NIN Studio Equipment

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

ShockValue — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:25:06 -0700

I remember PHM was just an Oberhiem Xpander, Prophet VS, Minimoog and Emax (original 12 bit version, used to pitch things down and get nasty clock noise... awesome sounding effect). He owned a PPG before the VS, but had to sell it to pay bills. Turbosynth was used to process many samples (Really cool old Macintosh Digidesign program that way WAY ahead of it's time). After PHM the Nord Lead was his favorite, along with an OBMX prototype that is claimed to sound much better than the production models. After that, he started buying anything that looked cool... I lost track.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

carlosundergroundx — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:33:05 -0700

MKULTRAKID posted:
Logic is great, It's true purpose however, is to be a super vst to other programs.

I strongly disagree. I use Logic9 and have no need for another DAW, because
Logic can do it all. It's just a matter of workflow and preference. Also, it plays super
nice with 3rd party plugs and instruments. What's more, it's native synths are really
good, as TR has stated. It's not the arrow, but the archer that counts.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

MKULTRAKID — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:42:34 -0700

Logic is great, It's true purpose however, is to be a super vst to other programs.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Jjamesjarvinatorme — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:12:28 -0700

I just wonder why Trent uses what I can hear as two basic piano sounds, one is like an old upright western saloon style and the other a grand piano. Also was curious if any info about Fragile in Blue Ray or SACD format coming?
I personally feel his best album, and arguably the darkest was Fragile. I had never heard of him till the late 90s whe I started gettin a great sound system and read Stereophile or Absolute Sound and that Fragile was one of their to die for or deserted island albums to buy. I had a pair of German horn speakers and a Japanese minimalist CD player and worlds smallest amp. I bought the album sight unseen and I have been listening to it repeatedly for the last 15 years I guess.

I have also recently bought the social network 5.1 mix and I love it but I think the best version is the stereo mix I think the two mixes are "mixed up" on my recording. I think now instead of locking himself in a studio by himself now he has a partner now and that has to be healthier for him all in all
Jj

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

jahlljw — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:32:40 -0800

Yamaha DX7 - many of these used as controllers for the TDS era touring
Roland RD-700GX - LITS touring onward
Yamaha Baby Grand - Not sure which model, TF recordings
Yamaha stand up - Ghosts onwards
several treated cheap standup pianos - GWTDT OST
Fender Strats - several of these w/different pickup configs, TF onwards
Gibson Les Pauls - several of these w/different pickup configs, TDS onwards
Gibson ES-335 gothic - TF
Gibson hollowbodies - TF onwards, several models
Parker Fly - several models, TF onwards
Godin Multiac acoustics - TF live onwards
Martin traveller acoustic - used during Fragility tour
Fender Jazzmasters - several of these w/different pickup configs, WT onwards
Fender Telecasters - used by J.White & A.North on WT and Performance tours
Fender Jaguars - several, different pickup configs, WT onwards
Dean Evos - several of these on WT tour after several Les Pauls were destroyed during a german festival
Line 6 PODs - many models, starting during TF recordings. Trent live guitar rig for the following tour consisted of two of these.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

jahlljw — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:33:22 -0800

Not a complete list, but off the top of my head:

Access Virus - Several models
Akai S1100 samplers - 2 of these, fully expanded, were used to record TDS
Akai MPD32 controller - used on NINJA and WG tours
Alesis Andromeda A6 - popped up in studio pics during WT recordings
Analogue Systems - modules and French Connection controller, used from WT onwards
Buchla 200e series modular - owned by A.Cortini, used on Ghosts I-IV
Casio SK-1, circuitbent - WT recording onwards
Clavia Nord Lead family and Nord Modular - TF recordings onwards
Clavia Nord Micro Modular - used for vocoder effects live during Fragility Tour
DSI Evolver Keyboard - used on NINJA and WG tours
Doepfer ribbon controller - vocal effects on WT tour
Doepfer MAQ 16/3 sequencer - WT recordings onward
Doepfer Shaltwerk sequencer - WT recordings onward
E-mu Emax samplers - used during TDS tours
E-mu Emulator Sampler - PHM
E-mu E4 Samplers - 2 of these used on Fragility tour
FutureRetro 777 - this may have been Charlie Clouser's
JoMox XBase 09 - TF recordings
Korg KAOSS Pad - KP2 used by Peter Murphy during radioshow performance
Korg MS-20 - mentioned by Mariqueen in a fairly recent tweet
Kurzweil keyboard - used for pianos during TDS recording
early Linn Electronics drum machine - not sure which one, purchased from Chris Vrenna. This is how they met.
midiman 25key controller - used on Fragility Tour
M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 key controller, custom black - used by A.Cortini during WT/Performance/LITS tours
Metasonix - everything this company makes. WT recordings onward
Moog Minimoog Model D - PHM onward, retired upon purchase of Moog Odyssey
Moog Odyssey w/maple sides - WT recordings onward
Moog Etherwave Theremin - used live during Fragility tour
Moog Litty Phatty - used on NINJA and WG tours
Native Instruments Reaktor - WT onwards
Native Instruments Battery - YZ onwards
Native Instruments Rig Kontrol - used by A.Cortini on LITS tour
Novation SuperNova - TF recordings? Probably WT
Novation Bass Station Rack - TF recordings
Novation 25sl mkII - used on LITS, NINJA, and WG tours
Oberheim OB-Mx - sampled and featured on The Becoming
Oberheim Xpander - TDS? TF onwards for sure
Propellerhead Reason
Propellerhead ReBirth - the bassline and drum loop in The Wretched
Some piece of Quasimidi kit, I forget which. Owned by C.Clouser during TF recordings.
Roland JP-8080 - filter used by K.Hildebrandt on those big bass hits during The Great Below
Roland SU10 pocket sampler
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS - PHM onward
Studio Logic 49 key controller - used by C.Clouser on Fragility tours
Vermona DRM-1 drum synth
Waldorf Microwave family of synths - TDS? TF for sure

That's enough for now I think. I know more, so I'll post again soon.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Liquid360 — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:40:38 -0800

I remember reading an article in Keyboard Magazine in back around 1992, and his equipment on Pretty Hate Machine was an Oberheim Xpander, Minimoog, SCI Prophet VS and the original E-mu Emax (not the Emax II). He also used an early sound design program by Digidesign called Turbosynth, which was a sample processing and synthesis toolbox. He would run whole loops through it. The lead at the end of 'Terrible Lie" was a woodblock sample run through a distortion pedal, sampled into the Emax. Then he cut the attack off and pitched it down two octaves to get that gritty 12-bit clock noise. Many of the drums were sampled from Front 242 albums. I remember he wanted to get a better singer to perform the songs, but never found anyone he liked, so he sang the tracks himself. It helps when you have Flood produce a couple of your songs too. I can tell you with certainty that all the digital synth sounds on the album are VS, I have one.

You do music Plague666?

-M

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

plague666 — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:00:58 -0700

relicz posted:
Alot of the sounds are most definitely a Prophet VS, but not exclusive. A DX7 was most definitely used as well, especially on evolving FM 'distortion' or 'detuning'.

On second thought, some sounds do sound more like a VS, but the really clangy mettalic ones are dx7. And probably most everything on PHM was Emaxed. Evolver FM is totally different from a dx7, and the Evovler has all of the VS waveforms.

In the Gave Up video you can see a Linn Drum, so that might have been used live in the Broken era for drum/percussion sequencing.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Kathal — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:03:26 -0700

dom_the_bomb posted:
it would be super awesome if someone could find out what THIS [vimeo.com] synth is that Mariqueen Maandig-Reznor is playing!

[dewanatron.com]

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

relicz — Sun, 02 May 2010 04:23:03 -0700

plague666 posted:
I think the clangy PHM sounds are DX7, not Prophet VS. As for drum machines, you can see a Machinedrum in the auidohead photos, but I think most of the electronic drums are just sampled from his modular.

www.vintagesynthexplorer.com <- Great site for info on synths and other modules.

PHM -
Alot of the sounds are most definitely a Prophet VS, but not exclusive. A DX7 was most definitely used as well, especially on evolving FM 'distortion' or 'detuning'. Modern day reintroduction of these sounds happen to be found on the Evolver line, (mono and poly). If you want that sound with authenticity without tracking down a working Prophet VS, then get a Poly Evolver. It pulls FM off with an analog touch (much better than FM8 imo). You can get similar sounds from a Virus C or TI/Snow.
The Lo-Fi sounds that have the low punch and grit are from the Emax II sampler; some of the gear he had access to may have been sampled into the Emax as well (I'm assuming), as some of these synths were extremely expensive to purchase new at the time (exception the DX7). (circa 1983-1986), and the Emax offered features that say, the DX7 lacked (a filter for starters)

An Alesis SR16 primarily was used in the 90's prior to The Fragile (on top of other 80's machines and sampling). You can hear it definitely in 'Happiness in Slavery' and a lot of TDS tracks ('big man with a gun' for example). It was basically a cheap lo-fi drum 'module' that you can still purchase new for 150$. It had/has a natural grit distortion to its sound quality. An example of sampling drums or creating drums from a trivial sample would be Mr Self Destruct.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

dom_the_bomb — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:23:23 -0700

it would be super awesome if someone could find out what THIS [vimeo.com] synth is that Mariqueen Maandig-Reznor is playing!

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

plague666 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:15:24 -0700

I think the clangy PHM sounds are DX7, not Prophet VS. As for drum machines, you can see a Machinedrum in the auidohead photos, but I think most of the electronic drums are just sampled from his modular.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

adams — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:58:00 -0700

petrarchus posted:
I've been following NIN's changing gear lists for years.

The core of the NIN synth sound is the Oberheim Xpander, the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, and the MiniMoog. Those really clangy synths on PHM are the Prophet VS (sometimes layered), and he loves both the Oberheim and the Moog for bass sounds. NIN has also used (for a long time) the ARP Odyssey and the Arp 2600, as well as some other Oberheims. In the mid-90s, they added some Waldorf and Nord pieces, as well as the Access VirusC. I seem to remember seeing a PolyEvolver in a photo of the New Orleans studio, too. More recently, they've added synths from Reaktor and Absynth (by Native Instruments). In the 2000s, they also started getting into crazy modular stuff that is highly expensive (Doepfer, old Moogs and EMSs, that custom thing that someone linked to above).

Are those mostly german sound units?

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

LobotomyBaby — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:06:21 -0700

[www.youtube.com]

was watching some random pro tools videos..and trent made an appearance.

i got excited and had to post it

Re: NIN's drum machine

seasonsinthesky — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:17:55 -0800

^ indeed, you may see some drum machines thrown up there by NINgear.

otherwise, i get the impression that most programming is done with software synths now. for instance, the drums on 1,000,000 are sampled recordings of Freese's kit in the studio; i highly doubt they use an actual hardware drum machine very often anymore, probably due to the reasons you mentioned.

anyway, as for the old days when hardware drum machines were more commonly used, i've not read any interviews that mention any models. to be honest, people probably wouldn't mention which drum machines they use anyway.

and hey, several WT songs have programmed drums! THTF, LINE, BYIT, NSPN, etc.

Re: NIN's drum machine

C4rl05 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:33:01 -0800

Keep an eye on eBay!

NIN's drum machine

hi13ts — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:14:19 -0800

I know that Trent normally uses drum machines with the exception of a few tracks and the entire With Teeth album. I'm not talking about the Echoplex drum pad, but just the drums that he uses for regular recording. Do you know what type of machine he uses? I've dealt with some drum machines before and I've become discouraged because of how bad they sound and how hard it is to program them, especially if the music is syncopated.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Beefee — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:57:09 -0800

just take a look here in this interview [www.youtube.com]

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Beefee — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:49:11 -0800

@the ghost pics, i see some Doepfer Synthesizer & Sequencer Modules

for example the schaltwerk

(the doepfer synth are also descriped in some multitracks download like capital g... just hear that track... really awesome analog sounds!)

and a buchla e200 synth

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

voiceofghost — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:28:41 -0800

Check out this interview. He goes into a lot of detail about software used. (Logic for Midi and Pro Tools for everything else.) This is 2002 I believe so a few years ago.

[www.audiohead.net]

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

TychoBrahe — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:08:54 -0800

Wow!!

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

petrarchus — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:59:51 -0800

I've been following NIN's changing gear lists for years.

The core of the NIN synth sound is the Oberheim Xpander, the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, and the MiniMoog. Those really clangy synths on PHM are the Prophet VS (sometimes layered), and he loves both the Oberheim and the Moog for bass sounds. NIN has also used (for a long time) the ARP Odyssey and the Arp 2600, as well as some other Oberheims. In the mid-90s, they added some Waldorf and Nord pieces, as well as the Access VirusC. I seem to remember seeing a PolyEvolver in a photo of the New Orleans studio, too. More recently, they've added synths from Reaktor and Absynth (by Native Instruments). In the 2000s, they also started getting into crazy modular stuff that is highly expensive (Doepfer, old Moogs and EMSs, that custom thing that someone linked to above).

For samplers: Originally, he used the E-max II, but then switched to Akai rackmounts (sometimes also using the Kurzweil K2000 series to modify their sounds), then to E-mu Emulator 4 series samplers in the late 90s, and then finally to Native Instruments Battery (for most things) in the 2000s. I'm not sure what phrase-sampler he's been using lately. I think that that Ross guy is really into just laying shit on the timeline in ProTools, so maybe that's how it works. He once praised the sampler that comes with Apple Logic.

Live, he used the E-mu Emax II as a controller (for a while), then the Yamaha DX-7 for the 90s, then lately some M-Audio controllers. He seems to prefer the Roland RD-700 as a piano controller. There are lots of other things on stage, too.

For sequencers, they started out with MOTU Performer (for PHM), then moved to Opcode Studio Vision (for Broken and TDS), then Apple Logic for the later records (always also using ProTools for the audio parts).

I think that's most of the really key pieces of gear.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

TychoBrahe — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:20:35 -0800

Thank you very much :]

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Endlessly — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:43:14 -0800

^^I believe he's using a Lemur.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

TychoBrahe — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:32:55 -0800

Hey guys, greeetings form Mexico :)
Does anyone knows what gear does the drummer uses in the live rehearsals Echoplex video?????? Specially the touch pad for the drum effects please :D

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

jwc53531 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:17:22 -0800

Love_Revenge posted:
Probably ghost 28.

yep, I think you are correct - I knew I'd heard it in the Ghosts but couldn't remember which one - thanks for the letting me know

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

Love_Revenge — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:38:21 -0800

Probably ghost 28.

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

jwc53531 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:47:34 -0800

I see that there is a Gibson Banjitar for sale on the NIN eBay page - anyone know what song(s) (if any) that instrument was used

thanks

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

jddanger — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:05:30 -0800

Hey guys. I am just starting out with all this neat stuff and I was wondering if you could help me. I really want to create a NIN-like sound.
All these programs you speak of.. Pro Tools, Reaktor 5, etc. What ones should I get? Where can I get them for free (im a student, living off dimes and nickles)? And can these programs make their own instrument sounds of do I have to record my own stuff and then mix and edit it (or can I do both? I only play keyboard and some guitar). Can someone please help point me in the right direction?

Re: NIN Studio Equipment

OafHamper — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:04:42 -0700

votiVe posted:
NIN uses "the French Connection" for that pitch-changing amazing sound in the end of "Sunspots" on the With Teeth album. It's a Ondes Martenot, a type of pitch modulator synth made in the 1920's.

It's more of an OldTools thing. Sorry couldn't resist.(:P)

In the multitrack files for "Me, I'm Not", the end of the song noises are called "French Connect Outro".