MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
do you think making metal records is inherently different to making 'normal' records?
Yes and no. The point of (most) metal is to make it sound larger than life. Everything needs to be bigger, deeper and harder. To that end, you are constantly doing more processing than you might on a 'normal' record.
For example:
A blues band. Telecaster through a Fender Princeton, J bass, 4 piece decent drumset. Your job is to make them sound like people playing a Telecaster through a Fender Princeton, J bass, and a 4 piece decent drumset.
A metal band. $200 BC Rich guitar through a Crate combo amp, Maching bass, and a drumset with too many toms and a picture of the Muppets on the kick head. Your job is to make them sound like Metallica, preferably the 'Black' album.
Which do you think is a tougher job?
Of course, once you have figured out how to do it, just like anything, it really isn't that hard at all.
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
how does your approach differ if you are recording, say, death vs stoner metal?
Stoner metal (like Trouble, etc...) is really just 70's rock. If you make it sound like an old Zepplin album, you've done your job. There is a lot of room for the sounds to breath and develop.
Death metal is normally very fast, so there is no room for any of the sounds to breath without it turning into a mess. So the sounds generally are all really tight and bright.
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
what kind of ridiculous bullshit do you need to do to get the drums to compete with the wall of steady state guitars?
1. Compress the crap out of them.
2. EQ the crap out of them. You have to EQ everything so that it has its own space. With kick and tom, I get rid of a bunch of 900hz. That leaves a giant hole for the meat of the guitar to sit without getting in the way.
3. turn them up louder than the guitar
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
how often are you using triggers/samples on the drums? do the bands expect it?
It really depends on the drummer. There are some guys that play very fast, but don't have enough power at those speeds to make the kick sound good. In that case you use triggers.
There are guys, like Jason Bittner, who can play at blinding speeds with the power to make the drum speak properly, so no triggers required.
Sometimes you use triggers as a secondary instrument: to layer with the real sound or to change the sound of the kick all together for certain songs and/or parts of songs. (the way a keyboard player would change sounds from a piano to a string sound)
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
do any bands still tune to E? what are your tricks for low end management/translation when the band's tuned down to Q minor?
No, not many metal bands use standard tuning any more. Luckily, guitars have most of their power an octave or two higher than the fundamental of the note there are hitting. So even the difference in 'chug' power between a normally tuned guitar a E and one tuned down to C is only the difference between 164hz and 130hz. It's not that big of a deal. For bass its the difference between 82hz and 65hz. if you keep your kick drum pushed at 50hz, you will be fine
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
what guitar/pedal/amp/mic combos do you like for ultimate face melting riff awesomeness? yeah yeah i know, the correct answer is "the guitar player's right hand". just work with me here.
For most metal, I tend to prefer Mesa Rectifier's and amps like that. This is because they compress before they distort. This makes it so you can get the smoothness and feel for the player out of the amp before the sound gets too fuzzy and indistict.
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
do you ever put up a really nice mic for vocals? it seems like an sm7 or a 421 would usually be the way to go.
It all depends on the vocalist. Metal is not just one thing, there are seemingly hundreds of subgenres, some of them involve actual singing. Those would get the mic that would work in any genre for that type of vocal. Anything overly aggressive gets the SM7, stuff with more subtleties or performed quietly gets an LDC. Some of that 'screaming' you hear in metal is not as loud as you think it is. Some of it is even performed while breathing in.
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
are cookie monster vocals hard to mix? they seem like they would be.
Not really. You just compress them, accentuate the 2-3k range and normally double or triple track them. Pan them out and you are good to go. Again, it's all about carving out a space in the spectrum for each insturment/voice to live.
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
are the bass players always kinda weird and quiet?
Yes.