Can we Talk about Studio Fredman Style Mixes?

[Melodeath]

Ok we've probably all seen the Studio Fredman guitar miking technique thread. But I'm not posting this to talk about that specifically. I want to talk about the overall mixes of some mid-90s classics like Slaughter of the Soul or The Jester Race. Looking back, those are some of my favorite "cleaner" productions, and I've never been able to achieve the same level of polish as them.

Does anyone have any info about those recordings, or tips on achieving that level of polish? The mixes themselves are very bright sounding to me, but not harsh in any way. The drums are so consistent sounding, but I think they are natural and not samples. I could be wrong, of course. I think I get great natural drum sounds, but they don't sound even close to SotS in terms of attack or consistency

 

[Fluffbot]

They are definitely not sampled drums. Slaughter of the Soul has a great documentary with Fredrik Nordstrom about the production and tracking of the album, it's on YouTube.

Really tight tracking and making the most out of the gear they had.

 

[Nebulous]

Honestly, with all the talk about his techniques and watching the ATG documentary, I think it's just similar to "Andy's magic"- a deep understanding of how microphones and mixes work, and knowing what they want to hear before they even start recording.

 

[Fluffbot]

^ Exactly, lots of the gear he had before isn't used anymore but his mixes are still "Fredman" haha

 

[Zerochance]

Colony is the quintessential "fredman" recording for me. That tone is pure magic. Punchy, heavy as fuck, and still tons of clarity.

I didn't know about the ATG documentary. I'll check that out for sure.

 

[Deuteronomy]

Puritanical sounds outstanding...The mix is beyond imagination(keep in mind that many years have passed since then....)
Slaughter of the soul drums sound sampled, and that's cool

 

[ArsMemoria]

I totally forgot he did Puritanical, I love that mix.

I've been addicted to Hammerfall's (r)Evolution and he did everything but record and produce Joacim's vocals. It's one of my favorite mixes at the moment.

 

[Terminus]

In the reissue of Slaughter of the Soul there's a part in the booklet that says something about a metal zone AND a hm-2 chained into a peavey supreme 120 iirc. I don't have it here to look but I also think it was some homemade cab of Anders.

 

[Heabow]

^Yeah, Nordstrom talks about the Metal Zone in the documentary. Pretty surprising but it confirms that when you have a clear vision of what you want at the end, you do whatever it needs to acheive that result (and that is what I find the most difficult part of the production: a clear vision of the end result before starting the process...)

 

[Terminus]

Doesn't hurt that Anders plays guitar extremely tight.

 

[Exocaster]

Slaughter of the soul drums sound sampled, and that's cool

IIRC there are samples blended- 50%?- on kick and snare. The kick is sampled off Far Beyond Driven, and the snare off Reign In Blood. One-shots, where they could find a clear hit on the record. I'm not sure what was used to trigger them. Mid-'90s tech, whatever it was. Going from memory here, but that's what I recall from some years back.

Here are the drums from Blinded By Fear, presumably ripped from Rock Band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jfhYyv7jDo

The blending of a static sample is pretty audible on the naked drums, but they don't sound bad. It's done well.

I think this is really about the skill of the person behind the desk, not any "magic" gear used. Certainly not the instruments and amps themselves- nothing boutique gearsnobby about these records! Save for Nordstrom's console (AMEK Angela) and tape machines, I recall his gear list on the Fredman web site circa 2000 or so consisting of stuff you could just walk into any Guitar Center and buy.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Doesn't hurt that Anders plays guitar extremely tight.

In that documentary it seems his playing is soft and sort of weak/sloppy. I'd have thought he'd be a harder picker than that.

 

[Terminus]

That's Martin Larsson playing in the doc. Plus I think he's just going through whatever amp that's there with whatever guitar they had at the time. Iirc it's single coils and tuned to E standard.

 

[bryan_kilco]

That's Martin Larsson playing in the doc. Plus I think he's just going through whatever amp that's there with whatever guitar they had at the time. Iirc it's single coils and tuned to E standard.

Ahh, okay. I'm not familiar with their names/faces much.