Worst of TOMB, anyone?

[jhcore]

I was going through a long-dormant hard drive and found recordings I did from 13+ years ago and just had to give a listen. Initially, I was horrified, but then I started picking out cues and techniques, that, for better or worse, I still employ today!

So, would anyone like to bare it all and revisit that awkwardness, like that time you were photographed wearing combat boots and a bullet belt to the prom?

I'll start. I lived in Austin for a bit in the early 00's with a guy who inexplicably had some decent mics and a PC set up for recording. One morning I had megacaffeinated myself and decided to record my hardcore opus. I put the drums down first, overdubbed guitars and bass, then let my roommate lay down some vocals.

Over time, I must've manipulated this (and many of the other tracks I found) with "mastering", and there is maddening, audible distortion all over this masterpiece.

Here is my shame:

http://soundcloud.com/jhcore/track-14

And, oh wow, this is just tip of the iceberg...

[Gregg Juke]

Most of my personal lows in music recording have to do with lack of skill or experience in the playing/performance area many years ago. By the time I was producing (and now doing more engineering), I had a pretty good handle on avoiding technical audio screw-ups, as well as being a much better player personally. I don't think you want to hear lame drumming or singing from the 80's; you're looking for the technical nadir, right?

And that happens to be true of most of the other work that I've done with other "artists" or bands-- my "studio funnies" are based on other people's inabilities or inadequacies, or they are simply projects that have been purposely sabotaged for the purpose of comic relief on my/our part. The former would involve posting examples of bad songwriting, playing, singing, or lyricism, which could be considered pretty uncharitable. The latter would involve posting deliberately created "special mixes" generally used to hoax people before playing the real mix. None of that is what you're looking for, I'm pretty sure.

And I'll bet that's true for a lot of folks here. Because the stuff that we do that's real crap (from a technical standpoint)-- bad mixes and masters, generally get destroyed, tossed in the circular file, or filed away at the bottom of some stack that it's unlikely we'll revisit anytime soon, so I'm thinking you may not get a lot of responce to this thread, and I don't want you to think it's because nobody else makes mistakes (or thinks that they don't). I just know that for me, the physical evidence of said shoddy production is mostly non-extant.

I'll look around though, just for the heck of it...

GJ