So Much for Sounding Big - How to Get A Good *Small* Sound? (e.g. Reznor)

[lanervoza]

I've been listening to a lot of NIN recently, and am continually amazed by the production on every level. The drums sound huge ("The Collector" in particular), the guitars like knives ("The Day The Whole World Went Away", "We're In This Together Now"), the bass is the most powerful I've ever heard ("Only"), and the synth programming is phenomenal ("Suck"). Not to mention the entire Downward Spiral Album as one that is terribly dense, yet still coherent.

But, sometimes it's not about being in-yer-face, clearly. There are plenty of tracks where sounding small is way more effective than sounding big. Guitar solo on "Ruiner", a few parts in "The Wretched" and everything in the first half of "Right Where it Belongs."

I've also noticed a pattern in the piano sounds - none of them are typical concert piano sounds. They are limited in frequency and dynamic range. The pianos in particular are consistently small sounding, but they fit.

So the question is, do you ever go for the small sounds? If so, how? Do you use an inferior sample to start (or lesser quality input chain)? Or do you take a good sample, and mangle it? Cutting back in volume is an obvious beginning, but I imagine there could be some fun tricks with reverb, EQ, and distortion.

Please discuss, and have fun :)

Alex

[chandlersonic]

Start experimenting with mic placement, so much can be done by just slightly changing the position of a mic.
For the thin lo'fi sounds à la NIN, it's really all about experimenting, trying out a lot of outboard gear to see what fits what you're looking for. Along side my high end analog gear, I have some really cheap stuff that I use for this kind of effect. Reamping can sometimes be very interesting, using some of those tiny 1W amps, you can get some pretty trippy sounds. Using excessive amounts of Eq might also get you where you want.

Take your time, try everything you can, I've read interviews where Reznor describes the recording process of his albums, it seems he's always trying out new stuff, creating new sounds. In this kind of music the composition of sounds is almost as important as the musical composition itself.

Remember too that in the end, the most important thing is the source you're recording, so if you want a small piano sound, just get a small sounding piano, check out some cheap pianos or or toy pianos, that might be exactly what you're looking for, Eels does it very well too , they have the coolest toy piano sounds ( you might want to check out their stuff too, not at all the same kind of music but interesting sound ideas ). You might also want to check out some cheap synthesizers, look around and you'll come across some really awesome sounds.

So experiment experiment experiment that's all I can say and try to keep in mind that it's sometimes better not to overdo some of these effects for different reasons. First, in this genre of music there is often a thin line between a mix and absolute chaos, you want to get close to that but it still has to be clean. Secondly, the small/wall of sound effect has been done so many times, that it's better to use it when the music really calls for it, because it can become ( IMO ) very boring and repetitive, you don't want your music to be predictable.

Hope this helps a little.

[doorknocker]

A great plug-in for 'instant small' and general 'weight-loss' EQing is the GRM Tools BandPass. I use it all the time, mostly in very subtle ways but it's excellent for making say a regular piano sound small and boxy.

[chandlersonic]

I'll have to check that plug out, sounds cool.