How Terry Date Records vocals

[Parka Dez]

I was searching the internet, as you do, and came across this. Thought some people may find this interesting....although Terry Date isn't talked about much around here.

"I was lucky enough to attend a mixing/mastering seminar last week where he was the guest speaker. For those of you who don't know his name, he was probably the biggest hard rock/metal producer of the '90's (even though he describes himself mostly as an engineer) - he did all the Deftones records, all the Soundgarden records except Superunknown, everything by Pantera, all the Limp Bizkit stuff (love 'em or hate 'em, those were the HUGEST sounding albums), Mother Love Bone, White Zombie, Smashing Pumpkinds, Staind, etc ...

Anyways, somebody asked him how he records vocals and he said that 90% of the time it goes about like this:

SM58 (yes, a Shure SM58 over Nuemanns and the like)
Neve preamp (didn't mention which one, but PLEASE UA, we'll be your best friends if you start doing preamp plugins)
1176 on 4 or 8, with Input and Output set at "10 and 2" (10 and 2 being hands-on-the-clock positions, not values on the knob)
2nd 1176, again on 4 or 8, Input and Output set to "2 and 10" (reversed from the first 1176)
To tape

I thought the use of the SM58 was interesting, as was the series of 1176's on different settings. He just said one of the 1176's was at 10 and 2 and the other was reversed, so it could be 2 and 10 followed by 10 and 2. I wish he had described more things specifically like this, but hey, I'll take it. One other thing I got was this: when he does big, distorted rhythm guitars, he like to do double tracking, then pan them hard to either side and sometimes add a bit of reverb/echo to each one and pan it to the opposite side (so the reverb from the right guitar is on the left and vice versa). So yeah ..."

Thoughts? Anyone used two 1176's like that before?

 

[kramer1309]

Interesting stuff..
Can't get my head around why specifically 2 10 -> 10 2 though..

 

[colonel kurtz]

but PLEASE UA, we'll be your best friends if you start doing preamp plugins

stupid idea

 

[Parka Dez]

Just to reiterate, not my actual post. I think I grabbed it from the UA forum...so makes sense haha

 

[-Loco-]

I'm surprised aswell I thought that especially for chinos voice they would have got him surrounded by 10 condensers and a bag of weed since he can't keep pitch for shit when he drives his voice, at least live anyway. Very good info thanks!

 

[colonel kurtz]

Just to reiterate, not my actual post. I think I grabbed it from the UA forum...so makes sense haha

yea i figured it was a copy/paste from whoever went to the seminar

but still...preamp emulations have been done before, and just simply do not work!

 

[crillemannen]

It isnt that strange that he's not talked about. He's production dont sound good. Listen to Pantera, totally cool when it came out, but nowdays it sounds really out dated and strange sounding. Limp Bizkit dont sound that good either.

 

[Machinated]

Limp Bizkit dont sound that good either.

blasphemy!

sig other, choc starfish, around the fur, white pony all sound absolutely awesome.

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

Great Souther Trend Kill is a pretty great sounding album IMO.

Unearth EYES OF FIRE though didnt sound to awesome.

 

[John_C]

Pantera still sounds great to me. Doesn't sound like hyper-produced over-compressed bullshit if that's what you mean by dated.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

I love Terry Dates work. I'm not going to get two 1176s anytime soon though, so for now this is just a neat idea. haha.

 

[narcossintese]

Thank you very much for posting this. I´m a big fan of Terry Date work.

 

[ahjteam]

Pantera still sounds great to me. Doesn't sound like hyper-produced over-compressed bullshit if that's what you mean by dated.

...I guess he means they sound TERRY DATED

 

[Parka Dez]

It isnt that strange that he's not talked about. He's production dont sound good. Listen to Pantera, totally cool when it came out, but nowdays it sounds really out dated and strange sounding. Limp Bizkit dont sound that good either.

As well as the previously mentioned albums, Deftones by Deftones, the mix on the single Diamond Eyes (which I think he did) is also awesome.

I know it's not the real thing, but I have a 6176 that Im using at the moment on some screaming vocals. Will chuck a 1176 type compressor on the vocals and see what it ends up like.

 

[Parka Dez]

...I guess he means they sound TERRY DATED

We all could of gone there.

 

[nwright]

I can't say I dig all of Terry's work, but he is still up there in my list of favorites because of his work on many albums that were "pivotal" for me as a musician. Around the Fur and White Pony are killer productions, both for their time and today. The Pantera stuff is great as well, but IMO if anything in those recordings date them, it's Dimebag's shit stain solid state amp sound (IMHO). His tone was the detraction in anything he or his bands recorded for me.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

I thought the use of the SM58 was interesting

He's not the only one using them for vocals. Franz Ferdinand's vocals on their 2005 album were also recorded with a SM58 (singing in the control room with the backing track on the monitors).

 

[John_C]

The Pantera stuff is great as well, but IMO if anything in those recordings date them, it's Dimebag's shit stain solid state amp sound (IMHO). His tone was the detraction in anything he or his bands recorded for me.

But the thing is so many of those riffs just don't work with other tones.

 

[joeymusicguy]

this guy's name's terry

 

[narcossintese]

This was posted on GearSlutz

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight, 1995
SM58 - $80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSxwzOngMU

Smashing Pumpkins - Song for a Son, 2009
Neumann M269 - $6,400
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2dcp0wddw

if it's not obvious, number one is a classic and enduring song, and number two is some latter day garbage