Dec 8, 2009
Personality In Audio – or, Why sounding great just isn’t enough
This site is about making your music sound fantastic. And in my last post I listed twelve of my favourite outstanding albums for sound. Lots of people replied with their own suggestions in the comments – so far, so good.
I agreed with many of the suggestions, but was interested in one album that was mentioned several times: “Rage Against The Machine” by Rage Against The Machine. Now, there’s no question that RATM sounds great. Let’s face it, it’s something of a classic. It sounds heavy, hooky, dynamic, hard-hitting, impactful and balanced.
But I wouldn’t have chosen it for my list, and I still wouldn’t. Why ? Because just sounding great isn’t enough – to sound fantastic, the audio needs to have personality.
What do I mean by that ? Well, this wasn’t in my mind when I wrote the list, but looking through it again, every single album on that list has a very clear, instantly recognisable sound – a sonic signature, if you like. And so, for that matter, do all the “also-rans” I mention at the end.
In some cases, all that’s needed to achieve this is a voice. The JJ Cale and Alison Krauss abums for example, have nothing truly startling in the sounds or mixes, but the voices themselves are instantly recognisable. Whereas albums like “Untrue”, with it’s reverb-drenched vocals, or “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” define themsleves sonically right from the outset. Others are so pioneering that later albums can only imitate and steal from them – “Security” and “My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts”, for example.
“Rage Against The Machine” doesn’t do any of that for me. Sonically, it’s Metal By Numbers – it sounds (as Brian Eno said about some of the new U2 album) “too vanilla”. Yes, it does exactly what you want a heavy rock record to do – but sonically there’s nothing remarkable or memorable enough to help it stand out from the pack.
Whereas, one of the other suggestions from the comments – Nirvana’s “Nevermind” – is different matter entirely. Incredible playing, awesome mixes and Cobain’s voice make this unmistakeable sonically – to be honest, it should have been on my list.
Lack of personality is a problem that’s being made worse all the time by the new technology that’s becoming available. Autotune, amp simulators, virtual instruments and the rest all make it easier and easier to make slick, “professional” – sounding records. Meaning, they sound exactly like everything else out there – and tedious beyond belief, as a result !
Do we really need to hear another Pod-preset guitar record ? Say what you like about Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” (and I’ve already said more than enough about that) but at least it has a sonic identity, a personality.
That’s why I often suggest people bring a little punk DIY attitude to their music – or even make music from sand, or trees, or burning pianos. If you have an otherwise “standard” sounding mix, try overdubbing a real tambourine, or a shaker that’s actually a jar of dried peas from your kitchen, or mic up the stairwell and use it as a reverb chamber, or even just chose a different guitar tuning – something, anything – to add spice and make the sound of your music unique.
Don’t get hung up on “quality”, either – some of the best-sounding music was recorded on distinctly low-fi equipment, and in highly unusual locations. Experiment with mic placement too – take a listen to the tablas on this track for example – despite being very ambient or “roomy” sounding by the usual standards, they sound incredible and literally make my hair stand on end every time I hear them.
Sounding great isn’t good enough. Strive to be inventive and make it sound fantastic, and allow yourself to experiment and make mistakes along the way – sometimes they’re the best thing about a recording.
After all, you want people to remember your songs, why not their sound, too ?
Edit – Great discussion about this in the comments !
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I agree with the sentiment here completely. Music should be recorded with character, it’s not simply enough to get all the great big sounds everyone else does. But I can’t agree that RATM’s debut doesn’t do this.
You mention that a voice can sometimes be enough, whether it’s the character of the voice itself or the processing. Surely Zach de la Rocha fits that bill perfectly. He’s instantly recognisable, and on the debut he captures the spite and aggression that all metal strives for perfectly, without falling back on screamy metal clichés. Or at least they weren’t clichéd before he did it!
I’d also add Tom Morello’s guitar as a second voice here. He solo’s like no-one else. His sounds are ALL his solos are about. He gets hip-hop scratches and electronica blips and bleeps out of his guitar like nothing I’d heard before or since. When recording guitar solo’s I frequently use Morello as a sonic reference.
And the rhythm section. Wow! I’ve not heard aggression in music done so well, not before and not since. I’m not even a big metal fan, but that album is sonically perfect. It’s inventive, experimental, everything a good album for sound should be.
I totally agree with both the idea of using creative means to capture sonic signatures, as well as Mike Hillier’s assessment of the RATM’s sound – especially where Morello is concerned. Perhaps, however, that has less to do with the production than what Tom brought to the table from the start.
Great post! Veteran composer Richard Bellis recently said something very similar as regards music for film/tv – the homogeneity of sound is a creeping sickness, and these calls to creative endeavor and boundary pushing are very welcome!
This was a really inspiring post! This same thing applies in the world of post-production audio, especially within the sub-category of sound design for film. The same effects libraries are continually hammered over and over again as deadlines get heavier and budgets shrink which necessitates less time creating a unique sonic signature.
Also, the Pod-preset thing is a very timely example of this as well, as my guitar-savvy friends have been hearing and complaining about un-tweaked presets from that device for years now.
@Nick Thanks, glad you like the post ! As far as Pods go, I say bin the things, get a real amp and mic it. A real guitar & amp is a living thing – every move you make influences the feedback and the sound. And yes, lots of people use Pods because they practice in homes and can’t crank an amp up, I understand that, but when it comes to recording, go and play in a studio – or a garage, or a field or something !
@Adrian & Mike I really respect your opinions, so I’ve just been listening to RATM again – and sorry, but I still don’t get it ! No question there are great sounds, great playing and great tunes. But every track sounds the same to me. Same drum sounds (maybe even bolstered with samples?), same guitar sounds, everything clean and shiny and polished – where’s the dirt, the grunge, the real-ness ?
Listening immediately afterwards to bits of Nevermind is a completely different experience (OK, they’re different styles, but I think it’s a reasonable comparison) Nevermind is packed with interesting sonics, even if it isn’t the same “quality” as RATM. Just flick through the first 20 seconds of each track – every tune has an interesting/amazing sound to it. And there are constant little details that I love – tiny touch of chorus on the vocals at 2’20″ into Teen Spirit, the fuzz bass on Breed, the subtle use of double-tracking… and talk about aggression, just listen to the vocals on Territorial Pissings.
At the end of the day I think it comes down to taste, though – even performance-wise I’m not sure I’ve ever “believed” in RATM.
Btw it’s another style again, but have you guys heard “The Great Cold Distance” by Katatonia ? That’s a rock album I love the sound of, even though it’s clean, polished and all the songs use similar sounds :-p How about “The Blackening” by Machine Head ? (Although sadly it has some pointless clipping distortion) And, not a metal album, but “Insurgentes” by Steven Wilson sounds amazing…
And therein lies the beauty of music does it not? Adrian and I can love the RATM sound, while for you it does nothing. For the record though, I don’t think the drums were sample replaced, I’m pretty sure it says on the liner notes “no synths or samples were used in this recording”, but I had my copy stolen long ago, so I can’t check. But I remember really liking that sentiment.
I think a better example would have been Linkin Park. Now thats recording by the numbers. RATM was very raw, very different, extremely unique and very organic. The subject matter was the antithesis of all that was Pop, the rhythm section was based in hard funk grooves, and who can even do what Tom Morello does with a guitar? Every song has different sound in it that stuck out. If thats not putting personality into a record I don’t know what is…
Great Blog you have here by the way. I visit often. Thanks for all the tips
As Mike says, that’s the great thing about music ! I *do* think RATM is a great-sounding record, it just doesn’t hit my top 10. Linkin Park don’t hit my top 500… :-p
Glad you like the blog
another great post. i have to say ratm does it for me on that album… i love it. but perhaps the incredible imagination of the musicians to put a hip hop flavour in a bunch of blues songs (resulting a rock album in the end) did it for me… more than the actual sound texture in the recording and mix. what i mean is that maybe something else pushed me to chose that album additionally to the sound of it.
an incredible album we should have mentioned in the post before is system of a down – toxicity. there’s some awesome different delicate passages in that album blended within some raw parts…great sounding album imo.
This is an awesome post.
It is WAY too easy to make mix sound ‘professional’ so we have to take it to the next level.
The bad news: when you know this, perfectionism can creep in. The good news: most unique sounding records come from a sense of play in experimentation and now we don’t have to pay for studio time by the hour as much so we can experiment even more.
I love this post. Words to create by.
Thanks ! I actually feel quite positive about this aspect of recording and mixing – the availability of affordable, high-quality gear means people are using unconventional techniques (like Diego Stocco making music from sand and trees, for example) to get fantastic, unique results – far more interesting than some of the formulaic “big studio” output, in my opinion…
Great post and comments.
These days I love the records that sound “wrong” to me; i.e. had I been producing the record it would have ended up sounding completely different. Arcade Fire’s Funeral is a prime example of this. On the back of this realisation for my next project I’m going to try and flip my standard working practices on their head and, for example, use dynamic mics for overheads.
Ha! Soil’s Song arrived on my playlist just as I read about ‘The Great Cold Distance’.
I actually get what you are saying (I think) about RATM. I too think it’s a great album, with great playing, tracks etc, but overall, the whole album rides not much of a curve and falls flat sonically. The simple band set-up is part of that reason. Even though Led Zeppelin wrote songs that were made to be played live, there were still backing guitars and other instruments adding to the sonics and that doesn’t really happen on RATM (I know it’s not supposed to, but just saying…).
Not thinking hard about my list (w/ Producers in brackets) but….
The Blessing – Prince of the Deep Water (Neil Dorfsman)
Tori Amos – Boys for Pele (Tori Amos)
Helmet – Betty (T-Ray and Helmet)
Mazzy Star – So Tonight that I Might See (David Roback) -> I consider this album a complete work of Art!
Morphine – The Night (Mark Sandman and Morphine) -> This really is a work of Art.
…that’s all I got for now.