What does Foo Fighters got that I ain't got???

[thisisntglen]

Originally Posted by huarez

I wonder that nobody mentioned the studio acoustics of the environment where the album has been tracked and mixed. Without well balanced signals from great sounding sources you can twiddle your plugin knobs to death, you won´t come close.

Right on. Though probably most people in the thread simply assumed it, it should be mentioned at length. No matter where you record, no matter how much you isolate, the way air moves and reacts in an environment WILL be recorded permanently into your sound. The idea of a great sound BEFORE you record is essential to a killer recording, or in other words, garbage in, garbage out.

So, gear and room acoustics aside, what can you do to "better up" your signals? Try rolling off below 30ish Hz on all non-lowend signals (guitar, keys, vox, etc)...this really does alot to give your low end room to breathe. Next, coincidentally eq you lw end sources, i.e. you like the sound of your kick with boosted 80hz (don't we all), so dip the 80 on the bass guitar. Getting your low end to sit and be phase free is one of the most important elements of a mix.

[8th_note]

I wonder that nobody mentioned the studio acoustics of the environment where the album has been tracked and mixed.

The reason I didn't mention it is because the guitars on Everlong sound very close miced to me. I don't think there's a whole lotta room in that recording. Everlong sounds like a typical "in your face" rock recording to me where everything but the drums are close miced and brought up front.

I've never understood the whole mistique about the room. Guitars and bass cabs are usually close miced. Most professional studios have a vocal booth that is dead, dead, dead. That leaves the drums. I agree that with minimal micing on the drums the room is very important. In my case I have an average room so I close mic the drums and bring the overheads as close in as I can. I normally record with 8 to 12 channels on a drum kit. Then I use reverb and delay to get the sound I want.

I've been able to get around the handicap of not having a great sounding room and I've heard great recordings from other studios that I know do not have excellent sounding rooms. I would really argue the point that to get a recording like Everlong you have to have a wonderful sounding room. If you're talking a live jazz ensemble, then that's a different story.

[Doctor Ox]

anyone know what guitar amp was used to record the Colour and the Shape?

[ryanojohn]

I read that a good amount of the leads were done on a mini marshall with a 57...

[LaLaFaV]

Originally Posted by max cooper

Dave didn't play on two songs, but it's instantly obvious. I don't remember which two they are, but they're not hits or anything.

"February Stars" is the masterpiece of that record.

William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate/The Fire Theft, first Foo drummer before Taylor replaced him) played drums on the first track "Doll". He also played on the 6th track, "Up in Arms" on the slow tempo intro until the little break where the fast drum fill comes in and the fast tempo starts. That's where Dave starts playing. The rest of the album is Dave Grohl playing.

[s00p3rm4n]

Doctor Grohl overdubbed guitar tracks up to (no shit) a hundred times on this album, or so he's said in interviews. This was the album he learned to play guitar parts identically down to the millisecond. The follow up to this record - There is Nothing Left to Lose (my favorite Foo record) - was a breeze in comparison. They intentionally did far less overdubbing and ProTools craziness.

It's musicianship, it's acoustics of the rooms. It's also arrangements in concert with mixing - notice that a lot of the guitar parts are not super-complicated, and they're not distorted enough that sludge and overtones can overcrowd the musical idea of each chord.

And yes, the Foos are magnificent live.

[rectifier]

Originally Posted by Doctor Ox

anyone know what guitar amp was used to record the Colour and the Shape?

Would also like to know this - please chime in if someone knows (I heard about the mini marshall too but I think it was only used for icings on da cake)

Just put on colour and the shape again - wow what a record.. sounds enormous and musical 10 years on (my god 10 years now)

[tuflek]

And the bass player is great.

[slaves666]

I attended a Grammy soundtable at last years NAMM with Nick Rasculinecz, who produced 2 Foo fighters records....He told me about tracking the 1st record at a cabin in the woods, putting sleeping blankets on the walls and such.....and he loved the tone. The next record he did was in Foo fighters own studio, and he said that he couldn't tell the difference between the 2. He also said that his goto vocal compressor is a DBX 160a, he uses it on EVERY record, Stone Sour, Foo's....with a Martech preamp....with an u47.

In the end we all know it comes down to musicianship; good players record well. If it's captured well, the less work it takes to make it sound good. Which is kinda weird cuz the best producers obviously produce the best bands, but the work load is less....less drum editing, less autotuning, less working on arrangements, less work on harmonies......and in the end, a great band sounds just like that, a great band.....Neve, SSL, API, who cares....it'll sound good.