Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[stip]

I think it's important to differentiate here. Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea are professional guys who know exactly what they are doing. It is not definitely not shitty when looking at it from the perspective "Did they manage to make it sound exactly like they wanted to?". This is a how a lot of people want modern rock to sound and these guys managed to do that. This is well produced and mixed in that sense. There are no faults or accidents here.
Of course Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea didn't listen to this and think it sounds bad. This is how all their stuff sounds like. This is what they are good at. The only question is if you like their style of production. I personally think it sounds like shit because I really don't like their sleek and loud style. But that is what it is: A style. A choice. The music sound full on and loud and present.

i think we needed this post about 200 pages ago, Mike

I confess I LIKE how DM sounds so far and i listen almost exclusively through decent headphones. Full on and loud and present is exactly right. Perhaps this wont be as effective on some of the more atmospheric songs, which were largely absent on earthlings - but on my way sounds great

[Mike]

I think it's important to differentiate here. Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea are professional guys who know exactly what they are doing. It is not definitely not shitty when looking at it from the perspective "Did they manage to make it sound exactly like they wanted to?". This is a how a lot of people want modern rock to sound and these guys managed to do that. This is well produced and mixed in that sense. There are no faults or accidents here.
Of course Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea didn't listen to this and think it sounds bad. This is how all their stuff sounds like. This is what they are good at. The only question is if you like their style of production. I personally think it sounds like shit because I really don't like their sleek and loud style. But that is what it is: A style. A choice. The music sound full on and loud and present.

i think we needed this post about 200 pages ago, Mike

Those 200 pages were very fun, though

[Mike]

Fun fact: We might get TWO Serban Ghenea mixed records on the 19th! He mixed every Taylor Swift record since Red and we get a new one on the 19th

[Anders]

I think that could have a greater influence on the music, than the lyrics. The music for Gigaton was always created over time. But the explanation for how Ed made the lyrics, sounded a bit more spontaneous. Also Dark Matter did take a couple of years to finish as well, so might have had some time for Ed to do a little fixing on it.

One of the reviewers claimed that this record feels like Ed had given up the reigns over to Stone, at least music wise.

I lay awake at night hoping for more Stone influence on Pearl Jam. So I can only hope.

[Ms Harmless]

I do have (small) issues with the drums, but they are issues I've had with Pearl Jam's drums ever since Matt Cameron joined; they didn't begin with Watt and they won't end with him; I don't have a problem with the rest of the music, glossy as it is, and to be fair on Matt, he's playing his ass off here and he sounds great when he's trying

I've been thinking about the difference between the drum fill into verse 1 of Mind Your Manners, compared to the drum fill into the solo of Dark Matter; it's... a stark difference

[Ms Harmless]

I think it's important to differentiate here. Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea are professional guys who know exactly what they are doing. It is not definitely not shitty when looking at it from the perspective "Did they manage to make it sound exactly like they wanted to?". This is a how a lot of people want modern rock to sound and these guys managed to do that. This is well produced and mixed in that sense. There are no faults or accidents here.
Of course Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea didn't listen to this and think it sounds bad. This is how all their stuff sounds like. This is what they are good at. The only question is if you like their style of production. I personally think it sounds like shit because I really don't like their sleek and loud style. But that is what it is: A style. A choice. The music sound full on and loud and present.

i think we needed this post about 200 pages ago, Mike

Those 200 pages were very fun, though

it's important to know when to post, as well as what to post, for maximum drama

[Ms Harmless]

Fun fact: We might get TWO Serban Ghenea mixed records on the 19th! He mixed every Taylor Swift record since Red and we get a new one on the 19th

Red is far and away my favourite T Swift record

[Mike]

This is what Wreckage will sound like

[Ms Harmless]

with one major difference, to my mind - the performances: the recording / session band behind Taylor Swift are told to play blandly, with the least individual personality or intensity possible, so that the vocalist can be right in front and nothing else distracts from her or vies for the listener's attention; I think this happened to an extent on Lightning Bolt, but so far it isn't happening on Dark Matter

[Ms Harmless]

tl;dr: I quite like that T Swift song but it's the band making it sound like white worship music, not Swift

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

I think it's important to differentiate here. Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea are professional guys who know exactly what they are doing. It is not definitely not shitty when looking at it from the perspective "Did they manage to make it sound exactly like they wanted to?". This is a how a lot of people want modern rock to sound and these guys managed to do that. This is well produced and mixed in that sense. There are no faults or accidents here.
Of course Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea didn't listen to this and think it sounds bad. This is how all their stuff sounds like. This is what they are good at. The only question is if you like their style of production. I personally think it sounds like shit because I really don't like their sleek and loud style. But that is what it is: A style. A choice. The music sound full on and loud and present.

i think we needed this post about 200 pages ago, Mike

I confess I LIKE how DM sounds so far and i listen almost exclusively through decent headphones. Full on and loud and present is exactly right. Perhaps this wont be as effective on some of the more atmospheric songs, which were largely absent on earthlings - but on my way sounds great

When we talk about presence in audio, we’re usually talking about 1-5khz, which these songs have audibly traded off in favor high and low end hype.

When we talk about fullness, we’re talking about either a presentation of the overall audible frequency spectrum being presented in a way that is balanced; or in some cases we may be talking about the sound stage having depth/width/height that feels enveloping. These songs have neither of these.

Could you try to find other words to explain what you like about how this sounds?

I mean I could…

[Anders]

I think it's important to differentiate here. Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea are professional guys who know exactly what they are doing. It is not definitely not shitty when looking at it from the perspective "Did they manage to make it sound exactly like they wanted to?". This is a how a lot of people want modern rock to sound and these guys managed to do that. This is well produced and mixed in that sense. There are no faults or accidents here.
Of course Andrew Watt and Serban Ghenea didn't listen to this and think it sounds bad. This is how all their stuff sounds like. This is what they are good at. The only question is if you like their style of production. I personally think it sounds like shit because I really don't like their sleek and loud style. But that is what it is: A style. A choice. The music sound full on and loud and present.

i think we needed this post about 200 pages ago, Mike

I confess I LIKE how DM sounds so far and i listen almost exclusively through decent headphones. Full on and loud and present is exactly right. Perhaps this wont be as effective on some of the more atmospheric songs, which were largely absent on earthlings - but on my way sounds great

When we talk about presence in audio, we’re usually talking about 1-5khz, which these songs have audibly traded off in favor high and low end hype.

When we talk about fullness, we’re talking about either a presentation of the overall audible frequency spectrum being presented in a way that is balanced; or in some cases we may be talking about the sound stage having depth/width/height that feels enveloping. These songs have neither of these.

Could you try to find other words to explain what you like about how this sounds?

In a quick explanation, could you say something about the five Pearl Jam records from the 90s in this context?

[Mike]

Full on* not full - Important difference

[Mike]

And present in the sense that...they're making their presence known? They grab your attention. I was not talking production/audio lingo

[stip]

there is an immediacy and impact to the presentation that goes beyond volume. it comes at the expense of subtlety but that works really well on the songs we have hears this far, and juxtaposes nicely with the hints of vulnerability in Eddie’s voice

[Ms Harmless]

I listen to a lot of fairly modern metal, and one thing in common with the lot of it is high bottom-end, high top-end, not much middle; what's wanted is an almost obtrusive intensity, perhaps at the expense of the warm enveloping full range of the best rock / "grunge" / folk styles of music (or even certain types of metal, like sludge / stoner / southern, which are all based in Blues); I do like a cold, harsh, wall-of-noise sound at times (an example from the "grunge" era might be the tinny guitar stabs on NIN's "March of the Pigs")

NOW, obviously what we have here is not even a skillfully mixed modern metal record (give me a thousand Sleep Token albums over this), but I do think some of these preferences are allowing me to at least tolerate what other people might be flat-out hating about Dark Matter so far

the drums aren't the way I want drums to sound, but they are right out in front mix-wise, a crucial quality of early PJ and why I fell in love with them... check

I have felt many of the PRAMG RAWK songs, however much I've liked them, have been weaker simply for not being distorted, aggressive enough, ever since Life Wasted... check

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[lecherouslittlestump]

They gave us a 'well produced ' album with Riot Act and Riot Act sucked ass so what are you all whining about?