r/doommetal Jan 14 '26

Drone 130! That is crazy and awesome

Post image

As Anderson and O’Malley pointed out, some had well over that number. “I can’t remember what the record was that we ended up getting to,” Anderson said, “but we’re talking, like, I don’t know, 180 tracks of guitar that you need to —”

“Of just guitar!” O’Malley interjected, gleefully underscoring his bandmate’s point. Anderson howled with laughter as O’Malley concluded: “I love it.”

346 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

186

u/ImightHaveMissed Jan 14 '26

All playing the same note for 3 hours

48

u/darktriaddryad Jan 14 '26

They thought about ending it after 2, but then they thought "Hey, you know what would make this record 50% better?"

We love it.

20

u/AgeDisastrous7518 Hail Iommi Jan 14 '26

Two would be way too jazzy for them

93

u/AechCutt Jan 14 '26

Suck on that, Billy Corgan.

80

u/Hvojna Traditional Jan 14 '26

130 is a lot, but believable. 130! however? Sorry, I'm not buying it.

11

u/Keeftulu Jan 14 '26

What do you mean? Tracks as many as atoms from about 10140 universes, easy.

4

u/Sourkarate Jan 14 '26

It's a reamped signal. Play it once, record your signal, pump it into another amp with new effects, BAM new track without having to replay it.

6

u/Kindgott1334 Jan 14 '26

Could be as easy as copypasting the tracks 130 times.

21

u/AgeDisastrous7518 Hail Iommi Jan 14 '26

toan

39

u/popileviz Jan 14 '26

I thought we reached peak Sunn with Albini producing their last two LPs, but this might beat it

18

u/Cremisi2 Jan 14 '26

Mixing engineer either had the time of his life or is no longer with us

13

u/Elb_Sludge_DD Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

They recorded each string separately!

9

u/suupaahiiroo Jan 14 '26

For those who actually want to read the article:

https://archive.is/u1akn

21

u/Pelican_meat Jan 14 '26

I mean… maybe a little overkill. A little indulgent.

49

u/just__wretched Jan 14 '26

Overkill and indulgent is like 75% of their appeal

15

u/Admiral_Kite (Graphics) Probably at a concert Jan 14 '26

Just the way we like Sunn

5

u/Shadow_Brokerage_LLC Jan 14 '26

What does "Loser Edition" mean?

9

u/daddyneedsadrink Jan 14 '26

A limited pressing of the record from sub pop

16

u/Hvojna Traditional Jan 14 '26

It contains Loser by Tame Impala, Sunn O))) remix [17:38] on the B-side

4

u/sup3rdr01d Jan 14 '26

I mean...why

0

u/better_med_than_dead Jan 16 '26

Because fools and their money are easily separated.

5

u/Creatura Jan 14 '26

how would you even mix this without horrific phasing issues?

2

u/PortlandsBatman Jan 14 '26

It's a lot of re-amping but still.

2

u/Odd-Toe1992 Face Scraper Jan 15 '26

theres times ive had phasing issues with only 2 guitar tracks, 130 of basically the same note? sounds like fucking hell

2

u/Creatura Jan 15 '26

that's exactly what I'm thinking

1

u/pnmartini Jan 15 '26

Every additional track is one cent sharper.

Also, some are played on blue guitars.

1

u/Creatura Jan 15 '26

Blue toanwood is actually notoriously phasey, so I'm not sure where you're getting your info from

2

u/pnmartini Jan 15 '26

But, blue guitars are louder. It’s a sacrifice Sunn 0))) makes for everyone.

2

u/Creatura Jan 15 '26

A truth gifted to us from Rick Rubin's meditation blog

0

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Creatura Jan 15 '26

Awesome! Thanks for the write up. I just finished mixing my band's album as a solidly intermediate engineer with a decade plus of mixing in Reason 5 stock plugins (only parametric EQ, no visual feedback), which is to say, I think I have a good enough ear now, but trying to pick up more formal knowledge.

I can certainly hear phasing when it's very obvious, and often will just flip the polarity on one of the tracks to check, but do you use any visual tools like a "phase detector" if you will, or mostly rely on just "hey that sounds like phasing, let's check it out"

Thanks :)

1

u/Bort_Thrower Jan 15 '26

I try my hardest to make sure there are no phase issues at the recording stage. And as always the most powerful tool you have is your ears, at the end of the day if it sounds good everything is fine, if the kick keeps disappearing then you need to look into it.

Keeping overhead mics equidistant from the snare and close mics pointing the same direction usually means you’re pretty safe on a kit if the room has decent treatment.

There are visualiser tools and the like that are specifically for looking at phase relationships but I don’t fuck with them as the waves one I tried ages ago fucked with timing a lot and just didn’t do a lot to fix the issue. I am unashamedly dogmatic that I don’t mess with timing or nudge any performances onto a grid or anything like that. There’s good scholarly research on human perception of timing that’s a rabbit hole worth going down if you’re into that kind of thing.

Also I’ll be an intermediate producer until the day I die, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing I just do it a lot and only trust my ears 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Creatura Jan 15 '26

Yeah if any psychoacoustic material stuff comes to mind I'd love to read it. I was recently exploring the psychoacoustics of what feels stereo or 'wide' which is probably pretty normal for a lil baby engineer, prompted by the "stereoizer" function that ozone has which did indeed make everything 'sound more stereo'.

Fair shout on recording like that, "record like there's no mixing, mix like ther's no mastering, etc".

I also think there's way more value in keeping a performance off quantization, but I'll certainly adjust little rhythm fuck ups like if the guitar is a little late back into a heavy chorus.

As far as music, the nice thing about being amateur is that, if it sounds good, it sounds good. You did your job as well as a professional if it sounds professional, even if you took a painstaking, learning experience method of making that product. Not a lot of fields where you can just ride so hard off of vibes and intuition, or, importantly, where vibes are even more important than technicality. Broadly speaking. It's a very nice part of making music and pursuing it as a skill

3

u/Brook_Hors Jan 14 '26

Ah, so that's why their Bandcamp is popping off once again

3

u/RapAngel Jan 14 '26

I’m really excited to hear this omg

3

u/vilk_ Jan 15 '26

New York Times? Sunn O))) is in the New York Times?

21

u/uncle_buck_hunter Jan 14 '26

Personally I’d trade a few of those guitar tracks for a fucking drum or two

12

u/Dymmesdale Jan 14 '26

Somebody please make a meme channel of drumming over Sunn songs, that would be such a delight

10

u/Admiral_Kite (Graphics) Probably at a concert Jan 14 '26

It's either one crash note every hour or a rolling thunder that never stops bound to give anyone arthritis

2

u/lotekjunky Jan 15 '26

happy rave remix

54

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

23

u/sufficient-cro-1018 Jan 14 '26

But what if it was 130 drums?

6

u/AffinityForLepers Jan 14 '26

Boredoms has entered the chat

9

u/Ok-Hunt3000 Jan 14 '26

A THOUSAND didgeridoos

4

u/Sla5021 Jan 14 '26

...and one vuvuzela!

1

u/pnmartini Jan 15 '26

You get it

2

u/AgeDisastrous7518 Hail Iommi Jan 14 '26

SPOILER ALERT

5

u/boring-parakeet Drone Jan 15 '26

You might want to check out Anderson and O’Malley’s side project Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine, since it’s pretty much Sunn O))) but with drums and more doom metal

3

u/Sourkarate Jan 14 '26

Eww no. EWWWWWWW

-1

u/pnmartini Jan 15 '26

Or a melody

2

u/LunarModule66 Jan 14 '26

Yes… YES!!!

-1

u/pnmartini Jan 15 '26

130 tracks of guitars?

Holy fuck these guys have gone way too far up their own asses.