I remember my first Sturgis mix :D

[RedDog]

And this was before I knew who Andy sneap was, which led me right here.

Tell you the story. I bought Testament's new album way back when and was getting more and more into mixing and recording. So I listened to as many of my favorite bands as possible and the Formation of Damnation was everything I'd ever wanted in a sound. Everything I'd ever written as a musician revolved around a sound in my head, and when I heard "Henchmen Ride" and "Persecuted won't Forget" I was awestruck. Seemed perfect. So I looked at the back cover and it said, "Mixed by Andy Sneap". Which led me to the sneap forums.

Now, at that very same time, I'm looking all over for new sounds that I'd never heard. I gave my friend $150 bucks of music I bought from iTunes over the last year or so and bought her some that she wanted for her birthday. One of her favorite bands was Asking Alexandria. I listened to their shit back to front, and found myself hating the music, but in-fucking-love with the mix. The drums were just so damn good! I figured I could dig around and find out who mixed this, just like I found Andy Sneap. Turns out, I had Oceano's Depths on at the very instant I found out he had mixed that album too, and I instantly made the connections and knew that this man would be legend.

Now he's got himself a forum!

Anybody remember their first Sturgis mix, and what were your opinions straight off the bat?

 

[Ze4th0x]

First sturgis mix I heard was Emarosa's first CD in 2007. Back before they got Johnny Craig, when they were hardcore. I loved the CD, I used to listen to it in High School all the time, probably over a hundred times. Even though it had 6 or so songs. It was still a bit rough sounding (compared to the polished sound sturgis is known for today) but he gave Emarosa a raw sound that sounded really caught my attention.
After that I listened to "The Devil Wears Prada", I hated Attack Attack but liked the mix. And pretty much any other Sturgis release from 2008 and beyond found it's way on my itunes eventually.

The dude's talented, many bands that he record suck, but the production is solid.

 

[masque-]

When i heard the first Before their Eyes cd. I thought it sounded like shit and didn't realize he had gotten good until i heard Plea's Depravity.

 

[Williamn]

Um, when was making my shift from "everything have to brutal death metal and screams is lame" era I looked up some of the names I had heard being thrown around alot like the devil wears prada.

But I had no idea who did the mix and little did I care course I was not into audio production.. well somehow I stumpled upon the andy sneap forum and one of my first thought was "who the fuck is Joey Sturgis and why is he mentioned alot around here and specially in pod threads". quickly looked him up haha.

on that note, last week I found out he did the Burden of a day - blessed be our ever after.. one of my most played albums when I just started getting into the metalcore "scene" <3.

 

[AllanD]

First time I heard a Sturgis mix was when Attack Attack! first came out with that video. Lol'd at the music, enjoyed the mix.

 

[ahjteam]

The first thing I remember was when Sturgis was giving out a lot of tips on the Sneap forum, I didn't know who that guy was. I remember something like "at the throne of judgement"? I also heard a lot of different clips, but then the first thing that really like remember was Attack Attack's Stick Stickly, that I realized that the guy is going to be huge as his name started to pop in quite frequently right after that on the Sneap forum. Also when I was living for 4 months in Minnesota, I had a roommate who's almost entire iTunes library consisted of Papa Roach, techno or something that was made by Sturgis (Prada, Attack Attack, Of Mice & Men, Asking Alexandria, We Came As Romans...), or something that sounded like Sturgis produced bands like Chango stuff. I'm 100% sure he didn't even realize that all the records were done by Sturgis

It's actually very similar with the "Finnish Metal" scene... There is about 2 studios: Finnvox, Fantom, 4 guys: Mikko Karmila, Hiili Hiilesmaa, Anssi Kippo, Samu Oittinen + 1 mastering engineer: Mika Jussila (and some other random guys of course like Nino Laurenne, Miitri Aaltonen and Janne Joutsenniemi) who have made the layout of what we know today as "Finnish Metal sound".

 

[Seth Munson]

Prada's demo days, I actually had a signed copy of Dear Love because my band and I were within the however many people to pre order the CD.
listened to tons of bands he produced not knowing it was him, then got into producing blah blah blah and here I am in his forum

 

[OneDaySky]

Prada's demo days, I actually had a signed copy of Dear Love because my band and I were within the however many people to pre order the CD.
listened to tons of bands he produced not knowing it was him, then got into producing blah blah blah and here I am in his forum

Mine was the first 'before their eyes'

 

[Vinny]

I have a copy of Patterns of the Horizon by TDWP... But I got that in like 2008. My first one is Plagues by TDWP because I saw "Hey John" on... well... the Gospel Music Channel (no joke). So late '07 I'm thinking?
After that, the next Sturgis mix I listened to was The Crimson Armada's 'Guardians' in late '09 and then found out who he was. And I got into Audio Production after demoing some EZDrummer DFH + Line 6 UX2 songs with my band, and then another band asked to record with me (coz they liked the "quality lolololol) in May of 2010 and now I'm regularly recording bands (obviously with a much better setup hahahahha).

 

[The Front Studio]

Plagues as well. Saw a review in a local mag and checked them out. Liked them instantly!

 

[jimwilbourne]

my first stuff was prada's demos/EP

 

[DeclanWhite]

went to a battle of the bands. a band said they were influenced by prada, so i looked up prada and yeah.. then i kinda got into all his other stuff, then one day i searched 'joey sturgis guitar tone' on google (i was a noob) and found the pod tact thread, then signed up and now here i am.. i have learnt so much pretty much because of joey haha.

 

[jman1986]

I first heard his work on plagues to, i loved the bass drops in my car on my system, there are a few bass drops that just 'cut' out in parts, i fell in love with those haha. then i believe it was aa! then it just grew to just about every band he does now

 

[Sixstringmayhem]

Prada's first demo days, dogs can grow beards. played that song on guitar over and over when i was about 15 haha. good times. Does anyone know what work he did right after prada's demo was put out? i'd like the hear the difference

 

[Vinny]

"Dogs Can Grow Beards" isn't on their demo...

 

[NashMuhandes]

I asked Steven Slate about the samples used in TDWP, Attack Attack, Miss May I etc and he replied "I think Joey Sturgis mixed them". Now I'm here.

 

[DullElysium]

Our old guitarist played for a band called One Morning Left and I bought their debut ep. The music style was totally new to me but i quite liked it. So i started to search their friendlust on myspace to find similiar artists. That's where I first found attack attack! I thought that OML was like attack attack! On drugs. So thats how i found my first Sturgis band but I didn't fin the mixing that perfect. Later i found asking alexandria through my bandmates and now i found the guitar tone to be something else. But the band that actually made me search for the producer was Miss May I. Somehow i found that snare and bassdrum so perfect i wanted those. And their guitar tone was something i really enjoyed also.

That's propably how it happened. Not sure though