Hi-End Distortion from late 90’s / early 2000s records

[Zero_Idea]

Hi Subsekt,

Had a few questions regarding hi-end distortion and how it relates to the vinyl cutting process for late 90’s / early 2000s techno records.

From researching on the internet, this forum, as well as buying records, it seems much of that sound was forged by Nilz from the Exchange and his mastering process cutting records hot.

The two questions I have are:

1) Did the premasters he receive already have distortion baked in that help create that sound (crunchy/fizzy hi-end) or was it really all Nilz? In short, I’m curious how these premasters sounded and is their a way to communicate to a mastering engineer that that’s the sound I want? Some examples included below

2) I’ve read through all of the distortion and drum processing threads and tried different techniques including the phantom distortion trick, distorting drum bus with kick included to effect hi-end with various pedal / pre amp emulations and it gets close but not that really fizzy crunchy hi end I’m searching for. Is there techniques / advice / plugins / hardware to try to achieve this sound? Is it even possible since potentially much of the fizz is coming from the record / stylus and way it was cut?

Examples:
https://youtu.be/DPEhgGsX9l8?si=awinAv8dz4mlUE_3

This example by Mark Williams is probably the best example of the fizzy hi-hats I’m aiming for

https://youtu.be/qm2mJJaX5mw?si=4aLApfI4burEZ3ET

https://youtu.be/gCEMTcauC88?si=rMYpJseCWFr-Bz2r


Appreciate any thoughts or advice in advance.

[mainst09]

I would say that both the compression and distortion from the artist and then the later process from Nilz created that kind of sound. Nilz yes would put his signature sound on tracks, however the fact that most machines were analog and they used mixing desks that when saturated would give a certain sound helped shape that hi-end distortion. Its all just lots of compression and different kinds of distortion working all together.
I'm sure somebody here will be able to give you a more technical response

[Zero_Idea]

I recently got my hands on a Mackie CR-1604 and an Alesis 3630 - I think it’s time to dirty up some drums. I stubbornly want to try to figure this out in the box Appreciate your response!

[Mslwte]

I recently got my hands on a Mackie CR-1604 and an Alesis 3630 - I think it’s time to dirty up some drums. I stubbornly want to try to figure this out in the box Appreciate your response!

You should open up the 3630 and modify it. I have 2 of them, one is modified to sound cleaner and the other one is dirtier.