After doing many assignments this year explaining Metallica and their music, there was still one piece that I had not done to fully show my understanding of those topics. That piece was to fully recreate a Metallica song using the knowledge I had and the knowledge I gained during my thesis. I set out to show that knowledge and that commitment through one of Metallica’s well-known song “Enter Sandman.” As it was one of the first pieces of music that I learned on the guitar it was also great to do this song to listen to my progress.

While recreating the song “Enter Sandman,” I wanted to put my sound into the mix while still keeping the crisp Metallica sound. The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that I used to create this song is called FLStudio. I used it to record all musical instruments and mix the master track. Firstly, I decided to use a slightly fuller-sounding setting for the clean guitars that play throughout the introduction and the post-solo bridge. In return, this brought more bass into the track. 

The guitars I used for this song were my Ibanez GIO GS17 for some of the faint backing tracks and my ESP LTD KH602, which Kirk Hammett used in the studio while creating the music. For the distorted guitars, I set the amp settings very closely to the settings used in the original mix. The gain was turned up almost all the way, as well as the lows and highs. On the other hand, the mids were pushed back substantially to create the infamous Black Album sound. Overall, six guitar tracks were recorded individually and played on top of one another to give it volume, dynamics, and texture. Three were panned to the left, and three were panned to the right giving it a more comprehensive range and a more stereo mix. 

Next are the drums that I used in the song. I connected my electric drums to my computer and used a program to have my drum set sound like the drums used in the Black Album. The bass was created directly in my DAW by entering each note and having the electronic instrument play the notes in the mix. Because I cannot sing like James Hetfield, I found his vocal track online and bring it into the mix to add the final necessary piece of the song. Once everything was recorded, I went over each track and added any extra effects, equalizations, compressions, and whatever I felt was necessary to bring the song together. Lastly, I saved the master track and kept the audio level to prevent random peaking frequencies from appearing. Overall, I was more than happy with the final product and think it stays true to the essence of Metallica and their work.