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Disclaimer: bands should go with the production that suits them, and any production can sound good if it suits the band, etc.

This having been said, in the main, I prefer lo-fi production.

I think for a lot of bands starting out it's sort of hard to know how to shoot for a sound, without guidance.
I remember when my old band recorded our Ep, we thought we were going to come out sounded nice and warm, a bit grainy and generally hazy to suit what we were doing. Like a Down record or something.
Turns out our engineer and the guy we got to do mastering only spoke that classic Australian guitar rock language and our record came out sounding like an overly polished turd.
I mean it sounded great, but it didn't sound like us.
That was our fault though for having a limited budget and not just saving up for longer and trying to dig up people who could do the job properly, but it's a dilemma I think a lot of groups face.
You know we can't all fly interstate or overseas to get Billy Anderson to do it right.

I agree that production should fit that sound... but that should in it's self be not a problem if the people recording the music did their jod which is to accurately capture what and who they are recording... if you are talking about professional recording... "modern" recording is not necessarily even good.. most new stuff you hear on the radio/tv sounds like turdpolish and a lot of the time anymore you have to sit there and ask the dumbest question of all which is... "does the music suck or does the production?" As for lofi... it has it's place and what makes it cool is the DIY aspect in that someone is trying to do the best with what they have but also lofi for the sake of lofi unless the music REALLLY calls for it is just polished hipster turd filled with vintage replicated whole foods rejected refuse.

Iommic Pope wrote:You know we can't all fly interstate or overseas to get Billy Anderson to do it right.

Thankfully I am in a position to record in Montreal with the Godspeed guys. It's $750/day and I think I'll save up and do it there when I'm ready. Until then bedroom suits me fine. All or nothing?

casecandy wrote:

Iommic Pope wrote:You know we can't all fly interstate or overseas to get Billy Anderson to do it right.

Thankfully I am in a position to record in Montreal with the Godspeed guys. It's $750/day and I think I'll save up and do it there when I'm ready. Until then bedroom suits me fine. All or nothing?

Being ready is the important part... I've known people that went to big studios and worked with people that supposedly won gramys and what came out the other ends was not better then stuff they did in small home studios... the recorded sound might have been a little better in some cases but in the end unless you are going to spent popstar money to have everything chopped up and smoothed out and smothered in auto-tune then what you put into the performance is what you will get...

Fuck auto tune.
Sing that shit or go the fuck home.
We had a policy that was basically if we couldn't play it live, we couldn't record it that way.
So there was basically no intense layering of guitars, or vocals, no overdubs, or any of that shit.

The main reason we were unhappy with that record was that we basically recorded the wrong material.
We stupidly thought we had nailed down our first round of songs and then just HAD to commit them to record. If we'd have waited six months we'd have written some much better shit that sounded more like a band as opposed to a band attempting to find itself and still wading out of the mire of hero worship.
But we were stupid.
And I think it's an easy trap for a lot of bands to fall into.
Plus we were particularly insular, there was no place where we fit into our local musical landscape and we had few local heroes to mentor us.

that's actually what we just realized after "finishing" a record too

i mean... we went on tour and wrote/jammed up a song that got so good during those couple of shows that we now MUST put it on the album. That convinced me

Iommic Pope wrote:You know we can't all fly interstate or overseas to get Billy Anderson to do it right.

I mean, considering the sonic discrepancy between some Anderson produced material, I'd say that just underscores how much budget and source material play a big part into "doing it right". To use another big name in a similar sphere, Don Cab's American Don doesn't sound anything like Blessed Black Wings, which sounds nothing like Ocean Songs, which sounds a little like Viva Last Blues but you never think of Dirty Three or Palace Music when you think of Steve Albini's production.

So there was basically no intense layering of guitars, or vocals, no overdubs, or any of that shit.

So all the good stuff I like, then

D.o.S. wrote:

Iommic Pope wrote:You know we can't all fly interstate or overseas to get Billy Anderson to do it right.

I mean, considering the sonic discrepancy between some Anderson produced material, I'd say that just underscores how much budget and source material play a big part into "doing it right". To use another big name in a similar sphere, Don Cab's American Don doesn't sound anything like Blessed Black Wings, which sounds nothing like Ocean Songs, which sounds a little like Viva Last Blues but you never think of Dirty Three or Palace Music when you think of Steve Albini's production.

That's true.
I think what I was driving at was more finding ways to make a band sound like them at their best or create a sonic atmosphere upon which to stage the material, as opposed to just recording a band and making it sound like they've been recorded in a nice environment with some people who know how to do that, but only that.
If that makes sense.

casecandy wrote:

So there was basically no intense layering of guitars, or vocals, no overdubs, or any of that shit.

So all the good stuff I like, then

I mean, I like that stuff, too, but it would not have worked for this project.
And it doesn't work for every band.

Iommic Pope wrote: That's true.
I think what I was driving at was more finding ways to make a band sound like them at their best or create a sonic atmosphere upon which to stage the material, as opposed to just recording a band and making it sound like they've been recorded in a nice environment with some people who know how to do that, but only that.
If that makes sense.

Don't we usually just call that "Snakes for the Divine"?

That's now the official term for that thing.

gnomethrone wrote:Some bands hide behind lofi, some shine that way. I get kinda bored with modern tech death bands spewing precise quantized riff salad. Its impressive for a minute and then I just want trash can snare and toilet vocals.

Ah, I see you are also a fan of Demilich.

for sure love those vocals so much their riffs were solid too
ummm unpopular death metal opinion:
the band ORIGIN is boring. like yeah we get it, you sweep. play da slamz already.

but... most death metal is boring