KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Taps Producer ANDY SNEAP For New Album Mix

I think the guitars were mostly Adam's takes using Fuchs boutique amps.
You sure? The splawn rep is telling everyone its the nitro. If so. the guitars sound scratching and shitty to me which would make me not buy that amp. thats why I thought it was a digital box. I dont have the cd either just going off of the streams i heard which could be why they sound bad to me. they have that scratchy highend that you get sometimes with the digital boxes and low bandwidth sites.that is why I was asking what the amps were. hard to make a 5150 sound bad.
 
I listened this album too a couple of days ago mostly because of Andy. The music is ok I guess, never was a KS fan anyway though. The mix on the other hand is excellent, the clarity and separation is amazing. It's kinda depressing listening to it a few days before I'm set to start mixing my own album and knowing it will never be anywhere near this awesome.
 
Guitars are whatever Adam used.....guessing Framus, 5150, or Laney. I would say probably NOT splawn. Andy said he did punch in parts with a tighter tone using the kemper here and there, but for the most part used Adam's tones.
 
I'll agree there, just can't at all agree with someone calling the tone 'shitty."
No one was askin you to agree. its just opinion.The tune I heard sounded all scratchy in the high end like the digital modelers do. I wanted to know what amp it was and you had nothing to contribute. The caps thing was funny though. But lets not derail the thread. Adam had 2 nitros in a rig rundown vid on youtube. Their rep is saying the new cd is all nitro. didnt really sound like it to me but who knows after going through all the magic processing. maybe he is just trying to use info to sell amps but it sounded more like it could be kemper, but thats just guessing. It didnt sound like a 5150 at all but could be the framus. the scratchiness that I heard reminded me of my savage120 that has been sitting in a box for over a year after I replaced it with a 6505+. Either way jeff, it was just my opinion based off of a stream. Maybe it was my crappy sony speakers connected to my computer. it is difficult to say why it sounded bad to me. Maybe I'm just insane as you put it. thanks for those who tried to contribute to an answer though. :)
 
No one was askin you to agree. its just opinion.The tune I heard sounded all scratchy in the high end like the digital modelers do. I wanted to know what amp it was and you had nothing to contribute.

The first thing I noticed about the mix was the guitar sounding scratchy, dunno if the amp is contributing to that. It sounds like they picked a guitar with either old strings or a very light string gauge for their tunings, however it's high end indeed sounds kinda digital. The mix still slays.
 
Lets get back on topic. DOLBY A on VOCALS??????? i've done a little research and seems like some will use them as sort of an exciter and they work sort of as a dynamic EQ when things get quieter then make them brighter louder take out highs, but just some stuff i read on gearslutz.

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

Mind expanding on this andy? which model of Dolby A? 361? orr i read there was a few other rarer ones, low end card pulled out??? or basically what was it doing to the sound that you liked? haha super curious as i just realized my father has two of them lying around from the old days. haha
 
I'm glad Adam went with something more aggressive over something meaty and a tad on the dark side like a few of the previous Killswitch Engage releases. As per the special credit video, it looks like they were using the Cobra for tracking a part of the time; however, in the grand scheme of things, it sounds the way it does because Adam captured the tone. Many high gain heads 6505/Cobra/Rectifier/EVH/etc. all have a lot in common, and at the end of the day, the person who is recording it is going to have the largest impact on the guitar timbre.
 
Man I fucking love the song always, it´s funny because it´s the less "killswitch" song on the album. But the song it´s so fucking awesome.

I agree that there are some fizzyness in the guitars that stick out but not in a good way but still a killer mix. Dont know how andy does it but the toms are always great in his mixes. Last testament album the drum sound was pure love!lol
 
Damn, not a fan of their music usually but I might let myself buy this one, some good riffing there, and the production is awesome, I like the guitars so far, I can see why some find them scratchy but I don't really mind in this case.
 
the guitars are Fuchs, or thats what I was told. 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 :) 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.
 
i dunno maybe the guitar is fatiguing if you listen all the way through but it sounds pretty damn good over here. really liking the clarity and separation on the latest mixes Andy... killer job once again. did Adam track the drums/bass/vox as well or were those done elsewhere?
 
Adam is a great engineer.. I would imagine his tracks practically mix themselves. Nice to hear the Sneap touch on it though. The last 2 albums were def missing something production-wise imo. And as much as I like HoJo his voice and delivery was getting a little stale. They sound like a rejuvenated band with Jesse and the mix really makes it pop.
 
Finally got to rocking this out, bought it last week. Im digging it, The mix is incredible and Im really enjoying the songs. Its funny listening to it, I catch myself thinking that this part or that part is kinda generic but really Killswitch created/popularized alot of the cliches that metalcore bands have beat to death since. Im loving Jesse being back and there are a ton of killer guitar riffs. Awesome work to all involved.
 
I really like this CD. The mix is absolutely perfect. I think this is the first time I've really noticed the bass on a KSE recording. The bass sits perfect in the mix and stands up when it needs too without being overbearing. I think the leads sound great too. Very smooth sounding and just the right amount of gain.

I also like the vox production. Very clean and crisp. I especially love the production on the song "Always". I'll probably get slammed for saying this but "Always" reminds me of Solitude Aeturnus and I mean that as a compliment.

Well Done Andy.