Trent Reznor. Musical super ego, top of Digidesign’s promotions payroll (or so I have heard)[1], bringer of industrial music to the mainstream market and (maybe most importantly) a figurehead for independent production. A quote from a letter written by Bob Ezrin could not have put it better...“Trent Reznor is a true visionary. He has broken and reinvented the rules of engagement on every level, from recording to touring to interacting with his fans.”[2]
Reznor's list of productions is an impressive one. By far, the most successful bands he has produced are his own band Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids (who he in fact, discovered) and Pop Will Eat Itself but there are countless other productions under his belt. Other bands include Prick, The The, Pig, a number of remixes,[3] the soundtracks for Lost Highway and Natural Born Killers[4] and Reznor created and produced the background music for the game Quake.[5]
As a producer, Reznor's preference is to make full use of postproduction facilities available to him (something that, with the advent of digital recording hardware seems to be becoming the mainstream recording technique). Repeatedly in music he has produced, one can find effects such as chorus, delay and distortion used on the vocals, digital distortion on the guitars, synthesizers and regular use of drum machines and samplers.
In Reznor's own music, one can (if one tries) find a solid sensibility for the common pop song. In an interview with Reznor on his 'Downward Spiral' album he can be quoted saying “I was trying to keep the songs in a framework that was tough and I learnt a lot from Jesus and Mary Chain about how to bury nice pop songs in unlistenable noise - the idea being if you can get behind that wall you find there's a pearl inside. That's where my head was at.” [6]
Nine Inch Nails songs often have fairly minimal instrumentation. Songs like Closer and Hurt manage to sound full with only a few instrumental parts. A balanced mix of percussion, bass, samples and vocals result in a rounded piece of work.
Reznor likes to make use of the multitude of production techniques out there. Concept albums are a regular occurrence on his label. Both Downward Spiral and his latest release Year Zero are concept albums with a story/theme, Marilyn Manson's album Antichrist Super Star is also structured like a concept album.
A lot of Reznor's productions sound like Nine Inch Nails. His collaborations (as an artist, not a producer) with other artists like Bowie and Hip Hop outfit Flyentology result in music that sounds like Nine Inch Nails with a different singer. This can be heard in some of the music he has produced for other artists too. It is quite likely that this is a result of Reznor's guidance in terms of equipment to use, skill at writing pop songs, ability to contrast sounds and postproduction mixing techniques. Songs like Tough by Prick and Ich Bin Ein Auslander by Pop Will Eat Itself feature effects on the vocals, Industrial beats and guitar. By the sounds of it, Tough uses a drum machine, both songs have prominent vocals (a production technique often overlooked by the less mainstream bands). Prick even makes use of the 'small guitar sound' in the intro to Tough.
The Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth provides insight into Reznor’s heavy use of Pro Tools, in fact, there isn’t any effect or recording trickery implemented pre or during production. EQing (which is only used occasionally for effect or repairs, not for everything) and compression are done on the computer, as is the application of effects to recorded sound.[7]
The list of plug-ins on With Teeth is extensive to say the least. The ‘Izotope Trash’ plug-in supplies distortion, ‘RE Vibe’ is used for reverb and T racks/the Cycling 74 pluggo (primarily using the turbo synth) supply electronically generated sound. Reznor also uses the Tom Erbe VST spectral shaper (which is wrapped as a RTAS plug in Protools), Bomb factory plug-ins (“Over 200 instruments from 1888 to present, set up, plugged in and ready to track. Sounds you simply won't find anywhere else”)[8], ‘Unique Recording Software’ EQs, the Audio ease Nautilus Bundle (‘a crazy sounding and very resonant EQ’[9]) and the Granular synth River Run which, Reznor claims can be used to make ‘any sound you want’.[10]
Guitar tracks are recorded generally through line 6 PODs or native instruments guitar rig software. However, Reznor also makes use of various Marshall, Mesa, Line 6, Fender and Diezel amps. The vocals are recorded through a Blue Microphone[11] (see http://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Products&file=index) with occasional use of Celemony’s Melodine (a program that allows you to edit vocals on a piano roll[12]). Sequencing on With Teeth is done using Ableton live (loop-based software music sequencer for Mac and Windows designed to be used for performance as much as studio music creation)[13]. According to an article in a Digizine magazine ‘there is a huge native instruments presence across the entire with teeth album’.
For touring, Reznor has invested in the digidesign VENUE live sound systems, which allow him to use Pro Tools plug-ins on tour.[14]
After listening to a number of bands that Reznor produced (and quite likely collaborated with) and, considering that Reznor uses the same equipment to record other bands that he would use to record Nine Inch Nails songs, I have had to conclude that he comes under the category of a niche style producer. Artists who go to Reznor to produce their music are looking for a sound like Nine Inch Nails.
Anyone who would like to see Reznor’s use of Pro Tools first hand, go to www.nin.com/onlyprotools. Here you will find the Pro Tools session for the With Teeth single ‘Only’. Be warned though, it’s for remixing only. Have fun J
[1] Stephen Wilson, MTF week 5
[2] letter written by Bob Ezrin and posted on... http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2007/04/thank_god_for_t.php (accessed 25/4/07)
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Records (accessed 17/5/07)
[4] http://www.answers.com/topic/trent-reznor
[5] As stated in the production credits on the album cover of the game itself
[6] http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/nine_inch_nails/interviews/8597 (accessed 7/5/07)
[7] Jorgl, Stephanie 2005, ‘Nine Inch Nails: Pro Tools With Teeth’, Digizine, v1, no. 6, p16
[8] http://www.bombfactory.com/studio/ (accessed 17/5/07)
[9] Jorgl, Stephanie 2005, ‘Nine Inch Nails: Pro Tools With Teeth’, Digizine, v1, no. 6, p19
[10] Jorgl, Stephanie 2005, ‘Nine Inch Nails: Pro Tools With Teeth’, Digizine, v1, no. 6, p19
[11] Jorgl, Stephanie 2005, ‘Nine Inch Nails: Pro Tools With Teeth’, Digizine, v1, no. 6, p20
[12] http://www.celemony.com/cms/ (accessed 17/5/07)
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableton_Live (accessed 17/5/07)
[14] Jorgl, Stephanie 2005, ‘Nine Inch Nails: Pro Tools With Teeth’, Digizine, v1, no. 6, p20
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