Why "Born This Way" album...

[Ziggy 12,244]

5 minutes ago, MeloArtDramaPop said:

This!!!

People be thinking loud=bad production.

ARTPOP is Gaga’s more well-produced and polished record whether the production is for you or not

Mhmm. And it’s also the most consistent. TF is all over the board (but great and understandable given how long it was worked on), TFM is consistent but the quality is just a hair less sleek than AP, BTW is a train wreck on mixing and mastering and the audio recordings but supposed to be that way *and* it’s a bit inconsistent. with AP you don’t really have to change the volume during the album experience because it’s mixed and mastered so well.

[Smother Em Eh 7,154]

That’s one thing I dislike about BTW. Some songs sound overproduced like HML’s bridge. It sounds like a robot was singing it. What were they thinking? 

The beginning of GH and Hair’s chorus sounds kinda overproduced too. 

[Miel 15,009]

5 hours ago, Salvador Sequea said:

the vocals of Swine are worst than the whole BTW album tbh

 

4 hours ago, Ziggy said:

“Better” is subjective, but ARTPOP is certainly the most polished of her albums. It’s loud but, like BTW, intentionally so and each track is much more clean and professional-sounding (sometimes to the detriment of the song (Sexxx Dreams)). Now, don’t get me wrong, I like BTW’s more, but it’s definitely not more professional or polished than ARTPOP. That one’s clean nearly to the point of sterilization.

Good points. The vocals on ARTPOP sound too clear, especially on Swine. A little distortion, echo, or even some vocal distance could have definitely benefited some songs.

I actually thought Joanne's had her best mixing, tbh.

[Miel 15,009]

2 hours ago, Smother Em Eh said:

That’s one thing I dislike about BTW. Some songs sound overproduced like HML’s bridge. It sounds like a robot was singing it. What were they thinking? 

The beginning of GH and Hair’s chorus sounds kinda overproduced too. 

That was a vocoder/harmonizer effect, I think. Definitely along the vein of Justice/Daft Punk, so it's a stylistic choice.

And I think you're talking about the production itself, as opposed to overall mixing and mastering?

[Ziggy 12,244]

15 minutes ago, Miel said:

 

Good points. The vocals on ARTPOP sound too clear, especially on Swine. A little distortion, echo, or even some vocal distance could have definitely benefited some songs.

I actually thought Joanne's had her best mixing, tbh.

Exactly. A perfect example of the album being mixed poorly is the Sexxx Dreams Swinefest vs. album version. Think of the atmosphere and aura that you get from that performance. It's hazy, sexy and a little mysterious. On the album much of that is lost because the vocal tracks come through so clearly.

 

And I agree. Joanne has some of her best mixing especially on songs like CTM where there's a lot going on. The only two I dislike it on are A-YO and John Wayne because they don't feel messy enough. It feels a little too polished for the energy she wants to give to the songs. Then look at JW live and it's amazing.

[Salvador Sequea 813]

3 hours ago, Miel said:

The vocals on ARTPOP sound too clear, especially on Swine.

The overall production of ARTPOP is quite good, but the vocals on Swine sound like they were recorded in a public bathroom. Actually, the background vocals sounds much more professioanly recorded than the main ones.

[Miel 15,009]

8 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Exactly. A perfect example of the album being mixed poorly is the Sexxx Dreams Swinefest vs. album version. Think of the atmosphere and aura that you get from that performance. It's hazy, sexy and a little mysterious. On the album much of that is lost because the vocal tracks come through so clearly.

 

And I agree. Joanne has some of her best mixing especially on songs like CTM where there's a lot going on. The only two I dislike it on are A-YO and John Wayne because they don't feel messy enough. It feels a little too polished for the energy she wants to give to the songs. Then look at JW live and it's amazing.

Definitely. Especially with Ayo, there's so much more depth when you hear it live. I think I was actually disappointed that I heard its live version first (with Hillary) before the studio version.

4 hours ago, Salvador Sequea said:

The overall production of ARTPOP is quite good, but the vocals on Swine sound like they were recorded in a public bathroom. Actually, the background vocals sounds much more professioanly recorded than the main ones.

Yeah. The clarity is oddly prominent, as is the vocal editing in some of the moments.

[Sylvanas 5,768]

2 minutes ago, Miel said:

Definitely. Especially with Ayo, there's so much more depth when you hear it live. I think I was actually disappointed that I heard its live version first (with Hillary) before the studio version.

I agree about the vocals with Hillary! In the first dive bar performance they harmonized on the chorus which gave the song this bigger albeit more country feel to it. I like it better, but I also like the studio version too.

[Sunny 12,737]

It has bad mixing on some songs, it's not terrible but it's not great either. People have been speaking about this since it got released, so don't see why people are denying it today

[Wolf 1,328]

I think it's meant to sound gritty and not too polished. I think it adds to the 70's/80's vibe to it

[hELXIG 43,762]

Everyone else has made great points, but I vaguely remember her saying once that they made sure the album was optimised to work on both large speakers and also headphones. And logic was that  at the time listening to music through headphones was the most common way people heard an album (oh how times have changed ) 

I could be wrong though. Anyone else remember this?

[Ethan 2,051]

54 minutes ago, Helxig said:

Everyone else has made great points, but I vaguely remember her saying once that they made sure the album was optimised to work on both large speakers and also headphones. And logic was that  at the time listening to music through headphones was the most common way people heard an album (oh how times have changed ) 

I could be wrong though. Anyone else remember this?

That was ARTPOP, silly. 

[Italian 574]

21 hours ago, AlexanderMagno said:

I actually find Joanne the worst mixing and mastering. Even the single was badly done when it was first released, thank god they changed it.

Are you saying that the 'single piano version' has two versions or just that the album version was bad and the single version was better

[Ziggy 12,244]

1 hour ago, Helxig said:

Everyone else has made great points, but I vaguely remember her saying once that they made sure the album was optimised to work on both large speakers and also headphones. And logic was that  at the time listening to music through headphones was the most common way people heard an album (oh how times have changed ) 

I could be wrong though. Anyone else remember this?

Mmm I think that wasn’t ARTPOP? Oh wait, no ARTPOP was the one she said was best with speakers. Queen of dictating audio listening devices

[Ziggy 12,244]

19 hours ago, Smother Em Eh said:

That’s one thing I dislike about BTW. Some songs sound overproduced like HML’s bridge. It sounds like a robot was singing it. What were they thinking? 

The beginning of GH and Hair’s chorus sounds kinda overproduced too. 

That bridge was, like the rest of the song, 100% intentional and doesn’t have to do with mixing and mastering. That specifically deals with the balancing of audio tracks and such. Overproduction is just having a lot going on, but mixing and mastering would be figuring how you want all of those sounds to play with one another. People bemoan BTW’s because it’s *so* loud and cacophonous which is a result of all the audio tracks being fairly close to one another level-wise. It was purposeful but that doesn’t always be mean good  (I love it).