That would be awesome Dave. I am a huge fan of Kurt's recording work and Converge going way back. I definitely have a laundry list of questions but Ill do my best to keep from spiraling completely out of control.
I think Ive read in the past that Kurt favors Ribbons for overheads, as most are figure 8, does he have any starting points / pointers in terms of placement? Is the lowered proximity effect, generally predictable null points, and typical high frequency roll off making it so that he can get closer to the cymbals and create clarity, and he uses room mics to create kit unity, or am I way off ? In the spirit of getting things at the source, what cymbals does he favor in the studio.
I really like the kit image on his recordings, particularly the two most recent Converge records and the Doomriders Black Thunder album. Any pointers in terms of how he keeps the body of the sound from the overheads distinct from the guitars and vocals while mixing would be enlightening.
In terms of vocals, Jacob Bannon is obviously not a particularly gifted vocalist in any classic sense, yet over the years specifically from "You Fail Me" forward his work on Converge records has become something that lives up to the ferociousness of his live performance and actually elevates the records imo. Does Kurt have any advice or insight for getting singers in a place where they are giving you the best they can? What kinds of mix processing does he tend to use on harsh vocals?
Lastly, A more broad question, A lot of metal records I love were done by Andy Sneap, Colin Richardson, Zeuss... It seems that most of what I perceive as a common thread between the sonic success of their records is clarity achieved through eq shelving, sample replacement or reinforcement, lots of clean transient detail, hard panning... I think I have a decent understanding of how one would mix a record to get those sorts of results.
Now on Ballou's recordings dating all the way back to "Until Your Heart Stops" by Cave In, to the most recent Converge the basic rules of recording metal don't seem to apply. The guitar has significant frequency content above 12k, I'm pretty sure he doesn't use 5150's often if at all, The overheads have musical content under 1k, the bass guitar is audible and meaty in the 200-400 range, and transients are distorting all over the place. Yet somehow it doesn't sound like a massive heap of shit and I can still make out what the instruments are doing most of the time even when the tempos are fast. Most engineers who attempt to record faster heavy music with this sonic signature fail to achieve the same clarity (Steve Albini, Steve Austin). What kinds of techniques are being used to create enough clarity to keep such mid-heavy and saturated sounds from building into a wall of mud? Any starting points, or philosophical insight as to how one approaches a mix in this way and what pitfalls to avoid would be awesome.
