Finding the Rhythm

My ears hurt

March 25, 2009 at 12:20 pm Leave a comment

I was listening to new music on Monday, trying to figure out which songs out of the pile I want to add to the radio station or start spinning in DJ sets, and I was struck yet again by something.

First, “pile” is figurative; most of the promo music I receive these days is digital, so that means I’m listening to MP3 files. But what really struck me on Monday is how badly engineered much of the music is.

I was listening to one song which shall remain nameless, and it was over-driven on the levels to the point where the peaks were getting clipped, so the sound was horribly distorted. It’s hard to tell where in the process things went so terribly wrong, but every song in the remix package for this song was equally distorted. Given that one of the mixes was from Mike Rizzo, who knows a thing or two about producing music, I can’t imagine the problem was in the production.

What blows me away is that these promos go to DJs, who in-turn play them on some of the best (and worst) sound systems in the world. If the material is distorted or sounds less-than-ideal, a DJ is pretty unlikely to play it (I sure won’t), and if they do, all that crummy engineering is going to be amplified to the point where any DJ with his hearing left isn’t going to play it again in their right mind.

I wish this problem was uncommon. Another recent release that comes to mind had a remix package that was all over the place. Some of the mixes were perfect and release-quality, and one in particular (from a well known remix team) had extremely low sound levels, about half the level of the others. Was it even mastered at all? Was someone asleep at the mixing desk? This one was even on a professionally-produced CD sounding that way. Unbelievable.

Any artist who has the money to pay someone like Mike Rizzo to do a remix, or to order-up a 1,000 copies of a promo CD from Discmakers, probably has the budget to get the tracks properly mastered by someone who knows what they’re doing. And further, has the time or budget to actually listen to the promotional tracks before they go out to DJs, or to manufacturing.

I guess that’s sorta what gets me about this. If music is your passion, and you’re looking to make an impression on people, wouldn’t you want to put your best foot first? Figuratively speaking, you can show-up to the party in a shiny limousine, but if you step out of the back seat in fluourescent green pantsuit with most of your dinner spilled on the front and barely able to walk from all the booze, you’re not getting in the door. Clean yourself up and try harder next time.

Entry filed under: Dance Music Industry. Tags: Discmakers, Mike Rizzo.