ANDY SNEAP Offers Technical Opinion On SICK SPEED Vs. DK Entertainment Fiasco

Acclaimed metal producer Andy Sneap — whose list of clients includes MACHINE HEAD, TESTAMENT, STUCK MOJO, SKINLAB, BLAZE, NEVERMORE and ARCH ENEMY, among others — has jumped to the defense of SICK SPEED axeman Rich Ward (ex-STUCK MOJO) over the latter's criticism of the impending release of SICK SPEED's debut CD in Europe through the DK Entertainment label.

As you may recall, DK are going ahead with the planned release of the above-mentioned CD based on a CDR copy that was sent to the label before the two parties had a falling out that caused their working relationship to be terminated. As a result, Ward fired off a statement denouncing the release by asserting that it will “sound terrible because it's a third generation CD copy” that DK is using to press the album. This, in turn, created waves with some of this site's visitors, who slammed the guitarist for insinuating that a CD copy will sound inferior to the original when mass-duplicated.

In an effort to set the record straight, Sneap has contacted BLABBERMOUTH.NET to offer his views on the matter. Here is Andy's statement in its entirety:

“Some of you have probably read the ill-educated comments on Blabbermouth this week with regards to Rich's statement on the DK release of the SICK SPEED material. Whilst not wanting to get involved in the politics of this, I feel I should shed some light as to what Rich is getting at.

“When producing a CDR master for a label, I always burn direct from the hard drive containing the material at 1 x speed. This is to minimize the chance of errors on the disc. No CDR is ever 100% perfect, certain brands of CDR work better with different CDR burners and as with DAT you have error correction and with some systems, can check the error count.

“Now, obviously, it's not like the glory days of the 80s, when we were all bootlegging cassettes, we're not talking about that kind of degeneration, but if a disc is 3rd generation, I think Rich has a perfectly valid point. Not only will you have a disc that has been through this process for the third time, you don't know what speed it has been copied at (increasing errors),and whether it has been taken analogue out and reconverted at any stage. There is also the argument that some CD burners can color the sound....so, I hope this clears things up.

“After being in this industry for 15 years, I've not met many people with the drive, determination and professional attitude of Rich Ward. He's obviously proud of his music as I am of my work and we'd both like to see it represented in the best possible light.”