Daniel Bergstrand, recording and mixing techniques

[SLy_drums]

Do you know some secrets about the man ?
He recorded and mixed a lots of great metal albums from bands like IN FLAMES, SOILWORK, DARKANE, THE DUSKFALL, BEHEMOTH, SCARVE, RAISED FIST...

Do you have some infos ?
I know he has his own recording and mixing techniques, and what I could see from the sessions photos, his micing technique isn't very common.

[SLy_drums]

bounce

[SMT]

I saw a pic once and noticed that he uses tube mics on the OH´s. He pretty much has a mic for every cymbal...
I think some of his work sounds really strange. Some In Flames albums sounds terrible... Like the "Soundtrack.." one. Reeeally strange OH´s and toms...


Fredman is THE man if we´re talking about Swedish metal productions imo!!

[dirren]

Originally Posted by SMT

I think some of his work sounds really strange.

absolutely brutal productions. BUT a bit too much copy/paste/grid-aligned for my taste. swedish metal productions are reaching boyband production heaven IMO.



/Matt

[Eaglecastle]

He uses ribbon mics that he place pretty close, one for each cymbal. With ribbons you can get closer to the cymbals without making them sound harsh. This way he get good separation and detail.

A trig mic is probably used (as it sound by itself) to give the snare a more snappy transient. If you're familiar with how a trig mic sounds, you could actually hear it on some of the recordings.

What really make his sound stand out is the characteristic drumambience IMO, and he is certainly not afraid of using it.

[lomky]

Originally Posted by Eaglecastle

He uses ribbon mics that he place pretty close, one for each cymbal. With ribbons you can get closer to the cymbals without making them sound harsh. This way he get good separation and detail.

A trig mic is probably used (as it sound by itself) to give the snare a more snappy transient. If you're familiar with how a trig mic sounds, you could actually hear it on some of the recordings.

What really make his sound stand out is the characteristic drumambience IMO, and he is certainly not afraid of using it.

And those guitars on the new Raised Fist, mmm, crunchy!!

[SLy_drums]

Great technical info here !

It seems he doesn't trigger the drums, use a lots of ambience mics, and likes to capture each cymbal's own sound with a ribbon or tube mic.

I really enjoy what he does, and I know he works a lot on the arrangements too.

[gyr.]

Originally Posted by Eaglecastle

He uses ribbon mics that he place pretty close, one for each cymbal. With ribbons you can get closer to the cymbals without making them sound harsh. This way he get good separation and detail.

A trig mic is probably used (as it sound by itself) to give the snare a more snappy transient. If you're familiar with how a trig mic sounds, you could actually hear it on some of the recordings.

What really make his sound stand out is the characteristic drumambience IMO, and he is certainly not afraid of using it.

hm, bringing this thread back to life

uhm, i didn't get this part on the trig mic (however, i do notice that the snare has a somewhat trademark sound in his productions) - do you mean a regular trigger? would a ddrum do the job?
i have almost no experience with triggers in general, and have never heard of using the actual sound they produce in the mixing, so if someone could elaborate a bit on this technique?

[C_F_H_13]

Originally Posted by SLy_drums

Great technical info here !

It seems he doesn't trigger the drums......

I really enjoy what he does, and I know he works a lot on the arrangements too.

If he doesn't trigger them on input with a ddrum or something, I can garantee there's a healthy dose of replacement/enhancement later. The ribbon mic thing sounds pretty accurate though...as those records you can always hear the cymbals.

Yeah I love that stuff too. Always seems to have ballsy guitars! And the fact that he did engineering and mixing on chaosphere is so awesome as well.

[PT_geek]

The new Raised Fist album is insane. I'm obsessed with it. I would really like to know how he does Alle's vocals (mic, fx, etx). Im assuming they used 5150's for guitars. Anyone know what mics on guitar?

[gyr.]

yeah, the guitars on the new raised fist are crazy, so loud and yet not smothering the drums - altough the bass is almost non-exisiting, wich probably makes room for them... excelent sound on the whole album, i like the sound of every single instrument/drum element! especially the toms, incredibly airy sound!


on the guitars: i guess it's a lot of mics, since i saw on some photos he usually mics two cabinets, i saw sm57, some sdc, but i guess on this album he used ribbons extensivley on the guitars too, not sure how else would you get that creamy sound

and another thing... how does he avoid all the phasing issues with so much mics on the cymbals, it seems like nightmare to deal with?

[SLy_drums]

He has a great touch to his productions, sometimes maybe a little "too much" but he always tends to have his sound without sounding the same on each album.

I heard that he uses several amps (5150 on quite every album he does, Randall Cyclone, Mesa Dual Recto...) and several cabs (mostly Marshall from what I saw from the pics ?) with a bunch of mics (SM57, TLM193 on Destroy Erase Improve by Meshuggah...). I also heard that he uses noise gates everywhere when tracking the guitars.

His vocal mic is an old Soundelux U95 tube mic.

It looks like his room sounds brutal and has tons of projection. I saw some Royer mics for ambience on some pics (and also for the hihats).
And the trigger mic is there to increase the attack of the snare drum (don't know if he uses the trigger on the bass drum for the same purpose though...).
For sure the old stuff he did has lot of sound replacement, but now that he has his new studio, he uses more ambience and less of that. For example, there's absolutely no sample triggering on the album Stabbing The Drama by Soilwork, according to the drummer Dirk Verbeuren. This one was mixed on an SSL console, whereas he usually mixes on his old Soundcraft TS24.
His converters are a Mackie HDR24. Don't know if he uses some additional outboard conversion.

Gear he uses that I saw on pics : Mindprint DTC, Fatso, Distressor, Tube Tech LCA2B, a Joemeek comp, Drawmer DS201, ... and tons of racked effects.

What amazes me is the low meds he can have on the guitars, thick as hell !

[Wakena2003]

Hi, I found a drum mic setting pics of Daniel here:









Could you say what are every mic?

[blackcom]

I spent a week at Daniels studio Dug-out mixing a Susperia album. That guy is really nice....I asked him tons of questions and he more or less told me how he does everything, mics, placement, compressing, eq, mixing, a bunch of "trics", specially how he does drums...

I know it's he's experience that makes things work, but my own productions have become alot better after certain things he told me....made me realize a couple of things

You'd be suprised about some things he does with the snare...

[gko]

Originally Posted by blackcom

But my own productions have become alot better after certain things he told me....made me realize a couple of things

So? What did you realize?

Gertjan Koning

[blackcom]

Well, I was/am really into triggers/samples.... especially the bassdrum that I only ran triggers with, no mics.... and yeah, when I di'd drums it sounded "cool" but not very natural. He hated that...he hates triggers (samples) in general. He told me how to make drums sound more consistent without use of static samples.....kinda like telling the drummer to play in a certain way, and different methods to solve dynamic problems and so on. Aslo, any kind of dirt, noise and so on he can keep from the drumkit would make it sound cooler...kinda more like a "living" drumkit in a room. He's reeealy into ambient mics and he told me how to make them sound cool plus a couple of other tings....It was kinda he's philosophical view of engineering etc. He also showed me how to mix alot of stuff and how he used eq, compressors and effects on different sources, and -why- he did it that way....made me understand more about mixing and why you do certain stuff. He told me he's main goal always was to make things sound natural which is not always very common in metal.

All in all....he is a very nice guy. I was kinda superised he was willing to tell me all that stuff....

...considering my favorite albums are Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere you can imagine how cool I think this was.... and yeah, my favorite band is Meshuggah.

[Wakena2003]

and what about the guitar recording? Any trick? guitar amp?mic preamp, how many mics, what mics?

[blackcom]

I think he's only tracks two guitar tracks these days, but two different amps at the same time. TC Integrated Preamplifier -> 5150mk1 -> Marshall 4x12" GT75 -> Neuman TLM193 was one common chain I think.

[Wakena2003]

Neumann TLM on distorted guitar? No sm57?

[SLy_drums]

Great info here,

I'd love to know more about his production tricks. His drums always have a cool room sound since he works in his new studio.
I read in a Meshuggah interview that his drum room sounds very live, powerful, and it's wide so he can uses room mics.

For the guitars, I heard SM57 and TLM193 (he used this mic for the guitars on Destroy Erase Improve by Meshuggah, what an album !!). The pre should be the DTC we can see on the pics.
I also had the information that he uses multiple amps at the same time, and quite always a 5150 in the chain. He uses a noise gate between every stage of the guitar tracking.

blackcom, can you share a bit more about that kick drum trick ? I'm quite in the same situation as you, I tend to use a lot (too much) of triggering when recording metal music.

[blackcom]

Originally Posted by SLy_drums

blackcom, can you share a bit more about that kick drum trick ? I'm quite in the same situation as you, I tend to use a lot (too much) of triggering when recording metal music.

Beyerdynamic M88 TG

[SLy_drums]

Wow, a dynamic mic. On the pics I didn't see any other mics for the bass drum, except on some where I could see a "tunnel". Strange.

A question about him I've always asked myself : does he track guitars on 2 amps simultaneousely (splitter) ; then putting one take on each side ; or does he like to go like Sneap, two takes on each side ?

[Wakena2003]

I found this on the web:

Hey guys, I do love everything that comes out of the hands of Daniel.

I wondered if some of you knew what gear he uses to record and mix the bands coming to Dug Out studios in Uppsala.

I already know that he uses/used to use :


Mics :
Nady ribbons (In Flames - CC)
T-Bone SC100 (not sure, but the cymbal mics look like that on the latest Soilwork, Scarve, and In Flames...)
Oktava MKL2500 tube mics (Scarve - Irradiant ; Soilwork - Stabbing...)
TLM193 (Meshuggah guitars in DEI)
SM57 (Irradiant drums, guitars, don't know on which albums precisely)
U195 (for vocals)

Pres/DI :
Mindprint Dual Tube Channel (guitars and bass, maybe vocals ? dunno)

Console :
Soundcraft TS24 (24 mono channels)

Mixing gear :
EL8 Distressor
EL7 Fatso
Tube Tech LCA-2B
JoeMeek VC2
Roland Space Echo
Drawmer DS201 gate
DBX 160SL
Various Alesis and TC gear for FX (I guess).
TC Finalizer for vocals

Converters/DAW :
Mackie HDR24/96

I know he uses DDRUM triggers on bass drum and snare and synchronize them with noise gates.

[Wakena2003]

Here the pics:

[lydpik]

Originally Posted by Wakena2003

Hi, I found a drum mic setting pics of Daniel here:









Could you say what are every mic?

The tom microphones looks like Shure Beta 98 to me...

Is this an old picture?? I've seen other pictures were he uses AT-4041's on toms (or something similar)

So maybe the Beta 98 is something he doesn't use anymore... Or maybe it's his favorite tom mics these days...

[lydpik]

Originally Posted by Wakena2003

Here the pics:

How old are this pic's and who's the band?

[SMT]

That´s In Flames. Don´t know the year though...

[lydpik]

Originally Posted by SMT

That´s In Flames. Don´t know the year though...

Ok thanks.... But it's definitely Shure Beta 98 on those toms, or the older version just called: SM 98

That really beats me, I have never seen these mic's used in the studio before, only live.

Do you know what's inside the kick??

[lydpik]

Originally Posted by blackcom

Well, I was/am really into triggers/samples.... especially the bassdrum that I only ran triggers with, no mics.... and yeah, when I di'd drums it sounded "cool" but not very natural. He hated that...he hates triggers (samples) in general. He told me how to make drums sound more consistent without use of static samples.....kinda like telling the drummer to play in a certain way, and different methods to solve dynamic problems and so on. Aslo, any kind of dirt, noise and so on he can keep from the drumkit would make it sound cooler...kinda more like a "living" drumkit in a room. He's reeealy into ambient mics and he told me how to make them sound cool plus a couple of other tings....It was kinda he's philosophical view of engineering etc. He also showed me how to mix alot of stuff and how he used eq, compressors and effects on different sources, and -why- he did it that way....made me understand more about mixing and why you do certain stuff. He told me he's main goal always was to make things sound natural which is not always very common in metal.

All in all....he is a very nice guy. I was kinda superised he was willing to tell me all that stuff....

...considering my favorite albums are Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere you can imagine how cool I think this was.... and yeah, my favorite band is Meshuggah.

Hey. Thanks a lot for the info!! Do you recal what mike Daniel uses for his kick drum??

Peter

[fooman]

Man, I LOVE In Flames! I am a drummer, and I was honestly curious how he got his drum sound. I LOOOOOVE it. I never thought I'd run across this thread.

The drums sound so dirty, but natural. How is this achieved? By all means point out the obvious to me in case I'm missing it.

Do those guys sound like that live?