds really weird. Almost as though some the songs aren't completely mixed or mastered, the levels are all over the place, sometimes the vocals are super loud, other times they are at normal level. There also doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason to anything sound quality-wise to the whole record, which probably can be simply chalked up to them rushing through the whole thing The last track seems like MES "rapping" over either the drummer tuning up or a looped drum track, "highlights" from the album It can be a very disorentating listen. Of course I'm not complaining

Zoo Psychology by the Ex Models, there is something that I really don't like about the mix of this record, I can't ever put my finger on it, but for some reason it really hard for to get into this record and I think its because of the mix.

I can't remember which tracks but a couple off that newest Deerhoof were mixed real weird. I think they hard panned things like vocals and bass lines for some bizarre reason.

I am not really too much a fan of these guys, and some may disagree, but i think that new Broken Social Scene record is just plain irritating. Too much mess in the mix... i think they wanted it that way, but i had to turn the damn thing off at a certain point... to much unpleasent Mid range.

Pants

Iggy's remix of Raw Power. It doesn't sound "real" to me, but it may be because I have the original mix memorized and experience a disconnect whenever I hear that boosted bass and drums.

Lilys - Touch the Water

It's a very 60s, mod sounding sogn, pretty cool. Then this guitar golo comes in and ducks the whole mix! It's just brutal and I can't tell if it's just a slow compressor ducking the mix or if it was done by hand.

I was totally confused, but now I love it.

The whole super compressed low end on the first Interpol album is getting to me when I hear those songs nowadays.

Ben Adrian

Peripatetic wrote:Guided by Voices Propeller. What a fucking classic record, but the whole thing sounds like shit. The mix is bad, there's a ton of tape noise. If you can hear the vocals, you can't hear the guitars and vice versa. It sounds like they recorded it on a fucking cheap 4 track in the basement or something.Geez!

It was. Tascam Porta 07.


The Fall - Are You Are Missing Winner.
I've heard bad mixes, this one is just plain frustrating.

Warehouse: Songs and Stories by Hüsker Dü.

It's really bad. Just not what guitars, bass and drums sound like.

But it was 1987....