Dave Grohl

Used on Grohl's vocals for "The Pretender", as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Mercury EQH, UA 175, Roger Mayer RM58, Waves DeEsser, Digidesign Reel Tape Saturation, Sound Toys Echoboy, Pultec EQP1A, SPL De-esser, Neve Portico 5042

"If I recall correctly, the lead vocal is doubled throughout the song. I used a Waves DeEsser plug-in on it, which I'm quite a fan of, as I've not heard a hardware de-esser that is competitive with it. The main signal chain after that was a Mercury EQH tube EQ and then a couple of vintage UA 175s. I hit the background vocals with the Roger Mayer RM58. I haven't mentioned any plug-ins yet, apart from the Waves DeEsser, because I hardly used them on 'The Pretender.' The only other ones I used were the Reel Tape Saturation and the Pultec EQP1A on the intro vocals, and the Sound Toys Echoboy on one of the end vocal overdubs.

"I used board EQ on all the vocals. The Pultec EQP1A plug-in on the intro vocals was to help them cut through. The Reel Tape Saturation was a plug-in that I had just bought. I wanted to warm the vocals up a little bit with it and make them a little bit crisper. Nothing too distorted. The Echoboy plug-in was used on a vocal overdub at the end for a tight delay. I don't tend to use plug-ins that much; they're really not that interesting, in my opinion. Finally, I also used an SPL De-esser on some vocals, and the Neve Designs Portico 5042 for a bit of crispness. It has its own sound, and I used it a lot on the whole Foo Fighters album.

"To complete the picture, I used an EMT plate and the room mics for general reverb, and my two EAR 660 limiters were my bus compressors, together with the Manley Massive Passive. We printed the mix to the ATR102, on half-inch analogue tape, from which it was mastered."

Used for the guitar on "The Pretender" and the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview and by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 24:29. The latter is specified in this November 13, 2020 equipment sale list for Barefoot Recording and pictured in a corresponding November 24, 2020 Instagram post.

Sound on Sound, March 2008, "Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Rich Costey - The Foo Fighters: 'The Pretender'"

"In the case of 'The Pretender' I had a couple of Urei 1176 compressors on Dave's guitar, to pump them up a bit and make them sound more aggressive whilst barely compressing. I had the Gates Sta-Level compressor on the clean guitar in the intro, with quite a lot of compression and a very slow recovery, plus a 33609 with a very short recovery time on Chris' rhythm guitars, to beef them up a little bit. I worked hard to make the octave guitars in the last chorus stick out. I ended up EQ'ing them with the 550a, in addition to the console, to make them cut through this formidable army of rhythm guitars. The rest was just rides. The stereo phase and flange guitars used in the track already had those effects on them."

An image of the item can be found here.

One of Rich Costey's racks, containing an impressive array of classic and modern gear, including a Chandler EMI TGI2345 Curve Bender EQ; two Mercury EQ-Hi Program Equalizers; Thermionic Culture Vulture; an SPL Transient Designer that was used to lengthen the sound of the toms; an SPL De-esser that was applied to the vocal tracks; a Roger Mayer Model RM58, which compressed the background vocals; a pair of Universal Audio 1176 limiters, which Costey used to make Dave Grohl's guitars "more aggressive"; an EAR 822Q EQ; and a pair of EAR 660 Limiting Amplifiers that came into play for bus compression.

"Making Records with Eric Valentine", September 14, 2019

And there's an 1176. 1176s were blended for compression, I think for the entire drum kit.

In this source link you can find out about Dave Grohl using the Neve 8028 mixing control.

Used on Grohl's vocals for "The Pretender", as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Mercury EQH, UA 175, Roger Mayer RM58, Waves DeEsser, Digidesign Reel Tape Saturation, Sound Toys Echoboy, Pultec EQP1A, SPL De-esser, Neve Portico 5042

"If I recall correctly, the lead vocal is doubled throughout the song. I used a Waves DeEsser plug-in on it, which I'm quite a fan of, as I've not heard a hardware de-esser that is competitive with it. The main signal chain after that was a Mercury EQH tube EQ and then a couple of vintage UA 175s. I hit the background vocals with the Roger Mayer RM58. I haven't mentioned any plug-ins yet, apart from the Waves DeEsser, because I hardly used them on 'The Pretender.' The only other ones I used were the Reel Tape Saturation and the Pultec EQP1A on the intro vocals, and the Sound Toys Echoboy on one of the end vocal overdubs.

"I used board EQ on all the vocals. The Pultec EQP1A plug-in on the intro vocals was to help them cut through. The Reel Tape Saturation was a plug-in that I had just bought. I wanted to warm the vocals up a little bit with it and make them a little bit crisper. Nothing too distorted. The Echoboy plug-in was used on a vocal overdub at the end for a tight delay. I don't tend to use plug-ins that much; they're really not that interesting, in my opinion. Finally, I also used an SPL De-esser on some vocals, and the Neve Designs Portico 5042 for a bit of crispness. It has its own sound, and I used it a lot on the whole Foo Fighters album.

"To complete the picture, I used an EMT plate and the room mics for general reverb, and my two EAR 660 limiters were my bus compressors, together with the Manley Massive Passive. We printed the mix to the ATR102, on half-inch analogue tape, from which it was mastered."

Used on Grohl's vocals for "The Pretender", as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

Vocals: Mercury EQH, UA 175, Roger Mayer RM58, Waves DeEsser, Digidesign Reel Tape Saturation, Sound Toys Echoboy, Pultec EQP1A, SPL De-esser, Neve Portico 5042

"If I recall correctly, the lead vocal is doubled throughout the song. I used a Waves DeEsser plug-in on it, which I'm quite a fan of, as I've not heard a hardware de-esser that is competitive with it. The main signal chain after that was a Mercury EQH tube EQ and then a couple of vintage UA 175s. I hit the background vocals with the Roger Mayer RM58. I haven't mentioned any plug-ins yet, apart from the Waves DeEsser, because I hardly used them on 'The Pretender.' The only other ones I used were the Reel Tape Saturation and the Pultec EQP1A on the intro vocals, and the Sound Toys Echoboy on one of the end vocal overdubs.

"I used board EQ on all the vocals. The Pultec EQP1A plug-in on the intro vocals was to help them cut through. The Reel Tape Saturation was a plug-in that I had just bought. I wanted to warm the vocals up a little bit with it and make them a little bit crisper. Nothing too distorted. The Echoboy plug-in was used on a vocal overdub at the end for a tight delay. I don't tend to use plug-ins that much; they're really not that interesting, in my opinion. Finally, I also used an SPL De-esser on some vocals, and the Neve Designs Portico 5042 for a bit of crispness. It has its own sound, and I used it a lot on the whole Foo Fighters album.

"To complete the picture, I used an EMT plate and the room mics for general reverb, and my two EAR 660 limiters were my bus compressors, together with the Manley Massive Passive. We printed the mix to the ATR102, on half-inch analogue tape, from which it was mastered."

Used on Grohl's vocals for "The Pretender", as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

Vocals: Mercury EQH, UA 175, Roger Mayer RM58, Waves DeEsser, Digidesign Reel Tape Saturation, Sound Toys Echoboy, Pultec EQP1A, SPL De-esser, Neve Portico 5042

"If I recall correctly, the lead vocal is doubled throughout the song. I used a Waves DeEsser plug-in on it, which I'm quite a fan of, as I've not heard a hardware de-esser that is competitive with it. The main signal chain after that was a Mercury EQH tube EQ and then a couple of vintage UA 175s. I hit the background vocals with the Roger Mayer RM58. I haven't mentioned any plug-ins yet, apart from the Waves DeEsser, because I hardly used them on 'The Pretender.' The only other ones I used were the Reel Tape Saturation and the Pultec EQP1A on the intro vocals, and the Sound Toys Echoboy on one of the end vocal overdubs.

"I used board EQ on all the vocals. The Pultec EQP1A plug-in on the intro vocals was to help them cut through. The Reel Tape Saturation was a plug-in that I had just bought. I wanted to warm the vocals up a little bit with it and make them a little bit crisper. Nothing too distorted. The Echoboy plug-in was used on a vocal overdub at the end for a tight delay. I don't tend to use plug-ins that much; they're really not that interesting, in my opinion. Finally, I also used an SPL De-esser on some vocals, and the Neve Designs Portico 5042 for a bit of crispness. It has its own sound, and I used it a lot on the whole Foo Fighters album.

"To complete the picture, I used an EMT plate and the room mics for general reverb, and my two EAR 660 limiters were my bus compressors, together with the Manley Massive Passive. We printed the mix to the ATR102, on half-inch analogue tape, from which it was mastered."

Used for the snare on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 24:15.

Then I have distortion on the snare, that would've been my Tube Driver. [pictures a Chandler Tube Driver rackmount]

Used for the slapback delay on the drums in the chorus of "No One Knows", as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 24:20. The initial anecdote is made at 21:05.

And when I did my little drum rough mix, I put like a little slapback on the drums. At the time, I though that would be cool. So then, but that only comes in the choruses, so... (...) And then here's a TASCAM cassette deck [pictures a 122 MKIII] that I used for the slap that you heard on the chorus sections.

Grohl is seen with the tascam at 34:09 of the foo fighters movie “Studio 666”