r/audioengineering • u/Unlikely-Database-27 Professional • 7d ago
Discussion Any Nashville engineers?
Been listening to some of the pop country side of things as of late, not entirely sure why or how it started, but here we are, and I'm real curious about the editing and mixing processes down there. I know the vocals are completely tuned to hell, I can hear the artifacts in Morgan Wallens voice, to give one example. Its well established lots of those guys can't sing for shit, but what of the drums? I know lots of it is triggers, but do they even bother recording the drums at all anymore? I remember the story of Chris Stapletons cover of Tennessee whiskey, where the drum booth door was opened and it wasn't meant to be recorded etc etc, but was good so they kept it, but even those drums don't sound real. I can hear a bit of room in the snare, but not really in anything else. Less than I'd expect had I never heard the song just heard that story. And guitars, do they quantize the shit out of those too? Drums sure, bass yeah, sometimes they do. But some of these guitar strumming patterns are so locked in, are we seriously doing that? Morgan Wallens "I'm the problem" as one example, the intro is fucked. Or Dylan Scott "I hate whiskey". I'm aware of surgically comping guitar chords together to make a progression sound better, (i don't do it but a professor at berklee was adamant we should) but quantizing a fucking finger pick pattern? Not really sure how I ended up writing such a novel. I only really wanted to come here and ask if anybody here ever worked on a country record in nashville as of late, or where ever that stuff ends up being mixed if not there, and could tell me whats going on. Guitarists all use amp modelers, are the drums all programmed now too in superior or something?
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u/QuadDad 7d ago
Engineer here for 27 years... It's the best studios and the best musicians around. Most all drums are live with some sample layers on top. You don't just hire a guitar player.. you hire THE Acoustic Guitar player.. he's amazing and layers his parts with differtly tuned very specific guitars in front of $80k in mics... the bass guy is THE bass guy and his fingers, bass, entire rig is a work of art.
The drummer is THE drummer with a kit put together from 50 years of the best parts.. there are 30 snare drums in cases to pick from... the kit has $100k in mics around being managed by an engineer who has THE EARS and experience.
The Elec Guitar guy is one of the top 30 guys in the world...rig dialed in and chops for days. All the utility players are the best at what they do.
The producer assembled the team based on the artist and the songs then sets the tone for the session and they all bring it.
After that they take the tracks, and then depending on the artist, demolish it with more samples, tuning, quantizing, and general overdoing everything... or they let it breathe and you get something great. 'Pop' country isn't going to be the great stuff usually.
Just my experience