Metal Reviews

Use your imagination. The common person thinks these people are geniuses and the professionals who know better are outraged they are held in such esteem. It's not that hyperbolic. I think he is a decent producer and his albums sound good. But they could have sounded a whole lot better. All the overdubs suck. Boston did that sort of thing successfully, so it isn't a bad idea at all, but the execution is weak here.

Talk more about production, adveser.

The thing is you're pretty much giving useless and unnecessary advice. Going back to your doctor analogy, it's like if I were to eat a cookie and a doctor came up to me and started blabbering a whole bunch of health crap and telling me that the cookie is not really food. Like calm down dude, I'm just eating a fucking cookie that tastes good to me.

It's obvious you're knowledgable about production but that doesn't mean you need to nitpick and analyze everything to death.

I want him to nitpick it to death. I am currently enrolled in Audio Production courses at the local college and I am very interested in what he has to say on the subjects. I always hated some of Devin Townsend's productions as well and felt that his albums sounded really off production wise, while they had a unique sound, I did not like this sound.

Husker, this is exactly the sort of thing that Private messaging was invented for.

Gonna slightly nit pick here as I did an analysis of some of the stuff from Addicted for a report, namely Supercrush! If you look into some of the things he adds, the little details and rhythmic things in the background that add to feeling and keep the track moving you'll see (or hear) that he does balance them out. For example, in that track he overdubs the guitar parts with his own voice that add an extra dimension to that specific element. It's something he does a lot actually if you listen. To me it's no different that layering up keyboard patches, which is probably why I don't take such an issue with it. Back in the 80's they layered patches up like there was no tomorrow, so why is Devin's technique over doing multiple layers so bad? They never overpower the main components of the song, they just add to it.

I know you're very much into the old school way of recording, using tape and such, but even just because you disagree with what he does doesn't make it in any way wrong. What he produces SOUNDS good, even if you disagree with his methods. Perhaps it's just down to musical tastes or something, but I don't find anything wrong with it.

True.

He has an angel voice, writes catchy songs, and conveys emotion, whether positive negative or a mix of the two, like a motherfucker.

@production, I do wish his albums had more of a live/band actually performing the songs sound to them. I feel that way about pretty much every band that doesn't suck live though.

I don't know the technical detail and don't really care, but if you think that the production in City and Alien is bad then you are missing the point. They are heavy. They are supposed and meant to be heavy. Those two albums blow any other extreme band and the best stuff they did out of the water. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, that is bashing your fucking skull in. That is what good production means, to me.

I like how on this site, no matter what the thread is about, it usually ends up in an argument

And more importantly, it never crossed my mind that there might be people who don't like Devin Townsend... I guess you either get it or you don't. Although you're certainly missing out if you don't...

Every single forum I've ever been on has most topics descend to arguments. It's human nature to violently disagree.





Same could be said for any band or genre. We might all be missing out cause we don't get Dolly Parton or Willie Nelson.

I really wouldn't consider arguing over the internet violence. And people only tend to disagree when they actually disagree. Given the number of users here people are obviously going to disagree. Threads laden with "I concur" and "we all like it yay" would get kinda boring anyways.

Do people who dislike Devy just not know what he is attempting to do with stuff and expect something different or do they really just dislike the music for what it is?

I concur.



I dislike the music (certain exemptions aside).

I was referring more to him multiplying the guitar tracks (not doing another overdub, just copy and paste stuff) and fleshing out the guitar sound that way by eq'ing them differently, ect. I just think it's overboard. There's so much there, but so little at the same time. I feel like I'm on an egg hunt with only the ones that are obviously lying on the ground being there.

Again, I've only heard a handful or two of songs on Youtube or from promos other than Alien and frankly every album might as well be a new band the way most acts are.

Are you fucking serious!? Only a handful of songs and you're judging?

Probably 10-20 songs plus and album. You didn't read that carefully. Perhaps I have to stop using compound/complex sentences.

See now, a grievance like this I'm okay with. It's phrased more subjectively, like "I feel" and "I think," not like "this guy obviously needs music theory lessons" and "you don't produce albums this way, you're obviously doing it wrong!"

But of course, I still disagree with it.

I remember one day I was in a friend's room and we blasted Terria and Ocean Machine on his amazing sound system and it was like a religious experience. So good.

Devin

In that case, what I was trying to say before is that he doesn't hit enough familiar notes at the right time and it is off-putting and hangs in places based on my expectations, for my taste.

This happens if you write songs with guitar pro. You get a riff going, then you listen 10 times and then if you change anything your ear will be really off in the same place. That's the effect it has on me.

I have listened to a few tracks of his, but only from SYL. That's the kind of music I would listen to occasionally or wouldn't mind if it was part of a compilation of various artistes. As of now, I am not eager to listen to any of his stuff. May do so in future.

Hahaha

So you're critiquing his production based on youtube videos. Brilliant.

.:crast:.