I thought that many of us love what Mr. Sneap has done to many metal albums and I was thinking that should we make a thread that we compile a huge pile of questions.
THE RULES AND RESTRICTIONS are simple:
- I will list the answered questions in the first post about production techniques
- First read this first post (and preferrably the full thread) to see if your question has been already answered or asked!
- If you have a question that hasn't been answered, post your question and use +1:s for the unanswered questions already asked that you would like to know. Hopefully Mr. Sneap will answer atleast some of them
- Preferrably no questions that are related only to a certain gear, band or people, but more general questions about production techniques as possible
- No questions related to money. period.
- ...and no begging for samples (edit: or presets) either. Andy has already posted the Chimaira samples, 5150 settings and POD patches, that can be found in the FAQ
- No questions that do not DIRECTLY apply to Andy and/or could be just as well be answered by someone else! For example "should I use X or Y to record my guitars". Create their own thread for those questions
- And remember to behave
ANSWERS (updated May 30th 2009):
Some of you who have actively followed this forum for a while already know things like the ones listed below, so those questions aren't really nessecary and if you read thru this thread, Andy answered some of these questions:
Andy in general
- Andy owns 'Backstage studios' and it is in England at a farm in the middle of nowhere in a place called Derbyshire. He also lives in the farm.
- Andy plays guitar in band called Sabbat
- No wife or family, but has a girlfriend
- "3 fav albums sound wise. Black album has to be no 1 but after that Im not sure, I think Randy Staub has done some amazing stuff and I really liked some of Terry Dates work such as Prong and Pantera."
- Pondered why he has become as popular as he is now
- Usually works by himself in the studio, no assistants (except recently with Doug Cooke)
- Andy is endorsed by D'Addarrio, ESP, EMG, Evans, In Tune, PreSonus, Metric Halo, Peavey, Planet Waves, Randall, Slate Digital, Toontrack, Solid State Logic and Waves
Guitars
- "I always say 80% of the tone is in the players hands"
- Records guitars only with mics, doesn't use impulses
- Mics the speaker away from the walls and the floor
- Often mics guitar cabinets with a single SM57 in the center of the cone (followup why he always returns using one SM57). Post-processing usually only a touch of EQ and maybe multiband compressing if it needs it
- Prefers dual or quadtracking for rhythm guitars depending on the band
- Always uses a tubescreamer in front of an amp
- Recording acoustic guitar depends on the guitar, see the reply
- Doesn't blend different amps from the same DI for the rhythm guitars, but sometimes for lead guitars
Bass
- Usually tracks just a DI-bass with an amp simulator on and then reamp, sometimes using a multi band compression before the amp to help sit it in. Follow up 1 Follow up 2
- General brooding about bass guitars
Drums
- Tunes the drums himself
- Likes to mic a kick near the hole
- Uses triggers in the drums, usually replaces kicks 100% and blends snare sample 50:50 with the original signal
- Drumtuning: On toms batter head slightly tuned lower than resohead, kick tuned as low as possible and snare tuning depends on the snare
- Doesn't usually use parallel compression, maybe on snare
- Likes to use different mics for the kick drum, the week when he answered he liked Shure beta91 + subkick on the kick, sometimes he likes Audix D6 etc
- Question about hihat bleed
- For overheads prefers to use Neumann KM184's in spaced pairs, 2 cymbals per 1 mic. Also mics the china separately. Highpass filter at ~500hz
- Doesn't bus drums, always treats all channels individually
- Pans drums from audience perspective (hihat on the right)
- Answer on question regarding using Deat Detective (follow up)
- Loves Metric Halo channelstrip on snare
- Usually uses Sennheiser MD421's and Shure SM57's for toms
- "Room mics, whatevers around, even 57's sometimes, just really compressed and blended in a touch"
- Uses room and reverb on the drums
- Thinks it is import for a drummer to train to a click
Vocals
- Uses delay on the chorus/melodic vocals that gets fed into a reverb
- Answer about vocal processing (follow up)
- Doesn't usually use any inserts when tracking, except some compression with vocals
- Has Autotune, Melodyne and Waves Tune that he uses if the vocals need it
Mastering
- Masterbus insert chain: Waves SSL compressor, Crane song Tape Simulator and TC Electronic Finalizer
- Masterbus compressor with 2:1 ratio and 4-5dB attenuation at max
- Aims to -10 dB RMS when mastering if its not damaging the sound, otherwise a bit lower
Other gear related stuff
- Uses Genelec 1031's + subwoofer for monitoring and Yamaha NS10's as reference. Varies listening volume.
- Favourite preamp: Crane Song Spider (8 channels)
- Usually uses digidesign and echofarm delay plugins
- Uses Pro Tools for all stages (recording, mixing and mastering) and has gone almost completely ITB and uses 24bit/44.1khz samplerate
- Uses controlsurface only for surround stuff, prefers to use a mouse
- Uses Little Labs PIP di-box and Cunniberti Reamp-box
- Likes Crane Song Phoenix for saturation
- Doesn't like Royer ribbon mic on guitars
Other
- Thinks subdrops are GAY
- Doesn't take notes of settings for hardware, but keeps the ProTools sessions
- Doesn't ride preamps hard into distortion
- Uses a lot of automation
- Uses his earlier material as mixing reference
- See his answer to how he deals the situation when you are sick and you have to work
- Doesn't use analog summing
- The most common mistakes new engineers make (follow up, number 15)
- A post what Andy thinks about people using samples he posted for commercial releases
- Random questions Andy already answered years ago
THE RULES AND RESTRICTIONS are simple:
- I will list the answered questions in the first post about production techniques
- First read this first post (and preferrably the full thread) to see if your question has been already answered or asked!
- If you have a question that hasn't been answered, post your question and use +1:s for the unanswered questions already asked that you would like to know. Hopefully Mr. Sneap will answer atleast some of them
- Preferrably no questions that are related only to a certain gear, band or people, but more general questions about production techniques as possible
- No questions related to money. period.
- ...and no begging for samples (edit: or presets) either. Andy has already posted the Chimaira samples, 5150 settings and POD patches, that can be found in the FAQ
- No questions that do not DIRECTLY apply to Andy and/or could be just as well be answered by someone else! For example "should I use X or Y to record my guitars". Create their own thread for those questions
- And remember to behave
ANSWERS (updated May 30th 2009):
Some of you who have actively followed this forum for a while already know things like the ones listed below, so those questions aren't really nessecary and if you read thru this thread, Andy answered some of these questions:
Andy in general
- Andy owns 'Backstage studios' and it is in England at a farm in the middle of nowhere in a place called Derbyshire. He also lives in the farm.
- Andy plays guitar in band called Sabbat
- No wife or family, but has a girlfriend
- "3 fav albums sound wise. Black album has to be no 1 but after that Im not sure, I think Randy Staub has done some amazing stuff and I really liked some of Terry Dates work such as Prong and Pantera."
- Pondered why he has become as popular as he is now
- Usually works by himself in the studio, no assistants (except recently with Doug Cooke)
- Andy is endorsed by D'Addarrio, ESP, EMG, Evans, In Tune, PreSonus, Metric Halo, Peavey, Planet Waves, Randall, Slate Digital, Toontrack, Solid State Logic and Waves
Guitars
- "I always say 80% of the tone is in the players hands"
- Records guitars only with mics, doesn't use impulses
- Mics the speaker away from the walls and the floor
- Often mics guitar cabinets with a single SM57 in the center of the cone (followup why he always returns using one SM57). Post-processing usually only a touch of EQ and maybe multiband compressing if it needs it
- Prefers dual or quadtracking for rhythm guitars depending on the band
- Always uses a tubescreamer in front of an amp
- Recording acoustic guitar depends on the guitar, see the reply
- Doesn't blend different amps from the same DI for the rhythm guitars, but sometimes for lead guitars
Bass
- Usually tracks just a DI-bass with an amp simulator on and then reamp, sometimes using a multi band compression before the amp to help sit it in. Follow up 1 Follow up 2
- General brooding about bass guitars
Drums
- Tunes the drums himself
- Likes to mic a kick near the hole
- Uses triggers in the drums, usually replaces kicks 100% and blends snare sample 50:50 with the original signal
- Drumtuning: On toms batter head slightly tuned lower than resohead, kick tuned as low as possible and snare tuning depends on the snare
- Doesn't usually use parallel compression, maybe on snare
- Likes to use different mics for the kick drum, the week when he answered he liked Shure beta91 + subkick on the kick, sometimes he likes Audix D6 etc
- Question about hihat bleed
- For overheads prefers to use Neumann KM184's in spaced pairs, 2 cymbals per 1 mic. Also mics the china separately. Highpass filter at ~500hz
- Doesn't bus drums, always treats all channels individually
- Pans drums from audience perspective (hihat on the right)
- Answer on question regarding using Deat Detective (follow up)
- Loves Metric Halo channelstrip on snare
- Usually uses Sennheiser MD421's and Shure SM57's for toms
- "Room mics, whatevers around, even 57's sometimes, just really compressed and blended in a touch"
- Uses room and reverb on the drums
- Thinks it is import for a drummer to train to a click
Vocals
- Uses delay on the chorus/melodic vocals that gets fed into a reverb
- Answer about vocal processing (follow up)
- Doesn't usually use any inserts when tracking, except some compression with vocals
- Has Autotune, Melodyne and Waves Tune that he uses if the vocals need it
Mastering
- Masterbus insert chain: Waves SSL compressor, Crane song Tape Simulator and TC Electronic Finalizer
- Masterbus compressor with 2:1 ratio and 4-5dB attenuation at max
- Aims to -10 dB RMS when mastering if its not damaging the sound, otherwise a bit lower
Other gear related stuff
- Uses Genelec 1031's + subwoofer for monitoring and Yamaha NS10's as reference. Varies listening volume.
- Favourite preamp: Crane Song Spider (8 channels)
- Usually uses digidesign and echofarm delay plugins
- Uses Pro Tools for all stages (recording, mixing and mastering) and has gone almost completely ITB and uses 24bit/44.1khz samplerate
- Uses controlsurface only for surround stuff, prefers to use a mouse
- Uses Little Labs PIP di-box and Cunniberti Reamp-box
- Likes Crane Song Phoenix for saturation
- Doesn't like Royer ribbon mic on guitars
Other
- Thinks subdrops are GAY
- Doesn't take notes of settings for hardware, but keeps the ProTools sessions
- Doesn't ride preamps hard into distortion
- Uses a lot of automation
- Uses his earlier material as mixing reference
- See his answer to how he deals the situation when you are sick and you have to work
- Doesn't use analog summing
- The most common mistakes new engineers make (follow up, number 15)
- A post what Andy thinks about people using samples he posted for commercial releases
- Random questions Andy already answered years ago
