JENS BOGREN - my new hero

[Jens Bogren]

Not as involved as i wished! That album is great, and a very unique sound as you say. Daniel Bergstrand is the brain behind that, and he just has the strangest way of working. Sometimes it REALLY works, but perhaps not always, he's pretty depending on the band. He might argue though. The drums were made at his place, the rest at mine. Mesa Dual Rectifier and MF400 for the guitars, miced with Royer 121 and Neumann TLM 127. The bass is Sansamp only, more or less. The snare sound is pretty much only the SOUND of a D-Drum trigger mic, one top and one bottom, and perhaps the best metal drummer ever. I hope i don't reveal any secrets here, but i've seen this info elsewhere as well, so i think i'm safe.

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?

 

[Machinated]

Thanks Jens!

I agree that sometimes Bergstrands mixes come out better than others. From what I have read Soilwork are REALLY prepared when they go into record, and they are all pretty incredible players so that must really help things. I'd love to see them work with you as producer, I think it would result in something really cool. I wouldn't have guessed that those guitars were a DR, I'm guessing the Neumann was responsible for that high end sizzle on the guitars.

You seem to use the Rectifiers a lot, do you boost them with anything before hitting the amp? I find whenever I work with rectifiers I have to, to tidy things up in terms of clarity and low end.

 

[KeithTidd]

Great thread.

I have another question for you jens; How do you approach drum recording? I've seen some of the videos of opeth at your studio and it seems like you tent off the kick with blankets. I find when i'm tracking drums i always try to gobo off the kick so it stays out of my room mics. Also how do you treat room mics? do you compress them hard, filter out the hi end? I'm really curious to hear how you do it. Also how do you go about adding samples to the drums, do you replace the hits one by one? It always sounds very meticulous and I usually can't tell that samples are even being used.

 

[Gustavo_Loureiro]

Thanks Jens! This thread is pure gold

 

[Jens Bogren]

Rectifiers are funny: When you solo listen them they sound pretty week, strange, not metal at all. But they just have this random harmonic structure that make them glue in to any mix. That's what's so dangerous with a Pod: you can make them sound pretty impressive on it's own, but together with the rest in a mix it will never work that well. Sometimes i kick the signal with a tube screamer (the maxon OD808, i think i'm sort of endorsed), but more for lead guitars. A fresh set of tubes is really important, and the right cab. The Road King is pretty impressive where you can change tubes and try different combos on the fly. The really old Dual Rectifier sounds probably better most of the times though.

Someone asked if i use 5150. The first version is pretty descent, but i haven't used them much. There's something in there i don't like.

A good "replacement" for Mesa would be Krank, it's pretty unpolished and random, but tighter than Mesa. For tight sounds and complex riffing i usually go with Engl.

You seem to use the Rectifiers a lot, do you boost them with anything before hitting the amp? I find whenever I work with rectifiers I have to, to tidy things up in terms of clarity and low end.

 

[Splat88]

Jens, this is ridiculously cool of you to take the time to answer all these questions. You're in my top 3 favorite producers along with Terry Date and Mr. Sneap himself so to have access to information from someone like you is a gift. Every time I listen to The Great Cold Distance, I slip into a deep depression because I want to achieve that sound so bad but I know I will never get anywhere close.

I have one question regarding parallel compression on drums that I would love to have answered if you've got the time, of course.

I know you said you parallel compress the entire kit along with additional parallel compression of the snare by itself. When you parallel comp the entire kit, are you compressing the entire drum bus or are you bussing out kick, snare, toms and overheads at individual send levels to the parallel compressor? This is something that's just killing me right now.

Also, correct me if my comp settings are wrong. I usually use the fastest attack time possible, 10:1 ratio, 50ms release and set threshold to be about -12dbs on kick and snare hits. Is this a good place to start?

Thanks again for all you help and good luck to you.

 

[axeman720]

Rectifiers are funny: When you solo listen them they sound pretty week, strange, not metal at all. But they just have this random harmonic structure that make them glue in to any mix. That's what's so dangerous with a Pod: you can make them sound pretty impressive on it's own, but together with the rest in a mix it will never work that well. Sometimes i kick the signal with a tube screamer (the maxon OD808, i think i'm sort of endorsed), but more for lead guitars. A fresh set of tubes is really important, and the right cab. The Road King is pretty impressive where you can change tubes and try different combos on the fly. The really old Dual Rectifier sounds probably better most of the times though.

Someone asked if i use 5150. The first version is pretty descent, but i haven't used them much. There's something in there i don't like.

A good "replacement" for Mesa would be Krank, it's pretty unpolished and random, but tighter than Mesa. For tight sounds and complex riffing i usually go with Engl.

I couldnt agree more! Rectifiers especially can really steer the direction of a mix. And yes i've also heard some rev1's that sound very similar to the older rectifiers.

 

[Exocaster]

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

Really... That's very cool. The dirty bass tone peeking out from under the guitars on Heir Apparent is very cool. There's a couple points on there where it makes me think of the creaking timbers of an old sailing ship in a storm, lurching forward. Weird mental image maybe, but it's a very evocative sounding record.

Thank you for taking the time to share all this with us, Jens. These are fantastic sounding albums, and insight into their creation is very much appreciated.

 

[lordcthulhu]

Wow, what can I say. Thanks Jens!!!

 

[Ermz]

Thank you very much for being so forward with all that information.

I just have one more question, more of a clarification if anything. When you use the Royer 121 on guitar cabs, is it more of an ambience mic or close-mic?

Cheers man. I hope you decide to stick around even after getting through this swarm of questions

 

[The-Zeronaut]

I have one question regarding parallel compression on drums that I would love to have answered if you've got the time, of course.

I know you said you parallel compress the entire kit along with additional parallel compression of the snare by itself. When you parallel comp the entire kit, are you compressing the entire drum bus or are you bussing out kick, snare, toms and overheads at individual send levels to the parallel compressor? This is something that's just killing me right now.

Also, correct me if my comp settings are wrong. I usually use the fastest attack time possible, 10:1 ratio, 50ms release and set threshold to be about -12dbs on kick and snare hits. Is this a good place to start?

Thanks again for all you help and good luck to you.

Yeah , i want to know that too!!!!!!

 

[abyssofdreams]

I know you said you parallel compress the entire kit along with additional parallel compression of the snare by itself. When you parallel comp the entire kit, are you compressing the entire drum bus or are you bussing out kick, snare, toms and overheads at individual send levels to the parallel compressor? This is something that's just killing me right now.
.

I was wondering that too but what exactly is the difference between a drum bus and a group bus sending each track aux to?

 

[Ermz]

Essentially nothing. One simply gives you more control over how much level of each set of drums you want to be sending to the compressor. The problem tends to be that overheads can lose their imaging if they're sent along with the entire kit and you tend to lose clarity up at the high end if you slam them down really hard.

 

[Splat88]

Yeah, if I had to guess, I would say that he's individually aux sending out the OHs at a much lower level to the parallel compressor instead of slamming all the kit pieces equally and bringing that up alongside the uncompressed tracks. Every time I compress the entire group equally, the cymbals turn to garbage, even with high frequency attenuation. My guess could be completely wrong though, and that's what I'm dying to find out!

 

[Ermz]

One large aspect of parallel compression, Splatt, is that it only works 'properly' with outboard gear. I think us here who are trying our best with the Waves SSL Gcomp or whatever, are struggling up a mountain, because it doesn't provide all the desirable characteristics of true outboard parallel. The GearSlutz folk all seem pretty adamant about that.

 

[Sloan]

Awesome thread, thanks for posting Jens, very appreciated!

 

[Kazrog]

Jens, I want to say thanks for coming here and sharing this info with us. I'm a huge fan of your work, like many others here.

 

[vespiz]

So much great info, thanks Jens!

One thing that I really like about your work is the sense of space, especially when it comes to drums and how balanced your mixes sound. It's hard-hitting and massive, yet so clear and (dare I say it?) hi-fi. I've been using TGCD as a reference and for adjusting my listening environment for a while now.

(PS. I contacted you earlier for the possibility of mixing our upcoming album. Makes we really wish we could have had the budget, but, alas, it's barely enough for tracking and mastering, the rest is done by.. me. Although I do get my share of the cut! Sorry for derailing the topic!!)

 

[Toni S.]

Jens, thank you so much for taking the time to answer all these questions for us. The info is really helpful!

One more question for ya: how do you usually record acoustic guitars? what mics, mic position etc. I just love the acoustics in the Opeth albums you have done, so I am really interested in hearing how you get that sound.

Thanks!

 

[Metaltastic]

One large aspect of parallel compression, Splatt, is that it only works 'properly' with outboard gear. I think us here who are trying our best with the Waves SSL Gcomp or whatever, are struggling up a mountain, because it doesn't provide all the desirable characteristics of true outboard parallel. The GearSlutz folk all seem pretty adamant about that.

Umm...why? I'm sure the majority of people and info on Gearslutz are skilled and know what they're talking about, but when I hear things like "you can only do this with this ridiculously expensive outboard thing (from Buttfuckistan)," I instinctively go :Smug:

And Jens, dude, absolutely incredible responses, thank you so much! I'm surprised that you say you'd never use a Laney on your recordings, cuz on the Ghost Reveries info on the Opeth website, it says that they were used on the album, but I guess Mike had to do that for his endorsement or something!

And now you've officially made me want a Rectifier, if most of your tones have been achieved with it! And speaking of which, is there any Hughes and Kettner that I'm hearing on the last two Amon Amarth records (they were big endorsees of the company up until recently), or is that all Rectifier as well?