Behind The Recording of "The Black Album'-Metallica

[@redghettosun]

This record took a year to record and cost a million dollars and it sounds like it lol. Back in 91 that was a nutty amount for any band, much less for a supposed "thrash" band when metal was out of favor. Lucky for Metallica, Bob Rock was a genius.

[@alexanderthesk8]

The ROI is easily heard when you compare their previous work, ...And Justice in particular. This is peak Metallica. Looking back you can tell that Jason was hurt and being stifled while the other guys tried to hide their pain with success and excess.

[@burninggiraffe6615]

Yeah these days are long gone

[@MichaelKing-p1o]

@@alexanderthesk8 the first 4 metallica albums were killer after that they sold out and became despicable

[@alexanderthesk8]

@@MichaelKing-p1o I mostly agree. I do like the music they made through the 90s, but you're absolutely correct about them as people. They really became the opposite of my hereos as time as continued. Cant stand them after the Jason thing.

[@MichaelKing-p1o]

@@alexanderthesk8 dude anything after ...and justice for all SUCKED they became COMPLETE hypocrites

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

I wish “And Justice” had the same production as this album.

[@beefcake0354]

Actually I wouldn't mind at all if AJFA sounded like Ride the Lightning 😄

[@nicramtimzs6245]

What a gem of a yt channel!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you! 😃

[@LD-ei8cj]

This album is not just one of the best evrr made, it's one of the best enginered sonicly before modern technology, still analog, and the final result is a masterpice that no other band will ever match. It was a magic time that won't ever happen again. A true classic. What a time in music history. Nothing since has come close. What a monster!

[@Highrollinhunter]

This album is still absolutely great sounding to this day the guitar tone is heavy but yet clear sounding and not muddy unlike AJFA

[@Harrysound]

Bob and Metallica should reunite next time round

[@adamstephenson7518]

I remember watching "a year and half of Metallica" pt 1 & 2 over and over as a kid. They were SO popular then.. great video 🤙😎 love these

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you! Me too, I loved that documentary, very inspirational!

[@mustachemahoney2981]

Me too. I found it on dvd recently.

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

My buddy had it on VHS and we watched it at least once a week. We were absolutely obsessed with Metallica back then.

[@SniffHeinkel]

I own the DVD.

[@redstrat5976]

Loved this video as an aspiring audio engineer, this is great

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you!

[@djvoid1]

Still such an amazing sounding album, absolutely lush

[@-marino2782]

This is one of the best produced albums of all time. Bob Rock was perfect on this album. F**kin drums sound awesome. Album is produced and mixed perfect. Bad ass

[@justinerb3669]

Id love to see you do this with a Queensryche album!

[@edwardpotter2696]

Love your videos, you always manage to talk about bands and albums I want to know about

[@elroyblackbean]

Very comprehensive. Nicely done.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you!

[@nikdrown]

I don’t care what anyone says. This album was good top to bottom and the production is top notch. A standard to behold. Brilliant. Anyone who isn’t about minimum mics on drums should take from the rear room mic technique. I have and just about always since adding it not so much as room but OH’s more get a dimension on your cymbals that don’t get crushed or lost and can sit on any built tracks song with depth and dimension.

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

I too like a rear room mics behind the kit. Usually a pair though and the position changes slightly depending on the room and where the kit is in the room. If it's a bigger room with a good amount of space behind the kit, I put up a pair of large diaphragm condensers and set them up fairly low, about the height of the snare and floor tom, facing the kit and about the same width apart as the kit is wide. If it's a smaller room and/or there is less space behind the kit, I switch to ribbon mics and bring them closer to the kit raise them up to the height of the cymbals, still facing the kit. They do different jobs in those two situations but both are equally useable.

[@MichaelKing-p1o]

youre too young to know any better

[@matcoffidis1135]

Its a great sounding album. I love the layered vocals.

[@jake13b]

the Black Album. the last album where producers said, "NO that sucks, you need to change that." Also, the last album by Metallica worth listening to. The friend of Genius is a friend in deed.

[@Luke_22]

Idk man Load is pretty solid

[@markfabricius1361]

First!! Love this album, great video!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you!

[@steven_uk]

Another great video. Well done! Keep them coming.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you!

[@3iopen]

I remember the day this came out, I was young but already a huge fan of all their older classic 80's records...At the time "I just didn't get it at all". I even sold my copy on CD to a friend in early High School. 20 plus years later I finally "got it" and I bought it again lol! And I love songs like "The God that Failed" "Sad but True" and "My Friend of Misery"

[@redghettosun]

I pretty much had the same reaction and for the most part, nothing's really changed. I've always thought Sad But True and Enter Sandman were great songs that was served well by the Bob Rock production. The rest of the material sounds better in their demos.

[@3iopen]

@@redghettosun Totally agree with you on that, Bob Rocks production and guidance put an already huge band into the Stratosphere. Funny enough somehow 3 of my Metallica cassette singles from the Black album era survived all these years. The B-side/Cover songs to Enter Sandman, Unforgiven, and Sad But True were. Stone Cold Crazy, Killing Time and So What...I to liked their Demos and Covers like the "Garage Days The 5.98 EP" . I skipped over the whole Load Re-Load era, I never paid attention or bought another record until Hard Wired to Self Destruct.

[@redghettosun]

@@3iopen If they had put all their best songs on Load and Reload into just one disc, it would have been a decent record. All my original cassette tapes and singles are gone due to bouts of poverty lol. I didn't buy another record until I took a chance on St. Anger. Again, great production on Bob's side but sorely lacking in song quality. Sounded like James was on a stoner metal phase. In which case, Pepper Keenan would have been a better addition instead of Robert Trujillo.

[@Bjornus]

Pls do (Re)Load behind the scenes

[@nimitz1739]

4:12 In that photo all the knobs are not set to the numbers marked above.🧐😂

[@ethanbarc]

Very good 😊

[@Mefiozaur]

OK, so let's open that kick drum thread. Was there a coin used? How exactly?

[@dougchampion8084]

The mindblowing aspect of this is that NO ONE has actually heard the full resolution version of this. Every copy that's ever existed is just a bit for bit DAT dump.

[@Bob_Jones123]

I'm having trouble believing that part of the video. They spent millions on the album. If the analog 2-track masters had issues, they would simply go back and create new ones. DAT quality wasn't great in my opinion unless they used some killer outboard A/D converters in conjunction with the DAT recorder. They wouldn't simply compromise the album after putting so much into it!

[@dougchampion8084]

@@Bob_Jones123 I remember there was some kind of audible MIDI track issue, like a click (but not a click track, I can't recall), I'd have to dig back through as this video isn't the first time it's mentioned... the implications are profound, would be interesting for someone to do a deep dive on this

[@alienautopsy9326]

That’s a good point. If there is a 1/2 inch stereo final master tape before they went to DAT , that would indeed be the highest fidelity of the whole production and it would be interesting to hear that mix.

[@BubbeParker]

Load and reload video please!!!

[@gregbear123]

Where did you get the guitar microphone info? Pretty sure there was a md421 in there somewhere.

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

Great job. Two minor notes though. When going over mics; After pointing out the Neumann KM86 on the snare top, you circled the piece of duct tape on a rack tom that Ross from Drum Doctors uses to dampen drums and called that the Sennheiser MD409. The _actual_ 409 can be seen in the next photo when you point out the Shure SM7 on the hi hat. It's the small, square shaped mic just at the bottom right corner of the screen that has a gold front wind screen. The bottom of the circle you draw around the hi hat's SM7 goes right through it. It's an absolutely fantastic mic that is now quite rare and expensive. Next, when discussing James vocal mic, you called it it Neumann U47 when in actuality it was the Neumann U47 _FET_ like the one used on kick out. Anyhow, how about all those ambient mics on the drums?? _Five_ 414EB's (I wonder if they were the brass or PVC capsule versions?) including two pair of them on either side, then a pair _each_ of C12's and 251's?? That's _bananas._ No wonder they got such a great drum sound with those mics, in that incredible room. It's almost as impressive as when I saw footage of Jeff Porcaro's studio kit, which had it's four toms all miked with E-LAM 251's. It's _toms,_ lol. As well as a trio of U67 overheads, a C24 (super rare, dual capsule, stereo C12) out in front of the kit in blumlien, a pair of Royer 121's as near rooms on either side of the kit and a pair of Neumann U49's as far room mics.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Great details, thanks!

[@mr.selfdestruct2917]

I read somewhere that the drums were partially samples. Anyone know?

[@FrancisWilly96]

I know some hardcore fans consider The Black Album the album where Metallica “sold out.” The Unforgiven solo also has to be one of Kirk’s best solos in general. But I really appreciate the fact I could hear Jason’s bass compared to AJFA.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

And it sounds great!

[@jameshodson3450]

It is, they were fantastic until they did this.

[@FrancisWilly96]

@@jameshodson3450 I was born a few months prior to Load releasing so I couldn’t really relate. For me, it was like… “I can finally hear the bass!” when I listened to the Black Album. But as for hip hop, I can definitely relate to the feeling. When Kendrick Lamar dropped DAMN after To Pimp A Butterfly, I couldn’t get behind the mainstream trap sound. Mr. Morale And The Bug Steppers is much of the same. I’ll say that K-Dot’s GNX album is a return to form that I appreciate and DAMN has grown on me 7 years later.

[@soymartin07]

I'm curious about what happened with analog masters. What we've heard all these years is a digital backup copy?

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I think it was common even then for a last stage digital conversion so maybe they did a good job with it. Apparently the originals had some weird noise all through them.

[@redghettosun]

@@mixingmasteringonline According to Bob Rock it had some sort of digital clicking sound when they transferred it from analog.

[@SKARKIBANEZ]

Good years

[@CAVERWOOD]

47 FET

[@mht525]

Lars had 2 Kick Drums. 😂 Metal drummers never use 1 Kick drum. ✌️🤘🥁🏴⚖️🇦🇺🇺🇦

[@heavymetal6910]

The start of where it all went wrong......absolute garbage for suv driving moms

[@Metalfan81-q6t]

I call this album 'the sellout album'.👎

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

Good to know 👌🏻

[@jameshodson3450]

You are bang on there, the reason this album and everything they have ever done since is utter garbage compared to the best metal band of al time that they were up to that point is that they started chasing what they thought would be a success and let a man in cowboy boots tell them what to do! Cliff must have been rolling in his grave, there is no way this kind of nonsense would have happened on his watch. The record is very well recorded but that's it, it has no redeeming features otherwise.

[@jriron1]

Biggest rock band????lol

[@diegomayfield4751]

When the Black Album came out they WERE the biggest band in the world . Constant videos on MTV . This was right before Nevermind came out .

[@jriron1]

@@diegomayfield4751 Dude.. I'm nota a beatles fan but facts are facts, The Beatles: More than 6oo million around the world. Metallica: More than 93 million around the world

[@alienautopsy9326]

Unfortunately, Bon Jovi had higher record sales than these guys back then, check with soundscan database and you’ll be surprised the numbers of some artists when record sales counted before downloading

[@jriron1]

@@alienautopsy9326 yes.. even Bon Jovi was bigger...

[@MichaelKing-p1o]

when this album was released i quit listening to metallica

[@Buttface1981]

Sucks for you then

[@sleeptank444]

Thanks for the update

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

Wow, interesting. Thanks for chiming in.

[@QuickStix26]

And we thank you for that.

[@jameshodson3450]

As did I and every single one of my friends who loved them up to that point. I don't personally know anyone who liked this who was a fan of what they did before. I think pretty much everyone who thought this was good was too young to have been into the good stuff or just got into them via the commercial exposure. It was like metal for people who don't really like metal. To me Nirvana was exactly the same thing; Pixies for people who don't really appreciate what was so amazing about the Pixies and think a kind of radio friendly rock version of their loud quiet loud formula was anything like as good. As soon as any band from that era got wind of making some "serious money" their music and records were ruined by sucking the balls out of them and watering things down with an Andy Wallace style mix (although what he did with Slayer was amazing but then the music and arrangements were stellar) & smoothing them for an MTV audience. Look at what happened to Sonic Youth when they tried to emulate the success of Nirvana, they made the most unlistenable turd of their entire career. The kind of people who like the black album are the kind of people who got into Sonic Youth when Dirty came out. Almost every good rock band was ruined for a while if nor permanently by chasing commercial success in the 90s. Jesus Lizard, Butthole Surfers, Slayer, the list goes on and on. There's nothing wrong with making records sound really shiny and polished but there's no reason to polish all of the rough edges, uniqueness and originality of the band themselves. It made them rich but alienated most of their hardcore fans in the process.