Is there a fine line between art and distasteful mastering and mixing?

[PristineSound]

Dan Auerbach, Undertow

:22 seconds in, it's intentional distortion, perhaps emulating a guitar amp? Anyway, it comes across as port chuffing or maybe my woofers is about to blow up. This type of mixing is characteristic signature of Dan Auerbach and The Black Keys. Everytime, I play any of their tracks, I have to double check my speakers to make sure nothing is broken. I just find this kind of "artistic" mixing a little too much for me.

The track is an excellent track otherwise.

Is there a fine line between art and just distasteful mixing/mastering? One topic will likely come up is the compression in today's music.

 

[DVDdoug]

Of course, different people have different tastes.

I assume it sounds exactly the way the producer (or whoever is in charge of the sound) wants it to sound. ...Or, it's your speakers.

 

[Somafunk]

I love loud, brash distortion added in through guitar pedals (usually), probably just as well due to one of my fav artists being Mogwai

 

[PristineSound]

Of course, different people have different tastes.

I assume it sounds exactly the way the producer (or whoever is in charge of the sound) wants it to sound. ...Or, it's your speakers.

I'm playing this track on the Ascend Acoustics ELX RAAL and Neumann KH-120II. . .I hope it's exactly how the artists heard it and not my speakers

 

[somebodyelse]

Is there a fine line between art and just distasteful mixing/mastering? One topic will likely come up is the compression in today's music.

Metallica's Death Magnetic was infamous for it, to the point fans petitioned for a remix or made their own from the parts released with less compression in the Guitar Hero game. They eventually released a version with less compression than the original, but more than Guitar Hero.

 

[kyuu]

I dunno about a fine line. I would say it's a line that can be placed anywhere depending on the tastes of the listener. Even heavy compression can sometimes be preferred.

One of my favorite albums, Taiko by Danger, has an effect on the first track that sounds exactly like the "pop" from an amplifier turning on/off. It was quite alarming the first time I heard it. I was briefly left wondering if something had happened to my subwoofer's amp, particularly considering it directly precedes a highly dynamic bass sound. Now that I'm used to it it doesn't bother me of course. Also there's a track on the Astro Bot soundtrack I'm really into called Tite Mites that has the pop/crackle typical of a vinyl record layered in. I don't usually listen to vinyls, but I still appreciate how it lends the track a certain feel.

Where any of that lands on the tasteful/distasteful line? No idea.

 

[PristineSound]

One of my favorite albums, Taiko by Danger, has an effect on the first track that sounds exactly like the "pop" from an amplifier turning on/off. It was quite alarming the first time I heard it. I was briefly left wondering if something had happened to my subwoofer's amp, particularly considering it directly precedes a highly dynamic bass sound.

I have to check that track out. If it's some sort of artificially added sound by the mixing engineer, then I think it may be a fine line for my taste.

 

[Oddball]

Not really so much into 2 channel or multi-channel music, but can say that HT material is a bloody mess, even if it is supposed to be mastered at certain standards.

The result is that a single default "reference" calibration is completely useless. Creating different profiles on AVP will take you to 4 for D&M (Audessey), 6 for Storm and if not mistaken 32 for Trinnov. IMO 4 or 6 is not enough so one would need to still adjust it by ear, which is so much against all the good work one does for calibration of the different profiles.

Just as a funny fact, D&M actually provides a separate bass delay adjustment for LFE as it has been known that different tracks have different delay. This is mostly for discs, but still shows how poor is the state of mixing.