What happened to this forum?

Such a sad view this is, how everything turned out for this forum.

Like some of the friends have said, back then discussions were so engaging you would actually come back the other day and check every answer and every mix critique post, read the other guys comments and go "damn, he's right! i should try that tip also!". I remember Ola posting and actually talking to people. I remember the AILD bass player talking about mixing, i even remember Misha posting his stuff and then checking the rest out on a really awkward music page. Every time you got into a thread you would actually LEARN stuff. I went to audio recording and mixing school for over three years, and looking back i owe this forum A LOT MORE than i owe the teachers we had back then.

It feels really bad to check the forum sections and not feeling the same vibe there used to be. I registered to the Sneap forum in 2010 but i used to stalk every thread and use the search function like crazy for over 2 years before, until i finally felt like opening a thread. And getting the answers and comments and criticism was so positive, like a friend said already, it was golden time.

This forum has helped in the professional development of SEVERAL guys that like me started out making mistakes over and over. This forum has in a way, helped some of us getting jobs man. It even feels weird to be sad about a forum, but...

Metal music has become more and more robotic since then. Even when we used to think it was way too robotic already! Production times have been reduced, people pay much less money for the job, kids -like we were some time ago- start "studios" after some youtube hours. Some guys here have actually invested big deal USDs in gear, outboard gear, rooms, acoustics, monitoring, insulation etc. And i don't want to be rude, the thing is these people aren't contributing in a effective and engaging way anymore. I know it might not be their fault. Its just the way it is.

But i really hope that in time, someone will actually give this forum the recognition it deserves.

Bless the sneapers! ;D

JB
 
I happened upon this forum purely by accident after starting a profile just to troll something else on ultimate metal a while back. I was still in my infancy and after a couple of posts here, I realized I was in league with some high level guys, so backed off and only really read (the old adage of "you can't listen until you stop speaking" thing). I got to witness the boards "glory days" and watch some guys blow up, and also find some secret celebrities (Pers Nilsson being the most surprising to me for some reason :lol: ). This forum became a Mecca if you will, and new people started creating accounts, and then buying things from the more well known, and then the lesser known, and I feel like the higher level guys backed off as this became a place to come buy services instead of a place to talk shop. Then Joey Sturgis broke out, and the new people and people hawking services moved over (I haven't been, so I can't comment on that forum, just assumption). Now it's just spread out. I still come and read, but still feel really overshadowed to really post stuff. Maybe feel like this is hallowed ground still?

I think this forum is returning back to how it used to be, a small lesser traveled place that some people still come to, and maybe it will see a second "golden age" with the "old boom in internet marketplace" calming down a bit, at least for kemper profiles, and drum samples.
 
I doubt that this place can be like it was years ago.

With the rise of fakebook and all that kind of social shitty network nobody cares about foruns anymore. Youtube is also the main reason to blame, everything is there, you dont know what is a compressor and what they do? just go to youtube, there is a video for everything, even how to get laid with your neighbor with big tits. Anyway, why read? when you can see someone showing what to do while explaining?
 
You wanna know something I'll never forget from this forum? I formed a band called Karhu (www.karhu.bandcamp.com) and met a guy on here called "ooidort". After a few messages he flew over from Finland, we made an album together (Survival Of The Richest) and toured the UK twice! It was fucking unreal. I miss that guy so much.

He did the growled vocals and lead guitar back in the day, then I went on and created an album by myself with another friend where I did everything including vocals except some of the guitars (Genericist).

Check out the riffs on D-44 and KERpaser on the SOTR 2.0 album.. just fucking nuts.

In Finland they have forced military etc and he went in for 2 years, when he came back out I guess I just didn't matter to him anymore, made me really sad to lose a close friend and to this day my favourite riff writer.

The guy was a beast, I wish I was more grown up when I was younger, I pushed a lot of people away through not knowing how to deal with depression properly.

I owe this forum for one of the best experiences of my life. You might even remember me from posting our entire album DI's in there for the last 5 years of people to mix. Even to this day I still get emails about it, it's crazy.
 
I don't spend much time here neither now, but I remember having a good time mixing the KERpaser DIs. Thanks for sharing!

Being more focused on my studies, I don't spend time on the newer Facebook groups neither, but the advice and the depth of discussion I've seen on these don't even come close to what was to be found here a few years back. The very format of Facebook groups makes it impossible to have long-standing, well developed threads (like the "Clayman sound" one on here).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phil_ocean
You wanna know something I'll never forget from this forum? I formed a band called Karhu (www.karhu.bandcamp.com) and met a guy on here called "ooidort". After a few messages he flew over from Finland, we made an album together (Survival Of The Richest) and toured the UK twice! It was fucking unreal. I miss that guy so much.

He did the growled vocals and lead guitar back in the day, then I went on and created an album by myself with another friend where I did everything including vocals except some of the guitars (Genericist).

Check out the riffs on D-44 and KERpaser on the SOTR 2.0 album.. just fucking nuts.

In Finland they have forced military etc and he went in for 2 years, when he came back out I guess I just didn't matter to him anymore, made me really sad to lose a close friend and to this day my favourite riff writer.

The guy was a beast, I wish I was more grown up when I was younger, I pushed a lot of people away through not knowing how to deal with depression properly.

I owe this forum for one of the best experiences of my life. You might even remember me from posting our entire album DI's in there for the last 5 years of people to mix. Even to this day I still get emails about it, it's crazy.

Great to see you back again here as well man! Losing friends just sucks, and all the shit makes us stronger in the end.

And don't forget your own beastlyness as well :)
 
Maybe it's like an old pub, sometimes it's full of ppl and engaging conversations and other times you just want to down that drink and get the fk out of here.
The pub is just missing the dynamic drive at the moment, it'll come back.
Hey I'm only new my self but drop in here and there, looks like it's been a pretty happening place a while back.
 
Just the fact the search engine doesn't work... it means a lot
In Google search bar, type whatever keywords you want to search for and then after that type this site:ultimatemetal.com/forum/forums/andy-sneap/
 
i think most guys learned what they needed to learn and went and started careers and don't really have time for forums anymore. all the older guys, ola, lasse, ermz, they all have pretty full schedules and full time careers now. there's been a lot of good that has come BECAUSE of this forum, and yea everyone hates to see them go, but it IS a good thing. people are out DOING instead of in POSTING and asking questions. bad for the forum, good for music.
it's unfortunate. im sure the payphone repair and maintenance guys were bummed out when cell phones became a thing, but it's just the nature of the beast. things move on. there is still a lot of great knowledge in the back pages of this forum. it's just kinda run its course as the active and crazy info forum that it once was. such is life.
 
It used to be better... As usual.

In fact, I agree that the forums are fading out in general, having most of the audience transferring to SM groups. Things tend to become more and more interactive.
And speaking regarding content in general, it's more preferable to make a YT video guide, than creating a traditional text + images article. Even to share some raw tracks...
 
I used to frequent this site. This was the go to forum for metal production and I learned a lot.
 
I think people learned what they could and moved on. Normally the people leaving would have been replaced by new members but they've all been sucked into paid online groups like Nail The Mix etc. There's a wealth of information for free in this forum but I guess marketing works and people feel that they can buy secret information lol.

Truth it it's all simple and there's not really any crazy tricks to it. I'd love this forum to make a return it was awesome back in the day
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nikolas Quemtri