Originally Posted by moon_unit  This thread actually sparked my curiosity to the point where I went and listened to a few of their tunes ... with a completely open mind.
I basically said to myseld ... "Maybe I'm just being biased because I can't stand their songs."
I've actually done that before ... like one time I actually had a listen to a Britney Spears song -- with an open mind -- and I came away pleasantly surprized at what appeared to be a somewhat original production value. I could tell a lot was put in to the beats, and getting the vocal overdubs to jive and what not. And I walked away thinking ... "Alright, maybe I hate everything about her and what she stands for, but her engineers/producers aren't complete assclowns."
So I approached listening to Nickelback with that same kind of open mind. What I came away with, and this is purely based on their production value ... Is that it's embarassing for me, as a human being, to think that I would actually post on the same message board as someone who actually hung this ... whatever it is ... up as a shining example of fine production value. In fact, part of me half wants to think it's a joke. But only it's not very funny.
Let's start with this vocal effect. What kind of ass clown slapped all that chorus / harmonizer bullshit on there ? ... and then sat back and said ... "Oh yea! That's it. More of that stuff." Honestly, the vocal track is the most important track in a pop song. And some complete moron butchered it with this completely GAY sounding chorus plugin that came bundled with a $100 sound card from guitar center.
To make matters worse ... you've got all the vocal mics you could possibly dream of at your disposal. Who on God's green earth went and grabbed a freakin' Rode mic ? ? Holy shit. Did the Assistant Engineer run in to a Sam Ash clearance sale on the way to the session? That's just irresponsible.
And now on to the drums. I probably consider the drums to be the second most important track behind the vox. And this Nickelback stuff sounds so ... it reminds me of that canned drumkit from hell shit that the amateur metal heads use on their myspace pages. The kind that usually accompanies the obligatory "brick wall" band pose that never fails to force at least an uncontrolled snicker or two.
I can't believe someone would actually pay big bucks to a producer to make live drums sound ... just like canned drums. Bravo there. Why not just use a Boss drum machine or a pirated copy of Fruity Loops in the first place and save youself some time?
Finally, on the amateurish over use of compression. I like compression as much as the next guy, but seriously, when I listed to stuff cranked out by beginner home recordists, one of the fist things that strikes me is how obvious it is that the beginner doesn't actually "hear" what the compression is doing -- they just use it because they think they have to. But I can tell by the way they use it that they don't "get" what the attack and release controls are doing, and how it shapes the sound.
This Nickelback stuff reminds me of that. I don't really sense any comprehension or understanding here. It's like they pulled some Guitar Center guy off the street and said: "Do you know how to work one of these things?" ... "Oh yea, that's one of those compressor things. I saw my brother use one for his band, so I know what I'm doing. Don't worry." They even slap that crap all over the already thin and tinny-sounding accoustic guitar tracks in there -- which, by the way, totally wimpify the songs. Especially when the geniuses decide to patch the free chorus plugin on that, even! I guess someone just discovered the chorus patch -- Oh boy!
Again, I'll reiterate : It's embarrassing to listen to. So much so that I honestly find it hard to accept that I currently live in a world where there are people so misguided as to consider this to be, in any way, "good." God have mercy on their tortured souls. This isn't actually the worst band on the planet. If their tunes didn't have more hooks than a tackle box ... no one, and I mean no one would ever think this was anything but myspace fodder. This is pure mullet rock at it's finest, produced by mullets ... of, by and for the mullets.
Yea, it's that bad. |