Sunday 29 July 2018

Andy Sneap's Amon Amarth Deceiver of the Gods drum tracking


Andy tells us how he tracked the Amon Amarth's "Deceiver of the Gods" drums.Stuff he's referring to:
  • Sennheiser MD421: Dynamic microphone
  • Heil Sound PR30: Dynamic Large Diaphragm Microphone
  • B-Band UKKO-T: Drum Preamp
  • Overtone Labs TBS-001 Tune-Bot: Studio Drum Tuner
  • Neumann KM 86: Multipattern condenser microphone 
  • Jens Bogren: Producer (of last album)

"The band really wanted a more natural feel to everything this time. As far as the toms go, its the usual 421's on racks, Heil PL30 on the 18" (because I'd ran out of 421's, but it sounded great so I've just got some more) and I also had some of those ukko transducers inside the toms which are blended quite low, but they add a cool cut to the top (they sound very hollow on their own but are great to trigger from).
The best thing for the toms tho was the tunebot, getting them properly in tune just makes them sit right and cut through, I can't recommend that little device enough.
Its also the first time I tried recording drums at the back end of my live room with the far room mic'ed with an old neumann KM86. I don't know why I hadn't tried this before but I was loving the room mic and I think it helps the vibe, especially on the slower stuff. I think Jen's stuff is great but I think it was really important to try a new approach and not worry too much on how things sounded on previous records."

Andy Sneap, Apr 14, 2013



Sunday 22 July 2018

Killswitch Engage album "Disarm the Descent" mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap


Produced by Adam DutkiewiczAndy mixed and mastered the album and it was released in 2013. Here's what he said about the guitar and vocals mixing. My comments in square brackets []

"I did run all clean vocals through Dolby A and Distressor for extra Muttness.

The guitars are Fuchs (, or that's what I was told) [Mantis probably]. The only way I can describe them is grainy, I wouldn't say scratchy, but its a more open gain....if that makes sense. Maybe a tad better for more open ringy riffs for my taste but the band were dead set on wanting to use their tone which I'm fine with.
The Dolby unit was actually Biffs [Biff Byford - Andy is a huge Saxon fan],  its a Dolby A 361, I'd not tried that old trick before but heard about it and thought I'd give it a shot so re-recorded all melodic vocs through that and the distressor."


Part 1 of the studio documentary showing the tracking.


Sunday 15 July 2018

Colin Richardson's vocal production on Bullet for my Valentine

One of Colin Richardson's rare internet forum appearances. This time regarding the Welch band Bullet for my Valentine and probably talking about their first album "The Poison". Pretty sure he meant  an Eventide H3000 btw.

"The effects used on the vocals were double tracking all vocals manually whether it be clean, heavy or harmony's, an eventide H300 [sic] was used on all vocals with a tiny chorus effect also a short delay somewhere between 200 ms and 300 ms . This was definitely the treatment on the voice as I produced and mixed the album."

Mar 26, 2007
Source: Colin Richardson on the Andy Sneap forum at http://www.ultimatemetal.com



Wednesday 11 July 2018

A new beginning - same old same

Noise 101 started in a different time and a different form many moons ago when I discovered that top Metal Producer Andy Sneap was generous enough with his time to answer rwcordrec questions on the .....metal forum.
Being a fan of order and function, I decided to compile this wisdom, initially to help with my own recordings and also to help others.  This became the Noise 101 Wiki.
Many years later I stopped paying for the domain name and hosting as other priorities took over, but fellow recording fans had copied my compilation and posted in various forums. This again started to become fragmented and many more pearls of wisdom had been shared by Sneap and others.

A good friend told me that Noise 101 was still spoken about on the popular music production forums, so it was time to resurrect it, keeping the order and discipline from the original wiki....

Colin Richardson's Bu!let for my Valentine guitar settings

Colin Richardson gives the guitar settings for Welch band Bullet for my Valentine's debut album. "Co-produced with Andy Sneap ...