hey guys,
just stumbled over this over at another board,
probably old stuff but the guy who posted it claims
this was a personal interview with jeff.
i enjoyed reading it so here it goes ...
1) What kind and how many mics do you use to record your guitar?
used to use an akg 414 with a 57. now just one 57
2) How many times do you double the guitar parts you play?
only one guitar take for left rhtyhm part and one take for the right rhythm part, no doubling of rhythms. that works to make things "fatter" but not in fast and tight music; that can muddy it up!!
3) Do you use any effects like eq, compressor, maximizer etc. for guitar recording and if so do you use plugins or analog devices?
not for recording, just a bit of compression from the pre-amp (see below). for mixing, i just add a tiny bit of compression, fix the bottom end a bit and then try to take out the grittyness; i usually end up with too much with the combo of the 57 and the boss od pedal.!
4) Anything else that you use for recording your guitar?
marshall jcm 800 series 50 or 100w. marshall lead series 1960 with 2 greenback and two regular speakers... i always mike the greenbacks. ya must put your mike into a great pre-amp/comp. on the first cds, i just went right into a console. yuch. around KOTK, I used a TL Audio pre/comp. I used that until 2001 when I bought a Drawmer 1969 Mercenary Edition pre/comp. WOW! The comp is just used to smooth off a bit of the low end spikes when i play the low strings. Gotta maximize that analog signal whilst containing those "overs"! Oh yeah, and I have been using the Apogee Rosetta converter for some time; killer. Apogee make some of the best sounding converters in the biz. The soft limit feature is great for containing the odd bass level surges. I run the bass DI into a Summit preamp, then into an ADL (Anthony Demaria Labs) tube compressor, modeled after the Universal Audio stuff. As for vocals, I use an AT 4060 tube mike into a Focusrite ISA George Martin pre/eq, then into the ADL comp. A AKG 414 works great in this rig but the 4060 costs more, so i felt compelled to get my money's worth! hehe!
In mix mode, I now use CUBASE SX3. WOW! SMOKES the competition. I used to use Nuendo but the company that owns Cubase/Nuendo, called Steinberg, pushed users in media/film to Nuendo and music production people over to Cubase SX3. When mixing, I heavily use the UAD UAD-1 plug-ins; I have 3 cards. NOw I use alot of the eq in Cubase as well. In mix mode, I run the bass through an LA2A or Fairchild, then some Cubase EQ and then through the new UAD precision mastering limiter. That is it for bass. Thick, warm and smooth! For vocals, I start with some eq to take off the lows i dont want (i usually track the vocals with a small low cut on the Focusrite but not above 40hz) and then run it through an 1176. Then through an SPL de-esser. I have been using this weird reverb on vocals for many years; Realverb from the UAD card. I use the Ghost Voice preset. Something cool about it when used sparingly. Kinda like a delayed verb but a bit weird. Cant use too much or it makes things a mess but when used subtley, yum. Sometimes, if the vocals are not tracked consistently, I will go in and level-correct in Cubase and/or add an LA2A to the beginning of the vocal mixing chain. OH, for rhythm guitars, I use two seperate mono delays with very little feedback (2 repeats at most) and around a 350-375 ms delay time. I pan them hard left and hard right, just like the guitars. On solos, just a bit of eq to get rid of the lows and tweak the bite areas, a bit of compression to smooth it out so ya can hear most of the notes without having to crank it super loud in the mix and then around a 445-500 ms delay. 3 feedbacks max. That is how i get that bird chirping vibe when i do some squeals! hehe! I kinda dont even need a verb when u have this delay. But i use those things pretty sparingly in the mix. subtle. turn it up and ya got the 80's! hehe!
For drums? Depends entirely on who I am tracking and where. I don't track drums much in my studio although i have a kit set up and might do it here for my new cd! Or maybe not. Loud! hehehe! Recording drums, in my opinion, are the hardest and most talent-requiring art form. Many many engineers think they can engineer drums but are not good at it. I would guess 95% of them are not good at it. Alot has to do with the drummer and his consistent playing/hitting/levels/tempo, etc... BUT alot has to do with the engineers experience and talent and ears. Many great engineers can give you brilliant guitar, bass and vocal sounds but it is not easy to get those drum sounds! I can track all instruments very well but I would never attempt to engineer drum tracks myself. I always hire someone for this. My main thing lately is supervising the recording of the drums, from a technical stand-point. The last session we did with the Amazing Mike Mangini was incredible from Mikes playing end, but was a nightmare for me as an engineer. The guy tracking the drums in Boston was a great engineer, except that he had just bought this new pro-tool rig. I figured that, when all these little red lights were lighting up on the pro tools hardware, that this meant OVERLOAD. When i bugged the 2 engineers about this, they said that I shouldnt worry and that the levels were good and "hot"! Well turned out, when I got home to Canada, that those red lights meant jsut what I had assumed: the levels were being slammed into the pro tools limiters and the signals were literally being crushed into digital distortion. So basically, many times a snare would be hit, and the signal would shoot to smash over 0.0 db; in digital, this means brutally ugly distortion. The system had a limiter system (something that keeps the levels from shooting "over" into distortion) but that is something that is supposed to be used sparingly and only in case of an accidental "hit" or signal that only happens a few times in a tune. Basically it saves you from ruining a whole good take, just because he hit the snare a bit harder than the others. When the signal gets "saved" by the limiter, it also has a negative effect on the sound/wave form cause it is basically brick-walling/cutting the signal off; degrading it somewhat. The more or harder you limit, the worse your sound gets!
Anyhoo, these lights shoulda rarely ever been lighting up red; when we were recording the drums, I noticed that most of them were almost always on! hahaha! Funny now but not then! I came back to my studio in Ottawa, loaded in the drums and almost had a heart attack when i loaded the first song in and saw my meters lighting up and reading 0.0 db, some of them all the time! Poor Mikey had to go back in and re-do some tunes the next weekend! (sorry mike!) He rocked and, although it was a serious pain in the butt for him, he re-did it. BUt ya know what? It was my fault. I shoulda been all over that engineer when I saw the Xmas tree lights lighting up! hehe! So we all learn and keep learning!
Thanks to that engineer (who is a super cool guy and a really great engineer, except on that session), I watch those meters like a hawk.
Now back to work. You kids are gonna love the new Annihilator cd!
jw
just stumbled over this over at another board,
probably old stuff but the guy who posted it claims
this was a personal interview with jeff.
i enjoyed reading it so here it goes ...
1) What kind and how many mics do you use to record your guitar?
used to use an akg 414 with a 57. now just one 57
2) How many times do you double the guitar parts you play?
only one guitar take for left rhtyhm part and one take for the right rhythm part, no doubling of rhythms. that works to make things "fatter" but not in fast and tight music; that can muddy it up!!
3) Do you use any effects like eq, compressor, maximizer etc. for guitar recording and if so do you use plugins or analog devices?
not for recording, just a bit of compression from the pre-amp (see below). for mixing, i just add a tiny bit of compression, fix the bottom end a bit and then try to take out the grittyness; i usually end up with too much with the combo of the 57 and the boss od pedal.!
4) Anything else that you use for recording your guitar?
marshall jcm 800 series 50 or 100w. marshall lead series 1960 with 2 greenback and two regular speakers... i always mike the greenbacks. ya must put your mike into a great pre-amp/comp. on the first cds, i just went right into a console. yuch. around KOTK, I used a TL Audio pre/comp. I used that until 2001 when I bought a Drawmer 1969 Mercenary Edition pre/comp. WOW! The comp is just used to smooth off a bit of the low end spikes when i play the low strings. Gotta maximize that analog signal whilst containing those "overs"! Oh yeah, and I have been using the Apogee Rosetta converter for some time; killer. Apogee make some of the best sounding converters in the biz. The soft limit feature is great for containing the odd bass level surges. I run the bass DI into a Summit preamp, then into an ADL (Anthony Demaria Labs) tube compressor, modeled after the Universal Audio stuff. As for vocals, I use an AT 4060 tube mike into a Focusrite ISA George Martin pre/eq, then into the ADL comp. A AKG 414 works great in this rig but the 4060 costs more, so i felt compelled to get my money's worth! hehe!
In mix mode, I now use CUBASE SX3. WOW! SMOKES the competition. I used to use Nuendo but the company that owns Cubase/Nuendo, called Steinberg, pushed users in media/film to Nuendo and music production people over to Cubase SX3. When mixing, I heavily use the UAD UAD-1 plug-ins; I have 3 cards. NOw I use alot of the eq in Cubase as well. In mix mode, I run the bass through an LA2A or Fairchild, then some Cubase EQ and then through the new UAD precision mastering limiter. That is it for bass. Thick, warm and smooth! For vocals, I start with some eq to take off the lows i dont want (i usually track the vocals with a small low cut on the Focusrite but not above 40hz) and then run it through an 1176. Then through an SPL de-esser. I have been using this weird reverb on vocals for many years; Realverb from the UAD card. I use the Ghost Voice preset. Something cool about it when used sparingly. Kinda like a delayed verb but a bit weird. Cant use too much or it makes things a mess but when used subtley, yum. Sometimes, if the vocals are not tracked consistently, I will go in and level-correct in Cubase and/or add an LA2A to the beginning of the vocal mixing chain. OH, for rhythm guitars, I use two seperate mono delays with very little feedback (2 repeats at most) and around a 350-375 ms delay time. I pan them hard left and hard right, just like the guitars. On solos, just a bit of eq to get rid of the lows and tweak the bite areas, a bit of compression to smooth it out so ya can hear most of the notes without having to crank it super loud in the mix and then around a 445-500 ms delay. 3 feedbacks max. That is how i get that bird chirping vibe when i do some squeals! hehe! I kinda dont even need a verb when u have this delay. But i use those things pretty sparingly in the mix. subtle. turn it up and ya got the 80's! hehe!
For drums? Depends entirely on who I am tracking and where. I don't track drums much in my studio although i have a kit set up and might do it here for my new cd! Or maybe not. Loud! hehehe! Recording drums, in my opinion, are the hardest and most talent-requiring art form. Many many engineers think they can engineer drums but are not good at it. I would guess 95% of them are not good at it. Alot has to do with the drummer and his consistent playing/hitting/levels/tempo, etc... BUT alot has to do with the engineers experience and talent and ears. Many great engineers can give you brilliant guitar, bass and vocal sounds but it is not easy to get those drum sounds! I can track all instruments very well but I would never attempt to engineer drum tracks myself. I always hire someone for this. My main thing lately is supervising the recording of the drums, from a technical stand-point. The last session we did with the Amazing Mike Mangini was incredible from Mikes playing end, but was a nightmare for me as an engineer. The guy tracking the drums in Boston was a great engineer, except that he had just bought this new pro-tool rig. I figured that, when all these little red lights were lighting up on the pro tools hardware, that this meant OVERLOAD. When i bugged the 2 engineers about this, they said that I shouldnt worry and that the levels were good and "hot"! Well turned out, when I got home to Canada, that those red lights meant jsut what I had assumed: the levels were being slammed into the pro tools limiters and the signals were literally being crushed into digital distortion. So basically, many times a snare would be hit, and the signal would shoot to smash over 0.0 db; in digital, this means brutally ugly distortion. The system had a limiter system (something that keeps the levels from shooting "over" into distortion) but that is something that is supposed to be used sparingly and only in case of an accidental "hit" or signal that only happens a few times in a tune. Basically it saves you from ruining a whole good take, just because he hit the snare a bit harder than the others. When the signal gets "saved" by the limiter, it also has a negative effect on the sound/wave form cause it is basically brick-walling/cutting the signal off; degrading it somewhat. The more or harder you limit, the worse your sound gets!
Anyhoo, these lights shoulda rarely ever been lighting up red; when we were recording the drums, I noticed that most of them were almost always on! hahaha! Funny now but not then! I came back to my studio in Ottawa, loaded in the drums and almost had a heart attack when i loaded the first song in and saw my meters lighting up and reading 0.0 db, some of them all the time! Poor Mikey had to go back in and re-do some tunes the next weekend! (sorry mike!) He rocked and, although it was a serious pain in the butt for him, he re-did it. BUt ya know what? It was my fault. I shoulda been all over that engineer when I saw the Xmas tree lights lighting up! hehe! So we all learn and keep learning!
Thanks to that engineer (who is a super cool guy and a really great engineer, except on that session), I watch those meters like a hawk.
Now back to work. You kids are gonna love the new Annihilator cd!
jw
though Jeff is probably one of the last ones you can call untight, so it's strange that he said that :zombie:
