Butch Vig

The Nirvana track "Polly" was recorded on a Scorpion control board at Butch Vig's Smart Studios

"I bought an Akai S1000 and a Kurzweil K2500 and those became writing tools for us."

"Steve owned this when I met him, and when we started jamming in his basement late at night, we ran EVERYTHING through it: vocals, drums, guitars, bass and percussion. It gave those early jam sessions a super lo–fi vibe that sounded awesome, sort of a fuzzed out Cramps style rockabilly. We continued to use in on almost every session we did at Smart for 30 years!"

"We bought this for $50 at a pawn shop and since it was the only compressor we had when we started, we used it on a lot of the sessions. I would track drums and use it on the snare. It has this cool, aggressive “thwack” that really helps the snare pop. We also used it for overdubbing bass and vocals. It is not subtle. It’s still one of my fave compressors."

"We had a bunch of synths at Smart Studios: Oberheim, Roland, Yamaha. But the Mirage was our first sampler. I think it was 8–bit, so it was sort of crunchy, but it had a vibe and some truly unique sounds. Used on everything from The Singing Irishman to Garbage."

"Our first drum machine. Somewhat limited in what you could program, but it sounded great, warm and punchy."

"My favorite digital reverb. I had a bunch of custom presets I made that I used all the time. 'Pelvisman' (named after a song by Knerble Knerble) was a huge, bright hall sound with a lot of pre delay, and 'Anti-Pelvis' was a super fast gated snare sound, used on a ton of sessions."

"I bought this in 1990, it was pricey but well worth it. I used it on almost every session we did. I love APIs. This is the drum sound, bass sound, guitar sound, and vocal sound on 'Gish.' I still use it here at my home studio in Silver Lake."

"I am always using the Waves CLA-76 compressor, and the C4 compressor; and I am a huge fan of the Renaissance AXX, especially on guitars – it’s great on electrics, but it’s absolutely phenomenal on acoustics; it’s a really nice, idiot-proof compressor – so straightforward to use. Also, something I call up all the time, especially when Shirley is doing her vocal in the studio, is the Waves RVOX. It works so good. For a fast compressor, you literally just put it on, and pull the threshold down, so it’s kicking down 4 or 5dB, and the peaks are 6dB, and it helps it sit right in the track. Again, it’s just really, really musical, as is all of the Waves kit."

"I am always using the Waves CLA-76 compressor, and the C4 compressor; and I am a huge fan of the Renaissance AXX, especially on guitars – it’s great on electrics, but it’s absolutely phenomenal on acoustics; it’s a really nice, idiot-proof compressor – so straightforward to use. Also, something I call up all the time, especially when Shirley is doing her vocal in the studio, is the Waves RVOX. It works so good. For a fast compressor, you literally just put it on, and pull the threshold down, so it’s kicking down 4 or 5dB, and the peaks are 6dB, and it helps it sit right in the track. Again, it’s just really, really musical, as is all of the Waves kit."

"I am always using the Waves CLA-76 compressor, and the C4 compressor; and I am a huge fan of the Renaissance AXX, especially on guitars – it’s great on electrics, but it’s absolutely phenomenal on acoustics; it’s a really nice, idiot-proof compressor – so straightforward to use. Also, something I call up all the time, especially when Shirley is doing her vocal in the studio, is the Waves RVOX. It works so good. For a fast compressor, you literally just put it on, and pull the threshold down, so it’s kicking down 4 or 5dB, and the peaks are 6dB, and it helps it sit right in the track. Again, it’s just really, really musical, as is all of the Waves kit."

Butch Vig talking about Waves Abbey Road Collection.

When it comes to working on music, Butch runs Pro Tools on a Mac. “I’ve used the Macintosh for years,” says Vig. “All in all, we’ve got about 15 Macs behind Garbage alone.” The Garbage Mac collection includes several Power Macs and PowerBooks, plus a couple iMacs.

When it comes to working on music, Butch runs Pro Tools on a Mac. “I’ve used the Macintosh for years,” says Vig. “All in all, we’ve got about 15 Macs behind Garbage alone.” The Garbage Mac collection includes several Power Macs and PowerBooks, plus a couple iMacs.

"This was our first 'real' microphone. We had read it was Quincy Jones's favorite mic. He used it to record Michael Jackson. That was good enough for us. It was a real workhorse, sounded killer on vocals and guitars. The first session we used it on was The Dwarves. The lead singer Blag burned a hole in the pop filter."

"One of our engineers Mr. Colson brought this to Smart. He bought it at a pawn shop for $75. He had modified it, disconnecting the capacitor for the bass control, which added like a 10x boost to the gain, so the thing just roared. He also triode connected the power tubes, which lowered the power output and warmed up the tone. We used it on a lot of sessions. I would suggest a band use it if their amps sounded crappy. They would always be dubious… until they plugged it in."

"I bought an Akai S1000 and a Kurzweil K2500 and those became writing tools for us."

Butch worked with Duke and Steve to produce a new sound using Akai samplers, a Kurzweil keyboard and a Mac SE.

"This was a multi–tasking piece of outboard gear: stereo limiter, gate, ducker, de–esser. We would compress the drum overheads with it when we tracked. It has a very aggressive sound. Bob Mould was the producer on one of the first Tar Baby sessions we did. He REALLY liked to compress the overheads. Then we would gate the plate reverb through it for a gunshot snare sound when we mixed. Used on a LOT of sessions."