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ToneGodz Webinar 2: 03.03.2025 — Transcript

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0:00The first question is is actually pretty
0:02interesting. Did Metallica write Fade to
0:04Black in
0:05Denmark? And I I don't know for sure. I
0:10know that four of the songs are finished
0:14in
0:15Copenhagen, but whether they actually
0:18wrote it in Copenhagen, I have my
0:21doubts, but I can't say for sure. I'm
0:25sure some geek on the internet must I'm
0:27sure Lo has said something about that.
0:29at one
0:30point but I simply can't remember
0:33whether I know that they finished for
0:36whom the bell
0:38tolls and I also think part of fight
0:41fire was written in Copenhagen but I
0:44mean the way I understand it they had
0:47four finished songs and they had four
0:49songs that was almost done when they
0:51started recording when we started on on
0:53on uh February 20th
0:561984 but that's about What songs they
0:59were, I simply can't remember. But it
1:02must have been the ones we recorded
1:03last. Was Escape recorded last or No.
1:09Essape. I think Escape was pretty
1:13I think that was pretty damn finished.
1:16But I I could be wrong because because
1:18they wanted that
1:20to, you know, it to if if they got
1:23approached by a major label and the
1:26major label said, "Hey, uh, we need a
1:29single," they were going to hand that to
1:31them, right? And and I mean, I think
1:34Escape is a great song except for the
1:36chorus. And I'll say it again, do a new
1:39chorus and you have a [ __ ] brilliant
1:42song. But that chorus is simply it's
1:45it's too uh I don't know. Uh it's too
1:5080. It's too bon Joey. I don't know what
1:53to say. I like Bon Joey. It's not that.
1:56It's just it's it's too much pop music
1:59for
2:00Metallica. So new chorus and we have a
2:02great song. We'll do Escape again. I
2:05know for a fact that they only played it
2:06live
2:07once which was at their own festival
2:10where they played All right, the
2:11Lightning. That's the only time they
2:12played it live in for almost 41 years.
2:15Actually, it is 41 years because it was
2:17last month. It was 41 years ago we
2:20started recording. So, uh I'm pretty
2:22damn sure that
2:25um that that it
2:28was damn well finished when they got
2:31here. But I mean, I've seen it somewhere
2:34on the internet. I don't want to start
2:36looking now, but I've seen it somewhere
2:38where they actually write which songs
2:40were done and which weren't. So, so if
2:43you dig deep on the internet, you can
2:44find it. So, what guitar did James used
2:48to record the acoustic parts on Fade to
2:50Black? Uh, it was a combination of both
2:54a 12 and a six string. Uh the 12 string
2:57was a uh an
2:59ovation and I think we borrowed the
3:01acoustic guitars from a guy called Ken
3:03Jackson which is now currently residing
3:06in Los Angeles. He's got a studio there.
3:09So uh uh it the story is that uh we kind
3:13of found out we were going to do
3:16acoustic guitars at like 1 2 in the
3:18night and they called him up and drove
3:19out and picked up the acoustic guitars.
3:22There is a really great picture of James
3:24sitting in the studio playing that
3:26ovation and it is a combo of uh probably
3:31two six strings and one 12 string but
3:34some it is something in that in that
3:37neighborhood but it is an Ovation
3:40acoustic
3:41guitar and the other guitar the six
3:44string I'm we probably just used what
3:47was hanging out in the studio depending
3:49on who was in the studio at the
3:51Because the sweet silence never had an
3:53acoustic guitar because guitars are some
3:56of one of the most personal things and
3:58people always bring bring their own
4:00guitars. So I never wanted to
4:03bother spending money buying guitars
4:06except I have an acoustic 12 string
4:10almost like the one James recorded on.
4:14So I have an I have an acoustic 12
4:16string ovation in the studio and that's
4:19it. So, which Marshall box did you use
4:23on Master of Puppets? Oh, yeah.
4:26I I think I've said this once and I'd
4:29like to say it again.
4:32Um, we used the ones that sounded best.
4:36I never looked at the different boxes
4:39and kind of went,
4:43um, what's in here? I just heard what
4:46they sounded like. And if they didn't
4:48sound good, I would swap them and and uh
4:52and use another box. So,
4:56so I I'm pretty sure we didn't use the
4:59same box all the way through. We kept
5:01swapping cabs and amps and stuff. We
5:04switched boxes all the time. And I'm
5:07pretty sure we we we might have had some
5:10some customuilt ones in the studio as
5:13well, uh from the Danish band Gasoline.
5:16Uh, we had a box standing there for
5:18quite a while and that was not a
5:20Marshall cabinet. It was like something
5:22that looked like it and I think it had
5:24green bags, but I'm not sure. I never
5:27opened it and I didn't care if it didn't
5:28sound good. I was just use another cab.
5:31So, do I know what pickups James had in
5:34his guitar? And what? No. No, I have
5:38absolutely no clue.
5:41So, uh, so, uh, I I couldn't tell you
5:45about there's most definitely guitar
5:48nerds out there who know stuff like
5:50that. As I said said before, and with
5:53like with the amps and with anything I
5:55do, I don't really care what equipment
5:57people bring in. Sometimes you get the
6:00best sound ever on the cheapest,
6:03shittiest
6:04equipment. And so, I mean, if it sounds
6:07good, I would never change it. If it
6:09sounds like [ __ ] I change it. And I
6:12don't really I mean I look and see, oh,
6:15he plays a telly or he plays a Strat or
6:17he plays less pole or whatever. That's
6:19it. But I mean pickups. I mean that's
6:23for for the guitar players. Uh I have a
6:27thing that I basically think that people
6:29should have their own sound and not
6:32trying to sound like anybody else. So,
6:34whatever they have on their guitar that
6:36they think sounds good, that's what you
6:38should use. So, Tulle, you're on now,
6:40right? Yeah, I'm here. What drums did
6:45last use on? Right. The lightning.
6:48We have a man who knows that here cuz
6:51all I know was
6:53were they red? I think they were red.
6:55Yeah.
6:58So, Tulle, tell them tell the crowd.
7:01Tell tell everybody what we used. Yeah.
7:04Can Can you hear me there? I can hear
7:06you. Okay, perfect. Yes. Well, this is
7:09the milliondoll question. Nobody knows
7:11it. Let's let's uh remember that uh
7:15their equipment were totally uh stolen.
7:17Yeah, exactly. Boston just one month
7:20before. So, nobody knows uh which drums
7:23were used to record. There are no
7:25pictures. There are no u and I forgot to
7:27ask Lars this very important question
7:30because this is also a question for me.
7:33Nobody knows he was not endorsed yet by
7:36Tama because that was at the end of 84.
7:39Yeah. Thanks to Q Prime and to to Neil
7:43Pier. Yeah. But uh nobody knows uh which
7:46drones were used to record Right the
7:48Lightning. This is the milliondoll
7:50question.
7:52But I promise to you I will get back to
7:54you with this answer. I promise to you.
7:57I'm I I mean it is so annoying that
7:59taking pictures back in those days were
8:01not something you did. It was like
8:03studio was the boys rehearsal room. You
8:06didn't take pictures of the boys
8:07showering. You know it was the you know
8:10dressing room. It was we just didn't do
8:13that. You didn't do that back in those
8:14days. Now there's video cameras [ __ ]
8:17everywhere. He could have even have
8:19played it on on my Gretch kid. I mean,
8:22but I mean, he definitely had No, he
8:24didn't. He He must have borrowed it from
8:28somewhere. I I'll look into it. I have a
8:30few pictures of Jake setup. So, he might
8:33have borrowed some drums from Jake that
8:36that eventually became his uh his drum
8:39tech for like 35 years because he was
8:42playing drums in a band called uh
8:44Maltese Falcons. So he had a kit with
8:47two bass drums and as far as I remember
8:50that was red just like the tama one last
8:53god on
8:54master. But let me just look into those
8:57pictures and see what I have there
8:59because I took obviously took pictures
9:01of of that. But yeah, should we go to
9:04the next question? When recording
9:06James's guitar, did you punch in and
9:09record it by bits or one longer take?
9:14Well, uh, the way we worked was that
9:18once the drum
9:21track was the way it was supposed to be,
9:25um, sounding the way and played the way
9:27we wanted it to
9:28be, we would then start doing rhythm
9:32guitars. And normally people's after
9:35they've done drums do bass because they
9:37have this thing that drums and bass uh,
9:40belong together. But I felt from the
9:42start that because of the way these
9:44songs were, the guitar riffs were really
9:47important. So I didn't want any bass
9:50player, not even an artist like Cliff
9:52Burton to, and especially not an artist
9:56like Cliff Burton because he would do
9:58all sorts of weird [ __ ] with those riffs
10:00if he if he didn't have anybody to
10:02follow. So, it was pretty important to
10:05me that the guitars were played to the
10:07drums with nothing else so that James
10:11could put the feeling where he wanted it
10:13to
10:14be. And once we had the good drum track,
10:18um, he played a guide guitar on it and
10:20if that was good, we would use part of
10:23that. But normally we would just, you
10:26know, tune up the sound, get tuned, get
10:31the sound all right, and then just start
10:32from the beginning. And James would play
10:36for as long time he could until he made
10:41a
10:42mistake. And I was I would be sitting
10:45like I'm sitting now in front of of uh
10:48this screen. I would be sitting on like
10:50this listening with my speakers right in
10:52front of me. He would be standing right
10:54next right behind my chair playing with
10:58the amp in the control room and the
11:00cabinets in the
11:02studio. And every time I heard a
11:05mistake, I would stop the tape and he
11:07would stop as well cuz we heard them at
11:10the same time and it was faster for him
11:12to stop than for me to reach and press
11:14stop on the tape. And then in those
11:16days, you had to wait till the tape to
11:20rewind the tape for a bit and we would
11:23simply go from the the part that he
11:27messed up in. We would start from the
11:30beginning of that part. If it was 15
11:32seconds into that part, we would play
11:35from the beginning. He would play along
11:36and I'd just punch in
11:39uh and he would continue. So, we would
11:42do it from start till beginning but in
11:44bits. But we would do it like
11:46sequential. So we would start from the
11:48beginning and then work our way all the
11:50way through the
11:51song. And once that was done, we would
11:54double that and then he would do Kirk's
11:56part and we would double that. So we by
11:59that time we would have four
12:02uh electric rhythm guitars and then we
12:04would start uh uh we had already at that
12:09point delegated parts. That meant that,
12:12you know, when you hear the demo, uh,
12:14they can play everything from start till
12:16beginning in one take. If there were,
12:19uh, spots with chords, we would
12:21designate some tracks just to do chords.
12:23And that meant that we would probably
12:25also do these during the solos and where
12:28all the spots where they couldn't do it
12:30because they had other parts they had to
12:31play like harmonies and stuff. So, we
12:33would like kind of split up the parts
12:35into different tracks with different
12:38sounds. So we would at points have like
12:41these blocks of four tracks of guitars
12:43which was like the sound and we could
12:46have like two, three, sometimes four,
12:49five of these parts. So we at some at
12:52some point were we're were up on 20
12:54guitar tracks including harmonies and
12:56everything. So that that was uh that was
13:00the way we did it. And we also did the
13:02bass that way. And but with Cliff once
13:05he got into it, he more or less played
13:08from start till finish and we just patch
13:10up
13:10bits. Uh so yeah, that that that was it.
13:14Was the kick drum click on the Injustice
13:17album all EQ or was a Danmar style pad
13:21used? That's a fantastic question. Yeah.
13:24Yes, we did use a Danmar pad. Actually,
13:28just exactly the Danmar pad. Uh, and we
13:32used a wooden beater so we would get
13:35that uh kind of attacky sound. The
13:38reason why the drum sounds the way they
13:41do on Injustice for
13:43All is that um because I actually had to
13:49turn turn uh Injustice for all down. I
13:53actually didn't have time uh I was
13:55booked so I couldn't I had to say no to
13:58doing the album
14:00uh because uh the the singer I was
14:03working with was pregnant so we couldn't
14:06move the session. So we had to finish
14:08the session uh uh till before she gave
14:13birth and they had booked the studio
14:16when they called me and they booked it
14:18to January 3rd, 1988 and I was booked
14:21till I was actually booked all the way
14:24till
14:26miday. So I had to say no and they got
14:28my clink instead and they started with
14:32my clink and then like three weeks into
14:34January loss calls me and the only thing
14:36he says is you know please Fleming when
14:38can you come? So so uh cuz they were so
14:44used to working with me and all that and
14:45it just didn't work out with my clink
14:47which was well bad for him good for me.
14:51So, I didn't get over there till
14:53February 15th or
14:5616th,
14:58and I used a Uray Universal Audio uh
15:03graphic uh 32 band graphic EQ on the
15:07kicks on top of using uh the the Neve EQ
15:12cuz I scrapped the SSL desk and put all
15:16the drums through their old uh leave
15:18desk that they had like in racks next to
15:21the console. So, I use that exclusively.
15:25The only thing that's recorded through
15:26the SSL is actually Jason's bass, and
15:29that's the only thing you can't hear on
15:30the album. Uh uh, but Lo had once we
15:36were done recording and during
15:37recording, he had taken pictures of
15:40those two EQs. There was an EQ for each
15:42kick drum. And when they mixed, he
15:46insisted that uh Michael Thompson and
15:51Steven Barbierro put that EQ on again
15:54cuz he didn't realize that it was
15:56already
15:58recorded. So what you hear on the album
16:00and the reason why there is so much uh
16:03highend and low end is because that EQ
16:06is actually applied twice because Lars
16:10didn't know that it was already
16:12recorded. And that's actually the reason
16:14why the the the kick is sound the way
16:17they do on Injustice for All. Uh but and
16:21unfortunately that that turned out to be
16:23a school. So so uh a lot of metal albums
16:27since that day sounded like they were
16:28played on a
16:29typewriter. But I mean Larsson's bummer,
16:32but I mean it it it was
16:35effective. Could have helped with a bit
16:37of bass, but you know, [ __ ] happens. So
16:40there you go. But that was actually
16:42that's we used the Danmar pad to get
16:44that punch and and we I I EQed it and
16:50unfortunately Lars EQed it one more
16:53time. There's a question about fade to
16:55black about the 12 string and what was
16:57the room type of echo. Well, that's
16:59pretty damn simple cuz when we mixed
17:02right the
17:04lightning, we had probably just two
17:08reverbs.
17:09with a bit of luck. We already we had
17:13three, but uh the reverbs
17:17available to me at the time in ' 84
17:21uh was uh an AKG uh BX20 spring reverb
17:27and an EMT 140
17:29plate. I don't know whether the EMT250
17:33digital reverb was out yet. If it was,
17:37we would have probably bought it like
17:38from day one because we had that. And we
17:42also bought a Lexicon 224 XL, but that
17:46was the later version. So, so I'm pretty
17:48sure it was only at a match those three
17:52BX20, ENT 140, and maybe an ENT250, but
17:57I can't remember when we bought that and
17:59when that even came out because that
18:01could I mean, it's obvious if it it if
18:04it wasn't released yet, we couldn't have
18:05bought it, right? So, uh and it was
18:07mixed sometime in
18:11uh April, May 84.
18:15So, somebody can check that. So, that
18:18would answer that. Sorry, I'm not able
18:21to right now, but I wanted to know about
18:23the second AX EQ and why it wasn't used
18:26on the rhythm guitars for the justice
18:31song. Is that that must be a question
18:34relating to the master
18:36class? Um, we just used once. I only
18:41used one at a time. If if it's if at any
18:45point I uh I implied that I used two of
18:49them uh on the M uh and justice guitars,
18:53that is
18:54wrong. If there are two different
18:58um
19:00um uh notes on that, that's because it's
19:05for different guitars. So, I never used
19:07two of the EQs. I never like went from
19:11one EQ into the other at at no point
19:16ever. I know that people can't duplicate
19:19the master parit because of all the
19:22processing in the studio, right? Yeah,
19:24that's probably pretty damn close. I've
19:27always I've always committed um when I
19:31recorded and in the old days you did it
19:33because there uh were quite a bit of
19:36noise on tape if you wanted to like add
19:38a lot of highend that would make just
19:40make his and noise. So you more or less
19:44I mean it was probably also the way
19:47people did it back then was that once
19:50once you started record you recording
19:53you you tried to find a sound for each
19:57band and you committed that to tape. I
20:00mean, if you take all my takes from then
20:02and then do a a a really quick rough
20:05mix, they would sound fairly like the
20:08album because a lot of the decisions
20:11would have already been made when uh
20:14when when we recorded it. And I'm I'm
20:17I'm an old fart, so I I still do that. I
20:21still commit everything. My whole chain
20:24in the studio where I'm sitting now is
20:26all analog with compressors and EQs and
20:30this and that and everything. And a lot
20:33of that I
20:35commit to the Pro Tools input. Once it
20:38gets into ProTools,
20:40I very rarely take it out of it again.
20:45uh I totally rely on plugins then but
20:48that's because it's a different workflow
20:50and everything is uh recallable and you
20:54can have multiple instances
20:56of you're not like limited by your
20:59hardware. So that's it. Okay, next
21:03question is from
21:05Robert. Does Metallica have the Master
21:08Tapes in their
21:09vaults? They have everything in their
21:12vaults. The only thing they don't have
21:14in their vaults is my uh quarter inch
21:18safety copy of uh Right the Lightning. I
21:22have a quarter inch safety copy here,
21:24which is what you do when you send the
21:25master tape out of the house. You do a
21:28one to one copy of the master tape in
21:31case anything happens to it. Nothing
21:34did. So, Metallica has the master in in
21:38uh in uh San Francisco and I still have
21:42the
21:43uh the the quarter inch um safety copy
21:47and that's it. Every every other t all
21:50other tapes Metallica has recorded has
21:53been shipped to HQ. So, they're all in
21:58HQ. So there's and as far as I know on
22:02the songs I recorded there are are no
22:06songs we recorded that hasn't been
22:08released.
22:13So okay for sanitarium the clean guitars
22:17are more or less known for having a
22:19pulsating effects on the album. How did
22:22you achieve that if you remember? Well,
22:25that's that's because that So, you
22:28obviously haven't seen the master class,
22:31huh? Cuz uh that pulsating effect comes
22:36from playing
22:38chords. Uh that is being gated by a gate
22:43that's been triggered by a click track.
22:46And that's basically
22:49it. And the rest of it is is uh echoes.
22:53and the AMS uh stereo
22:57harmonizer with a pit with a delay of 10
23:00and 20 milliseconds. 10 in one side, 20
23:03in the other.
23:05Pitched 04 up in one side, down 96 in
23:12the other side. That's it. That's the
23:14guitar sound. And then you record it
23:16through
23:17uh through the Roland uh jazz chorus
23:21120. That's that's the trick.
23:24Good. What type of echo room was used on
23:27all three album or was it just the type
23:30of room
23:32recordings? Uh yeah, I only mixed right
23:36the lightning. So that's that's the only
23:38thing I can say that that been been
23:41working. Uh uh that's been all the way
23:44through. I I recorded uh the the back
23:49room where we recorded Ryan and Master
23:53though are are heavily miked up and and
23:57I think there was four or six mics
23:59probably four and they've been used
24:01heavily on on the mixing. I did
24:04definitely on master and definitely on
24:06ride not uh and justice is recorded in
24:09another studio and that's also one of
24:11the reasons why it sounds so differently
24:12because it's another
24:14studio. Um and I didn't mix any of the
24:17other ones. Uh master I should have
24:19mixed but we we just didn't finish
24:21recording in time so we spent the time
24:22recording instead and then I had to to
24:25start doing some other work and they had
24:26to go home and play some some gigs. So
24:29Michael Wagner makes that and did a
24:31fantastic job. Thanks, Michael. Uh, and
24:34because I got involved in Injustice so
24:39late, they had already booked uh,
24:42Michael Thompson and Steven Barbierro to
24:45mix it. So, whatever they've used, I
24:48have no idea. I'm pretty sure there are
24:51for us on on the internet uh, that can
24:53tell you that cuz I found a lot of info
24:56on those when we did the master class. I
24:59found a lot of info where they're being
25:01interviewed and where they're willing to
25:03kill loss if you once again ask ask them
25:06why there's no bass on cuz he [ __ ]
25:09that up. So yeah. Um that's
25:12it. Okay. Solo lead recording. Uh
25:16cheers. I'll have a coffee.
25:25Where were there ever double or full
25:28tracking? There was a lot of double
25:31tracking. Uh most of the harmonies are
25:35uh if not all are doubled. Uh
25:40solos are doubled in parts. I like that
25:44especially because some of the solos are
25:46like really long. We
25:48actually did some of those in bits and
25:52we both changed the sound and then some
25:55parts we doubled, some parts we didn't,
25:57but that was all to get life into it so
26:00it just didn't sound like one straight
26:02[ __ ] line from, you know, for a
26:04minute and a
26:06half. So,
26:08uh, were they using the same? No, no,
26:11no, no, no, no. Different all all
26:14different sounds for the solos.
26:18How were the rhythm guitars panned for
26:19the Justice song? I think that we
26:23did three guitars for that. And it's
26:26left, right, middle, but I wouldn't know
26:29since I didn't mix it. But as far as I
26:32remember,
26:35uh that's that's how it's done. Um, I'm
26:38going to have to look at some uh track
26:40sheets before I know that because if
26:42there's four guitars, you would have
26:44typically two pan more narrow and two
26:47pan wide.
26:49But how ex how Mike and Steve did it, I
26:53have no idea cuz I was sitting at home
26:56in Denmark doing some other
26:59[ __ ] Uh, okay. Some guy figured out how
27:02to do it in Garage Band. Good for you,
27:05man. That's the way to do it. Don't be
27:07limited by gear. And this is really
27:10important. Really important message.
27:13Don't be limited by gear. Use whatever
27:15you have. I mean, it's not the gear that
27:18makes the sound. It's how you use it.
27:20So, use whatever [ __ ] you've got. You
27:23get the most fantastic stuff on cheap
27:26equipment uh and really bad equipment.
27:29And you can do some real [ __ ] on really
27:31expensive equipment. So just, you know,
27:35good on you, dude. Funny to say that
27:38lamb of God forsaken actually used the
27:41typewriter sle. Yeah. Uh yeah, I've been
27:45for I mean I've been doing all sorts of
27:48[ __ ] for in the 80s and 90s when you
27:51sampled a lot. I've had, you know, you
27:55crush a beer can uh for for like the
27:59high end of a kick. I mean, again, it's
28:03only imagination that kind of limits you
28:05on that. I mean, do if it works, use it.
28:09If it doesn't work, sack it. So, it it's
28:13it's it's that damn
28:15simple. So, where we at here? Which mics
28:19did James used for his vocals? Yeah, I
28:22think we've documented that. We kind of
28:26on the later ones went for the SM7, I'm
28:29pretty sure. and Justice for All is
28:30recorded in an SM7B. U the Shure mic,
28:34the one that everybody looks at at in
28:38that they they use in in some kind of
28:41monster movie that that and it nobody
28:45knew really a lot about nobody ever used
28:47that mic till about five years ago and
28:50then all of these uh blockers starting
28:52using it and now it's one of the most
28:54used mics in the world. It's kind of
28:56strange, but James has been singing in
28:58it since
29:0088. And I'm pretty sure on ride he
29:03recorded it in a U87 and pro or U67
29:09which is a tube mic. And I think we have
29:11had gotten the U47 for master and I'm
29:15pretty sure that's recorded in that. But
29:17you can all see that in the master class
29:20because we're actually using three
29:22different mics for the three different
29:24albums as far as I remember because that
29:26was uh because I could see on the track
29:28sheet I'm always really nutsy about
29:32that. I mean, you know, I every time I
29:34write something on a track sheet, I
29:36write what microphone it is because it's
29:38good to know if you come back and want
29:40to redo stuff. Uh, so, so that that all
29:44should come out in the master class when
29:46if you check the vocals because they're
29:48all recording that they're recording in
29:49three different mics and I actually
29:51still have the same mics we used. So, it
29:54should be fairly
29:57close.
30:00So, do you still have the Trident range?
30:04No, I don't. I sold it about a year ago
30:07and I was down to seven channels. Uh I'd
30:12sold a lot of them off.
30:15Um I just didn't feel I wanted to spend
30:18the time uh uh repairing it, keeping it
30:22up to scratch. So, I uh we I got
30:26contacted by a guy who has a studio,
30:29Matias, who has a studio in
30:31Goththingberg, and he wanted to buy what
30:33was left of my name range. And I had
30:37sold a bucket from the console with
30:40eight inputs in it to a guy in Denmark
30:43and bought those as well. And then I'd
30:45sold three uh input modules to uh the
30:49same female singer that that that was uh
30:53responsible for me not getting to the
30:56states to do it justice. She had bought
30:58three of those. So he bought all of
31:01those in one big thing and spent like
31:03three months wiring everything together
31:05again. And now it's actually it's a
31:09pretty nice decent 21 channel console as
31:12far as I know. and it still sounds
31:14amazing. I have Trident though, but
31:18they're sitting in a rack. Um, it was
31:21kind of
31:22uh a waste of space to have that desk
31:25sitting there taking up all of the space
31:27in the studio with only seven mic inputs
31:30as a result. So, uh, I kind of decided
31:33selling that last year, but it did sound
31:36good. So, there you go. in the future.
31:38Could there be another for the songs as
31:41the first master class? I really enjoyed
31:44it. Uh thanks.
31:48Um we never discussed that. There might
31:51be I mean um the thing is Yeah, please.
31:56We uh we kind of did this to show how it
32:00was done more than to try and emulate
32:03the final result because obviously uh
32:06the players are different and there's so
32:08there's so many factors. I mean these
32:12these songs are almost 40 some of them
32:14are more than 40 years old. So uh yeah
32:17but yeah why not? I mean what else
32:20should we do this summer? I mean, you
32:22know, so you never know. Um, so
32:29yeah. Good. Okay. Was the ADA used for
32:34cleans or was it all the jazz? Well, I'm
32:38pretty damn sure that all the clean
32:41guitars we recorded with Metallica,
32:44except for the very bit in the middle of
32:49Orion where it sounds like it's on an
32:52old uh 78 uh turntable because that is
32:57recorded through a transistor radio that
33:01was miked up with an SM7. But yeah, the
33:04all the clean guitars
33:07uh rhythmwise is important to say was
33:11recorded through the uh Roland the jazz
33:13chorus. All the clean solos then were
33:18recorded through
33:19Marshalls and at some sometimes also
33:24through the uh Boogies, but mostly
33:26through the Marshalls and mostly with
33:29the ADA and then through a Marshall
33:32power amp to two cabinets in the studio.
33:38So the strings sound like sound in the
33:43middle of to live is to
33:46die. Actual strings are just harmony
33:49guitar swells. That's harmony guitar
33:51swells. Yeah. Uh that is the thing with
33:55you you hit you hit a chord and then you
33:57use your little finger to turn the
33:59volume up. That's stuff like
34:02that. And here's a good question. Was
34:05there no bottom mics at all for the
34:07snare on the inputs? Yeah, I don't have
34:10them here, but I remember because
34:11there's two bass drum tracks and two
34:13snare tracks. That means there is
34:14definitely an up and down. So, there are
34:17a bottom mic, but it's just
34:20bounced live to one track. So, I've been
34:24doing that's it. And then if it was too
34:27loud, I would do it on the group. Turn
34:29the volume down.
34:31Whose idea was it to the rever reverse
34:34the intro to
34:36blackened? Has anybody tried reversing
34:40that
34:42back? Cuz I did that the day before
34:45yesterday. It's actually really nice.
34:49It's like it's it's like it's it's
34:52almost like, you know, it's it's like a
34:55sweet little melody. It's really
34:58cute because I had uh I've been holding
35:02like seminars here uh one for ride, one
35:05for master, one for justice where I tell
35:08about how we recorded and tell all the
35:10stories and we hear some of the rough
35:12mixes and I play some of the the rare
35:14stuff and [ __ ] And I kind
35:19of I did the intro to damage. I reversed
35:23back so everybody could do it because
35:25that's just ba intro to damage is just
35:28bass. It's like eight 10 tracks of
35:33bass. There are two that just plays
35:37notes. Then there's a a three-part
35:40harmony that's double. So that's six,
35:42that's eight. And there's some other
35:44stuff there. And I try and some some of
35:46it are reversed, some of it are not. So
35:48even if you reverse it
35:50back, some of it sounds reversed. But
35:53the intro to Blacken, it was always
35:56meant to be reversed. It was recorded
35:58that way. And when you hear it back
36:01reversed, it's a sweet, sweet little
36:04tune. So you should take take the time
36:07to Yeah. record that in your DAW and hit
36:10the reverse button and hear what we
36:13actually
36:14recorded. And it ended up sounding like
36:17that.
36:18It's It's actually really
36:21nice. Um idea to reverse the intro could
36:25have been mine. Uh a lot of the reverse
36:27stuff we did came from me cuz cuz when
36:31the band came to the studio the first
36:33time, they had no idea that you can do
36:35that. And they were like totally
36:37gobsmacked when I did that first time.
36:39Like what? We want that on all the
36:41tracks. I was like,
36:43ah. But you know, it's easy to get
36:46enthusiastic. So, yeah. Was it your
36:50personal opinion? What's your p on ming
36:52the bottom side of toms alongside with
36:55the toms? I totally hate it. I've uh uh
37:00I've seen it done a lot of times. Uh
37:03I've done it once and found it not worth
37:08worth the effort. So, I haven't done it
37:10since.
37:12Um, yeah. I I think it's uh I don't I
37:16don't I just don't think it's worth it.
37:18You get a lot more spill and you get a
37:21lot more mics and you get a lot more
37:23face [ __ ] You get a lot of [ __ ] that
37:25can go wrong. So, no, I'm not doing
37:27that. I spend a lot of time making sure
37:30that all the top mics aren't phase. And
37:33if you have to double that up and you
37:36also need to find out whether or not
37:39your uh bottom mics are in face with the
37:41top mics and are they in face with the
37:43snare. I mean it could take a year to
37:46[ __ ] get that done before we start
37:49recording. So there you go. I don't like
37:53bottom
37:56mics. With what did you replace your
37:59last used tape recording gear with?
38:02Which audio did you use? I use uh AIT,
38:06the new uh dark black AIT ones. Um and I
38:11have uh
38:12two 192 aits as well, the the old ones.
38:18But I mainly use the new gray aid, the
38:21dark gray avid ones. And I've used
38:23everything. It's
38:25ProTools. And uh everything I record now
38:28is I've been going 88 24bit for a long
38:32time. I'm now going 24bit
38:3596k and it's just sounds better than 48
38:40and 44. I know
38:42that well it ends up in an AirPod
38:45anyway, but I'm I've always felt that
38:47the better quality you have along the
38:49way, no matter how shitty the equipment
38:52you end up playing it on, you can still
38:55hear if it's been quality all the way
38:57through. So I uh I record everything I
39:02do now 24-bit
39:0396k and I just use the AID interfaces. I
39:08feel that most of the new interfaces are
39:10so good and so well sounding that it
39:13doesn't really matter which ones you
39:15choose. I'm pretty sure there's some
39:17geeks out there that has like a whole
39:19religion about that, but um for me this
39:23is
39:25fine. So, uh tape's been replaced by a
39:30Pro Tools.
39:33Do you know what the band did with the
39:35guitar sound from Master Puppets when
39:38playing live at the time? Did they bring
39:40the studio EQ or something
39:43else? I actually don't know that.
39:46[Music]
39:47Um I think there were times in
39:52the 80s and 90s when when Metallica's
39:56live sound was pretty pretty
39:58questionable.
40:00It was loud, but it was hard to
40:04define. And it's not until like uh
40:08recent like 10 years or so that live
40:12equipment
40:13has given given so much control that I
40:17actually felt that it gave justice to to
40:21what they actually
40:22played. Also, some of the arenas they've
40:25been playing in Denmark has really
40:27shitty sound. That hasn't helped either.
40:29I've seen them place outside of Denmark
40:32at places where it sounded absolutely
40:35amazing and went where why the [ __ ] do I
40:37live in Denmark? But uh yeah, I don't
40:40really know what they did. I know at one
40:43I know
40:44that they might
40:47have I I don't know. I know that that
40:52the only pedal that's live that that's
40:55on on the stages are the the W pedal and
41:01all other pedals are being switched by
41:02the road crew. So, uh
41:06yeah, I'm I' I haven't gotten into that
41:11really. Did you and James blend multiple
41:15amps?
41:18Yeah, but not on the same tracks. We
41:21could have switched amps on different
41:25recordings of the same thing to make it
41:28wider. I do that a lot.
41:31Um the the the reason for the big
41:35difference in sound is that the three
41:38mics we used on each
41:40cabinet could be I mean just by fiddling
41:43the faders because they all ended up in
41:45mono on one track on the
41:47multitrack. So simply by adjusting that
41:50I already made decisions there to how
41:53much of the room mic should be in there.
41:56And that relates to an earlier question
41:57with the reverb. I I recorded uh a lot
42:01of room mics in the tracks on all of
42:04these albums and I know that their motto
42:07was no reverb. So I kind of thought that
42:10uh to to help that in the final mix I'll
42:14add some some live ambience. Um but
42:19yeah, I mean we we did that. But I mean,
42:22all guitars are one
42:25amp and and then if we doubled it, we
42:29could have used another amp with another
42:31cabinet with another another everything.
42:34There's a lot of that going on. So, uh,
42:41yeah. Yeah. How do you control the low
42:44end for palm mutes? Multiband
42:46compression. No, I never use multiband
42:49compression and
42:50and I uh I do that by by fiddling with
42:54the amp and moving the mics till they
42:56sound good. Um I have
43:00never compressed any of the guitars
43:06um on any Metallica
43:10recording. I feel that the the best
43:12compressor in the world is the cardboard
43:15in the speakers.
43:17And
43:20um I've actually never done that. I've
43:23never compressed any of the
43:25guitars. Uh but yeah, that's that's
43:27right. The palm mutes that is tweaking
43:30tweaking amps till they sound right.
43:33Making sure your mics's in the right
43:35position because that's one of the
43:37things that is important in in in metal
43:39and especially in in fresh with
43:41Metallica. We spent a lot of time
43:44tweaking the amp so that the palm mute
43:47sound just right. I mean, we just didn't
43:49go, "Oh, that's fine. Let's We spent a
43:52lot of time getting those sounds right."
43:55And that is just tweaking and a little
43:57bit here and let me just move this mic
43:59like, you know, an eighth of an inch to
44:02the left or out or whatever. And there's
44:06a sweet spot somewhere. And I mean, one
44:10of my favorite sounds in the world is a
44:12Marshall amps that goes oof where you
44:15can actually hear the speaker
44:18uh uh actually it it's you feel you can
44:21see the speaker is going back again to
44:24to the starting point. I love that. Uh,
44:27and that I I spend a lot of time and
44:30that means me running back and forth and
44:33twisting knobs and moving moving mics
44:36and different balances and stuff. Um,
44:40but no, I've I actually very rarely use
44:44multiband
44:46compression. I would rather like mix and
44:49eq me out of that.
44:52Um, so
44:55yeah, looks like the training was really
44:58punished the high end on the guitars.
45:00Yeah. Do you find you are using less
45:02highend with digital recording or do you
45:06always compensate with tape and No, I
45:11uh I do it more or less the same way. I
45:15uh and yeah, it is true that uh back in
45:19the day uh the the recording levels on
45:23the tapes were pretty high and that
45:25would get rid of some of the annoying
45:28high-end. Uh and that's also why we used
45:31it on this. Uh I kind of back off on
45:35that now.
45:36I like I I don't mind when
45:39[Music]
45:40uh when when my uh my outboard distorts
45:45a little bit if it distorts the right
45:48way.
45:50Um but that again is a question of taste
45:54and you got to be careful not to overdo
45:57it when you do it. But I do it a lot and
46:00I I do it all the time and I actually
46:04sometimes also do it in with plugins. Uh
46:09and I know there's a lot of people
46:10saying that gate and stage staging is
46:13important. It is. Uh but I mean
46:16distorting [ __ ] once in a while is also
46:18really important. Otherwise you just get
46:21a obviously depending on what music
46:23you're doing. But um I kind of like
46:26that. It it's it's
46:28it's the it's it's the moving of the air
46:32that makes Yeah. that makes you feel
46:34that the music is breathing. I can't
46:37explain it any other
46:40way.
46:43So, do you flip the face and the head?
46:46Um,
46:48no.
46:53Nope. No, I don't. I only do that when I
46:58use speakers for for uh big choirs that
47:02that can't all have headphones. I would
47:05do a pass and then I would switch the
47:07face on the next pass on the speakers
47:10and and in theory they would cancel each
47:13other out. They never really do. I've
47:15never uh I never deliberately switched
47:18phase on any headphones for that.
47:21[Music]
47:22Um, what I feel is the most important
47:25thing with a headphone balance is that
47:27the person that has to perform feels
47:30safe, feels good, and feels comfortable.
47:34So, I spend a lot of time making sure
47:36that people's headphones sounds good
47:39because it can [ __ ] up your performance
47:41if you have bad monitoring. So, yeah.
47:45But I never face reversed headphones
47:47ever.
47:50Uh, do I play any instruments? If so,
47:55how did it affect your role as an
47:57engineer? Yeah, guess
48:00what? I play
48:03drums. So, that kind of affected my
48:06relationship to Loris. Uh but uh I
48:11had once uh once we got to 84 and we
48:15started doing Metallica, I hadn't been
48:17playing drums for six years, so uh it
48:21was
48:22uh it was a bit like, you know, riding a
48:25bike, you know, once you've learned it,
48:28you can do it. I I wasn't good at it. So
48:30yeah, Lars is way better than me.
48:36So yeah,
48:37it it kind of made me made it easier for
48:41me to explain Lars when I had some
48:45things I wanted to do and and some
48:47things I wanted to teach him. Uh because
48:50I've been there myself. Uh so so that I
48:53think that was actually a big
48:55help. And I have played the occasional
48:58uh one snare hit if you hit a rim and we
49:01wanted to overdub a snare hit and we
49:03couldn't hit it. I have done that a few
49:05times where I actually did it, but
49:07that's like we we're down to one or two
49:10hits on all three
49:13albums. Do you have a favorite song
49:16album that you love putting together?
49:18Yeah, definitely. Master of Puppets was
49:21um the easiest of the three albums to do
49:24because we all ride the Lightning was
49:27difficult because we didn't know each
49:29other. We had to kind of invent a sound
49:31kind of invent. work together. That was
49:35totally out of the way when we started
49:37Master of Puppets. Master of Puppets was
49:40uh us five
49:43guys that had a goal and everybody was
49:47pulling in the same direction to get to
49:49that goal. It was fantastic. Uh and
49:52Justice for All was a bit
49:55more fragmentated because we weren't in
49:58the studio, everybody all the time. And
50:02so it was a bit more not so much a team
50:05effort, but um but yeah, I would say
50:09Master of Puppets is is in in that
50:12respect uh my favorite album, but I mean
50:17there are bits on all the albums I
50:19totally love. And I wouldn't if if you
50:22ask me right off which one I like the
50:24best, I couldn't tell you because it's
50:26it's like choosing between your two
50:28children.
50:31Do you use a reference track for me? Oh,
50:34yeah. Do I use a favorite reference
50:37track for mixing? If so, what are your
50:39favorites? No, I rarely
50:42do. I I listen to music on and off and
50:46and before mixing, but I don't like AB.
50:50I try that. I got that AB thing uh that
50:53where you can like, you know, get things
50:56to and compare. And I I feel it kind of
51:00[ __ ] my focus. Uh you suddenly start
51:04trying to make it be like that song that
51:07it's not.
51:09So I I play some, you know, regular
51:15music, some of my favorite tracks just
51:17to make sure top my top and bottom and
51:20yeah, I have everything placed in my
51:23head and it actually is where I expect
51:26it to be. And then I don't just totally
51:29disappear into a song when I mix and
51:33then maybe the next day I find out uh
51:36I've I've got too much highend but I
51:38mean that's what's mastering's for. So
51:41yeah. No, I I rarely use reference
51:44tracks which maybe is stupid but I
51:48rarely do.
51:51Michael Wagner has touched on the
51:52subject of Metallica recording extra
51:55tracks that are just the low E gallops
51:58or chunks. Can you give any details if
52:00that is true? Yeah, we've did a bit of
52:03that just you know to emphasize
52:07things. The master class and I would
52:10love to see your hel. Oh, and hope that
52:14Yeah, that Yeah. Well, as I say all the
52:18time to my uh my talks when we when I
52:21talk about the albums, people always
52:23ask, "Do you want to record another
52:26Metallica album?" I always say, "Yeah,
52:29sure. I would love that, but I want to
52:31hear the [ __ ] demos first because it
52:33would be really stupid of me to do a
52:36[ __ ] Metallica album with the legacy I
52:38have now. So, I want to hear the demos
52:41first. make sure they they have written
52:44some good songs and then we'll see. But
52:47I mean the way they work now where their
52:50whole workflow is kind of uh
52:53intertwined. In the old days they went
52:57their separate ways. James did a riff
52:59take. Uh Kirk did a riff take. Then they
53:03met played riffs for each other with
53:04Lars and they kind of you constructed
53:07songs from that. Then they rehearsed
53:08them. Then they got some songs together
53:11and then they took parts from one to the
53:13other and so on and and once they
53:16finally had their songs, they did a demo
53:18and then they went to the studio. that
53:20is all now one intertwined process and
53:24it's all being recorded cuz they all do
53:27that in HQ and they have a full-blown uh
53:30studio with uh two desks and uh a
53:34million mics and they have I mean Kirk's
53:37got one of the most impressive guitar
53:40collections in the
53:42world I mean recording them I mean
53:45shouldn't we have like this guitar sound
53:47and he can just pull it out I mean it's
53:51Unbelievable. Uh, good for you, Kirk,
53:53man. That's [ __ ] thumbs up from
53:57here. Uh, so yeah. Um, if they ask, I'll
54:03I'll I'll we'll we'll have a long talk
54:05and we'll see. Um, they haven't asked
54:08yet. Uh, nobody said no yet. I mean,
54:11there's nothing nothing on the table,
54:14but I mean, and we're
54:16not we're not arguing or whatever. I
54:19mean, we're still friends, so it could
54:21happen. You never know. Maybe just one
54:24song. I don't know. We'll
54:26see. So,
54:30uh, is Justice the only album you have
54:34done out of sweet science? I know you
54:36don't like to visit other studios. Poke.
54:40I love I love I mean I love all other
54:44studios. Uh it was just um it's actually
54:49funny uh because uh I've never been to
54:52Pook
54:53Studios. Um and the reason why I haven't
54:56been to Pook Studios is because if I
54:58needed to do anything in Denmark, I
55:00would do it in my own studios. I have
55:02seen more studios outside of Denmark
55:04than I've actually seen studios in
55:06Denmark. There's a lot of studios in
55:08Denmark I've never seen because every
55:10time uh somebody wanted to record with
55:13me in Denmark, I would obviously do it
55:15in my own studio and I haven't been
55:17around visiting a lot of other studios.
55:19I've been to Easy Sound, but that was
55:21because the power supply went in my
55:24Trident and he he had the year before
55:29borrowed my studio when his power supply
55:32went in his Trident. So, so it was kind
55:34of So, I took a day there and there.
55:36Yeah, good guys and everything, but I
55:38mean that's about it. I saw the studio
55:42that Freddy worked in before we built
55:44Sweet Silence. That's it. I mean, I
55:47didn't have any reason. So, I have
55:49nothing against any other studios in
55:51Denmark. I think there's been some
55:52amazing studios in Denmark, but why
55:55would I record there when I have my own
55:57just as amazing studio in Copenhagen?
56:00So, that that's basically it.
56:03I have been recording in uh Morris sound
56:06in Tampa with Morbid Angel. I've been
56:08recording an album in uh in uh New York
56:13with uh some jazz in CBS studios. I have
56:18recorded in North South South Korea in
56:21Soul with a band called Monkey
56:24Head. I've been recording in Germany.
56:28I've been recording a lot of places
56:30outside uh Sweet Science and I've even
56:34done a lot of mobile recording. So I've
56:36done it in a lot of different facilities
56:37around the world. I am not solely
56:40recording here. Uh it has just been the
56:42most convenient thing to do. And once I
56:47shot Sweet Sus down, I was in I've been
56:49in a lot of different studios here. AR
56:52Studios in Copenhagen. Great place.
56:55Recorded a lot of stuff there. good drum
56:57sound. Recorded Shotgun Revolutions
56:59album there. We recorded in energy
57:01shotgun recorded in energy in North
57:03Hollywood. So I've been a lot of places.
57:07Um so
57:13yeah, swirling transition effect
57:16disposable heroes.
57:20It is either sw at the end of the long
57:23intro for disposable heroes just before
57:26the verse rift starts there's a swering
57:28transition effect. It's some reverse
57:31uh
57:33guitars reverse simples and it's a an
57:38organ
57:40uh which is uh a synthesizer through
57:46Leslie. You can answer this. Whose idea
57:48was it to organize these master classes
57:50and seminars? Tada. Isaac.
57:55Yeah, I mean uh I wasn't Yeah, I guess
57:58it was my idea, but uh it's it's like a
58:02dream come true. Of course, being a huge
58:05Metallica fan, it's it made a lot of
58:08sense uh when we talked for the first
58:10time with Fleming. So, I really really
58:13hope that you guys like it and uh you
58:15got lots of like knowledge and useful
58:18stuff out of this. I sure did uh
58:21throughout the course of this uh master
58:23class and yeah, really think it's a like
58:28a a journey that I will remember for the
58:31rest of my life.
58:34That's good. I like it too. Right. So,
58:39we have a question here. Comparing the
58:41live room at one- on-one studios to your
58:44current live room, do you feel the
58:46massive room ambience can be
58:48sufficiently replicated through
58:51strategic room mic placement or reverb
58:54plugins? It can be
58:57emulated. Uh I feel I really miss the
59:01drum room I had in my old studio, which
59:04was basically a big warehouse with
59:07nothing in it. and and the reverb time
59:10there was like it I mean it was
59:13basically pretty uncontrollable but it
59:15just sounded good. So yeah, I mean it's
59:18never the
59:19same. Uh it's something else. I always
59:23feel you work with what you have and get
59:25the most out of it. you can get even the
59:28worst room to sound decent if you place
59:31things right and throw in a blanket here
59:33and a blanket there and and there's a
59:36lot of stuff that can help you make make
59:38the acoustics in a room better. Um, but
59:41there's no nothing beats a good sounding
59:43room. The drum room I had in Sweet
59:46Silence too, the main room sounded so
59:49good. So I and I missed that too.
59:54So, uh,
59:56yeah. Um, it helps with, um, and and
59:59there's a lot of good reverb plugins out
1:00:02there that can kind of emulate that. I
1:00:05when I want to emulate stuff like that,
1:00:08I tend I always feel I need to use more
1:00:11than one reverb plug to get like the
1:00:14more comp complexity thing of it. But
1:00:18it's it's not like putting two two mics
1:00:21up in a good sounding room. Nothing can
1:00:23beat that. I'm sorry. I would love it.
1:00:28So, there you go. Do you have any
1:00:31memories where you thought, "Wow, this
1:00:34band is special." Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah,
1:00:36yeah, yeah, yeah. At one point in the
1:00:38beginning when we did write the
1:00:40lightning, especially about the time
1:00:42when uh they almost signed with bronze
1:00:45records,
1:00:47uh we had done all all the drum tracks
1:00:49and and a lot of guitars were basically
1:00:52after the first three to four weeks and
1:00:54they went on tour and played
1:00:57uh they were supposed to do a festival
1:01:00that got cancelled and everything but
1:01:01they were away for like three to four
1:01:02weeks. came back midappril, end April,
1:01:0620th of April or something like that and
1:01:08they had brought
1:01:09uh they had brought Jerry Brawn with him
1:01:14and and he had brought his son and we
1:01:17listened to what we've done and I just
1:01:20remember we were all so proud cuz we I
1:01:23had never heard anything that sounded so
1:01:24good. This was on Right the Lightning
1:01:27and I just went [ __ ] we're going to
1:01:29kill this [ __ ] And then this Jerry
1:01:32Braun guy says that he doesn't, you
1:01:34know, we they were basically ready to
1:01:37sign a
1:01:39contract and he sits down and he goes,
1:01:41"Well, I don't really feel the vibe is
1:01:44there." And they were sitting at the
1:01:46table talking to him. I was sitting at
1:01:47the other end with my newspaper going,
1:01:49"What the fuck?" Uh and uh and he
1:01:54thought uh that uh the basic the tracks
1:01:58would were weren't good enough and that
1:02:00they should pack up uh everything in Cop
1:02:03Megan and fly with him to London and
1:02:06they would re-record everything with his
1:02:08son as a producer. And I remember I
1:02:11looked up and I looked at James and he
1:02:13just went Jesus.
1:02:16And I can see two weeks later in Lars's
1:02:19diary, there's a big buy
1:02:22bronze. And I think they were basically
1:02:25ready to sign the contract that day. And
1:02:29then he started doing that and they're
1:02:30like, "What? He this guy doesn't know
1:02:33what the [ __ ] he's talking about." Cuz
1:02:35we were like, we were so proud. I mean,
1:02:39we thought that those drum tracks and
1:02:41those rhythm guitar tracks we've done
1:02:43was the best thing that was ever
1:02:45recorded ever to that
1:02:47point and uh he didn't feel that.
1:02:51So, and it took him about two years then
1:02:55his company
1:02:56folded. So, I'm guessing maybe they
1:02:59already had trouble at the time and he
1:03:01was hoping Metallica could kind of save
1:03:03in his ass, but I'm glad that they
1:03:05didn't sign the
1:03:06contract. So yeah, that's one of that
1:03:09that's I mean I knew pretty pretty soon
1:03:12like the first week into the recordings
1:03:15I knew that this was something special
1:03:18and it wasn't because they were good
1:03:19musicians or or anything. I loved the
1:03:22songs but it was the energy they brought
1:03:25to to the table. That was totally
1:03:27unbelievable. I was just I couldn't get
1:03:30my arms down. I was just running around
1:03:32smiling with a big face all over because
1:03:34I [ __ ] loved it and I loved them and
1:03:37I thought what we did was really
1:03:38fantastic and it
1:03:41was. So, how do you get the most out of
1:03:45the recording musician? Uh,
1:03:49I, as I said before, I spent a lot of
1:03:53time making sure that people's
1:03:56monitoring
1:03:57and are good and that they actually feel
1:04:01comfortable and safe cuz uh, every time
1:04:05you do a recording, you're basically
1:04:06putting yourself out there because uh,
1:04:08if it gets if it gets released,
1:04:11everybody's going to hear this for for
1:04:13eternity, right? So, so it it is more or
1:04:16less like, you know, a peak performance
1:04:19you have to do. And I'm I'm used to
1:04:21working with these people that has to do
1:04:23their their very best day in day
1:04:27out. And I kind of make sure people
1:04:30relax and fall down and that they
1:04:33actually have, you know, have a good
1:04:36feel and that they're ready.
1:04:40Uh, and that actually means a lot more
1:04:42than a lot of other stuff. Yeah, we have
1:04:45the flu in Denmark as well. It's a pain
1:04:47in the
1:04:48ass. So, yeah, I spend a lot of time
1:04:51doing that. And then I just push people
1:04:54as far as they can. I mean, if they do a
1:04:56really, really good take, I always make
1:04:58sure they do one more just in case
1:05:00there's more in them.
1:05:02Um, and another good thing is always
1:05:06record the first solo try because that's
1:05:10where all the good ideas are. They've
1:05:11been thinking about that solo for all
1:05:14the time they've been recording that
1:05:16track and it may not be perfect, but all
1:05:19the good ideas will be on that track and
1:05:21keep that and always go back and
1:05:24reference to
1:05:26that. Do I have any tips for aspiring
1:05:29bedroom studio musicians? Yeah, grow up.
1:05:32No. Uh just I
1:05:35mean the one rule that is really good
1:05:38and it sounds a bit like but it is that
1:05:42there are no rules. You can make the the
1:05:45best music anywhere in the world. And I
1:05:50mean Billy Isish basically was made in
1:05:53her bedroom, right? Everything. And
1:05:54she's doing pretty good. And I mean if
1:05:58your music is right, if you do the right
1:06:00thing, do it. I mean it's
1:06:04uh the big thing is getting the
1:06:06exposure, getting through to the right
1:06:08people. And I sometime have problems
1:06:11getting through to to to some record
1:06:14executives. And then you just got to
1:06:16think, well, do I need them? Probably
1:06:18not. And then, yeah, sometimes it's
1:06:21better just to do it yourself. And you I
1:06:23mean, the internet goes a long way.
1:06:26So jump on that. I think it's here to
1:06:29stay. I'm pretty
1:06:31sure they're going to keep
1:06:34it. But yeah, I mean, yeah.
1:06:37Uh
1:06:40just it it is the old joke. How do I get
1:06:43to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice,
1:06:45practice. Just improve as much as you
1:06:47can. Do the best you can with the
1:06:49equipment you can. Just be as good as
1:06:51you can
1:06:53always. And if you're having a bad day,
1:06:55[ __ ] get out, do something else, come
1:06:58back when you're when you're having a
1:07:00good
1:07:01day. It's not I mean, art is not a thing
1:07:05you can force through. You can sometimes
1:07:08once you've done all the creative [ __ ]
1:07:10and you just basically need just need to
1:07:12do the stuff you've you've kind of
1:07:16structured to do. It could be just hard
1:07:18work, but most of the time you you need
1:07:21to be you need to be in the right state
1:07:23of mind and and work on that because
1:07:27that can actually be pretty difficult.
1:07:30And that's why I spend so much time
1:07:31making sure people are feeling right
1:07:33when they're in the
1:07:36studio. Cheers. Coffee is good. I
1:07:39have Cliff Burton Museum Logan Land.
1:07:43There you go, Burton.
1:07:49Are you still recording bands? Yes, all
1:07:51the time. I uh I've had a band in today
1:07:55in the studio and I record everything as
1:07:59live as
1:08:01possible. And yeah, this is some slow
1:08:04blues rock with a really hefty female
1:08:08singer. So, uh yeah, kind of Janice
1:08:11Joplin kind of thing. It's really good.
1:08:12Love it.
1:08:15Fractal Audio Kemper similar amp
1:08:17simulators. I'm not a fan. Um they at
1:08:23first hand all these actually do sound
1:08:26pretty good. Um and I've used some for
1:08:30recording. I did an album a long time
1:08:31ago on an X with uh Monty Pitman, but I
1:08:36uh I took the output and and threw out
1:08:40through two cabinets. I think when you
1:08:42do guitar sounds, you should move air.
1:08:45You should simply you should get
1:08:46[ __ ] you know, get some speakers
1:08:49moving some air. Otherwise, it's it's
1:08:51going to be boring. I use it sometimes
1:08:56with an amp. You can have that to kind
1:08:59of fill in the
1:09:01mid-range, but uh it's not a thing I do
1:09:04often, and I'm not a big fan. So, I
1:09:07would I wouldn't spend money buying a
1:09:09camper. I would rather buy
1:09:12a a cheap
1:09:14Marshall or whatever. Boogie
1:09:18Orange. There's lots of good amps out
1:09:20there. Is it all right if I ask a
1:09:23question? Yeah, sure. Uh I remember that
1:09:26I can recall to Cliff he used the was it
1:09:29the
1:09:30Electrovoice Black Shadow speakers on
1:09:32his 412? Yeah.
1:09:36Do you have any idea what speakers were
1:09:38in the 15s? They were both custom made
1:09:41by Messa, I think. Yeah. No, I I don't
1:09:44know, unfortunately. But I I know it was
1:09:4712 and 15s. But yeah, I've I never
1:09:50looked. So, uh I just put the mic in
1:09:52front, so I I saw the cardboard, not the
1:09:55speaker. All right. May I also ask
1:09:58another question about Yeah, sure. Uh
1:10:01can you recall to uh Cliff using the SP
1:10:051000 base uh in one of the songs? uh the
1:10:09SP100 being the one with the uh the dye
1:10:11inlays and his black and gold was the
1:10:14one with the eye inlays.
1:10:18I think he did. Yeah. Which I'm actually
1:10:22I can't remember. No, but I'm pretty
1:10:25sure we we did
1:10:28use most of
1:10:31those bases,
1:10:35right? So, uh, and I'm pretty sure we
1:10:38swap and we tried, I mean,
1:10:41um, I think every time we needed to do a
1:10:44base, we would simply try them both or
1:10:47or try what we
1:10:49had.
1:10:51So, that's it. If those were the
1:10:54questions, uh, we have a couple of
1:10:58announcements, if you will.
1:11:01And so the first one I'm going to share
1:11:03this with you and uh this thing will
1:11:07come with the master class uh soon. So
1:11:11this is uh the justice drum sample pack
1:11:16which we uh recorded in Sweet Silent
1:11:19Studios with the drum kit that you saw
1:11:22during the master class. So that's an
1:11:26extra that you can use, an extra tool
1:11:28that you can use during your uh
1:11:31recording sessions and you know creating
1:11:33or thickening up your own sound.
1:11:37Yay, people like that.
1:11:41So
1:11:42yeah, uh I'd like to uh ask uh couple of
1:11:46you guys like uh what is your experience
1:11:50so far with the master class? if you
1:11:51could tell in a couple of words or Yeah,
1:11:54we like criticism combined. Yeah. Yeah.
1:11:56Yeah. Go ahead. I have yet to dive in,
1:11:59but I I checked out, you know, uh the
1:12:02band playing and I would say it sounded
1:12:04very close to the original. Uh so, so I
1:12:07know that it's a good class. I'm
1:12:08definitely going to check it out. Good.
1:12:10Thanks. Hello, my name is Mel and I live
1:12:12in Australia. I watched the ride the
1:12:15lightning videos from start to finish
1:12:17and overall they were a really good
1:12:19lesson and just getting um Fleming's
1:12:22experiences and what they did back then
1:12:24has really helped cuz I'm putting
1:12:26together a small professional studio in
1:12:28my house. So, it's good to get those
1:12:31ideas and sort of lessons and yeah, it
1:12:33sounds really really close to what they
1:12:36the album sound like and yeah, it's been
1:12:39pretty good. I've yet to watch the
1:12:41master puppets and the Justice for All
1:12:44albums yet, but the Rather lightning one
1:12:46has been really really fun. Thanks.
1:12:48Cool. Thanks. It was really fun to see
1:12:52you using the original microphones.
1:12:58Yeah, all the multi multicolored ones.
1:13:00And uh it was a blast to see just how
1:13:03you aimed the at the beers and stuff,
1:13:06you know, with the with the AKGs, the
1:13:08one 112s.
1:13:13Good. It's a blast for us nerds to see
1:13:15that. Yeah.
1:13:20Yeah. We discussed the Danmar patch
1:13:22today.
1:13:23Yeah. Oh, we got a message right
1:13:27now. The whole thing. I love seeing all
1:13:30the playing mess ups. Yeah, there are
1:13:33lots of mess ups. That's you, Zach.
1:13:36Yeah, that that was me. I was
1:13:39there a bunch of them. Yeah.
1:13:42Yeah. As we would expect from real
1:13:44people. Yeah. When you hear a Finnish
1:13:46and polished album, you forget what all
1:13:48can go into it. Yeah, I agree.
1:13:51Absolutely. There are lots of mess ups,
1:13:54but that's part of it.
1:13:57Yeah, I can tell you that for sure.
1:14:00Especially about the solo. It's a lot of
1:14:03mess
1:14:05ups. Will there be any more of these
1:14:07webinars in the future? I I never
1:14:10thought about that, but um since it's
1:14:13been so wellreceived, it might it
1:14:15actually might be. Um we'll see. I'll
1:14:20come more prepared if there's going to
1:14:21be another one.
1:14:24That's fine.
1:14:25Oh yeah, this thing.
1:14:28Yeah, for the webinar. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
1:14:30I mean, uh I'm pretty sure I mean I mean
1:14:34I'm pretty sure we're going to do this
1:14:36again in a month or two. Excellent.
1:14:40Cool.
1:14:41Yeah, I loved all the content. It was
1:14:43amazing. It's behind the scenes and
1:14:46seeing the whole recording phase and and
1:14:50the mixing phase as well. I do love the
1:14:52mixing phase a lot. I get um recordings
1:14:55from other studios and sometimes I just
1:14:58have to deal with what they give me. Um
1:15:00so I would love to see more of your
1:15:02mixing technique. Okay. That would be
1:15:04amazing to see. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to
1:15:08see more of your mastering techniques as
1:15:09well.
1:15:11Now we're now we're talking secrets
1:15:13here.
1:15:15That's right.
1:15:18No. I I just stick it into an AI and
1:15:20then that's it. No. No. Uh that actually
1:15:24involves that's one of the few times
1:15:26where I actually uh go out of the box
1:15:29again because because all my mastering
1:15:33goes through uh some of my uh output
1:15:37amongst other than ne compressor. So ne
1:15:40compressors and two vqs are very
1:15:42important for my mastering part.
1:15:45All right. So yeah and that it's a
1:15:48pretty long chain. I I I limit and
1:15:53compress a little bit in a lot of
1:15:56different compressors and and
1:15:59limiters. I don't want one just to go
1:16:01all the way buff. So, they all do a
1:16:03little
1:16:05bit and it's a painstaking process, but
1:16:08it does sound pretty good
1:16:12in I have a question regarding um
1:16:15watching the master class mostly when
1:16:17doing guitars and bass mostly guitars.
1:16:19I'll see after you do a take, it almost
1:16:21seems like you move the take back just a
1:16:24split second sometimes. Yeah, that's
1:16:26right. That's because uh I don't know
1:16:29why that it does that. It might be
1:16:31because we're using uh um what's it
1:16:36called? Uh plugins on the
1:16:38recording. It's very strange. And
1:16:41because I I noticed that they weren't in
1:16:44sync for some reason. I don't know what
1:16:46the [ __ ] was going on there. And I have
1:16:49since then changed my computer. So it
1:16:51could be that. But that is just to get
1:16:54it in time.
1:16:56Yeah, I have I have to do kind of the
1:16:58same thing. I think it for me at least
1:17:00it's because with uh like plugins or
1:17:02whatever, there's latency. So then when
1:17:04I'm like playing with what I hear, then
1:17:07I'm going to be like slightly behind. So
1:17:09then I have to myself. Yeah. Yeah. It
1:17:13was very strange. I don't know why. I
1:17:15actually measured it out at one point to
1:17:17a certain amount of samples and I just
1:17:18had that set. I just hit the plus button
1:17:21and it would be there.
1:17:23May I ask? Yeah. Do you remember
1:17:25anything about the recordings of the
1:17:28Prince was a cover?
1:17:32Yes. And the funny thing about that is
1:17:36that the prince was recorded
1:17:40on Injustice with my
1:17:45clink. And I don't know whether it
1:17:48actually made any besides it was also
1:17:51recorded by me on the master puppet
1:17:55session. That's right. And it might also
1:17:58have been recorded by me on the ride the
1:18:01lightning session, but I can't remember.
1:18:04But it was just one of those songs that
1:18:06they tried they love so much and every
1:18:09time we tried recording it, it just came
1:18:11out really really
1:18:14boring. So maybe the song wasn't that
1:18:17good anyway. I don't know what why that
1:18:19was. But I for sure know Mike Clink did
1:18:22a version of it on um and there's a
1:18:25rough mix on on the box set and it
1:18:29sounds absolutely
1:18:31horrible. It's it's it's it sounds so
1:18:35not Metallica that it's it's kind of
1:18:38it's it's a bit like a motorcycle in the
1:18:41Three Musketeers. It's really out of
1:18:44place. So yeah. Um,
1:18:48and we never finished it on Master of
1:18:51Puppets cuz we didn't like it. And then
1:18:53they tried again on Injustice for All.
1:18:56And I never finished it. They might have
1:19:00finished it afterwards after I left for
1:19:03home. But um, because has it ever been
1:19:06out?
1:19:09Uh there's
1:19:10a as for the master puppets version with
1:19:14uh Cliff uh there is a rough mix and
1:19:17also Yeah, that's the one I have as
1:19:19well. Yeah. And there's also a drum room
1:19:22recording I believe. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
1:19:25Which is just the drums more or less or
1:19:27maybe that's them rehearsing it. Yeah.
1:19:30Rehearsing it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
1:19:32Okay. Strange.
1:19:35Yeah. I mean,
1:19:36it's and the reason why we started doing
1:19:39cover songs, if people don't know that
1:19:42is that that that was a thing we did on
1:19:45all three albums I did with the band um
1:19:49was that we always started doing two
1:19:51cover songs. So, we had B sides for
1:19:53singles and also because it takes a
1:19:57while for a a band that size with that
1:20:00much gear to set everything up, make
1:20:03sure everything sounds good and we have
1:20:04all the right sounds. So, instead of
1:20:07doing that on your own favorite songs
1:20:09for the new album, we do it on cover
1:20:11songs. So, if there's any fuckups, it
1:20:13doesn't affect the album as much because
1:20:16these were basically meant to be bides.
1:20:18So, it's basically to fine-tune the
1:20:21sound of a band that we did these two
1:20:25B-side songs and
1:20:27and for master of puppets, it was uh it
1:20:31was the prince and what was the other
1:20:35one? Uh, justice were Brett Fan and the
1:20:40prince. Master of puppets
1:20:43was money.
1:20:46Money, money will roll back in and the
1:20:50prince and I wonder what the [ __ ] we did
1:20:52for ride. I can see that on
1:20:54the but yeah, my notes aren't right here
1:20:58right now. Is that to scoop mids? Add
1:21:01more B. Yeah, it's uh there's someone
1:21:04asking here. Let me just Okay, let me
1:21:08just find these.
1:21:11So if you look at the BNB audio
1:21:16drawings the top from the
1:21:21top the uh the two dots to the
1:21:27left they're either round or full out
1:21:30black. If they're full out black means
1:21:32they're punched in. If they're round
1:21:35means they're punched out.
1:21:38The top one is plus or minus. When it's
1:21:42black, it's plus. When it's round, it's
1:21:46minus. The one beneath that on the top
1:21:49frequency is a sharp. When it's punched
1:21:53out, that is round and it's shelving
1:21:57when it's pushed in. So, if you look at
1:21:59master of
1:22:01puppets, which one is that? Leper
1:22:03Messiah guitar EQ.
1:22:08They're both pushed in. That means it's
1:22:10plus and it is uh
1:22:16shelving. Then there is one uh the outer
1:22:20one is a
1:22:22frequency and it goes from 1k to
1:22:2720k and it say the number it says there
1:22:30is probably about 4 something.
1:22:334.6 means it's on 4.6.
1:22:376k and the one in the middle of that
1:22:40bigger ring to the right is is
1:22:44uh is the volume control. So if it's all
1:22:48the way to the left it's zero. If it's
1:22:51all the if it's a 12:00 it's plus six or
1:22:55minus 6 depending on what the top bottom
1:22:58is whether it's plus or minus.
1:23:01And if it's all the way to the right,
1:23:05it's + 12 or minus 12. So the strange
1:23:09thing about this EQ is it's either plus
1:23:11or minus. And that top bottom explains
1:23:15whether or not it's plus or minus. So
1:23:19the next one, as you can see, uh on uh
1:23:24Lepa Messiah is a round ring. That means
1:23:27it's minus and it's minus about six or
1:23:30seven. And that's also our frequency. It
1:23:33goes from uh 250 htz to 5k and it's
1:23:37about
1:23:391.2 K on this and it's minus 7. Two more
1:23:46at the bottom. It's uh again the top one
1:23:52plus minus. If it's round it's minus. If
1:23:55it's solid black it's plus. It goes from
1:23:5925 to 500 htz. So that 120 is 120 htz.
1:24:05The other marker is when it 240 htz. So
1:24:08it's between those two. And then the one
1:24:10in the middle is still a plus minus.
1:24:14It's it's it's it when it's totally left
1:24:17it's uh zero. When it's 12:00 it's six.
1:24:21And then the the the button to the left
1:24:24of it whether it's round it's minus. If
1:24:26it's punched in, it's
1:24:28plus. And then the one below that is EQ
1:24:33in out. So if it's
1:24:36uh if it's all black, it's because
1:24:41it's it's in. And then it says no
1:24:44filters. There's a uh a filter that goes
1:24:48from uh what's this? 20 to 400 htz. and
1:24:54it goes from 20K to
1:24:582K. And that's basically it. That should
1:25:00explain
1:25:02it.
1:25:05So, I guess that should do it, right,
1:25:08guys? I'm going to go home to my wife,
1:25:11go to sleep, have a session tomorrow.
1:25:14Thank you so much, Fine. Yeah, you're
1:25:16welcome. Thank you. It was a pleasure.
1:25:19Thank you, Le. That was amazing.
1:25:23I'll see you guys. Thanks so much. That
1:25:25was great. Thanks.
1:25:29So, I'm
1:25:31off. I'll see you.
1:25:34Yeah. Thank you guys. See you.

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