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Metallica Album Secret Revealed By Mixing Engineer


. (Classic Rock) Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was responsible for turning down the sound of Jason Newsted's bass on 1988's ...And Justice For All, according to mixing engineer Steve Thompson.

Thompson was behind the desk at Bearsville Studios, New York overseeing the final stages of the album, which has often been criticized for its lack of audible bass.

And Thompson insists that while he was happy with the bass sound when mixing the record, it was Ulrich who wanted it reduced. He tells Ultimate Guitar: "What I wanted to do and what Lars wanted to do was totally different, which kind of upset me a little bit. I loved Metallica and was very familiar with them.

"I listened to the tracks and said to myself, 'These sound like ass.' I chased everybody out of the room and redesigned the drum sound and brought the guitars up. Jason Newsted killed it on bass. Perfect marriage with Hetfield's guitars.

"Lars comes walking in a couple of minutes later and listens to about a minute of it and goes, 'Turn that off. What happened to my drum sound?' We had to get the drum sound up the way he had it. I wasn't a fan of it. So now he goes, 'See the bass guitar?' and I said, 'Yeah, great part, man. He killed it.' Lars said, 'I want you to bring down the bass where you can barely, audibly hear it in the mix.' I said, 'You're kidding, right?'" Read more here.

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Copyright Classic Rock Magazine- Excerpted here with permission.

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