GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
I bet if you ask the Maiden guys, most of them will be saying that they are releasing their best sounding records these days...
I bet if you ask the Maiden guys, most of them will be saying that they are releasing their best sounding records these days...
Azas
The End Of An Era
for such questionable/ambiguous results
Me thinks somebody in the band is a masochist 
Or masochist is Kevin Shirley. He gets the money but must put his name next to Steve's studio shenanigans/experiments/it's good enough.
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Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Yeah, but at some point he ought to be able to step back, think about the criticism he's received (including from his own bandmates at times), and maybe reconsider his path of action there.
The more influence Steve has over the production of an album, the worse it sounds. This is pretty well borne out by the available evidence. Steve intentionally stepped back a bit on Brave New World, and it shows. He stepped forward again in a big way on Dance Of Death, and guess what, it also shows.
But he's clearly set in his ways at this point, so we'll get what we get.
Iron Lurker
Ancient Mariner
A lot of fans like to pile on Kevin Shirley but I imagine there would be very few complaints if the sound on all the Reunion albums were on par with BNW (the one I believe he had the most autonomy)
Here is the place to admit she's still your wife after 10 years because she did go with you!
He could be inspired by Blaze Bayley and release 3 full albums to cover the whole story...
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Yeah, but at the same time Adrian (and Bruce, iirc) are very happy with SJ's production. And of BNW for sure. You're right (in a way) about the BNW and DOD productions, but AMOLAD's one was again great, at least for me. For the next ones, TFF has an old-school vibe production of the early 80's, while TBOS could be better. So we can't say that the production of the Reunion albums is bad, or at least it's hard to say why some albums are muddy.
In the end, I'm happy that every Maiden album has its own unique sound. Bruce achieves the same with his solo albums and that's great.
MindRuler
Ancient Mariner
That goes for Nicko.
Cosmiceddie
Back From The Edge
Afterglow of Ragnarok has been haunting me for the last couple of days and I cannot get rid of it. It is that good.
My favourite song from Senjutsu is Stratego and AOR is at least on par with it if not better.
I cannot wait for the album.
My favourite song from Senjutsu is Stratego and AOR is at least on par with it if not better.
I cannot wait for the album.
MindlessPieces
Educated Fool
Yes, I think Kevin is doing the best he can given the budget and constraints the band and Rod put on him.
Some people take to blaming Steve Harris, somehow thinking his hearing likes mud.
To me, it just makes more sense that it comes down to $$$'s especially when there is no money to be made in selling albums. Most people steal the music for free.
Do it quick, get it out there, then do the best tour possible, that's where the money is, then do a nostalgic tour in between, no need to do a new album to justify 2 years of touring. Album/tour, nostalgic tour, album/tour.
If people weren't stealing music, we would have Maiden putting out albums every two years and the quality would be pristine.
Trevoire
Ancient Mariner
Maidens production is nothing to do with cost. Kevin has done fantastic mixes previously (BNW) but these days Steve just wants to do everything quickly. Write record and mix back to back. No time to refine the songs, no time to rehearse the parts, no time to reflect and tweak the mix.
itwaszero
AMOLAD is GOAT
Cool, thank you for the clarification! Where did he say this, and did he mention anything else about gear or tunings used on the album? Thanks again!
matic22
Ancient Mariner
Facebook. I asked him and he answered. Just this song, tho.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
I'm sorry but this is simply not correct. This isn't how audio production works. The results we hear have absolutely nothing to do with budget and are overwhelmingly due to Steve's decisions. We know that he has become careless in this context and that he mostly does whatever he wants. Like choosing not to master an album. Or like reusing a demo from Adrian and putting it as is on the album, only adding a few vocal lines. Or taking a song from Bruce's solo album, putting it on the Maiden album and keeping the intro (okay) and outro (nonsensical) because he found it neat.
As I mentioned before, if Maiden only cared about money they wouldn't release any new albums. They have more than enough classics and people are more than willing to pay quite high prices to see those classics. Maiden still care about their art and about creating something new. It's just that they don't have the interest anymore to pay as much attention to detail and put in the effort as they used to in the 80's. And I can kinda understand that in a sense, even if it goes directly against what I value in music.
It's not that Steve's hearing "likes mud". Audio mixing and mastering isn't easy and we can see via Maiden's 90's output that Steve isn't the greatest at it. Kevin has produced some fantastic sounding albums in his career, but there's only so much he can do if Steve doesn't let him work his magic. Maiden have plenty of money and producing music nowadays isn't as expensive as it used to be. Hell, you can produce a record from your own home; I know it because I've done it. They are paying money to book the studio anyway and since they rent it out to write the songs they spend more time in there than arguably necessary. Paying Kevin a bit more to work longer on the record isn't a huge cost factor compared to the expenses they are already paying at that point. And as far as we know Kevin does work on the albums as much as needed. It's just that if you're unlucky you can have Steve listen to a rough demo and go "Love it! Release it like that" (which has happened already).
I really don't know where you've got the idea that it's a cost cutting measure. There is no evidence to support that whatsoever.
itwaszero
AMOLAD is GOAT
Thanks! I asked him on Twitter many years ago about playing King In Crimson and Trumpets of Jericho live, he said they were Drop D guitars with a Boss pitch shift pedal to take them down to A but it looks like he hasn't been on Twitter in a couple of years.
Thanks for the info.
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Hear, hear!
Seeing as we are in the Bruce Dickinson thread, I will bring up one comment he made some time ago about Maiden albums. He said something along the lines of it being possible to record albums in your bedroom, but that Maiden did not do that because they could afford to pay a lot of money to use a professional studio and the services of a producer.
If saving costs was the main explanation behind the lousy production of recent Maiden albums, they would have recorded them in Steve’s barn rather than at an expensive professional recording studio in Paris.
The fact is that Maiden are putting more money into their studio productions than they are probably getting back on anything. I wouldn't be surprised if A Matter of Life and Death was the last album to turn a significant profit. The other reality is that there are plenty of industry standard Metal albums that are being recorded in basements using amp simulators, triggered drums, and other modern software. These albums almost certainly cost less than the average Maiden album - it has nothing to do with budget.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
And many of them sound technically better than Maiden, sadly.
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
If Maiden fans are real Maiden fans, they always buy Maiden official products even after having downloaded leaked records. I think most of Maiden fans are buying Maiden stuff. So, the real explanation of why Steve Harris and Maiden crew are not hiring a "better" producer than Kevin Shirley is not money but the fact that Kevin is the one who can make Maiden like Maiden. Plus the fact that Steve is a great fan of 70's prog rock and metal and wants to have the same sound on Maiden albums.
The real problem about metal records selling less is rap music, techno music and all that modern shit that is bringing young people to hear a lot of shit on the radio and appreciate it instead of loving real music like rock, hard rock, metal, blues, classical, jazz and folk music. That's the real problem, and the cause is the music industry which wants to make money by producing shitty "artists and bands" that aren't real artists and bands.
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
I cannot help but laugh when I read people talking about “real music” to belittle other styles of music they do not like. I have lost count of the number of times this happened to me as a metalhead in my teenage years: “That is not music, that is noise” they would say, whilst praising real music I should be listening to.
Moreover, the music industry wants to make money regardless of musical style. Why do you think Maiden/Bruce release their albums in different formats? They count on the faithful buying all of them, so instead of one copy of the album they have created they can sell six!
Cynical ramblings of an old fart over.