Voodoochild

18 minutes ago, Lies They Tell said:

People clearly like these songs. They are not universally hated like some people like to claim just because they don't personally like them.

Agree. About The General: It's been almost a week after the release and at least for me, the majority of top comments on YouTube are positive. I know this is not much, and the views are much lower than Perhaps, but that's expected. 

Overall, I think it is what it is. The song is not universally liked, but I feel there's not that much hate as some may want to focus on.

9 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

There's quite a bit of autotune on CD. I'm surprised they didn't do it.

It's there, but not noticeable IMO. I don't think it's really necessary to use it in neither The General and Monsters. It's fine the way it is, rock music shouldn't be perfect anyways.

2 hours ago, colonizedmind said:

I like your positive post and why not? One day, we will.be surprised....there's never gonna be that announce early and lead up release.again, Axl will never let that happen....when/if this record comes....it'll probably be a very short lead-in or a surprise release even...

If it's quality material, it could be the best thing, the element of surprise and getting something we don't expect AND with no expectations 

It’s all about their schedule too. This year off could be exactly the moment for Axl to properly write his parts and record at least initial voices tracks. 

The problem, as always, is to release it. 

2 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

An issue to me, something I feel is more tangient, is adding so much distortion on Axl's vocals that it is hard to hear what he says in the chorus. Anyway, that is an artistic choice. 

As for the clipping, I am happy I don't hear it, but a quick Google search tells me it is a fairly common thing in a lot of music. 

I don’t mind the distortion on vocals. Maybe I’m more used to weird things like that because of my personal musical taste. 

2 hours ago, Flayer said:

Reposting some content that I added to the pinned thread:

The most liked and replied to comment on the official Youtube video is "Who in the hell mixed this?"

The number one search result from Reddit on Google is a thread on r/audioengineering where the mix is being ripped to shreds by almost all commenters.

Quotes:
The thing is back in the day people would have said “this sounds like shit” but because they’re so legendary now everyone that works for them are essentially yes men who are to fearful to speak their mind.

Dude you weren't exaggerating. The drums are obvious samples, sound like shit, and they're clipping on one side so loud it's drowning out everything else. There's no bass guitar (or bass in the kick it's all attack) at all and the vocals are just ewwwwww!

The clipping is very bad I thought it was gonna be more subtle than that. I think even ordinary folks that don't do any mixing or nythig like that will notice that. Maybe they'll consider it an interesting effect? Idk, but that's really bad. I also didn't really like the way they did the vocals, and the delay on them made the fact they didn't tune the vocals so much more apparent. But I really understand the decision not to tune them. However, they should have done more takes, imo.

So my brother was in GnR for several years so I know how that band works (he left several years ago)… their FOH guy mixed Chinese Democracy (which is terrible)… so I’m guessing they did the same thing as they keep everything inside their own bubble. Not gonna speak to the song (which sucks) but just the recording: my guess is they did the same thing they did with Chinese Democracy where they had the FOH (Karem) mix it… it’s probably the worst recording/mix I’ve ever heard. Axl is extremely insulated and surrounded by “yes men” and this is what happens. This isn’t a pro mix by any stretch.

The clipping is ABSURD. Like really. Unbelievable. Never heard anything like this

Sometimes when folks complain about bad production or mixes on here I listen to the song and do a bit of an eye roll because the song ends up being perfectly serviceable. However. This song sounds like shit. I genuinely cannot believe it sounds this bad.

It genuinely sounds like something I've recorded at home using Superior Drummer 3 and Helix Native, thinking it was great and then returned to a few days later and its gone straight in the bin.

Wow I just listened to it. Sounds like this was mixed on big speakers with no regard for translation . There no excitement. Its so flat and the clipping is hilarious. Personally I'm not into the music, but the mix ain't helping persuade me to enjoy it more.

God damn you weren't lying, this shit sounds absolutely horrible lol. Yeah that kick especially is just atrocious and the clicking from it clipping in the right speaker during the chorus is horrid

Die hard gnr fan..and novice engineer... this song made me sad.

Well, this is hardly representative of the regular audience. But they are mostly right - I even said a lot of the same things myself. I just strongly disagree with the guy bitching because they didn’t use autotune for Axl. There’s nothing really wrong with the tuning, and to use this would be way worse to me. 

23 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Could it be deliberate as an artistic choice? I don't hear any issues but I don't have a high-end system either. Obviously, if there are actual mistakes that is anateurish but as far as I know there have been different opinions in the "loudness war" and it was en vogue for a while to mix high with the loss of dynamics as a consequence. 

Again, I don't hear it. Arguing that this is evidence that the band isn't giving it their 100% could very well be true, but the same could be said over almost all their releases where decisions have been made that I subjectively felt hurt the music or where they simply made mistakes (like the artwork to CD, the artwork to this single, etc). 

It is simply hard for me to reconcile the extremely emotional reactions here to simply people thinking the mixing could be better. 

The thing is: is the mixing a problem outside of the forums? I don't think so. But still, the issue is very real to me.

I honestly believe the band and Axl have been writing stuff the last few years. Just a hunch, tho.

About the length, it depends on Axl, I guess. I mean, the song could have different sections and all, but ultimately it will depend on how much lyrics Axl will write to fill it all in. I don't want to jump to conclusions based in the NITL singles though, as those were all CD era lyrics anyways.

1 hour ago, tboneman said:

I don't know if it was reissued because of the sound or just deluxe edition with 2 new extra tracks. But the album is super loud. Vocals are sometimes hard to understand and drums are compressed. Funny because the album was produced by their drummer Travis Barker. Maybe he's deaf! Lol. Still a fun and great comeback record with Tom. 

 

And he’s an awesome drummer. I really like his input with several different artists. But that’s a huge oversight. 

1 hour ago, Carlson-online said:

The fixed a number of the tracks , definitely different mixes. head over to the subreddit, it's all there. Definitely easier sounding on the ears after I deleted + redownloaded from apple music. 

and yes, they also added 2 extra tracks.

Different mixes and mastering, I presume? It’s very interesting to know stuff like this. 

10 minutes ago, Carlson-online said:

Blink 182's new album was reissued a week after launch, with a load of mixing fixes....

Really? Can you tell me more about it? What was wrong and did they actually fixed everything?

3 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Monsters maybe a little bit because of Slash's signature guitar sound that is all over it.

Or maybe because of Axl voice in that bridge ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

3 hours ago, Nintari said:

Most all modern music is dynamically crushed. The kids seem to love it.

This is the reason why they did that. But it’s not an excuse to have that clipping as a feature 

9 minutes ago, jimisbatman said:

They did many songs that easily rival Estranged....... Twat, TIL, Prostitute, locker leaks The Blues {josh}. 

Yes you need to judge the new stuff for what it is.... Potentially leftovers, copy * pasted stuff. It is what it is.... Judging by the artwork, promotion, clicks in the track, one could assume they are really incompetent or don't really care. Bottom line, it is what it is. Enjoy it for what it is. 

I don’t think those songs are in the same level as Estranged. But that’s just my opinion. And I do love TWAT and SOD/The Blues. 

And I agree that they are incompetent with mastering and releasing it, but I don’t see it as a leftover. 

32 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

I don't know if you read my post from a couple of hours ago but seems we're coming from similar angles and with clear heads that time has allowed...

Sorry man, I went back as far as page 208 and couldn’t find it. My bad. 

7 minutes ago, Miden34 said:

now this is what some people want from Gn'R. NOt ME. this is the most boring. generic sounding rock shit i have ever heard. The general isnt to everyones liking but at least its unique. Ace frehly 10,000 is just stock rock garbage. 

Agree with you. Also, the guitars on this one sounds very tamed and boring.

4 minutes ago, dave94 said:

Or maybe people thought the song was OK considering the poor production which they had attributed to it being a low quality leak or even that it was a demo, and the final product would sound much cleaner and more complete. That’s not what we got. Also the initial intrigue and excitement has long since passed for anyone who had the leaks 6 weeks ago and even at the time the overwhelming consensus was that “monsters” was the far superior song 

Although there were several people warning that the leak was the final mix. I know the educated guess from people like me couldn't be taken as gospel, but still...

I think there is a lot of overreaction to this track. I knew for sure that it would be divisive, but it seems that the negativity is way out of proportion. I saw some popular Brazilian twitter account saying this was the worst thing ever, and to me this is obviously not true. And I get, regular non-fan people won't compare this to CD or things like Shotgun Blues and Reckless Life/Anything Goes (I like all of those songs, I just think the overall opinion on them are not so great), they will compare with their peak. Which is fair in a way, but it's also delusional because they will never write a new WTTJ or Estranged. 

I mean, if you don't like it, it's fine. But it's not the end of the world nor the band. 

4 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

I've been wondering about that quote. Does any track from the locker leaks fit that description?

Not very familiar with SRV, but he's more bluesy. The only thing I can relate to that is Robin's 2007 solo spot (which I love).

It could be a track that we already have, but Axl mentioned that Robin did a Stevie Ray Vaughan type of solo in an unreleased song. 

I really wish they would release a rocker instead of Atlas. 

I don't think I had much to add, but like I've said before when it leaked: I like the song, I even prefer it to Monsters because of Slash's solo at the ending and because I really think the lyrics are powerful. 

This doesn't mean I like the mastering, of course.

I don’t get what people are talking about the ending. Sounds absolutely normal to me.

2 minutes ago, BucketEgg said:

" Associated Performer, Background Vocalist, Bass: Duff McKagan "

 

Okay, where are the Duff vocals?

Did he sing anything on live performance? Maybe that could indicate something.

2 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

What's the reason behind them producing it so badly? Any theories? 

Is it just that they couldn't give a fuck and have done it on the cheap? 

I agree with what Lethalis explained here:

12 minutes ago, Lethalis said:

Because many people listen to music on crappy devices, many bands release their music as "loud" as possible. This unfortunately also means that you lose dynamics (because everything is loud), but it also leads to clipping. Clipping occurs when a sound is too loud and gets distorted. If you have good head phones you might be able to hear this (clicks and such), which is a shame.

Basically it only sounds good on a crappy device, because a good audio device will let you hear everything... including the distortion caused by clipping.

7 minutes ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

Song shouldn't look like a brick there. It should've been more dynamic, with less of this blue stuff. This below is the song Evidence, by Faith no More. It's a slow song and clean song, but it's good to show how a more dynamic track should look like. Keep in mind, this song was ripped from YouTube, that apply compressing on its own - the track on a CD should look better than this. BTW, this song was produced by Andy Wallace.

5 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

I remember another waveform screenshot for Perhaps (I guess it was the hq version) where it looked significantly less loud.

So yeah, my ears didn't tricky me. I believe that audio file I have was also ripped from YouTube.

2 minutes ago, AxlRQ93 said:

what does clipping mean

You know when you put any song in the maximum volume on your earphones or speakers and it starts to distort? That's like clipping. The frequency shouldn't be cut (in that blue waveform you can see where it's quieter). With a good pair of headphones or speakers, you can actually hear the drums distorting, like a crunchy blip.

11 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Would this mean that the mastering is also different from the one on Perhaps? (Bob Ludwig mastered that one).

I didn't have a better quality version of Perhaps here, but you can see that at least it's not clipping all the time (the dark blue part is not hitting the ceiling as much). It does look compressed and loud, but to my ears it's a lot better.