Maelstrom: Did you ever re-do the Frankenstein cab experiment?
Colin Richardson: Never again.
Maelstrom: Thats funny. People love the sound of Heartworks guitars.
Colin Richardson: Marshalls dont have massive amounts of lows when compared to a Mesa-Boogie. We came up with that [cab] out of desperation. We had about six heads to try, and finally we thought if we had a cab twice as big, wed have more low end.
Maelstrom: I wonder what Frankenstein cab would do for a bass guitar.
Colin Richardson: Maybe Ill try that! I was just thinking it would be different as guitar speakers are often 10", but Ampeg has 10" speakers in bass cabs... Maybe a 5150 into a bass cab... Its true that people compartmentalize things, like, thats for the bass guitar, we dont want to use that. And bass is the forgotten instrument in metal. Its a shame, isnt it. And personally, I dont use cabs so much with bass I go DI and a rack Sans Amp for bass. I find that gives me the distortion I want and I mix that with the DI. I havent used a cab for three or four years. I mean, if the guy has an amazing rig, Ill mic it up, but its remarkable how if you split the signal, you use a DI and whack it into a Sans Amp and overdrive it there, it seems more in-your-face than using a cab, which feels a bit far away. When you have wall-of-sound guitars, you want the bass up front.
Of course, there was none of this in the old Carcass days. Sans Amp wasnt around and re-amping didnt exist. It was all onto 2" tape.
Maelstrom: How many tracks of guitars did you do on Heartwork?
Colin Richardson: Four. Two per guitarist. And it wasnt like these days, where, like for the Bullet for My Valentine, I did two tracks with the 6505, and two with a Bogner Ruby Shell. On Carcass, it was four tracks of the 5150... the only good guitar head we could find! Hahaha.
Maelstrom: What distinguished the individual guitarists sound? Did their guitars make the difference?
Colin Richardson: On that record, Bill Steer played all the rhythms. Mike Amott had only been in the band about three months...
Maelstrom: What? But, hes on Necroticism.
Colin Richardson: Im not sure...
Maelstrom: I think he is.
Colin Richardson: Check that one out. I dont remember... maybe Mike played some solos. I remember Bill playing all the rhythms and Mike playing the solos. But I remember Necroticism being a three-piece and Mike coming in when they were writing and doing pre-production for Heartwork.
Maelstrom: If you give me ten seconds, Ill go get my Carcass records.
Colin Richardson: Fire away. Two dollar bet its a three-piece.
Maelstrom: Nope. Here it is: Necroticism Mike Amott: guitar, additional vocals.
Colin Richardson: Oh, I lost two dollars. Wha? Ok, this is my take on this: remember, this is like 14 years ago. Was it 92 or 93?
Maelstrom: Well, 93 was when Heartwork came out. Necroticism was released in 92.
Colin Richardson: Maybe Bill played everything on Necroticism and Mike got some credit as he just joined the band. But I definitely remember Bill playing all the rhythms on Heartwork, and when Mike came to play the solos, I remember thinking, wow! I wonder what hes like on rhythm? Bills rhythms were played all out of the same rig, and panned two right, two left.
Maelstrom: Please tell us how you recorded the drums.
Colin Richardson: Those were recorded in Liverpool, which was convenient because the band was from there and only had a 10-15 minute journey into the studio. Off the main room, there were some iso-booths. There was a dead one, a medium dead one, and one we called the cave. It was about 12'x15', and it was total stone with a marble floor. A lot of the ambience on that record are the drums with a dry sound in the middle of a stone room that was left open.
I dont remember anything unusual about the miking. Standard stuff: SM57s, 421s on the toms... We did use the Bob Rock, two kick drum trick. There was maybe a trigger on the kick drum in the mix, but the snare and toms were natural. The thing I remember most about the drums and what the band would always complain about was that Ken, the drummer, couldnt play to a click track. We tried it, and hed veer off all over the place. His timing was a little roller-coaster, so Bill was always chasing the drums when he was tracking, and eventually he worked out a system of premonition when Ken was going to speed up or slow down. We really wanted to use a click track on all the Carcasses, and with each album, wed hope that Ken had gotten better, but he was so out of time that it was better to go without a click. Ken was following Bills natural metering, and Ken would record to Bills scratch track. But if a drummer doesnt have great metering, hell often push the guitar player along.
Maelstrom: Carcass had those really particular vocals. How did you approach mixing those?
Colin Richardson: Before I get into how I did that, I remember a lyrical change from Necroticism and Symphonies of Sickness, where it was all medical terminologies; on Heartwork, theres a song called No Love Lost, and I remember asking Jeff what medical dictionary that came from. But I think we used a Neumann U67 for the vocals with compression pretty standard as youd use on any metal or rock singer. I had done three Carcass albums by then, so I thought it was best not to put too many effects on it a little bit of delay, chorus, and reverb, and try to keep it as dry and up front as possible. Back then, I was still figuring out how to mix vocals, and I thought that it would be more timeless if the vocals were kept dry; that it might sound joke-y if there was a ton of soup on it.
Maelstrom: Now I have to hear how you recorded Andy Whale. Hes one of my favorite drummers. He influenced a great deal of metal drummers. Well all agree hes far from being the most technically proficient drummer...
Colin Richardson: ...yeah, hes got about three or four beats.
Maelstrom: Right, but theyre SO heavy and SO great. I love his playing. He had a specific sound when he was recording with you. Can you remember what his kit was like, and what it was like recording him?
Colin Richardson: For Victory was tracked in the same drum room as Heartwork, and I remember the Bolt Thrower guys saying they really loved the Heartwork drum sound, and that they wanted something like that. We then did all the overdubs at a studio you had to get to by boat Sawmill Studios. They had a Trident board. It wasnt dissimilar. I remember Andy Whale not hitting as hard as the Carcass drummer. Andy would play very simply, with like a Slayer beat on the ride, and the cymbals were quite sparing on a lot of his patterns. If you could get the drums during sound check to sound good for Bolt Throwers slow beat, their Slayer beat, and their punk beat, then you were pretty much guaranteed to get a good sound.
Bolt Thrower was all about the guitars, the guitars, and Id almost be fighting to turn the drums up.
Maelstrom: Did you ever work with Mick Harris of Napalm Death?
Colin Richardson: I remember him being a complete live wire and wondering what he was on. If he was on happy pills, could I have some of them, please? I remember that, even though he was the drummer, he seemed like the leader of the band. Napalm Deaths <Mentally Murdered> was the first metal thing Id recorded in my life. The blast beats were a bit of a trip, really. I told myself I either love this or I hate it, and after two hours, I made the decision that I loved it. It was literally shocking that a drummer could play at that speed, and at times I wondered if those guys knew what they were doing. They had really primitive, beat-up, shitty equipment. And then theyd tell me they were on the John Peel show and they had a documentary about them on BBC2. For a band playing that style of music, I was impressed by how much of a buzz they had. Thats what turned me on to the whole scene. I started doing research and finding out as much as I could about grindcore and death metal. This was in its infancy, 88 or 89.
I think it was Mick Harris who had chosen Slaughterhouse Studios. He had heard something I had done before.
Maelstrom: What had you done before?
Colin Richardson: I had done bands like The Sisters of Mercy and the Happy Mondays. I was happy to record any band as I felt I was learning as I went along. Nowadays, I can pick who to work with.
Maelstrom: Congratulations on your two Grammy nominations! You have one for As I Lay Dying and one for Machine Head. Before we continue in this positive vein, I have to say it blows me away in a negative way that King Diamonds new record has a song nominated.
Colin Richardson: I havent heard it.
Maelstrom: The record is so flat.
Colin Richardson: I wonder why King Diamond got nominated.
Maelstrom: Its really weird (and random).
Colin Richardson: He was on the 25th anniversary of Roadrunner Records album. He was on two of those tracks. I guess that got good publicity. But if you say his new album is flat, I could think of a few other albums...
Maelstrom: I mean, its clear. The record (Take My Soul... Please) is clear, but it has no power or heaviness. I know from the man himself that hes recorded the last couple albums at home and goes direct with a POD for his guitar tone.
Colin Richardson: Its almost the ultimate insult to say about the record, isnt it? If its true, its well deserved. If you say the record is not heavy and by nature, heavy metal should be powerful and have a really good bottom end.
Do you think [his nomination] is because hes been around since 1983?
Maelstrom: I wouldnt think people would care about King Diamond. I mean, I like King Diamonds music I like his classic records from the mid to late-80s. But his selection is deeply odd to me. It makes me wonder again how the Grammys pick whom they do, and why. I remember one year Jethro Tull was nominated for best metal album.
Colin Richardson: Jethro Tull. Sure, if they went into the folk rock section.
Maelstrom: Anyway, I dont mean to dwell on this.
Colin Richardson: Its a very good question. The Grammys are based in LA. Does the artist have to be American?
Maelstrom: I dont know. I do know the Grammys dont give a shit about metal. I had a friend that worked for them, and I know that no one cares about the music or knows anything about it.
Colin Richardson: Whos making the decision, then?
Maelstrom: I remember a few years back, when Rolling Stone magazine was all into Soilent Green. And Soilent Green is a perfectly good band, but for some reason Rolling Stone decided that Soilent Green was THE metal band, and talked about them in hyperbole like Iron Maiden is talked about. Its like Mastodon. Someone high up decided that Mastodon was the best band ever. I dont know why. To me, there are tons of metal bands more interesting than Mastodon.
Colin Richardson: Magazines can make or break you. Over here, its terrible with Kerrang! We love to build people up and then knock them down in the UK, more so than any other country in the tabloid press. Even though Im British, I never really understood this aspect of the culture too well.
Maelstrom: What I think is great about your nominations is how youre getting the exposure from these Grammy nominations. Two songs out of five nominations are yours. And these are American Grammys, not like the Norwegian Grammys...
Colin Richardson: I got a text on my cell yesterday from Rob Flynn, saying woo, we got nominated and I cant believe it! So I checked the Internet, and As I Lay Dying is on there, too! So Ive almost got a 50% chance of winning something! Hahaha! There might have been a time when I wouldnt have wanted to shout about winning a Grammy, but now I think Grammy-winning producer would sound pretty good.
Maelstrom: Lets talk about your recording of Machine Heads The Blackening and As I Lay Dyings An Ocean Between Us.
Colin Richardson: Well, I can cut out half the answer youre anticipating because I only mixed both those records. Adam D from Killswitch Engage produced the As I Lay Dying. Rob Flynn produced The Blackening, which was recorded at a studio out in the Bay Area called Sharkbite. I mixed both albums on a Neve VR board.
Maelstrom: Sounds like you are fond of that board.
Colin Richardson: I used to be an SSL guy for a long time; either an E or a G series. Ill do half the session in Pro Tools (EQing, compression, and effects) and half on the board I havent wanted to give up the analog board... I think its got a sound that fattens things up. Once youve used Pro Tools, though, you cant go back. I have a pair of Genelec 1031 monitors that I own and take with me wherever I work.
The Blackening was mixed at the Strongroom in London, and the As I Lay Dying was mixed at Miloco Studios, also in London, both mixed on 60-channel Neve VRs. I feel its going really well mixing the old school techniques with the analog board with Pro Tools for the interface. I use a bit of outboard SSL compressor across the whole mix, and a Massenberg 8200 EQ on the guitars. Ive used that one since Heartwork. That might be my secret weapon.
Maelstrom: What do you like about that piece of equipment?
Colin Richardson: Its so powerful. If Im mixing something someone else has tracked, and I think the guitars are a bit thin in the low end, its good to dig in there and put 6-7dB at around 1,800Hz. Its a precision mastering EQ; you can pretty much find anything on there its got five bands on it. Ill mix that with the board EQ.
Maelstrom: It doesnt seem to bother you to accept projects that you dont do from start to finish. I know that drives a lot of engineers up the wall.
Colin Richardson: Ive only tracked about three things in the last two years. I find that I get a little precious with my own recordings. For example, Ill really like the sound of something and overdo tweaking it, or identify something as a problem sound that really isnt one, and pick at it. But when its someone elses recording, its easy to hone in straight away.
I get a lot of sessions for Roadrunner. They feel Im the guy who can hit the home run and fix things. Ive gotten a few problem mixes from Roadrunner. Take the Daath album as an example: It had been recorded as a demo, and then the band got signed, so the demo was all of a sudden going out as the album. I couldnt deal with the guitar sounds and I didnt have a rig when I got them at Strongroom studios, about a month before I worked on The Blackening. So I called Andy [Sneap] up and told him I was in some trouble, so he offered to re-amp the guitars if I sent him the DI signals. I think he put two of the signals through a 5150, and the other two through a Krankenstein.
I trust Andy. I think hes the only person that I could trust 100% to get some great sounds out of guitars I sent through the Internet.
Maelstrom: Right. Look what he did for Nevermores Enemies of Reality.
Colin Richardson: Right. And since [Daaths The Hinderers] was a demo, some of the guitar playing was a little scratchy... by the way, he also re-amped the As I Lay Dying guitars... I think he went through a Randall on that. Andy and I are kind of rivals, but were also best buddies.
I think its cool that two British guys are getting a lot of American bands to work on. Im going to be mixing the next Slipknot record. I think thatll be the biggest project so far.
Maelstrom: How did you approach mixing Machine Head and As I Lay Dying to make them distinct and specific to the bands?
Colin Richardson: Robb from Machine Head has a very specific idea of what he wants, and he knows that I know what he wants, so he lets me do my thing. I knew he wanted a sound similar to Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change. He wanted the drums and guitars to have the same vibe... I was determined to get the bass a bit louder. There are so many records and Ive been guilty of this in the past of putting the bass in there and six months later you notice you cant hear the damn thing.
We replaced the kick drum with two samples out of the six or so samples I have that I rotate through from project to project. It didnt get any compression. I used the original snare and a sampled snare, both of which went through a DBX 160x compressor. I put the overheads through a 165 Stereo DBX compressor. I also put the drums through a Chandler limiter. Its been out three years... something Abbey Road re-issued. Ive also got some extra compressors going on in Pro Tools... the ones that came with the original software. We had an SSL plug-in. We used a Sony Oxford plug-in on the guitars along with the Massenberg 8200. The bass went through some Poltech EP1 EQs. The vocals were all Pro-Tools plug-ins. I used the 1176 Bomb Factory and the Lo-Fi to put some overdrive on it. I usually put a bit of Harmonizer from H3000 on Rob. I used a Lexicon PCM42 at about 250ms delay. The long delays were created in Pro Tools, either by Line 6 or Digidesign.
In contrast, it was my first time working with As I Lay Dying. I quite liked the sound of their previous album that Andy did. I didnt get any directive with the album the band was on tour and the first time I spoke to them was a week into the project and I maybe mixed two songs. I think they assumed Id re-amp the guitars; they didnt like the guitars they had tracked. Although the guitars were a little muddy, I worked with them, so when the band heard the mixes, they asked what amp I had used for the re-amp. We could have saved a week of time if I had known to re-amp from the beginning.
The gear for the As I Lay Dying wasnt too much different than on Machine Head. One different thing was the 2-bus SSL stereo compressor. Ill either compress to 2:1 or 4:1 with a really fast release and a slow attack.
I never compress the rhythm guitars. I like them to breathe. If you want the low end sound the sound of heavy metal you need to leave it open. Besides, when I put the whole thing through the SSL, the 2-bus will put compression on everything, and thats touching on the guitars, as well as everything else. Ill compress a guitar solo like Ill compress a lead vocal.
Maelstrom: What do you like about the Neve VR?
Colin Richardson: Ive always liked the shiny sound of metal and its posh top end. The Neve sounds shinier and cleaner than the SSL consoles. The EQ tends to be softer sounding. I like the cleanness of the board; its laid out logically. I noticed when I switched from the SSL board to a Neve VR that people commented on my mixes being better.
Maelstrom: Whos your favorite mastering engineer?
Colin Richardson: Im into Ted Jensen. I dont trust any British engineer to master metal.