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What is "over produced"?

JoshSF

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Aug 10, 2021
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Apologies in advance if this is too much of a noob question but I have seen the term "over produced" mentioned in the audio world some here but more elsewhere (i.e. podcast Sound Opinions uses it all the time). Obviously this term is subjective at best and at worst dismisses some forms of music entirely, but I have seen some definitions that are inconsistent as well as the idea that the definition changes over time. My question is does anybody have a good concise definition (i.e. "you know it when you hear it" is not a good definition)? Concrete examples of both would be fantastic. Thanks in advance!
 
Over produced music usually applies to when someone does an effect to sweeten the mix past what would sound natural or balanced. For example, a common practice is sidechaining. It's used commonly in EDM, but it's used in every genre. Sidechaining links the intensity of one track to the subtraction or addition of another. If overdone, it's the easiest to detect. Benny Benassi was famous for sidechaining the hell out of everything, but it was intentional. Another trick is to EQ a gap into an instrument's mixer track to make room for a vocal or another instrument. This also takes away from a natural sound. Another obvious one that plagues a ton of music is over-compression. This brings the quietest sounds and shoves them on the same volume as the rest of the mix. It's really up to the producer on how they set up the compressor, but a good example of a clipped and compressed song is imagine dragons - Radioactive.

Clipped and distortion at loudest parts of mix. Again, sadly intentional.

Benny Benassi - Light
Huge sidechaining. Listen to the voice and synths back off when the kick drum hits.
 
Over produced music usually applies to when someone does an effect to sweeten the mix past what would sound natural or balanced. For example, a common practice is sidechaining. It's used commonly in EDM, but it's used in every genre. Sidechaining links the intensity of one track to the subtraction or addition of another. If overdone, it's the easiest to detect. Benny Benassi was famous for sidechaining the hell out of everything, but it was intentional. Another trick is to EQ a gap into an instrument's mixer track to make room for a vocal or another instrument. This also takes away from a natural sound. Another obvious one that plagues a ton of music is over-compression. This brings the quietest sounds and shoves them on the same volume as the rest of the mix. It's really up to the producer on how they set up the compressor, but a good example of a clipped and compressed song is imagine dragons - Radioactive.

Clipped and distortion at loudest parts of mix. Again, sadly intentional.

Benny Benassi - Light
Huge sidechaining. Listen to the voice and synths back off when the kick drum hits.

Thank you fieldcar! Interesting, I hadn't thought of the clipping and distortion as over production. It is definitely something happening in production to the point that playback is compromised. Definitely a good example of over production.

I was not familiar with the term sidechaining so thanks for that as well. I have heard effects like that before but never really thought about what was happening. I would definitely again agree this is a great example of over production.
 
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