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What if Rick Rubin produced the next album?


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This topic has probably been exhausted repeatedly but I haven't been around the forum long enough to see this come up.

So yeah, Axl worked with roughly 20 billion producers on CD, including Mike Clink and the guy from Queen. He finally settled on Caram Costanzo, who quite frankly is no slouch (He's got a lot of credits with Pearl Jam and STP and I can't complain there).

Nonetheless, all of the producers do not alleviate the fact that Chinese Democracy isn't really that good of an album. It's a thick mess of music that, for the most part, is either inaccessible or just not very good. This all makes me wonder if the producer has anything to do with this problem. If the producer is at fault though, then they can easily be the solution. That being said, I can only wonder what would happen if Rick Rubin, arguably the greatest producer of the past three decades, decided to produce the next GNR album.

I mean, he's obviously got a versatile track record; a slew of critically acclaimed albums spanning a variety of genres. From Slayer to the Avett Brothers to Eminem, he's proven he can make a good record regardless of the artist. He's also proven that he can revive a dying career (Johnny Cash, Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath).

I think he's exactly what GNR needs; someone who can tell Axl no and push the band in a cohesive direction. I would imagine that he'd be able to do an excellent job in returning the band to its hard rock roots. Aside from that, he could easily use the technical proficiency of the new lineup to his advantage and I could even see him working with the unique sound that defined CD so much. It's not a long-shot to say he could make an album full of songs that were of "Better" quality (In both sound and acclaim) at the very least.

I know some audiophiles will complain of how he compresses the music to make it louder. Granted, this is a viable complaint because it's not very easy on the ears, but I don't let it detract from the fact that the man's work is fucking impeccable.

So, what do you think?

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Death Magnetic sounds like shit. No thanks.

Is that compressing or just in general? I'll take that over the shit called Load or St. Anger any day.

The compression. I like the music, I just can't stand the sound of the album.

He screwed up Californication and I'm With You by the Red Hot Chili Peppers too.

Edited by LuanVictorxD
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Rick Rubin albums are all a bit compressed (Death Magnetic was brutal though), which Axl is known to dislike, but as long as Axl oversees the mixing, he could tell the engineers to suck a fat one and not ruin it. Rick would probably be the best thing to happen to Guns at this point in time, especially after producing the new sabbath album. A more stripped down approach and more distinct instrument sounds would be awesome as long as it doesn't get overcompressed.

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He should just get the guy who produced and mixed Steel Panthers albums, they sound awesome, great vocals and guitars and he'd be cheap because he's never done a famous serious rock band before.

Love me some Hole Patrol.

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But geez you all are a tough crowd with Rick.

Edited by IRanOutOfIdeas
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He should just get the guy who produced and mixed Steel Panthers albums, they sound awesome, great vocals and guitars and he'd be cheap because he's never done a famous serious rock band before.

Love me some Hole Patrol.

--------------------------------------------

But geez you all are a tough crowd with Rick.

I don't think its Rick, It's the engineers he uses and the guys who master it. I doubt a guy that high profile masters or mixes much. He could potentially sculpt something 10x better than CD though IMHO

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I can imagine that, Rick is known for being very distant from the band and would come only to ask for the recordings:

"Hey, guys, you have something for me?"

"Nope. Axl didn't came."

"Ah, well. Back to my man-cave then."

This scenario would repeat itself forever and no album would ever be made.

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You know there'd be a video cuz Rubin wants his mug in that shit.

Was he like that before Berzerk? I remember thinking it was really weird that he was suddenly showing his face.

He was in those awful commercials for Jay-Z's album. I don't know anything else off hand. But his stupid bouncing head to Jay-Z's terrible song in that commercial plus his Berzerk appearance plus deciding it was necessary to join Em in live performances of the song, just irked me so much that I imagine he's been ubiquitous. I find him visually annoying, if that makes sense.

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I can imagine that, Rick is known for being very distant from the band and would come only to ask for the recordings:

"Hey, guys, you have something for me?"

"Nope. Axl didn't came."

"Ah, well. Back to my man-cave then."

This scenario would repeat itself forever and no album would ever be made.

This. A few artists have spoken out about Rick's penchant for not being around:

"...we were being charged horrendous amounts of money. And for me, if you're going to produce something, you're fucking there. I don't care who you are."He also added: "The Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I fucking live."

Quote from Corey Taylor of Slipnot

Axl working with Rick would result in nothing. Not to mention the pathetic mixing and mastering that comes from Rick's production.

Edited by Young_Gun
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10 years ago or so I would have said yes without a doubt. But Rick has been kind of hit and miss in recent years. Some stuff sounds great, like MMLP2 and Audioslave, but like the Metallica album and Kid Rock's last album just were not top notch stuff you would expect. So if could work I guess and it could be off. I'm not sure how well he and Axl would work together either.

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