The Evolution of Sneap's Sound

it comes down to the bands at the end of the day. Sometimes you have to get heavy with the beat detective because the feel thats there, isn't a good feel. I am consciously not cutting and pasting and getting the musician to play again these days tho. I think you can leave more dirt in that you realise and it'll still sound tight. Its all too easy to be uber critical when the tracks solo'd.
 
Andy Sneap said:
it comes down to the bands at the end of the day. Sometimes you have to get heavy with the beat detective because the feel thats there, isn't a good feel. I am consciously not cutting and pasting and getting the musician to play again these days tho. I think you can leave more dirt in that you realise and it'll still sound tight. Its all too easy to be uber critical when the tracks solo'd.

So much truth it hurts.
 
it comes down to the bands at the end of the day. Sometimes you have to get heavy with the beat detective because the feel thats there, isn't a good feel. I am consciously not cutting and pasting and getting the musician to play again these days tho. I think you can leave more dirt in that you realise and it'll still sound tight. Its all too easy to be uber critical when the tracks solo'd.

exactly
 
i usually play a section of the song, say a verse, maybe sometimes i can squeeze in a bridge without error. you know, get as long takes as possible, but it depends on how hard and tight the sections are/need be. but i generally go after as little editing as possible.
 
I always thought it was easier to sound kick ass on a record when you've already been playing the songs for 3 fuckin years live. :lol: At least with the last band I had. I can imagine it's tougher for bands like Testament to play the whole new record live before it's on tape, though. Which is a testament (hurrrrr!) to how how they really are are getting fresh ideas down.
 
it comes down to the bands at the end of the day. Sometimes you have to get heavy with the beat detective because the feel thats there, isn't a good feel. I am consciously not cutting and pasting and getting the musician to play again these days tho. I think you can leave more dirt in that you realise and it'll still sound tight. Its all too easy to be uber critical when the tracks solo'd.

congrats for the new testament record.
It sounds like it's been played from start to finish instead of being cut and pasted to infinity.
Especially we can hear you're getting more and more natural drums tones on the records you're making compared to the old stuff you made.
Another huge example is last accept record :headbang:
 
Playing entire sections one note at a time :erk:
I don't understand how these people aren't completely ashamed of themselves!

happened the other week, this guy complaining about the other guitarist saying all the time:
"Let's hope he's going track a good performance "
this other guitarist proved him wrong, he did great, 2 punch ins in all the whole song. so fucking tight, he did a hell of a job, I was just fucking happy.
So it was the time of the "complainer" guy.... total fucking mess, he had to record 1 note at a time, usually I do this with very young musician, and I am not surprised that much!
But a performance this bad, coming from a guitarist that has been playing for a long time.... ha it was bad lol
 
this other guitarist proved him wrong, he did great, 2 punch ins in all the whole song. so fucking tight, he did a hell of a job, I was just fucking happy.
So it was the time of the "complainer" guy.... total fucking mess, he had to record 1 note at a time, usually I do this with very young musician, and I am not surprised that much!
But a performance this bad, coming from a guitarist that has been playing for a long time.... ha it was bad lol

+1, had this so often...

Mostly the guitarist who's been in the band the longest and claims to write most of the material is the complainer who when it comes to it can't play the stuff that well...

I've found the second guitarists and bassists are most likely to get stuff done between 1 and three seperate takes for a song...
 

oh snap.. proven wrong again. what do you prefer about the sound of digital over analog? is it just that the lack of natural noise and warmth benefit metal recordings? in other words, you have more flexibility to tweak those elements rather than just being stuck with what tape gives you?
 
oh snap.. proven wrong again. what do you prefer about the sound of digital over analog? is it just that the lack of natural noise and warmth benefit metal recordings? in other words, you have more flexibility to tweak those elements rather than just being stuck with what tape gives you?

I remember him saying, years ago on the forum, something about the lack of top end on analogue.
Don't know if Andy changed his opinion a bit, I guess no since he's liking digital better.
 
oh snap.. proven wrong again. what do you prefer about the sound of digital over analog? is it just that the lack of natural noise and warmth benefit metal recordings? in other words, you have more flexibility to tweak those elements rather than just being stuck with what tape gives you?

It comes back how you put it down, better noise floor, not having to spend an hr every morning cleaning and aligning, not having to wait for rewinding, price of tape, lack of backup, tapes wearing out, oh and being able to undo. Do you want more? ;) oh cost of fedex shipment and avoiding escalators and xray machines.
 
It comes back how you put it down, better noise floor, not having to spend an hr every morning cleaning and aligning, not having to wait for rewinding, price of tape, lack of backup, tapes wearing out, oh and being able to undo. Do you want more? ;) oh cost of fedex shipment and avoiding escalators and xray machines.

haha yeah it is easy to take the digital world for granted.

dont get me wrong, there are still digital recordings that slay. but producers (such as yourself) that can avoid sucking the life out of everything are few and far between these days. listening to dark roots of the earth i could almost swear it was 1994 again :headbang:
 
To be honest, I have to be the odd one out that says I generally do not like Sneap's mixes. While "over-produced" is not quite the word I'd used, I feel some of his mixes I've heard are a bit too pristine, sterile, and oddly flat and characterless for my liking. While not the worst out there by any stretch, they generally exemplify many of the negative elements of modern production that get on my nerves, from lots of compression to a focus on sounding "huge" via punchy drums, and sharp, clear separation between every single element, instead of creating the feel of a whole band playing at once and taking up a natural space.

I don't understand how an AE could think this way, I feel modern production gives the music far more energy than old recordings. Being able to actually hear the kick drum certainly helps. I love punchy drums, massive bass and upfront guitars, as far as I'm concerned, a lot of Sneap mixes are how metal recordings have been trying to sound since it all started. It just took some different thinking to get here.
 
Yeah I've got to agree there, why wouldn't you want your songs to sound huge?

Don't get me wrong I love when you get a recording that has a nice live vibe to it, but that doesn't mean I want it to sound small and powerless.