Robbie Bronnimann: Recording Howard Jones
Stefan Hedengren, Softube, November 2009

Can you please give us a short introduction to yourself? I have been working as a producer/remix & artists for about 15 years. I have produced artists such as Howard Jones, Sugababes, Andy Hunter & remixed Chicane, Ferry Corsten, Howard Jones, Love Inc, Kate Bush etc. As an artist I have recorded 3 albums under the names dba & numerous releases under the name tektonik. So tell us about your recent work. I have been working on & off for the last 18 months producing Howard Jones new album Ordinary Heroes. The album is a break from the classic 'electronic synth' sound that Howard is synonymous for. The songs were very personal to Howard & required a classic singer songwriter approach to the production. I love the no nonsense approach to the plugin with no extra 'crap' and it sounds fantastic. We had it very firmly established from the start that the album would be based on live performances & not programmed. The lineup for each track was Howard's Steinway D, drums, bass, 1 guitar (electric or acoustic), string quartet, 3 piece background vocals & Howard's lead vocals. There was no other overdubs but only what that group of people could recreate live. Although 'classic' in its lineup we used technology to the max recording at 96kHz & mixing totally within the box. Did you take any other actions to give it a more 'classic' feel as you say? I used a template within Logic to recreate a classic console kind of vibe with 1 eq, compressor on each channel & 2 reverbs & 1 delay for each mix.

Robbie caught on camera using Softube plug-ins. Excerpt from Howard Jones' new album Ordinary Heroes More info on Howard Jones: www.howardjones.com More info on Robbie Bronnimann: www.myspace.com/robbiebronnimann

How did you use the Softube plug-ins in this production?

Vintage Amp Room & Metal Amp Room will be the mainstays on the project above the competition!

Softube plugs played a large role in creating the sonic landscape.

Vintage Amp Room was used for the electric guitars on the VOX style amp model. I love the no nonsense approach to the plugin with no extra 'crap' and it sounds fantastic.

FET Compressor was used on various drum channels. It's got that great smack to it.

Tube Delay was used on vocals. You get a great warm character & it works fantastic for doubling.

Spring Reverb was used on the occasional guitar. For subtle lofi ambience.

Bass Amp Room was used for the last couple of mixes on bass as it arrived later in the project.

Anything else you'd like to add?

There's no doubt in my mind that there are currently some fantastic companies producing some lovely plugins. Softube are undoubtably high up in that list & are carving out a real identity with their brilliant range of plugs.

I have just started work producing a new act for Sony Japan & within a week working with a session guitarist we have established that Vintage Amp Room & Metal Amp Room will be the mainstays on the project above the competition!

Digging the CL 1B Plug-in with Tony Shepperd
Stefan Hedengren, Softube, October 2009

With over 20 years in the business, Tony Shepperd is a veteran engineer, producer and mixer. Artists he has worked with include Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins and Faith Hill. Working with this kind of talent, it's no surprise that Tony has access to the best of the best of hardware and software tools. He is currently digging the CL 1B... Plug-in! Could you please start by telling us a bit about your background? I've been doing this for 24 years now and started in the days of analog. I always knew I wanted to be an engineer. When I got out of college I opened up my first recording studio. I had been buying gear all along the way when I was in college. I had a Linn MPC but it kept crashing on me so I looked around for something else and found a Synclavier. I took on a partner and opened up a studio with a 16-track 1" machine and a Trident board. I had that for a couple of years but I got burglarized. I moved locations and built up a 48-track facility.

Tony hangs out with Softube at AES NYC 2009. From left to right: Torsten, Tony, and Oscar.

Now you're a champion for in the box mixing. How was the transition from analog to digital for you?

That transition was kind of natural because of the Synclavier was all digital. You're working with digital recordings. It got to the point where we started doing hard disk recordings into the Synclavier, so that transition for me started in the 80's, but technology hadn't caught up yet.

I think the whole thing with mixing in the box is one of those things that if it works for you - great. If it doesn't work for you - move on and find something that works for you.

Yeah.

It's funny, because twenty years ago I had all analog, incorporating digital into my mixes and now I'm all digital incorporating analog! I don't throw away anything. I think you should incorporate what you have and do the best with what you got.

To me it's the closest representation I've heard of any hardware ever. Fantastic.

What about software plug-ins? No software plug-in sounds exactly like a hardware plug-in. Having said that, it's hard for hardware to sound just like another piece of hardware. If you have a Pultec, it doesn't sound like another piece of Pultec. I've owned in my life three Tube-Tech CL 1B, they don't all sound alike, but they all sounded like Tube-Techs. If you know the characteristic of the hardware, then you look for it in the software version.

So would you say that you could hear the Tube-Tech sound in the Softube Tube-Tech CL 1B?

Oh yeah. I took the output from a lead vocal in Pro Tools and sent it to the hardware, I duplicated the track and put the plug-in on it and I could literally A/B the setting between the two by just muting and unmuting.

To me it's the closest representation I've heard of any hardware ever. Fantastic.

So what would be your typical application of CL 1B? Plug-in or hardware.

I like to use it on anything if I can get away with it! There's just a girth and width to it that just works for me. I don't care if I'm cutting acoustic guitar, bass guitar or vocals, it's has a depth I love it. If you have an instantiation of the software plug-in it has that same characteristic. It's really an excellent plug-in.

Are you using any other Softube plug-ins?

Yes, and they sound really good. Although I'm very partial lately to the Tube-Tech plug-in (laughter). There's a girth to them that you just don't get with other plug-in manufacturers and I love that, absolutely love that.

Do you use amp simulators? I do. It depends on what I'm going for. When everybody went clean on the vocals I tried to dirty them up and now that people are going dirty I try to do them clean. I try to fight the pack mentality. The amp simulator stuff is really great when you get tracks from people and they recorded everything without going through the analog phase and you need a little dirt on the track. Just add a little hair on the track. Do you have anything else you want to add?

...I spent hours going through settings hardware vs software and I just kept saying 'this is unbelievable'.

The CL 1B it's... I told Mick the other day that I was so blown away. When I first opened the plug-in I thought it was just a picture: "those knobs doesn't turn... OH MY GOD THOSE KNOBS ARE TURNING!" (laughter). It freaked me out. "THOSE KNOBS ARE TURNING!". Everything about it... I was: "man this is awesome". When I first downloaded it I spent hours going through settings hardware vs software and I just kept saying "this is unbelievable".

Glenn Rosenstein: on FET Compressor - "I love it, I absolutely love it"
Stefan Hedengren, Softube, December 2009

Could you start by tell me a little bit about your background?

I was always interested in music when I was young, always interested in the recording process. When I was getting started, there weren't a lot of recording schools or the kind of technology that is available today - certainly there weren't any computers. Mainly just 4-track and 8-track recorders.

In my very early years, I took a job at a recording studio (Power Station in New York, now Avatar). I answered phones, cleaned bathrooms, just to be able to learn about recording. My first job in recording was being a runner and a go-fer. I worked my way up to making tape copies, from making tape copies to being assistant engineer, then to engineering & mixing, and then to being a producer.

Like you say, back in the day you worked your way up, but it appears to me that it's not the case anymore.

I agree. Sadly the whole studio mentoring system doesn't exist much anymore. Back in those days, there were many fine commercial facilities with a staff of engineers and assistants. It was not freelance the way it ultimately became.

With the change in technology and the music economy, there aren't nearly as many recording facilities and full time staff engineers - unless, of course, the engineer owns the studio. But back in the day, artists went to a particular studio for the studio sound, they weren't necessarily hiring a specific engineer.

Your credits are impressive. What would you say are some of the highlights in your career?

I've enjoyed working with most of the artists I've had the privilege to interact with. It's always been fascinating to me to hear their stories, and how they made their way through. I'm not known for any particular style of music - thankfully my career has been very diverse. I've worked with all kinds of artists and everyone's story is very, very different. If a project wasn't insanely fun, at least it was interesting.

Ziggy Marley, I did three albums with him. When do you do three albums with anyone these days? So many of today's records have one producer doing just one song - so many artists have an album with six or eight different producers. Back in the day, you would do one or two albums with an artist and in my particular case I ended up doing three albums with Ziggy. I learned a lot from working with him and being in that environment.

Going back to today, and not back in the day, we talked about your ICON setup before so you obviously use a lot of plug-ins. Well, I know you use the Softube plug-ins but...

I use a lot of plug-ins but I'm favoring the Softube FET. I love it, I absolutely love it. Whoever wrote the code for that plug-in did an outstanding job.

So what do you like about it in particular?

It doesn't sound like it emulates any one particular compressor. It sounds to me like what compression should sound like - whether that's hardware or software, regardless. It just sounds right to me. If you look at my site, you'll see I have quite a few compressor emulations and a lot of hardware as well.

In regards to the FET: you guys got it right. It just sounds right.

One of the things I like best about the Softube FET is - if there's such a term as "natural" sounding compression - how natural it sounds and how easy it is to dial in a bunch of different settings. It's very intuitive. At this stage of the game, I don't care if something is software based or hardware based, I just want something that sounds great, and this sounds great to me.

So what would you typically use it on?

I started off just playing around with it. I recently did a record for an artist named Johnny Cooper and we recorded drums in a very kind of old fashioned way. We put some microphones up a stairwell, we tried doing stuff we might have done in the old days.

I took the tracks back to my own studio and even though we used all these old microphones and mic'ing techniques, it didn't sound quite like I wanted it to sound. So I compressed the microphones we had put up the stairs and it sounded incredible, really breathed life into the drum tracks. That's always a good thing, when the first thing you try with a plugin sounds really good. "OK so this sounds cool, lets see what it sounds like on a piano" so of course I squashed the piano and I was "oh, this sounds..." (laughter) "this sounds really good! lets try it on an acoustic guitar" and it sounded really good "lets try it on a vocal!" (laughter).

Everything we tried the Softube FET on sounded just right. I found myself using it on more and more tracks. Initially we were trying it on drums, then got over to trying it on the piano and it had a nice kind of traditional... how you would normally use compression on a piano kind of feel. And I started playing around with the detection and thought it was cool how it could play with the transients.

The FET is based on the 76 series of compressors. Have you compared it to the original?

I have a pair of 6176's. The tough thing about comparing hardware with software, especially vintage hardware - you can have two different pieces of hardware and they don't sound the same. It's true with Neve emulations, whether it's hardware or software. What console did you base the emulation on? What year was it made? So when I sit and listen to a piece of software, I tend to judge it on its own merits.

As software designers, you're obviously trying to get into the ballpark of something close to an 1176 and I'd say the Softube FET does that very well. But I also think, in a very good way, it does its own thing. And this is much to your credit. I think it's also very useful in places I wouldn't have normally used an 1176.

That's something I wanted to ask you about. We added a couple of controls. have you found any use for those?

The parallel compression knob is great. If nothing else, it certainly saves you time. Besides setting up all the routing, if you do parallel compression on a native digital workstation, you have to make sure you have the delay compensation tweaked, and all that. So, to have parallel compression inside the plug is a tremendous asset. And yes, when we're doing stuff with the drum room mics, we'll tweak around to see how much dry and wet we're wanting to use.

Anything else you'd like to add?

In regards to the FET: you guys got it right. It just sounds right. It does all the things I expect a compressor to do and a couple of things more.

More info on Glenn Rosenstein:
www.glennr.com/Home.html