Ross Hogarth 2012 interview

[MrBeasty]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may12/a ... t-0512.htm

[MrBeasty]

The making of A Different Kind Of Truth published in SOS May 2012, if somebody could get the end of the article that would be great!

During the last decade, Van Halen the band seemed destined for a respected elder-statesmen-of-rock existence, playing their back catalogue on lucrative tours, and had not released an album of new material since 1998’s Van Halen III. But early 2012 witnessed the release of A Different Kind Of Truth, which shot straight to number two in the US and number six in the UK, and received glowing accolades, not only for the relentless high energy of the songs, but for Eddie van Halen’s rejuvenated guitar playing, the power of the rhythm section formed by his bassist son Wolfgang and drummer brother Alex, the bite of David Lee Roth’s grizzled vocals — and, not least, the in-your-face sound of the album.
This last was, to a large degree, the handiwork of engineer, producer and mixer Ross Hogarth. Born to world-famous illustrator Burne Hogarth and raised in New York, he began his musical career in the ’70s playing guitar and writing songs in punk bands, before moving to California to work as a roadie, soundman and production manager for the likes of Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Fleetwood Mac and Little Feat. His next step was to cut his studio engineering teeth at Rumbo Studios near Los Angeles, where Don Gehman, John Mellencamp’s producer, became one of his mentors. Hogarth has since built up a very impressive and extremely varied studio credit list, featuring the likes of Mellencamp, REM, Ziggy Marley, Jewel, Sick Puppies, Melissa Etheridge, John Fogerty, Motley Crüe, Hall & Oates, Roger Waters, the Black Crowes and the Doobie Brothers. Hogarth has won two Grammy Awards and currently works out of his own hybrid analogue/in-the-box LA studio, BoogieMotel.
Finding A Sonic Imprint

Adding his own gear to that resident at 5150 gave Ross Hogarth a powerful mixing arsenal. In this rack, from top, are a Retro Instruments 2A3 EQ and 176 compressor, Bricasti M7 reverb, Chandler TG1 limiter, and two AMS DMX 15-80 delays with a TC Electronic 2290 delay between.
Ross Hogarth’s work on A Different Kind Of Truth began as far back as early 2010, when he went up to Eddie van Halen’s 5150 (LA police code for ‘insane’) studio in LA. It’s next door to van Halen’s house, and every Van Halen album since 1983 was recorded there, though Truth would prove a partial exception to that rule. Hogarth explains: “5150 is the band’s sanctuary, where Ed and Al know what they hear and what they like. It is a fully equipped studio with a 72-input 9000 J-series SSL desk and lots of analogue outboard, which meant that this was predominantly an analogue project, even though we recorded to Pro Tools. I initially went there to demo songs with the band. We’re all professionals working with professional equipment, so we don’t really do demos, but we were establishing the sonic imprints for the different instruments on the album. Ed, Al and Wolfie were getting sounds, moving the songs forward and playing together as a band and we recorded everything to get an idea of the sound of the final album.”
In terms of “moving the songs forward”, seven of the 13 songs on the final album are reworked rarities from the band’s early days. It could have been a disaster, but what Roth has called “a collaboration with our past” turned out remarkably fruitful. “Dave wrote new lyrics to all the songs,” recalls Hogarth, “apart from for ‘She’s The Woman’ and ‘Bullethead’ — two songs that more or less remained the same. Dave put his own modern-day, personal life spin on the other songs, and the band worked hard to make everything really top-quality, both in terms of the songs and the playing. They are super-tight and have a great spirit. It’s also a beautiful thing to see the father-son relationship of Eddie and Wolfie, and to also see his connection with his uncle, Reverend Al. I’d like to add that nothing from the old demos survived. Everything on the record as far as the recording is brand new.”
David Lee Roth likes working in Henson Studios [originally A&M] and has been been making music there for well over a decade, so he persuaded the band to leave 5150. In mid-January 2011, the band moved out of 5150 to work there, with staff engineer Martin Cooke, engineer Paul David Hager and producer John Shanks. By the end of March 2011, the band had returned to 5150, where the Van Halens and Hogarth finished the record. Returning to talking about the beginning of the project, Hogarth described the “sonic imprints” the band and he devised for the different instruments.

[monkface]

I wish I could hear the earlier recordings instead of the sonic sludge we have now.

[MrBeasty]

On ‘You And Your Blues’, the guitar was heavily treated with Sound Toys’ Crystallizer for a synth-like effect.

When we started working, I suggested to Ed that instead of going for his classic guitar sound with the guitar to the left and the effects panned to the right, we split the guitar sound naturally instead of electronically and use two heads and two cabinets, place and record them far apart, and hard pan the signals. The idea was to have a guitar sound that was wide and mono, and not digital delay-driven, and it’s what you hear on the record, with only a few overdubs — the classic Van Halen sound is not to have a rhythm guitar when he solos.

I used a Royer 122V tube ribbon and a [Shure] SM57 on each of the two 100W 4x12 cabinets, finding the best speaker in each and placing the mics in front of them. For solos not connected to the rhythm tracks, we tended to use the original setup but we added a prototype 50W head and 2x12 EVH cabinet. The four mics went through Ed’s API 312 mic pres, without EQ or compression. All of the rhythm guitars recorded at 5150 were done like that. Ed would then have the Royer and 57 on different faders on the console and get the blend he liked. The Royer gave a certain amount of mid-range thickness with low-end thump, and the 57 gave the upper-mid grit. There’s very little low end on a 57, so he could push up the Royer when he wanted more low end, without using EQ. Ed is a brilliant engineer himself, with great instincts, and he’s been doing it for so many years alone, so you almost can’t question certain things. But my suggestions worked for him, so he went with it.”

“In terms of other effects, I added some reverb with Ed’s beautiful EMT plate, which had an API 550A EQ in front rolling off 50Hz, which is a classic way to use an EMT: put an EQ in front. The EMT was patched in as a send, so I could add it, old-school style, to whatever I wanted, mostly drums and guitars. I also had an AMS delay on the guitar, in the classic long delay setting that he loves, and which works in different amounts. We used another AMS to widen out the signal, with 28ms delay on one side and a 32ms delay on the other side, to get a kind of doubling effect, sometimes setting it at 21ms/42ms. I also had the [Lexicon] PCM42 set up for a longer delay, as a throw on solos, set in a time tempo mode of quarter-note or dotted eighth/quarter notes. When we really wanted some space on solos, for example the end of ‘Beats Working’, where we wanted it to go completely nutty, I’d dig in Pro Tools and had a look at the Waves H-Delay, or the Sound Toys Echo Boy or grabbed the [Line 6] Echo Farm, one of my favourite lo-res plug-ins. They went to a separate Pro Tools output and then came up under a pair of faders on the SSL. I did the same with the Crystallizer effect on the guitar in ‘You And Your Blues’. But most of the guitar sound is built from these four mics split over two cabinets, with the AMS short and long delay and occasional PCM42 longer delay throws.”

[rgorke]

I just tried to get SOS at BN down the street. The May 2012 issue is not on the stand yet.

Really like the approach of two mono tracks rather than splitting one.

[zeeb]

R-122V Vacuum Tube Ribbon Microphone abt $3000.00 each ;

http://www.royerlabs.com/R-122V.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MrBeasty]

R-122V Vacuum Tube Ribbon Microphone abt $3000.00 each ;

http://www.royerlabs.com/R-122V.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, we are not on the same budgets. 5150 has all the best of vintage AND modern gear ... and then some.

[rgorke]

R-122V Vacuum Tube Ribbon Microphone abt $3000.00 each ;

http://www.royerlabs.com/R-122V.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, we are not on the same budgets. 5150 has all the best of vintage AND modern gear ... and then some.

No doubt. When I googled the mic I saw that price and kind of laughed. "Hey honey, look what I just got!" We can get our kids a scholarship or something to pay for the first part of school.

[MrBeasty]

The sad part is that despite having all the best gear in the world, they still managed to generate a crappy set of recordings.
The songs are great, the playing is great, the engineering and mix are a disaster (IMHO). Reading the full article online, they over did-it. Four mics on the guitar, six or seven mics on the bass, probably 10 or 15 on the drums, just to have "options" ... it's mud. My experience is options are good only if you eliminate most of them in the end, not try to shove them all in.

[zeeb]

...yeh. crazee huh. U87s are abt the same.

...but none of them will help a bad song, huh.

[rdodson]

The sad part is that despite having all the best gear in the world, they still managed to generate a crappy set of recordings.
The songs are great, the playing is great, the engineering and mix are a disaster (IMHO). Reading the full article online, they over did-it. Four mics on the guitar, six or seven mics on the bass, probably 10 or 15 on the drums, just to have "options" ... it's mud. My experience is options are good only if you eliminate most of them in the end, not try to shove them all in.

I couldn't agree more.

It is congested, with no sense of "space". Throw ONE mic on the cab - MAYBE two, record the freakin' bass direct, put 7 on the drums (snare, kick, toms left/right, cymbals l/r, and hat).

Put a room mic up. Don't have to use it.

Tell 'em all to make it sound good, and not to think your gonna fix it in post.

[rgorke]

The sad part is that despite having all the best gear in the world, they still managed to generate a crappy set of recordings.
The songs are great, the playing is great, the engineering and mix are a disaster (IMHO). Reading the full article online, they over did-it. Four mics on the guitar, six or seven mics on the bass, probably 10 or 15 on the drums, just to have "options" ... it's mud. My experience is options are good only if you eliminate most of them in the end, not try to shove them all in.

I couldn't agree more.

It is congested, with no sense of "space". Throw ONE mic on the cab - MAYBE two, record the freakin' bass direct, put 7 on the drums (snare, kick, toms left/right, cymbals l/r, and hat).

Put a room mic up. Don't have to use it.

Tell 'em all to make it sound good, and not to think your gonna fix it in post.

That's why I listen to the live boots more than the studio recordings.

[MrBeasty]

That's why I listen to the live boots more than the studio recordings.

The Donn Landee stuff was great, although I think Andy Jones was overall their best engineer.
To me the last great sounding VH record was Balance.

[Star*Guitar]

Right on my friend. The Balance sound killed.

[dirtycooter]

Love it. Great info. Now we know exactly what NOT TO DO and use for outboard equipment!

I think Bob Rock woulda done better-just look at what he did with Load and Reload-huge huge huge but very organic sounding instruments throughout.
I liked Craig Parker Adams way of highlighting his own stuff-thats a departure from hard left and jape everywhere else but. He sounds down the middle and in your face but organic and warm with out washing out to oblivion. They coulda called CPA for some advice at least.
While I liked Balance they haven't sounded really raw and intimate up close unprocessed since Fair Warning and 1984.
You can only image a mono guitar sound and single player only so much and thats it. Anything more and and its cheesey!!

What ever happened to natural non super hi def sound? While I like hi def vid and visual-I hate the sound engineers and current trend toward surround sound records and the way audio thinks it has to dazzle like hi def vid!
STOP IT!!!!! Its dumb. But if you get a chance check out how they pumped up AC/DC for the Iron Man soundtrack on a good system. That was subtle but badass.