Trent Reznor

1994 interview Guitar World - REZNOR: Almost everything was direct--there was almost no miking of cabinets. I just don't like that sound very much. It sounds boring to me. So we ran through a variety of preamps and speaker simulators. Our main preamp was the new Marshall JMP-1. But I didn't use the speaker simulator in it. I took the direct out of the Marshall into the Zoom 9030, employing just the speaker simulator on that. I really like the sound of the speaker simulator on the Zoom, but I don't like the preamp section. It sounds like what it is: a little box. I also have a Demeter tube preamp that I used sometimes. That one was totally direct, no simulator. It's the ultimate terrible sound. But it works in the context of some of the songs. I also used some of the little Zoom 9002, the old one--the one that clips on your belt. I just used it straight. I like its sound sometimes.

GW: Don't you also use that for vocals a lot?

REZNOR: Actually, the 9030 is the one I use a lot for the vocals. That and the mic preamp from an old Neve board. that's the best distortion. It's not the way the manufacturer thought it would be used. But all the vocals are from that and the Zoom. We also went and got an old Mutron envelope filter. The one that gives you the Bootsy [Collins] sound. Awesome. The one we had would eat four nine-volt batteries in half an hour. It's awful. But it sounds amazing when the batteries are dying. We did a lot through that. in fact all the drums on "I Do Not Want This" was just one two-bar loop that Steve Perkins played. We just ran it through every effect we had in the studio--the Mutron, [Eventide] H3000 Harmonizers, a Digitech Whammy Pedal... Flood and I just went crazy.

At 4:50, Trent Reznor says "On the new record Hesitation Marks, about, if not every song ...almost every song was me with headphones on working in Maschine as a compositional environment. And I just found that to be fun. And I like the limitation of everything that's in there, and I like the fact that it can be easily automated with fingers and knobs and that you don't have to spend time assigning stuff, and I like the fact that it felt pattern based, and my Maschine consists of whatever soundbanks they have along with SoundToys native bundle and a couple softsynths outside of the Native Instruments thing. But just that was a kind of template to work from that ... I didn't feel exhausted when the record was finished and I could have kept going and probably will do the next thing I do in the same capacity, cause it just felt right. And the combination of Maschine as a kind of compositional tool on top of the effects I added ...became something I didn't ...I didn't miss being in the full studio. And sometimes having a limited work environment makes me work in a way that pushes me to something I wouldn't do if I'm sitting in the studio and I can reach for my favorite things".

"Reznor used his roomful of instruments—a vacuum-tube-powered drum machine, a Casio SK-1 keyboard with a bent circuit board, and so on—

"The studio was equipped with a 56-input Amek Mozart console with Rupert Neve modules, two Studer A800 Mk3 multitrack machines, Mac-based Pro Tools and a host of outboard gear, in addition to Akai S1100 and Kurzweil K2000 samplers; Prophet VS, Digidesign Turbosynth, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Expander, Oberheim OBMx, Roland MKS80 and Minimoog synthesizers; Doepfer and Oberheim sequencers; a Mellotron MKIV polyphonic tape replay keyboard; a Roland R70 drum machine; and assorted Jackson and Gibson guitars."

In his studio, Trent Reznor can be seen with a Sherman Filterbank 2 in the back of the room, by his right arm.

Trent Reznor rocking the Akai Pro MPD32 with Nine Inch Nails (NIN); shown clearly in photo from start of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWH_4UZ_mfQ.

There is a photo taken by Trent Reznor in his 1994 studio Le Pig during the recording of The Downward Spiral. To the left is the Amek Mozart console." - studio engineer Sean Beavan says: ""The studio was equipped with a 56-input Amek Mozart console with Rupert Neve modules...We loved the Amek Mozart console, because if you EQ'ed a Minimoog it would make it sound kind of cooler,”

"I had a Commodore 64 with, I think, the Sequential Circuits Model 64 Sequencer Cartridge. And it was the greatest thing in the world (or so I thought at the time). Moving on… The first "real" platform I used for composition was a Mac+ running Performer. Pretty Hate Machine was done with this."

Trent Reznor opening the new tour of Nine Inch Nails playing an Alias 8 on "Copy of A". The controller is seen from the beginning of the video and the Livid logo is visible.

Livid Instruments also shared a photo to their Facebook page stating that NIN use the Alias 8.

Trent is seen using this controller at 2:22 during The Fragile

at 0:50, Trent is seen using this controller

The 1994 studio was equipped with a 56-input Amek Mozart console with Rupert Neve modules, two Studer A800 Mk3 multitrack machines, Mac-based Pro Tools and a host of outboard gear, in addition to Akai S1100 and Kurzweil K2000 samplers; Prophet VS, Digidesign Turbosynth, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Expander, Oberheim OBMx, Roland MKS80 and Minimoog synthesizers; Doepfer and Oberheim sequencers; a Mellotron MKIV polyphonic tape replay keyboard; a Roland R70 drum machine; and assorted Jackson and Gibson guitars.

Mac G5 is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.

"At the time of Pretty Hate Machine, I had a Mac Plus. I did all the sequencing of that record on that."

NIN using Livid Instruments CNTRL:R on their new tour.

At 2:23 in the above video, the Kenton Pro 2000 MKII is clearly visible in Trent's home studio

Bryan Gardiner from Wired writes in this article, "Reznor and other band members use Lemurs during the 'electronic set." The touchscreen devices can be used to control a range of audio and visual aspects of the show on the fly.'"

1994 studio: "The studio was equipped with a 56-input Amek Mozart console with Rupert Neve modules, two Studer A800 Mk3 multitrack machines, Mac-based Pro Tools and a host of outboard gear..."

"Our effects were created mostly from the ground up on the Kurzweil K2000 — which we even used to distort vocals — and on the Eventide H3500. " "...due to Trent being so meticulous and wanting us to come up with vocal effects that had never been used before. That often meant getting out the Eventide H3500 to achieve things like the crazy, almost ring-modish vocal at the end of 'Closer'. "

"So Trent bought the building, and moved all of his studio gear into it. Studio A has an 80-input SSL console in it, two Studer 24-tracks, a Digidesign Pro Tools and Macintosh system, and a massive collection of keyboards and guitar pedals. Studio B in the back is equipped with Mackie digital consoles, a bunch of [TASCAM] DA-88s, and a lot of synths."

Trent used a Linn 9000 on the album "Pretty Hate Machine."

Apogee DA-16X is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.

In the left middle of this pic, you can clearly see 2 Empirical Labs Distressor Compressors, just above the LA-2A Compressor/Limiter!

In the middle left of this picture, you can see an LA-2A Compressor in the rack.

Photo from 1994: This Timeline Micro Lynx was the unwitting victim of Trent Reznor's sometimes brutal vocal recording technique.

"while on another occasion he (Trent Reznor) got so carried away that he sheared the knobs off some [Lexicon] PCM42s. There were three PCM42s in a row and he took the feedback and modulation knobs off every one of them. I was thinking, 'Fuck!'"

Apogee AD-16X is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.

Big Ben 192K Master Digital Clock is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.

Digidesign 192 is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.

Lavry 4496 is included in the "COMPUTERS, DAWs, RECORDING HARDWARE" list.