Mike Patton

Like the photo on the page, Patton Use this mic.

Mike Patton
Singer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist, Film Composer, Producer Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas “This super-clean EQ is all over the live strings on my Mondo Cane record. It enabled me and my engineers to really dig deeply into specific bothersome frequencies.”

I use this plug probably not so much for compression, as I assume it was intended – but more as a distortion box! It’s great both in-chain or for crushing tracks after the fact. A trusted squashing beast! Love it on drums and percussion especially. I have a hardware version of this but lean on the plugin many times, as it can be much more convenient… and no shitty dirty pots to worry about!

Doppler and Doubler are both fun plugins to use while experimenting. Doppler is known as a sound design plugin, but I’ve used these two on voice in Faith No More and Dead Cross, as well as some single note guitar melodies on various projects. This combination a little difficult to describe – but it provides almost a sort of ‘3D’ depth in certain cases.

Doppler and Doubler are both fun plugins to use while experimenting. Doppler is known as a sound design plugin, but I’ve used these two on voice in Faith No More and Dead Cross, as well as some single note guitar melodies on various projects. This combination a little difficult to describe – but it provides almost a sort of ‘3D’ depth in certain cases.

Eddie Kramer Effects Channel is a go-to when I need a solid slapback delay. It’s all over my soundtrack for A Perfect Place, for example, which had a certain film noir/big band aesthetic: horns, guitars, you name it. The Z Slap and H Slap functions are instant gratification for me, especially when I don’t feel like wrestling with my old tape echoes and their uncleanliness!

J37: A juicy tape emulator that can be used on literally ANYTHING. I have used this on entire stereo mixes, and it made them sound as if they were recorded next to a warm fireplace!

JJP Guitars: A nifty post-production tool. I used it on a couple soundtracks, particularly The Place Beyond the Pines, which utilized a lot of featured guitar lines. It really helped clean up some muddy guitar passages and made it easy to dial in certain frequencies in a main melody/chord progression.

For ‘engineer-challenged’ people like me, these plugs are a godsend. OneKnob Brighter, Driver, Pumper – all are delightfully easy to navigate and every tweak makes me smile. You know that horrible feeling when you enable a plug, adjust parameters, and just keep clicking… waiting for something to happen? It’s the worst feeling in the world. These plugs do NOT do that!

Greg Wells PianoCentric: Although this was designed for piano, I find myself using it on many things. It's especially effective when I try to ‘dirty up’ an annoying digital sample. It gives me a sort of ‘dungeon’ vibe that can really come in handy. Greg Wells VoiceCentric also has a similar magic, although i don’t necessarily use it on vocals either. The fact that these two plugs each have one large dial and are uncomplicated makes them instant fun medicines for me!

X-Hum and X-Noise: When you use funky old gear like noisy amps, ungrounded spring reverbs, etc., these plugs can be a lifesaver. During the recording of my soundtrack for Netflix’s 1922, these were indispensable. The musical aesthetic was very minimal, so each instrumental passage had to carry a certain weight, gravity and clarity. These plugs breathed new life into some cranky mellotron and grimy fiddle tracks, saving my ass!

The API 2500 plugin is something I often use to ‘excite’ a droopy vocal in the mid/high register. I actually have the original hardware, but I use the plugin just as much if not more – it has the ‘teeth’ you would expect from anything API. On 1922, I used the API 2500 to remove unwanted ‘girth’ on low-end bass and percussive instruments, for example on my processed celli – and it was literally like giving them a facial!

“The varispeed function in this plugin is genius. I will often automate it and adjust in real time, which works great for me. This plugin must have been born during the Troplicalia movement, and must have a cousin in the city of Psychedelia!”

“Just pure fun. Makes any synth or low-end information turn into a Godzilla... What’s not to like?!”

“Send a slightly overdriven signal – a crispy snare, a snappy vocal – to this reverb plate plugin, and watch the magic happen! I usually use a little extra drive, depending on the source. And the ‘damper’ function is a go-to on certain vocal information – it can really help smooth out certain spikes in true old-school plate style.”

“If you need a more crispy exterior for ANY sound, this plugin is like a digital deep fryer! Need I say more?”

He uses it live for improvising and recording on the studio.

Fantomas at Rockout Fest - Santiago, Chile - December 2014

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Patton also uses a CB radio mic that is plugged into a Korg Kaoss pad for added distortion and delay effects, as well as a pair of full-size megaphones miked with a Shure Beta 98 taped inside and a radio transmitter strapped to the side of each unit. In Patton’s vocal chain, Brennan uses Avid plug-ins for reverbs, distortion, delays, tape flanging and Leslie speaker simulation. - See more at: http://www.mixonline.com/news/tours/faith-no-more/424720#sthash.lLEGuRQB.dpuf

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