Butch Vig

Mentioned in this December 10, 2020 Guitar interview and deducible given Nevermind’s 1991 release year.

“And we only used a couple of pedals. Kurt had a Big Muff. And I think I had a Russian Big Muff, which is, you know, very close. And he had a RAT. And then he had a Small Clone, which is sort of the watery effect on Teen Spirit in the verses. Come As You Are as well. But that was it; a pretty simple setup, really.

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

In an article on Headliner Magazine, Butch Vig discusses his use of the Waves Abbey Road Collection.

"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 use iZotope's Ozone as we make work-in-progress mixes. As the songs keep evolving through the recording cycle, sometimes drastically, Ozone allows me to keep each new rough mix sounding focused. By the way, we also used iZotope Nectar on Shirley's vocals on the recent U2 cover we recorded, 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?'"

Used to write “The Creeps”, as stated in this June 20, 2021 Facebook post.

One of my fav tracks on NGNM. Written on an ARP 2600.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/watch-garbages-animated-new-video-for-the-creeps-2973362?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=watch-garbages-animated-new-video-for-the-creeps&fbclid=IwAR09NSXVd9McV6EmfSBZwk-3d_4HkW_01s_-eQETaQB_eb-J8N3I0x78Xbw

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.

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

Butch Vig says in this interview that he uses Izotope Ozone; he doesn't specify which version, but 4 was the latest version at the time of this interview (January 2011).

"I record drums here at my house, in a very lo-fi set-up; I literally have a mono mic sitting in the hallway by the bathroom downstairs here, and it sounds pretty roomy, pretty trashy, but it sounds good. I further mangle things by taking the drum buss and running it through iZotope Trash, and I crunch it out and make it sound even weirder—perhaps all muffled and lo-fi, or I might accentuate the crazy top-end, so you just hear the snare and cymbals ripping through the speakers."

Featured on the official ZVEX artist page.

Garbage - Butch Vig uses a Fuzz Factory and Woolly Mammoth

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

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

"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."

"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."

Featured on the official ZVEX artist page.

Garbage - Butch Vig uses a Fuzz Factory and Woolly Mammoth

Butch Vig collaborated with Native Instruments to develop the Play Series Butch Vig Drums, as detailed on the Native Instruments website.

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

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.

"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 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."

Developed in collaboration with Vig.

In an article on Guitar.com The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, it mentions that the Neve 8078 console at Sound City studio had a "big influence on the sound of the album":

Another piece of gear that had a big influence on the sound of the album was the Neve 8078 console that was at Sound City – a console that recorded dozens of iconic albums both before and after Nirvana recorded Nevermind there. In fact, that was part of the reason they went to Cannon Falls, Minnesota in the dead of winter to record their follow-up album, In Utero – they also had an 80-series Neve console at the time.

In the video "Recording Nirvana: Drain You (Butch Vig Breaks It Down In The Studio)" by MixMyMusicRob on YouTube, a Tech 21 SansAmp PSA1 can be seen in the rack in the background, confirming its use by Butch Vig.