New Metallica album recorded to tape, no ProTools

According to allmusic.com, it's...wait for it...

VLADO MELLER!

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47818D947AE7120D69D3D46C8B07CF00BDF63E38F162F451BDFBA3C549F0C72E853F78684FDFD6AB67EB0FD2EA45D43D6C0EA50F6DE6F2D5DF0&sql=10:wzfyxqealdte~T2

 

Bitchin

 

Dylan would disagree with you about that

 

You are correct, Vlado Meller at Sony Studios.

 

Which part would he disagree with?

 

The band is recording at Sound City in L.A. Kirk Hammett says the new material fits the niche between ...And Justice For All and The Black Album.

 

Sorry, should have posted the Dylan quote from when Modern Times was released last year:

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/st...egend_comes_to_grips_with_his_iconic_status/2

 

Well, Bob may certainly be right about the majority of other people's records. I'll just have to doubt him that MT "probably sounded ten times better in the studio" (perhaps). But to my ears, that's a fine sounding, dynamic, open, 3 dimensional recording. Certainly one of, if not THE best sounding Dylan albums. And not an inch of tape.

 

Really? Not to my ears. Notice, like everyone else, you are implying that analog tape is better but that digital can somehow be made to sound "just as good". It's always the same thing over and over again. "Digital is just as good". No it is not just as good. It sounds like crap.

 

...but why go through that good kind of pain only to "Smash" it in mastering?

It seems to me more likely that they don't want another St. Anger fiasco; and are going the extra mile to prevent it from happening.

 

Wasnt it Bob and Lars ?

 

Well, that either means the new album will have long, sterile songs or short songs with great riffs.

 

Yeah those two had their hands in everything

According to interviews, songs are pretty long. I think they wrote 20, did basic recording for 14, and will put 10-11 on the album.

 

So when is it coming?

(Just *had* to ask tee-hee)

 

Normally I don't like feeding trolls, but if this one wants to hear a different opinion, rather than "digital is just as good"... *ahem*

It is my opinion that today's digital recordings are the best recordings ever made, that digital done correctly is always technically, if not necessarily audibly, superior to any analog, and that putting up with vinyl is a necessary evil in order to hear superior mastering.

As with everything, YMMV.

 

I don't care how they record it I just want a Metallica album that doesn't suck! St. Anger was horrible.

I got exposed to Metallica with Kill Em' All and loved everything up to And Justice For All. The Black Album is where they started to change direction that I didn't care for as much.

I'll admit that I liked Load also. I don't know what they did different in the recording studio with Load compared to the Black Album but Load was a big improvement in SQ to me. The Black Album is just bright and thin sounding to me. Now if they can combine the song writing and energy of the early albums with the sound quality of Load I'd be a happy camper.

 

Somebody mentioned hoping for a vinyl release...

Off-topic, but what would it be mastered from? It's being recorded on tape, but you all are saying that it's most likely going to be dropped into the digital realm. Does that matter, for the purposes of vinyl mastering?
Steve and Kevin mastered Stadium Arcadium for vinyl--was that recorded on tape? I know in the past, By the Way--recorded on tape but Anthony's vocals digitally. So what does Steve work with?

 

Steve works with tape.
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=1787760&postcount=1

 

Yeah, with SA in particular, I don't think it was ever dropped into the digital realm for the vinyl. They mixed with tape, not pro tools, or at least so I've been lead to believe.

 

that's what I figured. So a Steve/Kevin vinyl of Metallica's new record is probably off the radar.
With Rubin producing, I wonder if Andy Wallace will mix.

 

Is that a common tandem? Have Rubin and Wallace worked together before?

 

Oh yeah--Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, every System of a Down record.

 

I really hope Rick Rubin can do something miraculous with these guys, otherwise it'a going to surely be a waste of good tape.

 

Rick is a real music guy. I don't mean sonically, but in the sense that he knows how to arrange songs and make them work. He's an old style producer in my book.....like Spector/Martin/Scott.

 

He can usually pull good things out of people. Didn't work for Slipknot. Works for Red Hot Chili Peppers, but maybe it's more them than him.