Maybe I haven't been active enough on the DT-side for too long, but am I the only one who loves the sound on ADTOE?
I don't either, but everybody say it's bad, and I know nothing about mixing and little about how an album should sound to be "objectively" good. So maybe my ears aren't just calibrated on the objective good.
Don't be snared in the "objectively good" trap. Most complaints are a matter of personal taste. For example, I can hear the drums perfectly fine, so if people would prefer them louder, that's one thing, but it's not a case of right or wrong.
There's three main issues (at least to my hearing) with ADTOE, and I think most of us will agree at least on a) and c).
a) The drums are too low, but the drums when MP was in the band, where always mixed higher. We were used to this louder drum sound so it was kind of a big deal when ADTOE was released.
b) The drums again, are maybe
too low since Mangini's cymbal work is barely listenable. There's a lot of small nuances that got lost in the low mix (or low cymbal volume when mixing).
c) The guitar sounds very thin. If you listen it to the massive sound on Black Clouds and then listen to ADTOE, you will definitely hear that the "guitar power" got lost somewhere. The ADTOE guitar sounds like there was a blanket on the speakers.
Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the overall sound of the record. You can hear Myung which was nice for a change, the vocals are very warm and crisp, and JR's work is pretty good as well.