JENS BOGREN - my new hero

[egan.]

Hey Jens,
Glad you decided to stop by.
I thought I'd ask you to expand on the stereo bass recording you told me about for TGCD record. I think that had a big impact on the guitars for that record and is also really creative and different. I believe you also doubled a lot of the bass lines with synth too. Any further info would be awesome.
thanks!

 

[NickL]

I think we scared him off

Jens, if you only have time to answer one question, please tell us how you handle you snares. Everyone and their mother loves your snare sound and it would be a shame if you didn't get around to giving us free tips *cough* sharing your findings with us. Are we in consensus, everyone?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Are we in consensus, everyone?

Here here!

 

[Exocaster]

I have to join in the Jens Bogren love here.

The acoustic guitars on Watershed are easily the best I've ever heard on a heavy record. The depth and detail are phenomenal. The clean and mid-gain tones on the past couple Opeth albums have been exceptional as well- it seems to me that all the tones the metal genre isn't known for doing well sound great on their stuff.

 

[Jens Bogren]

On Ghost Reveries i used the MF400 for the main rythms. To be honest i can't remember what amps we used, i know it was one Mesa double Rectifier, but i must get back and... Oh no!!! Never ment to give this away, but the secondary pair was actually a POD XT with the (at the time new) Metal Pack! I see a shit storm coming this way. I remember now that i did regret it in the mix, and it's mostly the Mesa you will hear. I can see that some people are not impressed by the drum sound on that album, and to be honest i don't like it either. It was a compromise (my will against what the band thought they wanted), and on top of that pretty poor mastering.

The MF400 is not a perfect cab, but it works really well most of the time.

The Fireball is the rawest sounding amps of the Fire/Power/Savage amps, and i like that. It can be pretty tricky to tune right. The Savage 120 is designed for Japanese Hospitals, but that amp through the MF400 with only a Royer 121 will sound cool. I'm pretty happy with the guitar sound on some Hammerfall songs (covers) i did a while back with that setup, i think it's released by know.

Hot damn, +1 to that Machinated - welcome Jens, and thanks a lot for your contribution! If I may, do you happen to remember what cab you used on "Ghost Reveries?" And yeah, the larger Mesa cab is the Mesa Rectifier Standard (now just called the Rectifier), whereas the smaller is the Rectifier Traditional (now called the Stiletto). And what is it about the MF400 cab that you like? I've never used it nor heard it, but I just always thought it was kinda like the Mode Four amp it complements - meant for volume, not tone

I'm surprised to hear you're a fan of the Fireball, I've heard some pretty mixed things about that amp from a lot of people on here. Do you have any thoughts on the higher-end Engl's? (specifically the almighty Savage 120?) Thanks again man, keep up the good work!

 

[Jens Bogren]

On Watershed i used the Marshall JVM together with the Mesa cab for the main rhythms. The secondary pair is Mesa Dual Rectifier through the MF400. SM57 and Royer on the main pair, 2x SM57 and one SM58 on the secondary pair (if my memory serves me).

Good to have you Jens. I'm guessing you used this mic combo plus the Mesa Oversized cab for the "Watershed" recording?

thanks

-Joe

 

[Ermz]

I always had a feeling that you didn't let the Ghost Reveries drum sound go 100% willingly. The standard of drum sounds you've set on many other releases you've done have been higher, in my opinion too.

Thank you for sharing those tidbits of info. What do you mean about the Savage 120 sounding like it's designed for Japanese Hospitals? I don't know if that's some Swedish slang I'm not getting here in outback land...

What I'm curious about is, how do you find tracking and mixing on Barefoot MM27s? I hear tell that they're about as accurate a speaker as you can find available right now.

 

[Jens Bogren]

Jens - I would be really interested in hearing what you did for the vocals on twilight of the thunder god.

That's a Neumann M149 in to an Amek CIB pre, in to an UA 1176, an probably a LA3A as well. During the mix i believe i put up a parallell distortion of some sort, possibly a really cranked 1176.

EDIT: Oh, i thought you ment With Odin On our Side. For their latest album i used a Korby KAT4 with the U47 capsule, in to my beloved Amek CIB, in to a LA2, in to a Distressor. That's an ITB mix, using Liquid Mix on the vocals, their Tube Tech emulation and a Pultech EQ emulation.

 

[Machinated]

Interesting stuff Jens, thanks for sharing!

 

[Felix Neumann]

On Watershed i used the Marshall JVM together with the Mesa cab for the main rhythms. The secondary pair is Mesa Dual Rectifier through the MF400. SM57 and Royer on the main pair, 2x SM57 and one SM58 on the secondary pair (if my memory serves me).

Yeah Marshall JVM/Mesa is a great combination I was in the rockshop, tested up to 25 different amp/cab combinations 6 hours long(with breaks)..and the JVM/mesa combination was quite the best ! Now I own and love it!

 

[Machinated]

Jens, how involved were you on Soilwork's Stabbing the Drama?

Its definitely an interesting mix, with a really unique drum and guitar sound IMO, but I think it sounds great. Do you know what guitar amps were used?

 

[Jens Bogren]

I'm sure i'm a dinosaur replying questions one by one, but what the hell..

Daniel is a very good drummer, with really good hits. Itäs a desent Premier kit, 22' kick and a Signia snare. I think i used about the same setup as i did on the Watershed album, found in an earlier post. AKG C535 for toms. There's a home made sample added to the snare that we sampled that same session, a Pearl Masterworks of some kind, 14x6,5.
The room does a lot to that sound, captured with AKG 414 EB (oldies) in omni A-B configuration, through a Drawmer 1960 pre/comp. The kick was sampled at the session and used as support. I used those samples on some other sessions as well, but i won't tell you more.

He jens, I have a question about Katatonia's The Great Cold Distance. Can you remember any details regarding the drums on that album? Everything sounds so huge and clean. What mics did you use? specifically on toms. Did you use any samples?

I love The new opeth BTW. Your work is awesome.

 

[Jens Bogren]

The bass on Ghost Reveries is a few different basses, in to an Ampeg SVT amp and a 8x10 cab. Sounded beautiful. Neumann U87, MD421, SM57 and a Di.
Egan mentioned TGCD bass, i personally love that sound. It's pretty much the same amp setup, a Warwick bass, very distinct bass player, and a stereo mic setup: One U87, one SM91 on a chair (!) and one Sansamped Di. I messed around with EQ and phase, made a hard pan L/R on the mics and had the distorted signal with very little bass in the center. I made them work in mono, and then it sounded HUGE in stereo. We also dual tracked some bass parts where the bass played without the rhythms to give it even more air.

Watershed was recorded with a Mesa Rectifier in to a 4x10 Ampeg Cab, mixed with the Di. Several mic's, don't remember.

Wow, so cool to have you Jens here with us, welcome! I admire your work, especially the stuff you have done with Opeth.

One more question for you, how did you track and mix the bass on the Opeth albums, especially "Ghost Reveries", love the bass tones on that

 

[Jens Bogren]

I just finished the last track, many of the songs are fucking great, and i'm pretty excited about the mix!

i look forward to hearing your work on the new god forbid. !!!

 

[Jens Bogren]

No, i don't think Still Life will be mixed as 2.0 again. Some people think the stereo version on that release is a new mix, but it's only a new mastering. I'm glad you like that 5.1 mix, i wasn't to convinced myself. Now the shit will hit the fan, but i don't like the sound of Still Life very much, and going back to the source tracks i could understand why. But that's almost 10 years ago, so no blame.

I've only done 1 Bloodbath album, and Michael was not involved. The latest one was done at F-Street by my employee David Castillo, and it's very possible he had a 414 in there. I used to have that, but i rarely used it much. Michael has absolutely no idea about those things, i promise you.

The Hessian Peel strings are made with only one player, overdubbing 8 times or so. Captured with a pretty close U87 and a pair of 414, A-B omni. So are the other orchestral instruments on that album.

Laney would never come close to one of my sessions, at least not for guitars.

Opeth use PRS guitars, whatever's standard on a particular guitar. Michael have one guitar (over toured by now) containing S.D. pickups. Fredrik is in love with his Gibson Black Beauty though, used a lot on the latest album for solos and leads.

A grammy would be nice.

Hello Jens, very very nice to see you on here! Your engineering is making me aware of a lot of naturalness that I had thought to be impossible to work into heavy music. You truly raised the bar with Watershed and I just picked up the new Amon Amarth. Also gorgeous work. Not to mention the Still Life 5.1 mix.

I have a few questions (aside from everyone else's questions, which I am dying to hear the answers to.

1. Is there any possibility of your 5.1 remix of Still Life being released as a stereo version *drools*

2. When I spoke with Mike A. on the Melloboat he mentioned something like he thought you used a 414 on a guitar cab during one of your bloodbath tracking sessions. Any truth in this? (He didn't seem all that positive to be honest.)

3. Your recordings of orchestral instruments are way way above par for this sort of music. Kudos to you. Do you tend to use stereo pairs or more of a close-miking approach. The strings in Hessian Peel have a dimensionality I can usually only get with an ORTF setup.

4. The guitar tone on Watershed is beautiful. How much of that is Laney and how much of that is Recto/Marshall?

5. Peavey 5150. I never hear of you using them but metal guys tend to love these things. Any comments?

6. What sort of pickups are the Opeth boys using now? Last I heard Mike was using a Duncan full shred in the bridge but I can never find anything about his neck pups.

Sorry for the barrage of questions I really think you deserve a swedish grammy for Watershed.

 

[J.DavisNJ]

Thanks for the replies Jens! Much appreciated.

-Joe

 

[Jens Bogren]

TCGD and Dismantling share some similar samples, but personally i don't think i'm very consistent. I always try to work up a new sound for every album. However, i have pretty much the same taste and the same ears for every session and the same methods of working, so i guess you will hear similarities. Especially the past year, i've found some really nice samples that i might over-use at the moment. I almost always use many samples and a lot from the original snare (if it doesn't sound too shite), and create a blend that i happen to like together with the rest in a certain mix.
Sometimes i wish i just wouldn't care about the natural feel and dynamic of drums, and make my life easy as many other metal producers do.

@The Broodwich

Welcome Jens.. my only question to you is how you get your snare sounds? There's a fairly similar sound album-to-album (Great Cold Distance, Dismantling Devotion, Still Life..not so much Watershed). I've heard you use a lot of samples too. Can you offer insight?

 

[Jens Bogren]

Hi Egan!

I posted this above, but as far as i remember there's no doubled bass lines with synth. I've heard about that trick though, and used it at some point.

Hey Jens,
Glad you decided to stop by.
I thought I'd ask you to expand on the stereo bass recording you told me about for TGCD record. I think that had a big impact on the guitars for that record and is also really creative and different. I believe you also doubled a lot of the bass lines with synth too. Any further info would be awesome.
thanks!

 

[Jens Bogren]

Sorry for my late replies, too much to do this month!!

I think i shared some tips here above, but other than that make the drummer hit like a god, and make sure you tune that damn snare all the time! Never settled for the first snare you try, try them all before you decide. 57 on top, and my new fave for bottom is actually Beta57. Parallell compression on the drums is a must, and sometimes additional parallell compression on only the snare, or on a sample. The room will make a huge difference, if you don't have that possibility you can use room samples (not sample reverb), it have saved me a lot of times when i get external stuff to mix.

I think we scared him off

Jens, if you only have time to answer one question, please tell us how you handle you snares. Everyone and their mother loves your snare sound and it would be a shame if you didn't get around to giving us free tips *cough* sharing your findings with us. Are we in consensus, everyone?

 

[Jens Bogren]

Japanese Hospitals, that was a metafor for "as sterile as it gets". Use that amp with your Ibanez and you can do surgery. (No offense to our Asian friends!! Engl is after all German, i think.)

Barefoot MM27 is a great monitor, but almost too great. It's not as great as a lying Genelec, but it won't automatically make my mix sound great in my NS10's. When i mixed in KRK V8's the NS10's always agreed more or less. However the MM27 is great, and very able for mastering as well, something V8 had a problem with. And i don't spend that much time fighting "ghost" frequencies only heard in the V8's. So together with NS10 i'm more happy now. However, if i would recommend you a completely non-flattering monitor that will get the job done almost for free, it would be KRK V8 series 1.

I always had a feeling that you didn't let the Ghost Reveries drum sound go 100% willingly. The standard of drum sounds you've set on many other releases you've done have been higher, in my opinion too.

Thank you for sharing those tidbits of info. What do you mean about the Savage 120 sounding like it's designed for Japanese Hospitals? I don't know if that's some Swedish slang I'm not getting here in outback land...

What I'm curious about is, how do you find tracking and mixing on Barefoot MM27s? I hear tell that they're about as accurate a speaker as you can find available right now.