AB VI Studio/Recording Thread

[anguyen92]

On another note, does anyone see Take the Crown as a sports anthem in some forms over the course of a year? I think it may do a better job at it than My Champion. It's like "no hard feelings, but we winning this thing like we always do."

[MuffinMcFluffin]

Also i checked out Breaking Benjamin and their supposed great mixes and my only take away is what the hell. That is what a great mix sounds like ? Pffft ok then.

Depends on the albums that you listened to, but as I said their last two albums (Dark Before Dawn and Failure) feature as many as three guitars and a bassist at the same time, and along with singing/harmonics and drums, I can easily distinguish each and every thing that's being played. Nothing clashes, there is great separation.

Personally, I think their best mixed album (less of the "loudness" war in the mixing) is from Dear Agony, but they didn't have three guitarists at that time to make the point I was trying to make.

[LosingPatience]

- BAND DROPS NEW ALBUM
- GENERIC FAN: OMG BEST ALBUM EVER xD !!!

Not me, not many of us, and this has nothing to do with 'the more you critize the better fan you are', two absolute different things.

Whilst i agree with that thinking this place is the direct opposite of that. This place is lets find whats wrong and go on and on and on and on about it.

[LosingPatience]

Honestly, I know this is a huge topic on these boards but I think the production issues are a bit overstated here.

I don't have a great ear for things like a mix, but I notice some things. I do notice how their earlier work it was much easier to pick out the individual instruments without the whole "wall of noise thing." I've never noticed any "harshness" or "clipping" to the point of not being able to listen to a song or album the whole way through. I've never noticed that whatsoever, personally and have no problem listening to the songs like that.

I hate the wall of noise and I hate that I couldn't hear Mark's backing vocals on the last album at all. But I don't get some of the other stuff that I mentioned above. Honestly, while I can see that the mix has not been good lately, I do think some people on here are exaggerating a bit.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with voicing criticisms or the band, it doesn't mean you don't like or even love the band, still. People that don't have as many criticisms are not lesser fans, either though. I think that's ridiculous. Yes, I get the generic fans that blindly love anything a band puts out and all, but music is so subjective. I don't like calling people less of fans because maybe they don't look at things as deeply or as critically as others.

Thank you . All of the above ^^^^^^^^^

[MuffinMcFluffin]

Whilst i agree with that thinking this place is the direct opposite of that. This place is lets find whats wrong and go on and on and on and on about it.

That is a false impression, though. The truth is, the male demographic of this forum would unstraighten themselves for thirty minutes with any of the four members of Alter Bridge. Our passion for their material and their well-doing within the rock and music industry is frankly and undeniably unparalleled.

But our love for their material is conditional. If they put out a "WIKKA WIKKA DJ AB" rap album, I wouldn't purchase it. If Myles turns the tide and decides to only do death metal screaming, I wouldn't purchase it. Some of their material is even on the brink of upper-echelon greatness, and honestly is only restrained by its literal musical output. Whether it's the particular arrangement, recording, or mixing... something has changed in them, and it hasn't appealed to many of us.

Do we "go on and on about it?" Sometimes, definitely. It's only really brought up in context, though. For example, when they put out a new song and it still contains problems, of course it's going to be brought up again. It's not like there is a thread somewhere devoted to breaking down the lyrical content of I Know It Hurts, then some random poster chimes in and goes "DA MIXING ON TLH SOUNDZ WHORABLE!!!1" It'll be brought up for a reason, and when there are doubters or those who act with confusion toward what is being mentioned, some of us like to clear the air. I never want to sound like my opinion isn't somehow invalidated.

That being said, as a passionate fan I'll lay claim to where there are faults with the band, to the point that if they correct them the negatives would hit a strong lull. Take Myles' sometimes nasally sounds live, for example. I don't doubt it's hard to sustain high notes for a long time and that he's doing everything he can to remedy it, but it's there and we like to bring that to the forefront when we're able, because he always sounds so much better without it.

Or from an actually productive instance, if you remember their Amsterdam video release (which has good audio production, by the way), that was a time when they still played songs incredibly fast. It wasn't for a couple of years after that that they heard the criticisms and found a way to play them on proper tempo. That was a big, good fix. Open Your Eyes plays naturally at 81 BPM, and on Amsterdam they play it at 90 BPM. That is an 11.1% increase in speed, and a 10% decrease in time. That is significant. They have since addressed it, and songs sound so much better live now being played at their proper places.

No one is bitching as a form of blatant trollism, here. I wouldn't ever waste my time doing that; I have better things to do. If I feel I don't have something to say that won't be helpful to address something, then I simply won't find the energy to post. I hope this post also finds you well, because if it doesn't then it will have been a waste of my time, and I'll know better to not respond to you next time. Hell, this forum also has an ignore feature I could also consider using. At least what we're saying has to do with the band. What you are saying becomes an attack on the members here, and that's not very well appreciated.

[UninvitedZero]

If they put out a "WIKKA WIKKA DJ AB" rap album, I wouldn't purchase it.

Ohhh... Take a chance!

*wikka wikka wikka*
"Yo we're AB, fool
We ain't drowning, we're rising
Know there's no denying
We ain't compromising"

[UninvitedZero]

On another note, does anyone see Take the Crown as a sports anthem in some forms over the course of a year? I think it may do a better job at it than My Champion. It's like "no hard feelings, but we winning this thing like we always do."

WWE has missed a golden opportunity to use Take The Crown as the theme song for Clash Of Champions PPV and the 2019 King Of The Ring tournament finals!

[anguyen92]

On another note, does anyone see Take the Crown as a sports anthem in some forms over the course of a year? I think it may do a better job at it than My Champion. It's like "no hard feelings, but we winning this thing like we always do."

WWE has missed a golden opportunity to use Take The Crown as the theme song for Clash Of Champions PPV and the 2019 King Of The Ring tournament finals!

WWE has been missing opportunities to use AB songs on appropriate PPVs (I don't think its called PPVs anymore since they are mainly exclusive on the WWE network. Aren't they now called "Big Events"). Isolation and Addicted to Pain would have been appropriate theme songs for their Elimination Chamber PPVs back in 2011 and 2014.

[UninvitedZero]

On another note, does anyone see Take the Crown as a sports anthem in some forms over the course of a year? I think it may do a better job at it than My Champion. It's like "no hard feelings, but we winning this thing like we always do."

WWE has missed a golden opportunity to use Take The Crown as the theme song for Clash Of Champions PPV and the 2019 King Of The Ring tournament finals!

WWE has been missing opportunities to use AB songs on appropriate PPVs (I don't think its called PPVs anymore since they are mainly exclusive on the WWE network. Aren't they now called "Big Events"). Isolation and Addicted to Pain would have been appropriate theme songs for their Elimination Chamber PPVs back in 2011 and 2014.

Edge has been medically cleared and looks to be in phenomenal shape, maybe we'll hear Metalingus again once Smackdown moves to Fox in October!

[MuffinMcFluffin]

If they put out a "WIKKA WIKKA DJ AB" rap album, I wouldn't purchase it.

Ohhh... Take a chance!

*wikka wikka wikka*
"Yo we're AB, fool
We ain't drowning, we're rising
Know there's no denying
We ain't compromising"

Tempting, but I think I'll pass.

Good demo though, lol.

[Jaded Rescue]

Whilst i agree with that thinking this place is the direct opposite of that. This place is lets find whats wrong and go on and on and on and on about it.

That is a false impression, though. The truth is, the male demographic of this forum would unstraighten themselves for thirty minutes with any of the four members of Alter Bridge. Our passion for their material and their well-doing within the rock and music industry is frankly and undeniably unparalleled.

Only quoting part of your post to keep the page from getting blown up, but I agree with everything you said. I'm glad other people get this and that I'm not crazy. We all just want AB to be successful, and there are improvements that could be made that would help them move in that direction. It's as simple as that. I listen to so much other music and most artists seem to have moved past the loudness wars in every genre - specifically because with the proliferation of services like Spotify, music is all normalized to a certain loudness level anyway, so there's no point in mastering this stuff so loud anymore. For some reason, Alter Bridge is still stuck in 2008-2010 in terms of their production, and it kills me.

[Arctic]

Completely agree with Muffin. AB have been my favorite band since I was 15 years old, and I honestly believe several of their songs are some of the best in rock history, but they do have issues at times and there’s nothing wrong with pointing that out. I think Myles sounded thin and slightly nasally for much of TLH, which is part of the reason I don’t like it as much as their other albums, but so far I haven’t heard any of that from the 3 new songs that they’ve released. Also, even though I’m no expert on music production, I have noticed that the guitars are a bit muddy and Myles voice sounds almost muffled at times. I can say that and still say I’ve enjoyed the new music for the most part, especially Take the Crown.

There’s a balance, if we’re super positive all the time then we start to sound like a cult.

[anguyen92]

There’s a balance, if we’re super positive all the time then we start to sound like a cult.

I mean I wouldn't want us to end up like the people in this picture in 30 Seconds to Mars' Mars Island thing. If AB ever does anything similar to this, we would all be decked out in black. The closest thing is the album listening party though......, but that looks like a standard event. Not something that's on an island in Croatia or anything where the minimum price to pay is $1,000 for camping??????

https://twitter.com/30SECONDSTOMARS/sta ... 2080089088

[AngusWolfe]

On another note, does anyone see Take the Crown as a sports anthem in some forms over the course of a year? I think it may do a better job at it than My Champion. It's like "no hard feelings, but we winning this thing like we always do."

WWE has missed a golden opportunity to use Take The Crown as the theme song for Clash Of Champions PPV and the 2019 King Of The Ring tournament finals!

WWE has been missing opportunities to use AB songs on appropriate PPVs (I don't think its called PPVs anymore since they are mainly exclusive on the WWE network. Aren't they now called "Big Events"). Isolation and Addicted to Pain would have been appropriate theme songs for their Elimination Chamber PPVs back in 2011 and 2014.

Edge has been medically cleared and looks to be in phenomenal shape, maybe we'll hear Metalingus again once Smackdown moves to Fox in October!

He's 45. As much as WWE love putting has-beens in the main event, I think Edge knows better than that. Listening to a recent E&C podcast, it sounds like he's still got a fair bit of recovery to do before his neck is at 100% and going out there and bumping is only going to set that back further. He's capable of doing a safe spear and probably a bit of brawling, but I wouldn't expect him to have any matches soon. He could have an on-screen role as a manager or something, but he could have been doing that anyway, and he seems pretty happy acting and spending time with his family.

[Marshall]

"In Loving Memory" and "Wouldn't You Rather" Acoustic - Live at StarFM Berlin

[RevenantGB]

Wow, that performance of In Loving Memory was beautiful.

[TheEndisHere]

Watching Mark anytime they play "In Loving Memory" just makes me well up. I noticed 2 women wipe tears away during the song

[chtimixeur]

That was yet another great performance of In Loving Memory. Myles' vocals were as good as ever on this one.

[Mr. Slash]

Freaking amazing. Myles' vocals on Wouldn't Your Rather were insane. The only thing that was quite awkward was the main riff, the other guitar parts were all insanely good.
I'm so glad they anounced that the rest of the acoustic performance will be uploaded soon as well.

[RevenantGB]

Freaking amazing. Myles' vocals on Wouldn't Your Rather were insane. The only thing that was quite awkward was the main riff, the other guitar parts were all insanely good.
I'm so glad they anounced that the rest of the acoustic performance will be uploaded soon as well.

I'm well aware this is a long-shot but you wouldn't happen to know the other songs they played would you? I saw a brief snippet of Ghost of Days Gone By on their Instagram (which I absolutely cannot wait for) but I've no idea what else they played.