Queens of the Stone Age – Villains

Throughout this recent 6 Music Live Room session you can see Josh using this acoustic guitar.

Seems to be some unknown model of Guild Songbird used throughout their performance at MONA in Hobart, Australia, as well as solo performances of Villains of Circumstance

Used for vocals on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

When it came time to record Homme’s final vocals, Rankin said there were three different schools of thought: “One was the upfront, clean condenser — a Sanken CU51; a ribbon for a bit of character — an RCA 44; and sometimes an old dynamic like an Electro-Voice. The Sanken has two capsules. United had one and it was insanely good; I wanted to use it for everything. The RCA44 ribbon also sounded fantastic. United have copies that have been there since they bought them new, and they’re really well looked after. Sometimes we’d use an Electro-Voice dynamic, purposely trying to get a harder, harsh sound.”

He would put either an Eventide 910 or 949 Harmonizer in the chain. “It’s a favourite,” said Rankin. “A little bit of delay and a little bit of pitch gives that really good fake room sound.” That balance between dryness and space was pretty critical. “A lot of times we’re letting the low end of the drums or the bass be the big thing and keeping guitars small. We’d have a the 949 on the vocal a lot, and then the guitars will be out wide. If we got to the point where it felt like we needed some space, we would just send something out into the room at United and record the room. It’s like the Ocean Way plug-in on UAD. Because the rooms sounds so good, you’ll fire something out on the PA, record it back on the ambient mics and all of a sudden it works.”

Used for vocals on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

When it came time to record Homme’s final vocals, Rankin said there were three different schools of thought: “One was the upfront, clean condenser — a Sanken CU51; a ribbon for a bit of character — an RCA 44; and sometimes an old dynamic like an Electro-Voice. The Sanken has two capsules. United had one and it was insanely good; I wanted to use it for everything. The RCA44 ribbon also sounded fantastic. United have copies that have been there since they bought them new, and they’re really well looked after. Sometimes we’d use an Electro-Voice dynamic, purposely trying to get a harder, harsh sound.”

He would put either an Eventide 910 or 949 Harmonizer in the chain. “It’s a favourite,” said Rankin. “A little bit of delay and a little bit of pitch gives that really good fake room sound.” That balance between dryness and space was pretty critical. “A lot of times we’re letting the low end of the drums or the bass be the big thing and keeping guitars small. We’d have a the 949 on the vocal a lot, and then the guitars will be out wide. If we got to the point where it felt like we needed some space, we would just send something out into the room at United and record the room. It’s like the Ocean Way plug-in on UAD. Because the rooms sounds so good, you’ll fire something out on the PA, record it back on the ambient mics and all of a sudden it works.”

Used for vocals on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

When it came time to record Homme’s final vocals, Rankin said there were three different schools of thought: “One was the upfront, clean condenser — a Sanken CU51; a ribbon for a bit of character — an RCA 44; and sometimes an old dynamic like an Electro-Voice. The Sanken has two capsules. United had one and it was insanely good; I wanted to use it for everything. The RCA44 ribbon also sounded fantastic. United have copies that have been there since they bought them new, and they’re really well looked after. Sometimes we’d use an Electro-Voice dynamic, purposely trying to get a harder, harsh sound.”

He would put either an Eventide 910 or 949 Harmonizer in the chain. “It’s a favourite,” said Rankin. “A little bit of delay and a little bit of pitch gives that really good fake room sound.” That balance between dryness and space was pretty critical. “A lot of times we’re letting the low end of the drums or the bass be the big thing and keeping guitars small. We’d have a the 949 on the vocal a lot, and then the guitars will be out wide. If we got to the point where it felt like we needed some space, we would just send something out into the room at United and record the room. It’s like the Ocean Way plug-in on UAD. Because the rooms sounds so good, you’ll fire something out on the PA, record it back on the ambient mics and all of a sudden it works.”

Used for vocals on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

When it came time to record Homme’s final vocals, Rankin said there were three different schools of thought: “One was the upfront, clean condenser — a Sanken CU51; a ribbon for a bit of character — an RCA 44; and sometimes an old dynamic like an Electro-Voice. The Sanken has two capsules. United had one and it was insanely good; I wanted to use it for everything. The RCA44 ribbon also sounded fantastic. United have copies that have been there since they bought them new, and they’re really well looked after. Sometimes we’d use an Electro-Voice dynamic, purposely trying to get a harder, harsh sound.”

He would put either an Eventide 910 or 949 Harmonizer in the chain. “It’s a favourite,” said Rankin. “A little bit of delay and a little bit of pitch gives that really good fake room sound.” That balance between dryness and space was pretty critical. “A lot of times we’re letting the low end of the drums or the bass be the big thing and keeping guitars small. We’d have a the 949 on the vocal a lot, and then the guitars will be out wide. If we got to the point where it felt like we needed some space, we would just send something out into the room at United and record the room. It’s like the Ocean Way plug-in on UAD. Because the rooms sounds so good, you’ll fire something out on the PA, record it back on the ambient mics and all of a sudden it works.”

Troy Van Leeuwen used the Fender 12-String Telecaster during his performances with Iggy Pop, as seen in the BBC Music video from "Later… with Jools Holland." He first played it live with Queens of the Stone Age at Rock in Rio in 2015 and continued to use it on the Villains Tour, including during performances of "My God Is The Sun."

This guitar can be seen in "The Way You Used To Do" video.

Used on Gone is Gone, Echolocation and Villains, as stated in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview and this September 12, 2018 The Gear Page post by user Navyjon21.

AudioTechnology, October 26, 2017, "Too Close for Comfort: In the Studio with Queens of the Stone Age"

On the amp side, van Leeuwen relied on a two amp system. He used his Peavey solid state head for anything that was quick with a lot of attack. The other amp he used was an EchoPark Vibramatic 4T5 made by Gabriel Currie. “It’s a perfect mix of a ’60s Bassman and a ’60s Super Reverb with a little Vox,” he explained. “It’s very open. The head itself is small and he makes these cabinets with one 12-inch and two 10-inches in them, so I had the option of either speaker. I just love those speakers and cabinet, so I was using them most of the time.”

The Gear Page, "Echopark 4T5......anyone?", Navyjohns21, comment #8, September 12, 2018

I actually own the very first production model of the 4t5 which Gabe just told me is no longer being made. The amp was loaned to Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age to record his side project gone is gone before it reached my hands. (...) If you are interested in what the amp sounds like in a live setting here is a link on youtube from Queens of the Stone Age live in Rio from 2015. Troy Van Leeuwen is exclusively using the 4t5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSI3jWB6468

Used for the guitar on Villains, as stated in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

“Dean and I use the Eventide H9 a shitload because it does everything, and it’s Eventide — their shit’s f**king rad,” said van Leeuwen. “A lot of guitar tracks were sent back through the amp in the room, because that room sounds incredible. We had the M50s up all the time. They were at certain spots in the room, you could just turn the far one on if you needed more size. The room is about thirty feet wide, the ceiling is high, and it’s all wood, which is why it never got harsh.”

Used for Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

“I used a lot of distortion from a great company in LA called Overstayer. We heavily used the Saturator. I usually put that on ambient and room mics to drive those a bit. Overstayer’s VCA compressor also has harmonics you can blend in. I used the JHS Colour Box pedal on the RCA mic. It has two stages so you can drive it into itself. And the Standard Audio Level-or is insanely good. Sometimes we’d also drive the board.

Used as overheads on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

He’d have some standard overheads set up, but most of the times it was just the mono overhead with some room mics added for size. He put up a couple of Neumann M50 tube condensers to capture the great room sound at United, but most of the time that ambience was too big. “Sometimes I had a couple of condenser mics low to the floor, just outside the kit and facing out to get that close slap. Or if we had panels around them I’d have them facing out towards the panels to get quite a close ambient sound.”

Used as a close overhead on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

Beyond the sound of contact mics, Rankin used an old RCA ribbon mic just over the drummer’s shoulder. “It’s as if someone is sitting with their chin on your shoulder while you play,” said Rankin about the mic placement. “It looks down toward the snare and the kick. Sometimes if there’s too much hi-hat I’ll move it over to the other side so there’s a bit more distance. With a bit of compression and a bit of drive, it’s a great hard 800Hz-area breakbeat sound. It gives you the character. We would start somewhere between that and the contact mics, then add things to fill the picture out.”

(...) They also used a lot of distortion to shape the sounds. “I’m a big fan of distortion on the way in, it makes things come alive,” explained Rankin. “It adds a bit of aggression and pulls the harmonics out of it. Sometimes it means you can push the ambience lower but still get the feeling. The sound becomes a bit more hammered and the harmonics seem to spread it out a bit. It means the drums don’t have to be so banging, but they feel like they are.

“I used a lot of distortion from a great company in LA called Overstayer. We heavily used the Saturator. I usually put that on ambient and room mics to drive those a bit. Overstayer’s VCA compressor also has harmonics you can blend in. I used the JHS Colour Box pedal on the RCA mic. It has two stages so you can drive it into itself. And the Standard Audio Level-or is insanely good. Sometimes we’d also drive the board.

Used for the drums on Villains, as stated by co-producer and engineer Mark Rankin in this October 26, 2017 AudioTechnology interview.

“I used a lot of distortion from a great company in LA called Overstayer. We heavily used the Saturator. I usually put that on ambient and room mics to drive those a bit. Overstayer’s VCA compressor also has harmonics you can blend in. I used the JHS Colour Box pedal on the RCA mic. It has two stages so you can drive it into itself. And the Standard Audio Level-or is insanely good. Sometimes we’d also drive the board.

In this video Dean Fertita can be seen playing a Novation Bass Station II

Used on "The Evil Has Landed", "Domesticated Animals", and the lasest Mini Mansions album. "In my band called Mini Mansions we started using this on the last record, to mimic going through an old Ampex 351. And [this is] almost identical, and I think it has a lot to do with the Bias switch. And so on Villains, I use this as my main sound for The Evil Has Landed, and for Domesticated Animals. It's pretty obvious, it's a pretty distinct sound. That bias knob is everything. I don't really know what it's doing, but it's basically acting as some sort of natural gate, that kinda squeezes everything out of it. (1:30 in the video)