The swedish magazine "Studio" has a series where they interview the producer and artist behind an album and ask them to track by track explain whats going on. So, they talked to Robert Laghi and the guys in IF and got a laydown of whats going on on the album. And I thought I would write it out for anyone who might be interested!
The album was recorded in IF studios, formally Studio Fredman. Producing was Robert Laghi (Drums and Bass, some guitars) and Daniel Bergstrand (Vocals)
The example in question is "Abnegation" (The real version, not the myspace demo!)
Track 1: Kick
RL (Robert Laghi): Yamaha subkick...
Track 2: Kick
RL... in combination with channel 2 where we have a Shure SM91 inside of the bassdrum where we get both highs and lows. The subkick is great becuse you don't have to tweak the bottom end, it's already there.
And if you place the mics right, there is very little leakage between them. The SM91 doesn't sound like to much fun with it's high end but this combination is great! The subkick isn't tweaked at all, but you can't. The SM91 goes thru a Neumann W491 4 band EQ.
Track 3: Soundreplacer Kick
Track 4: Trigger Kick
RL: We didn't really need the triggers for the soundreplacer but sometimes the drums leak so much that the plug-in misstriggered, so I have it as a pre-caution on kick and snare.
Track 5-7: Snare
RL: The snare has a pretty special character separate from the rest of the kit. Here I put three mics. First a Shure SM7 that takes care of attack and highs, it's pretty close to the edge and has some ring to it, and as a bottom mic a Shure Beta56. Then I put a AKG C451, which is really an OH mic, to get more "body" aimed straight in from the toms. Usually you'll only have two mics on a snare, but it can pay off to have another if you're looking for a certain quality to the snare.
Track 8: Soundreplacer Snare
(He talks briefly on how the have another guy to do the soundreplacing for them, and to make sure every hit is exactly right)
RL... and there's no question of other sounds. It's all just samples from Daniels kit, one kick, one of each tom, and three snares that he has to work with.
Track 9: Trigger Snare
Track 10-18: Toms
RL: Sennheiser 421, one on each tom. First you try every mic on the market, then you go back to the 421. They are especially easy when you start to EQ. It feels like it's the right stuff that comes along. By themselves they can sound a bit woody, but through the API550's you can get exactly what you want. The toms also have soundreplacer channels, but no triggers.
Track 19: Hi-Hat
RL: I got one directive from Anders in the beggining, and that was: "Get me a deftones hihat". Björn was standing next to the kit and was moving the mic. He started above it, and moved it until it sounded good, and then it was under the hat. It's not supposed to work, but it did. All we had to do was find the right phase, and then rock. Here is another AKG C451. I always use a dynamic mic on the hats but this turned out really good. Now we got the attack and the nice shimmer as a contrast to the toms. It fit the kit.
Track 20: Ride
RL: A Shure 57 on the ride. The mic is bellow the bell, really close, to enforce. If you only use OHs, there is a chance you might lose the bell.
Track 21-22: Overheads
RL: A stereo pair Telefunken M221 B tube mics that have been pointed outwards to the different cymbal "islands" plus a Neumann U47 FET which I usually have in the middle, ponting straight down into the snare. In it you get a mono drumkit that is also really useful for whoever mixes it.
Track 23: (Stereo) Overheads
RL: The contrast of the OHs have been a pair of old Bang & Olufsen mics down by the floor on each side of the kick, pretty close, pointed upwards.
If you solo the tracks it can sound a bit weird, kick in one and bottom snare in the other, but when you mix it with the other stuff it gets really buff. The OHs get the highs, while the B&O mic get the fatness from the cymbals and adds.
Track 24: (Stereo) Ambiens
RL: Here is a pair of Royer R-122s aiming at the floor out in the room. There is no point in having the mics far away from eachother, it will only get weird in the stereo picture. These mics we just went around with in the room until we found were they sounded best and for some reason that was when they pointed to the floor. Then you didn't have to deal with the cymbals and got a pretty nice warmth to it.
Track 25-28: Bass
RL: The codeword was tractor, and if you listen to channel 28 thats what it sounds like. Here is the Ampeg 8x10 cab with an SM57, one channel AKG 414 plus the split line signal. The mic channels are kinda distorted but if you put the tractor down it glues really good with the guitars. It amazed me how strong the bass can be. It really lifted the guitars. (See the end of the post for more information on the bass)
Track 29: (Stereo) Guitar, Vers Rythm
RL: The basic guitars were done in the small studio where Anders did vocals later. Orange Tiny Terrror through a Marshall 4x12 cab and a Peavey 5150 through a Mesa 4x12. A regular cheap ADK-mic on the Marshall cab and a SM7 on the Mesa cab. The guitars was a Gibson Les Paul Custom that went through a API A2D mic preamp.
Track 30: (Stereo) Guitar, Vers Dub
RL: Then we moved into the big studio and then it was a Mashall JCM 800 KK Signature through a Mesa 4x12. The mics where a Shure SM7 in one of the top speakers and a Royer R-122 in one of the lower. The SM7 has the edge, and the Royer the body. Guitars where just Gibson Les Paul Custom and on these takes we used Ward Beck and Amek preamps.
Track 31-32: Guitar, Vers Dub
RL: Dub on the verses with the Marshall and the 5150. We wanted it distorted, but not overly fuzzy. Alot of strings. Percussive. More meat than metal. Manly. The combination was that we used a Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes, which brings out alot of string. You can place it further back, sonicly, and it still cuts through. Here it's a Gibson Les Paul Baritone, and all the dubs have been the Mesa cab.
BG: (Björn Gelotte) It's been awesome. We always try a bunch of cabs, but we end up using the Mesa for almost everything. Then we didn't use that much distorsion either, and not as much volume. It's more that it's hard as fuck. But it's the combination and thats why we layer, one guitar brings out the strings and the other meats it up.
Track 33-34: Guitar, Chorus
RL: Ads in the chorus that you might not pick up instantly but you would definintly notice if you took them out. It's a lot of picking in the guitars.
BG: Here it's all Marshall or Peavey. We don't always know what's what but we use what's best for the part, but we could never get the character from the guitars from just one amp. And even if the 5150 has the most possibileties, it still doesn't have everything you need.
Track 35: Guitar, Melodyfill
BG: The first wah tracks I'm doing. (It isn't really apparent if the used the Q95 or the Dimebag Wah). Cut with an MXR Dime Distorsion, alot of narrow Qs, a bit weird to tweak and the only take that it's used on the album. Normally we put melodies on stereo tracks, but now we have more time.
Track 36-37: Guitarsolo, Harmonies
RL: Here it's the Dimebag Wah and the MXR EQ, which is good if you want to cut something out from the wall of guitars.
Track 38-41: Guitars, Interlude
RL: All AC30 (Vox). It's been working hard. Some of the dubs have the Vibrato. That's probably what gives the chorus feel. The AC30 is great, becuse you can do so much with it.
BG: This one is actually modded with a master volume, so you can do alot of different voicings with it.
Track 42-43: Vocals, Lead
AF: (Anders Fridén) It's a dubbed lead on the verses where the other one is supporting below, maybe 4db,to thicken it a bit. Alot of throat, alot of stomach and alot of distorsion. (I have a feeling he means distortion as in singing harsch, not actual distortion)
Track 44-45: (Stereo)
AF: Choir-package. One high on two channels and one low and two channels. Widened. Daniel (Bergstrand) brings out the vibrato so it colours the sound a bit. Bigger, wider and catchy.
Track 46: Vocals Lead Chorus
Track 47: Vocals Lead Chorus Dub
Track 48: Vocals Lead Chorus Harmony
So that's it! A great album, and a really unique sound. Some details that didn't really get explained in this section was that Anders used a Nuemann u47 for the vocals, through a Daking preamp and a API EQ, which went through a Distressor then down on the harddrive. "At first I was going to use the SM7 for all the rough singing but we used the u47 straight through. I just changed distance to the mic depending on vocal style."
Also, regarding the bass, it was tracked with an Ibanez SR-1005 into an Ampeg SVT3 Pro with a SVT cab. The line signal went through a MXR Dime Distortion and then to an Ashdown head, which "really only amplified the distortion" and then into a 1x12 isocab miced with an SM57. That signal was then processed though a API 560 to "thin the distortion a bit, so that it wouldn't interfere with the sound of the cab."
When Mr. Laghi was asked if he didn't think that this was a bit over ambitious, he replied "It is, but it's necessary." So if you're tracking bass with just a DI with a SansAmp or something, just kill yourself right away!
The album was recorded in IF studios, formally Studio Fredman. Producing was Robert Laghi (Drums and Bass, some guitars) and Daniel Bergstrand (Vocals)
The example in question is "Abnegation" (The real version, not the myspace demo!)
Track 1: Kick
RL (Robert Laghi): Yamaha subkick...
Track 2: Kick
RL... in combination with channel 2 where we have a Shure SM91 inside of the bassdrum where we get both highs and lows. The subkick is great becuse you don't have to tweak the bottom end, it's already there.
And if you place the mics right, there is very little leakage between them. The SM91 doesn't sound like to much fun with it's high end but this combination is great! The subkick isn't tweaked at all, but you can't. The SM91 goes thru a Neumann W491 4 band EQ.
Track 3: Soundreplacer Kick
Track 4: Trigger Kick
RL: We didn't really need the triggers for the soundreplacer but sometimes the drums leak so much that the plug-in misstriggered, so I have it as a pre-caution on kick and snare.
Track 5-7: Snare
RL: The snare has a pretty special character separate from the rest of the kit. Here I put three mics. First a Shure SM7 that takes care of attack and highs, it's pretty close to the edge and has some ring to it, and as a bottom mic a Shure Beta56. Then I put a AKG C451, which is really an OH mic, to get more "body" aimed straight in from the toms. Usually you'll only have two mics on a snare, but it can pay off to have another if you're looking for a certain quality to the snare.
Track 8: Soundreplacer Snare
(He talks briefly on how the have another guy to do the soundreplacing for them, and to make sure every hit is exactly right)
RL... and there's no question of other sounds. It's all just samples from Daniels kit, one kick, one of each tom, and three snares that he has to work with.
Track 9: Trigger Snare
Track 10-18: Toms
RL: Sennheiser 421, one on each tom. First you try every mic on the market, then you go back to the 421. They are especially easy when you start to EQ. It feels like it's the right stuff that comes along. By themselves they can sound a bit woody, but through the API550's you can get exactly what you want. The toms also have soundreplacer channels, but no triggers.
Track 19: Hi-Hat
RL: I got one directive from Anders in the beggining, and that was: "Get me a deftones hihat". Björn was standing next to the kit and was moving the mic. He started above it, and moved it until it sounded good, and then it was under the hat. It's not supposed to work, but it did. All we had to do was find the right phase, and then rock. Here is another AKG C451. I always use a dynamic mic on the hats but this turned out really good. Now we got the attack and the nice shimmer as a contrast to the toms. It fit the kit.
Track 20: Ride
RL: A Shure 57 on the ride. The mic is bellow the bell, really close, to enforce. If you only use OHs, there is a chance you might lose the bell.
Track 21-22: Overheads
RL: A stereo pair Telefunken M221 B tube mics that have been pointed outwards to the different cymbal "islands" plus a Neumann U47 FET which I usually have in the middle, ponting straight down into the snare. In it you get a mono drumkit that is also really useful for whoever mixes it.
Track 23: (Stereo) Overheads
RL: The contrast of the OHs have been a pair of old Bang & Olufsen mics down by the floor on each side of the kick, pretty close, pointed upwards.
If you solo the tracks it can sound a bit weird, kick in one and bottom snare in the other, but when you mix it with the other stuff it gets really buff. The OHs get the highs, while the B&O mic get the fatness from the cymbals and adds.
Track 24: (Stereo) Ambiens
RL: Here is a pair of Royer R-122s aiming at the floor out in the room. There is no point in having the mics far away from eachother, it will only get weird in the stereo picture. These mics we just went around with in the room until we found were they sounded best and for some reason that was when they pointed to the floor. Then you didn't have to deal with the cymbals and got a pretty nice warmth to it.
Track 25-28: Bass
RL: The codeword was tractor, and if you listen to channel 28 thats what it sounds like. Here is the Ampeg 8x10 cab with an SM57, one channel AKG 414 plus the split line signal. The mic channels are kinda distorted but if you put the tractor down it glues really good with the guitars. It amazed me how strong the bass can be. It really lifted the guitars. (See the end of the post for more information on the bass)
Track 29: (Stereo) Guitar, Vers Rythm
RL: The basic guitars were done in the small studio where Anders did vocals later. Orange Tiny Terrror through a Marshall 4x12 cab and a Peavey 5150 through a Mesa 4x12. A regular cheap ADK-mic on the Marshall cab and a SM7 on the Mesa cab. The guitars was a Gibson Les Paul Custom that went through a API A2D mic preamp.
Track 30: (Stereo) Guitar, Vers Dub
RL: Then we moved into the big studio and then it was a Mashall JCM 800 KK Signature through a Mesa 4x12. The mics where a Shure SM7 in one of the top speakers and a Royer R-122 in one of the lower. The SM7 has the edge, and the Royer the body. Guitars where just Gibson Les Paul Custom and on these takes we used Ward Beck and Amek preamps.
Track 31-32: Guitar, Vers Dub
RL: Dub on the verses with the Marshall and the 5150. We wanted it distorted, but not overly fuzzy. Alot of strings. Percussive. More meat than metal. Manly. The combination was that we used a Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes, which brings out alot of string. You can place it further back, sonicly, and it still cuts through. Here it's a Gibson Les Paul Baritone, and all the dubs have been the Mesa cab.
BG: (Björn Gelotte) It's been awesome. We always try a bunch of cabs, but we end up using the Mesa for almost everything. Then we didn't use that much distorsion either, and not as much volume. It's more that it's hard as fuck. But it's the combination and thats why we layer, one guitar brings out the strings and the other meats it up.
Track 33-34: Guitar, Chorus
RL: Ads in the chorus that you might not pick up instantly but you would definintly notice if you took them out. It's a lot of picking in the guitars.
BG: Here it's all Marshall or Peavey. We don't always know what's what but we use what's best for the part, but we could never get the character from the guitars from just one amp. And even if the 5150 has the most possibileties, it still doesn't have everything you need.
Track 35: Guitar, Melodyfill
BG: The first wah tracks I'm doing. (It isn't really apparent if the used the Q95 or the Dimebag Wah). Cut with an MXR Dime Distorsion, alot of narrow Qs, a bit weird to tweak and the only take that it's used on the album. Normally we put melodies on stereo tracks, but now we have more time.
Track 36-37: Guitarsolo, Harmonies
RL: Here it's the Dimebag Wah and the MXR EQ, which is good if you want to cut something out from the wall of guitars.
Track 38-41: Guitars, Interlude
RL: All AC30 (Vox). It's been working hard. Some of the dubs have the Vibrato. That's probably what gives the chorus feel. The AC30 is great, becuse you can do so much with it.
BG: This one is actually modded with a master volume, so you can do alot of different voicings with it.
Track 42-43: Vocals, Lead
AF: (Anders Fridén) It's a dubbed lead on the verses where the other one is supporting below, maybe 4db,to thicken it a bit. Alot of throat, alot of stomach and alot of distorsion. (I have a feeling he means distortion as in singing harsch, not actual distortion)
Track 44-45: (Stereo)
AF: Choir-package. One high on two channels and one low and two channels. Widened. Daniel (Bergstrand) brings out the vibrato so it colours the sound a bit. Bigger, wider and catchy.
Track 46: Vocals Lead Chorus
Track 47: Vocals Lead Chorus Dub
Track 48: Vocals Lead Chorus Harmony
So that's it! A great album, and a really unique sound. Some details that didn't really get explained in this section was that Anders used a Nuemann u47 for the vocals, through a Daking preamp and a API EQ, which went through a Distressor then down on the harddrive. "At first I was going to use the SM7 for all the rough singing but we used the u47 straight through. I just changed distance to the mic depending on vocal style."
Also, regarding the bass, it was tracked with an Ibanez SR-1005 into an Ampeg SVT3 Pro with a SVT cab. The line signal went through a MXR Dime Distortion and then to an Ashdown head, which "really only amplified the distortion" and then into a 1x12 isocab miced with an SM57. That signal was then processed though a API 560 to "thin the distortion a bit, so that it wouldn't interfere with the sound of the cab."
When Mr. Laghi was asked if he didn't think that this was a bit over ambitious, he replied "It is, but it's necessary." So if you're tracking bass with just a DI with a SansAmp or something, just kill yourself right away!
