New Korn album

Don’t get me wrong, I have no use for Korn, but they recorded their latest album completely on tape and no click tracks

MUCH respect for that!

Yeah, respect :sunglasses:

But was there a specific reason for doing that? Or could they not afford the upgrade to Cubase6? :wink:

I’d also like to know what their reasoning was for this method. I get that analog has it’s advantages re: warmth of the sound, but there are effective ways to get warmth in todays mixes.
I wonder if their point is to say, “We played these songs from beginning to end, there’s no autotune, no midi tweaking and no digital editing.”

I certainly can respect that approach, but after 15 or 20 years of digital recording, it’s gotta be tough to go back to
waiting for the tape to rewind after every take and punchin, and manually patching and resetting all that outboard gear.
Sorta like going back to a rotary phone because one button dialing is too easy and you miss playing with the
phone chord while you talk. :slight_smile:

It’s just marketing, Looking for a new spin; some point of differernce that will help them stand out from the crowd. :unamused:

And they eat organic corn only, and their studio was powered by solar, blah blah blah! :laughing: :unamused:

Very interesting, I googled a bit to find out more but couldn’t find anything,
can you point me to an article please?

I think it’s bold to plan a production without fall backs as beat detective and Melodyne.
Especially with today’s deadlines, investment and marketing budgets, producers and labels rely on all sort of insurances, and by today’s standards, recording analogue without clicktrack is a risky endevour.

On the other hand, the message it contains, being pure and honest makes it instantly a work of art instead of a ‘commercial project’.
wich in the end could lead to a commercial succes because of it’s non commerciality :slight_smile:

Secondly, recording old scool like this automatically leads to a ‘vintage’ sound,because you need to make decisions you don’t have to make in a DAW enviroment.
Such decisions (like you can’t post produce as easily) will definately have an impact on the overal vibe of the album.

My opinion? None, I don’t think it’s better or worse, it’s just a way to expres your vision, analogue, digital, old scool, progressive, if it get’s me on a emotional level I am sold, regardless of the method.

Yeah, whatever.

However, they recorded it, it still totally sucks. Worst Korn album ever.

hehehehe, that’s like saying worst case of food poisoning ever.

+1 :laughing:


Maybe they’ll record their next album on a corn tortilla? :wink:

Perhaps we should all try a clickless project then post the results… that’s baring it all eh!

Wrong.

I am decidedly NOT an analog tape – or analog anything – “purist” but there’s no question tape imparts a different sound and vibe than digital recording – it’s not “magic” or “ledgerdemain” but pure science. Without even discussing which is “better.”

I recall you’ve been recording for about 9 years now; you’ve come a long way in those years, IMO. But some of us have been doing this for 30+ years and in my case for roughly 20 of those years it was always tape – multi-track cassette, 1/4" 8-track reel-to-reel, 2" 16-track, and many years ago, 1" 4-track. So, no offense, but you’re not exactly qualified to dismiss it in such categorical terms.

Regarding click track: I never used a click track… until I bought a computer and Cubase, that is. No band I was ever in used a click track. If you’re a competent musician, what is “dangerous” about not using a click track? Dispensing with the rigidity of the click allows the msuic to “breathe” a little bit, it imparts a “live” aspect to the fixedness of recording… If one approaches music from the position that nothing sounds as “good” as live music, then elimnating the click makes perfect sense. Same goes for MIDI too. Since the arrival of MIDI, one can EASILY hear the robotic essence it has imprinted on much of popular music – is THAT what a musical performance is really about?

It brings to mind a Herbie Hanock song called “Hang Up Your Hangups” which is tough urban 70’s Funk all the way. It occurred to me recently that as the song heats up – also a forgotten art – the tempo also edges up a bit… not because they sped up the click track :unamused: , and not beacsue the boys just couldn’t keep good time (blasphemy!) but because it was quite natural, and adds a bit of intensity to a track that is already cooking along nicely.

+1

Although I admire Korn for using tape, I don’t have any illusions that using tape is going to improve THEIR music in any way – in the same way using paper grocery bags instead of plastic ones to dump your trash in will make the garbage smell any better :laughing:

I actually usually like Korn, but the last album (as well as the preceding one) was terrible. I do like a lot of their previous albums. I think both “See You On The Other Side” and “Untouchables” were REALLY good. The lyrics on every album are awful, though.

Not to mention the singing – if you can call that “singing”

I don’t mind the singing as much - kinda fits the music.

You can upgrade to Cubase 6 and noodle around with the stretching and warping tools? :wink:

Singapore noodles are my favourite - with a little parsley on top. Jummy!