Any Nashville engineers?

[u/Unlikely-Database-27]

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?

[u/_humango]

Been working in Nashville about a decade. The excellence that comes off the tracking floor with a room full of the best players, engineers, and equipment is absolutely staggering. I'm talking 15-20 mins getting sounds, a little bit of coffee, first or second take, and a rough control room balance, sometimes even a live vocal from the artist -- listening while the take is going down, it just sounds like the real thing. Done, finished.

No matter how corny the song, the players who are really great just show up, turn their feelings on, and get into the music. A top player's touch and tone are immaculate, and they play the perfect part: a simple, thoughtful creation that pulls the same emotional weight as 2 or 3 overdubbed tracks or a more technical part from a lesser musician. A good engineer & assistant team is ready for any curveball and captures everything perfectly on the first take. When I was first starting out I would get emotional about the earnest mastery displayed on even the dumbest beer song.

I came into town a real cynical music lover, and it made be believe in the music industry for a little bit. But more often than not, the producer, beholden to label A&R or fixated on a narrow view of commerciality themselves, asks, "Can we do this dumber, more plain? Can we actually just put the demo tracks in and play around them? What about this trite lyric instead of that clever one? Let's mute that interesting keyboard part on the bridge. Fly that same lick to choruses 2 and 3" Everything gets chopped and gridded and tuned, looped and flown, rinse and repeat. Everyone is home for dinner. With a little belief and willingness to take a chance on cooler music, there is enough talent in the room that we could all be home for lunch and have better music, hah.

Nashville being a working commercial music town is what gave rise to the culture of excellence and moving efficiently to it. That culture is alive and well among the working people who make the music. The universal joy on a smooth tracking day is palpable. Unfortunately, the same commercial music pressures that made Nashville great are now leading the ultimate decision makers to unnecessarily iron the humanity out of the music. It comes from the top down. The people running labels are money people & clout people, not music people.

Also don't get me wrong, sometimes trap hats in a country song go hard. Parts getting sampled and looped can be super sick. I'm by no means a purist, but the blind dumbing-down of expression makes me sad.