Best produced melvins album.

[Dumpster D]

Yeuup...

most people are confused on the defining principles of a production itself, it seems to be a muddy glass.

its a fine line.

Please allow me to clarify.

Production comes in three main stages;

Pre-production

production

Post production.

Pre-production material is evaluated, conceptualized, budgeted, Hiring and logistical plans are laid.

In production, Material is Recorded or filmed, sometimes Aired Directly on TV for example.

In Postproduction, material Is edited, and mixed into its final form.

In pre-production Creative and business Decisions that will affect the two later stages are carefully worked out. Ergo; as pre-production goes, so goes the rest of the production.

The essential POINT is that any AUDIO SHOULD BE PLANNED BEFORE IT IS PRODUCED. *hint hint*

sometimes a sound designer is hired.

The LARGER the production the greater number of people hired in the sound desighn.

In music, one person may serve as a producer and engineer or several persons may take on the roll of a producer.

Things to discuss the preproduction;  Technical planning and creative planning.

There is no set procedure for sound design.

Immerse yourself in the material untill you can relate to it, and evolve from it a sense of the approach that is best to take.

maybe this will give you a better idea of what we have here, which in my humble oppinion

is one BIG ASS MOTHERFUCKER OF A MISCONCEPTION.


So, the who what where when and why and HOW of a sound designer is now going to be raising some better informed Judgment on what a production actually IS in terms of a finished Audible Product.

Music Is a Language.

[VaticanShotglass]

Lots of good points folks. 

Back to the discussion of taste, I've been listening to Freak Puke a lot lately and I really like the final product soundwise.  The Bass sounds fantastic, drums too.  I initially didn't like the guitar sound, but I do now.  I think it suits the overall package.  Lots of good sound choices on that album. 

[Braykfast]

Pigs of the Roman Empire.

[Mount Ambulance]

Just my personal ear but Gluey Porch all the way ... and Eggnog.

[I am the Sun]

I couldn't make a case for what their best produced album is, seeing as Melvins have so much recorded output, each with interesting production techniques being put into use, but I'll say this:

The Atlantic records have the best drum sound of any of their albums. Stoner Witch far and away has the best drums of the bunch. The recordings have such a clean yet aggressive quality to them. The snare alone on Roadbull proves this, IMO. It's got such a crisp and punchy sound that it hits like a fucking gunshot. The kicks throughout the album are pretty beastly as well. Lots of low-end attack on that album, and they're balanced well with the bass. You can really tell they had access to a quality studio on that album.

I've felt with each  Big Business album the drum sound has gotten progressively better and that all the problems of recording and mixing with a double drum-set in the picture were totally resolved with The Bulls and the Bees EP.

I really fell in love with the Melvins Lite drum sound just recently, which could largely be attributed to the kit Dale is using for those recordings.

In terms of guitar it's a little harder to pick the best sounding album, but I've always been partial to Gluey Porch Treatment's guitar tone. The guitar is thicker and heavier on that album than almost any of their other recordings. It's pretty obvious that the album was recorded on much cheaper equipment than their more recent work, but I think it definitely adds to the guitar's absolutely vicious (and viscous) tone. Lysol and The Maggot are logical extensions of that tone.

I feel like Buzz's guitar tone has become a little metallic and slightly tinny in recent years, maybe due to the aluminum guitars he started using. I'm not a huge fan his current sound.

The best sounding bass is a tie between The Bootlicker (which almost seems like it was made to show off Kevin's playing) and the Melvins Lite material. It's hard to compete with the sound of a standup bass.

When it comes to additional production techniques, or "sound design" for lack of a better term, it's dead even between H.A.T., Stag, and POTRE. POTRE is obviously the most design-heavy album as a result of Lustmord's contributions and is all the more amazing for it (Safety Third, the title track, and Pink Bat to my ear, are the most seamless combinations of the two artists' aesthetics.) Stag is a little more freewheeling than H.A.T. when it comes to weird audio interludes, often dedicating entire tracks to studio-created noise experiments. H.A.T. instead uses studio techniques to add "flavor" to the songs. Moments of Foaming, Little Judas Chongo, and The Fool, The Meddling Idiot are good examples. However, the best example of using studio trickery to great effect is The Anti-Vermin Seed.

Also, I'd say Stag and H.A.T. make equally good use of vocal doubling.

[Kolonel Kurtz Kobain]

Alive at the Fucker Club

[black stallion]

Alive at the Fucker Club

[Yanayaya]

(a) Senile Animal (.)

[Fishheadphil]

They all have good qualities, but none are equal to that of California by Mr. Bungle. The album production just kills.

[(the) Razor]

What's with Buzz's tone these days? I miss the old Gibson sound.

[Helen83]

They all have good qualities, but none are equal to that of California by Mr. Bungle. The album production just kills.

King Tubby's POONS all these cracker ass cracker productions!!!!!

[Der L]

Stoner Witch. Stag. The Maggot just for the sheer sonic devastation of it.

[Fishheadphil]

 I can't help but feel the production on Stoner Witch and Stag are quite good, however still somewhat bland and typical. There's nothing that screams "Hey this production is pure bomb" but shmeh. Freak Puke certainly has a unique touch to it but I feel the bass should have more volume.

[black stallion]

but I feel the bass should have more volume.

no amp!

[homeless_dad]

Bootlicker, Stoner witch.  Skweetis and roadbull for the win!

I know its not well produced at all and probably recorded on a boombox but I love the lo-fi of making love demos (I'm a lo-fi fan in general).  I don't think those songs would sound better well produced.