Challenge for Octave Records

Would Octave Records be up for the challenge of recording heavy metal?

[@bf0189]

Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree is a notable exception. Great engineer and knows what he's doing in the studio. His surround mixes are great too. Don't listen to much of the heavier side of music these days as I've gotten older but Steven Wilson s work is great stuff

[@TheTrueVoiceOfReason]

We've got darn near everything he's done, and the whole family has seen him in various forms over the last decade or so. Always a good show, and he does his best to work with the venue and sound engineer to get it the best possible. Plus, he's a nice guy. Chatted with him after at least 2 of the shows.

[@Rschmidt3]

Steve is also becoming the most sought after engineering/mixer around. And he is the leading and best Dolby Atmos mixer.

[@Theupgradeguy]

If you like progressive Metal/Rock, check out 'III Sides to Every Story' by the Boston funk-metal band Extreme, released in 1992. It is a pretty amazing recording with drums and guitars sounding like they are right in the room. They have some great vocals & harmonies too.

[@geddylee501]

AC DC back in black sounds great 😊

[@brentcollins9727]

Agreed

[@tacofortgens3471]

Old 80s recordings AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Metallica, sound great, just have to grab 1st CD releases, or vinyl albums. Great dynamics

[@NoEgg4u]

Paul, are you able to obtain the initial capture, multi-track masters from major artists that have lousy sounding releases? Their initial capture tapes (or digital equivalent) probably sound fantastic, and your studio could mix and master them correctly. It would be amazing to hear those hit songs with energy, dynamics, soundstaging, etc. I can't imagine such songs, mixed and mastered correctly by you, not being a monumental success. As people hear it, and word spreads, sales will be off the charts. As other famous bands hear what you have done, and the public's huge and positive response, you probably find other top bands, contacting you and asking for the same. And you will probably be able to obtain initial capture, multi track masters from iconic bands that have passed on. Again, sales for such fantastic sounding songs, via your studio, would be off the charts, and you would be doing the world a favor.

[@andrewbrazier9664]

Depends who owns the copyright & whether they would release the original master tapes for a niche (compared to streaming platforms) physical vinyl market

[@SamuelBarrPhotography]

This will be a great project! Have you also thought about recording some smooth jazz and R&B music?

[@jpatrickmoore5158]

There's been tons of compression used in making recordings thru the decades. Part of that was to avoid saturation on magnetic tape, part to avoid problems with phono stylus tracking, and part to reduce the dynamic range so that soft passages don't disappear into background noise. DBX built units to decompress music on the user end back in the 80's. Not perfect by any means, and subject to the noise floor "pumping."

[@MoneyCrespin]

Only band I can think of that has the chops and a great sound is Fastball, that would probably sound great recorded at your fine studio.

[@jameshatley9390]

IDK, Paul. Some heavy bands do manage to do a good job in the studio. I would absolutely LOVE to hear you work with Blood Incantation, who happen to be based there in your state.

[@coldfinger459sub0]

Unfortunately, the heavy metal rock band music for the mass media was meant to be played loud over a car radio or EarPods in a noisy environment where unfortunately they will never know or enjoy the individual distinct sound of individual music, instruments, or the minute nuances of a white dynamic range. I remember my first high definition truth, real gold cd, fire, recording company plane, Vivaldi uncompressed recording the dynamic range was incredible. You can barely hear the violin first coming in the passage you had to be in a very quiet room played over my class A amplifier it was candy to the ears. But if you try to play this uncompressed filed inside your car, you could not hear anything of the low passages. It was drowned out and lost with the road noise. . Or if any people were in the room, talking or any other noise, like an air conditioning, fan, or a coffee pot percolating would completely wash out a beautiful, low passages of music and make it so you cannot even hear the low dynamic range. Because the majority of people do not own systems that are even capable of correctly playing uncompressed Highly Dynamic music. This is why recording studios record music, that the normal person who does not have quality equipment in a perfect listening environment, sell to the masses and make a profit money. Instead of recording music for the few people who really enjoy instruments and sound, or a nicely set up system in room environment

[@andresjacobsen4551]

Which album was this?

[@coldfinger459sub0]

@@andresjacobsen4551 I do not remember this was decades ago. I was in my late teens to 20 and one of my friends worked at the company who produced the CDs.. supposedly they were actually made with real gold not just gold colored. And at the time they were very expensive and whatever company it was their claim to fame was supposedly their method and I guess they’re a bit rate and clarity of exact reproductions of masters. I would get them all for free because the printing on the labels would get messed up and if it wasn’t exactly perfect they weren’t fit for sale . But I do remember not being able to listen to any of the CDs that were produced uncompressed in a car or any noisy environment if they have very soft passages. But I did have compression available on my CD player inside my car. Only if I hit the compression button, could I listen to those particular styles of music?. But other CDs that were of the rock genre that were already recorded, loud sound like the ones that were produced . I do remember one thing . In the music you can hear people’s breath.. you can hear if somebody had a base cello. If it was somebody with jeans, you can hear the course material scrape against instrument, or if it was a woman in a silk dress, you can literally hear the difference in material.. you can hear a spit between somebody’s lips when they sing as the lips part. You can hear the difference between somebody’s skin on their hand if they had course hard, calloused skin or smooth skin, when their fingers played on a string instrument.. being able to listen to a string instrument, when it was last plucked and hear the string ring all the way down to it, lost its tone something you cannot hear on regular systems. Being able to hear if they had air conditioning on in the background in a fan started in the music or somebody flipping musical pages of paper or tapping their toe keeping time all these things you cannot hear over a radio.. or that fact you could not hear over 90% of peoples systems. Unfortunately, I lost all those CDs in a house robbery theft .

[@howaboutataste]

Established rock bands have recording deals. Contracts that don't allow them to go record with someone else. Few think it important enough to retain rights to do whatever they want. Maybe find a good, experienced local band.

[@richardsmith2721]

That's why I like Steve Albini. He does a good job at capturing the live energy of a band.

[@keithmoriyama5421]

It's all in the recording engineering. Rock is the hardest of all musical forms to record-- because all other music is meant to sound nice. Rock gets it's fidelity from the power of the instruments-- sound power NOT loudness level. Unless you are an engineer who specializes in this type of dynamic sound it ain't gonna work-- it will just sound like noise. Said one musician when he came back into the control room: "It's so loud you can't even look at it but, it doesn't hurt your ears at all.

[@chebrubin]

Nice Paul. Record them in DSD multichannel. Show Apple Spatial how Sony was doing it 20 years ago.

[@ctal615]

Speaking of dynamics and compression, what are you using that #audioscape bus compressor on? Please post a video regarding this.

[@davidfromamerica1871]

I have Heavy Metal and heavy Rock CD’s bands I bought years ago. They all sounded great to me. I have hearing damage to prove it. The 95/100 plus db. Eight 6.5 inch component speakers and 8 inch subwoofer tuned for heavy metal and rock. Those bass notes would slam tighter than the space of a door jam on that subwoofer. Done with those days. Save what is left of my hearing now. 🤗😎👍

[@ksukhia]

meshuggah do it correctly on their last few records. The sound on record is the true sound of the band; watch them live and they'll prove it. Best of their genre, and I say that being a bigger fan of some of their other contemporaries, but they cannot be denied.

[@zackw4941]

+1! See if you can get Rammstein to come play for you :)

[@brentcollins9727]

The Warning is by far, my favorite band. Saw them four times last year and again next month. They could definitely use your recoding skills, Paul!! Error is an incredible album, but too compressed.

[@Bassotronics]

The era of good and awesome rock music is pretty much gone. Nowadays there’s nothing really interesting anymore in terms of rock or heavy metal. I just wish all those people from the 80s and 90s can re-record the songs in DSD. But the majority are old or dead already. 😣

[@brentcollins9727]

Check out The Warning and Jinjer. I’m hooked on both

[@Kreily]

Lots of interesting new heavy metal bands out there, you just have to look for them!

[@Projacked1]

Oh boy Octave should record Motorpsycho!

[@AchselFord]

Excellent suggestion!

[@Projacked1]

Yeah they are excellent story-tellers, and they have such variety. Definitely worthy of a high end recording. 🥰

[@shipsahoy1793]

The two channel mixing and mastering of any multitrack recording can make or break whether the listener likes what they are hearing or not; it’s not always about the song or the “jam” or the “level” of musicianship. Some recordings that seem imperfect on the surface may have been the exact reason why they were so popular. The concept of a perfect recording in popular music is ludicrous. 👨🏻 Edit: meant to say “recording” and not “mix” in the final sentence.

[@matteoromenghi]

For some music, 128 kbps mp3 is enough.

[@woopygoman]

Great input, Paul. Personally, I would love to hear some well recorded nu-metal like Linkin Park even though they already sound OK.

[@PSA78]

Alice in Chains unplugged on MTV is pretty good, and so is some other unplugged Rock stuff. Peter Green "In the skies" is a really great electric Blues/Rock album with good DR. John Fogerty and Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler have good recordings through and through. It's when they try to get the electric guitars as thick and rich as they can that things tend to get less 'audiophile oriented', like Black Sabbath (though I'm not going to complain about Tony Iommi, the riff-meister 😂).

[@ditto_75]

It is my understanding that most bands do not record live studio recordings anymore. Every track is recorded separately and then mixed. Anyone that can get their hands on the tracks can remaster them. I'm not sure what he means by do it correctly. Also, the recording quality of metal songs has gotten better although like every genre out there, they push the limits on clipping to get things to be louder when played back.

[@gtrguyinaz]

The quality of Octive records is off the charts … music is somewhat pleasant.. kind like maple shade..

[@Wuchthelm]

I was listening to some Octave productions on Apple Music (Clandestine Amigo and Gabriel Mervine for example). And I was heavily disappointed. Everything sounds muffled and with a nearly mono-like stereo-width. Tried it with headphones (Airpods Max) and on my Dirac-measured Stereo System. Did really thought this careful production process Paul alway talks about will lead to a fantastic sound adventure. But its far less impressive then other recent analogue recordings i heard. For example Angelo Kelly - Grace (irish folk) or Die Fantastischen Vier - Liechtenstein Tapes (german hiphop). Thats a total different quality.

[@gregfullerton2196]

Is that a piano black Sony SS-M9 just over his right shoulder?

[@jctai100]

Tool is I think the exception

[@finscreenname]

There are a few, Dream Theater comes to mind. Black Sabbath with Dio also were recorded pretty good. Even a couple Megadeath albums were recorded well.

[@andresjacobsen4551]

Try Manowar! The original cd of The Triumph of Steel, the last song "Master of the Wind" best I heard in that genre.

[@finscreenname]

@@andresjacobsen4551 I forgot to mention Iron Madian has some of the best recorded metal there is.

[@maxpower78-15]

Oh my god!! Please tell me someone cool took Paul up on this offer…

[@ReefersGarage]

We would love to record with you how do I get in touch with you Paul

[@sickjohnson]

Most if not all of said rock bands are under unbreakable contracts...that never end...no?

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

All the things audiophiles hate about recording techniques are simply part of the genre. I have literally seen cymbals shattered during a session.

[@doylewayne3940]

I understand Blink 182 is reuniting. Would be a great hits dsd album 🐰 ;-)).

[@ThinkingBetter]

When many people like compressed and distorted music, unfortunately much music will be produced with such “qualities”.

[@Bassotronics]

What’s annoying also is that these so-called producers do not know anything about music formats and they be recording the vocals in MP3 and other mediocre grade formats and Bitrates

[@ThinkingBetter]

@@BassotronicsYes, some music is made by people who just don’t care. A friend of mine is the opposite as he has won 8 Grammy awards and received 27 nominations. He has been audiophile and awesome producer for decades. Optimum is when the greatest musicians get the audiophile attention as with him.

[@blekenbleu]

reach out to Tedeschi Trucks

[@richardsmith2721]

I posed this question before. I'd love to see Octave record someone like Neil Young. He supposedly cares about sound quality.

[@boraebeoglu8890]

dejavu

[@hoobsgroove]

What's the name of this band you're talking about?

[@austinlibby7025]

Oh Paul clear out there. You just want to spend the bucks you can get licensing rights from many groups out there that are producing albums annually call mine open up your phone book you got enough relationship Stevie Wonder can get you set up in 22 minutes with a high N energy rock band that you could work with and record call mine.

[@mikecamps7226]

Paul, contact me so we can exchange info. I'm an old RCA guy...my dad was a dealer.....and this is the band to record in your studio...one of my clients.....lets chat

[@mikecamps7226]

keep in mind...this is a world class guy...he has toured the world before...outstanding guitar player....and 3 piece