Upcoming Pop-Punk Recording: Aiming to sound like Dookie

Sean Sullivan · Post by **Sean Sullivan** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:51 pm

I went on a Jerry Finn kick lately and here's what I've discovered about his techniques on his earlier records (I particularly like the Jawbreaker, Superdrag, and The Muffs records he did)

Kick In and Out and Snare Top and Bottom, both summed to 1 track to tape with a touch of DBX 160, with a 1176 slowest attack fastest release in parallel, trade 8:1 to start. Really crush and it blend it in to taste.

Guitars tracked with two amps, two mics per amp (ribbon and condenser)...all 4 mics summed down to 1 track to tape.

Most everything is panned hard or center. Usually two main guitars panned hard left and right.

No samples, always cut to 2" 24 track. Lots of time was spent teching the drums. Natural reverb from drums from room microphones but he did like a EMT 250 for snare. He like to buss the snare to a gate and send that to the EMT 250. Didn't always use a mix buss compressor, and a lot of the compression is done in parallel.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:34 pm

"So they went down to LA, which is where Rob Cavallo is from, and had Jerry Finn mix the record with a little more reverb.?"

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jerry-fi ... 41/credits

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:08 pm

Sean Sullivan wrote:I went on a Jerry Finn kick lately and here's what I've discovered about his techniques on his earlier records (I particularly like the Jawbreaker, Superdrag, and The Muffs records he did)

Kick In and Out and Snare Top and Bottom, both summed to 1 track to tape with a touch of DBX 160, with a 1176 slowest attack fastest release in parallel, trade 8:1 to start. Really crush and it blend it in to taste.

Guitars tracked with two amps, two mics per amp (ribbon and condenser)...all 4 mics summed down to 1 track to tape.

Most everything is panned hard or center. Usually two main guitars panned hard left and right.

No samples, always cut to 2" 24 track. Lots of time was spent teching the drums. Natural reverb from drums from room microphones but he did like a EMT 250 for snare. He like to buss the snare to a gate and send that to the EMT 250. Didn't always use a mix buss compressor, and a lot of the compression is done in parallel.

I loved Jerry Finn's production. I think Head Trip In Every Key is an amazing sounding rock record and way under rated. The guitars on that record sound absolutely fabulous. Going through some of his productions got me hooked on the L-C-R mixing thing for a while.

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 1:04 pm

Once again, thanks all! I love the input that i'm getting here. and I'm really excited to cut tracks.

I have a local friend who lent me a huge pile of mics and gear the other night. Can't wait to dive in.

Oktava 219's
R?de NTV
KM184 (pair)
AKG D112
a pile of 58s & 57s
Avalon U5 DI
SSL VHD pre's
CopperPhone Mic

Also, I now have a dbx 1066 & 1046 + an ART Pro VLA II on top of my dbx 160x So I have, pretty much, all the toys I'll need to do this well. (relatively speaking)

Can't wait to dive into this project.

numberthirty · Post by **numberthirty** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 5:18 pm

While I like that you lucked into more gear, I did laugh when I noticed the Copperphone was on the list.

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:59 am

Well... it got done: The band is insanely happy with the recording & mix. I'm certainly much more critical of the sonics on this project, but it was a 1 day project. Overall (aside from the hi-hats being pretty loud) I'm happy with what we got. I learned quite a bit about mic placement on the kit. I'm super-happy with how my Kick / snare wound up... and I realize how much better it would have sounded if the left overhead wasn't so centered above the hats.

Here's the sound-cloud link.

We did zero editing, so it's a raw performance by a bunch of high-school juniors. Tracked (through my toft) & mixed in Logic.

numberthirty · Post by **numberthirty** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 4:03 pm

The drums do sound great.

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 2:37 pm

I appreciate the feedback.

Once it's been a few days, I'll probably go back and listen to it again. There's no automation on the song, and it was very quickly mixed. Minimal EQ on things. In fact, I didn't post-EQ the drums at all. I did use the Toft EQ on the drums pretty heavily, and I love how that sounded.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:03 pm

on the ruff mix.

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Upcoming Pop-Punk Recording: Aiming to sound like Dookie

This is all great!!

The pop-punk project

Thanks!

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