All About the Sound

As an aspiring engineer and general audio nerd, sometimes I like the timbre of an album or song as much as the piece itself. There are a lot of factors that go into making a record sound good, and the engineering choices made throughout the process have a profound, make-or-break impact on how we perceive the finished product. Here are some examples of things I both love and hate, though all are records I love:

(Note: the YouTube versions of these songs might not be representative of how the album actually sounds. An MP3 320 copy will give you the best idea what the hell I'm talking about.)

Loves:



Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes: In a word: warmth. omfg warmth. Some Are Lakes has lots of low midrange and silky smoothed-out high mids. Some might argue that it's mixed too dark, but I can't describe how pleasant it is to my ear.



Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: This might be the most perfectly-balanced rock album ever. Crooked Rain is a great example of the benefits of mixing a little bit soft: smooth midrange with incredibly light high-end clarity and detail. I want to know everything about how this album was made.


Flying Lotus - Los Angeles: Everything Flying Lotus touches, including his work producing for Gonjasufi and Thundercat, has this awesome, warm, rubbery saturation on it. He has a tendency to mix too loud, but somehow the analog overdrive isn't overbearing, and he always keeps his bass in check.


Hates:




Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: This album is great. It's also flat. To (mis-)quote my friend Miles, "it sounds like it was just slapped together." I wouldn't be surprised to find out its dynamic range is less than 4 dB. What does that mean in human speak? All loud, no soft. You need one to appreciate the other.


Washed Out - Within and Without: I like Washed Out a lot, but the compression on this album is straight-up wrong. I don't know who the fuck mixed this, but I find myself turning up the volume every 5 seconds. Why? Too much low end in the mix and too-fast attack on the mastering compressor. Let it breathe, man.



Memoryhouse - "Lately (Deuxieme)" [2010 version]: This song (and video [and actress]) is orgasmically beautiful; the tapey/distorted guitar, pulsing bass drum and twinkly synths are amazing. But there's one glaring flaw: the vocals are riding the hard limiter. Most people wouldn't even notice, but it's especially tangible when heard on headphones, manifested as a rough, crackly distortion, and it bothers me to no end.