Trent Reznor

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.

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.

Guitar World 1994: What kind of guitars do you play?

REZNOR: Mostly an Eighties' Les Paul Custom. I also used an Explorer, and a Jackson I have, for which I just told the company, "Put the world's loudest pickup in this."

In reference to The Fragile: Trent used "a Nord Lead on almost every song," says Keith. And not just for leads or synth bass. "He used it for... it was pretty much all over the map. There wasn't any real definitive synth bass. I mean, we used the Minimoog, we used the Nord, we used the [Novation] Bass Station on 'The Wretched.' There wasn't anything that we always went back to for a specific sound, but if he had a melody in his head, the Nord was always the first synth he'd walk over to. He'd basically flip through sounds until he found something in the ballpark, then we'd record in the synth line, and then tweak the sounds as the sequence looped around.

Trent Reznor used the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer during his Downward Spiral tour, as documented in a YouTube video by ZORAK277. Known for its durability, the DX7 was a staple in his performances, showcasing Reznor's intense playing style.

For years, Trent Reznor and his crew have been using Ableton Live as a production and sound design tool as well as a partner in sonic experimentation. Reznor says, "Live is a powerful and fun program to use. We use this extensively in the studio for a variety of purposes."

From a Trent Reznor testimonial on the Ohm Force website: "I bought the Oddity [...] a few months ago and couldn't believe how great [it was]"

Original source here.

“An installation of the Soundtoys bundle is the first, mandatory step I take on all the platforms I use. Composing in Maschine or Live, performing live with Mainstage, or recording with Pro Tools… for every stage I rely on the incredibly useful, musical and inspiring tools Soundtoys provides. FilterFreak, EchoBoy and Decapitator are all over Hesitation Marks and used live throughout the TENSION 2013 tour.” - via soundtoys.com

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".

In the following SOS article, Trent Reznor's engineer said: "The music just flows out of Trent like no one else I've ever known, even though he'll burn brilliantly and then have to play video games for the next eight hours. As with any great artist, there's a lot of procrastination, but while he's playing one of those games his brain is still working and at any moment he could come up with something fantastic. That's why we'd always have to be ready to roll. If he suddenly said, 'I want to sing,' I'd hand him a [Shure] Beta 58 and run it through a Neve and [Universal Audio] LA2A. I had it set up so he could grab a mic, I'd hit two buttons and off we'd go. Most of the time he'd hand-hold a 58, but every once in a while we'd record his vocal with [an AKG] 414 because it captured the natural sound of him in a room, which he really liked. "He recorded 'Closer' with a Beta 58, and for some tracks he'd have it on a mic stand and perform right there in front of the console. In fact, when he did the vocal for 'Ruiner', he was lifting the mic stand, slamming its base into the wood floor and chipping it, while on another occasion he 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!' However, when he performed, the emotion came out, and in the case of 'Piggy' he was under the console singing into the Beta 58.”

Trent Reznor demonstrates and talks about the Swarmatron Sound Machine Used to create parts of the score of "The Social Network".

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.

In this photo, the Fucking Fucker can be seen on top of one of Reznor's euroracks

'This ebony Epiphone Goth XII electric guitar is an official item from Nine Inch Nails. This specific guitar was played by Trent Reznor and smashed onstage at the Zepp Osaka in Osaka, Japan on 5.24.07 during the Performance 2007 world tour.' - https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/nine-inch-nails-official-epiphone-251983152

Trent has been known to use numerous Epiphone Les Pauls on Tour, perhaps as a cheaper and cost effective alternative to Gibson as the band are rumored to have smashed up to $160,000 worth of Gibson Les Pauls in the 90s during the Downward Spiral Tour - http://www.metalsucks.net/2017/05/12/nine-inch-nails-destroyed-more-than-160000-worth-of-gibson-les-pauls-on-the-downward-spiral-tour/

"You chose to use Reaktor rather than Guitar Rig?

Well, eventually Guitar Rig worked its way into the process. Sometimes we'd make a very clean patch that only utilized the amp simulators or different arrays of speakers and then take whatever we might be using as the front head and run it through the amp simulator in Guitar Rig." - via the archived NativeInstruments.com

Trent Reznor says, "For quite some time I've been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks […] What I'm giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session […] in GarageBand format," in this interview.

In this interview, Reznor talks about his use of Native Instruments Reaktor. He says, "In the studio we had two Apple G5's, one running Pro Tools hosting Guitar Rig, and the other one with Logic hosting Reaktor, so we could suck as much horse power as we needed and then just digitally transfer it to the computer with the main Pro Tools system," and "For a large portion of what we did, we treated Reaktor like a guitar pedal, like the ultimate distortion box. Instead of having an array of pedals on the floor, a lot of the pedals became virtual in Reaktor."

Trent Reznor posted his thoughts on the Prophet 12 on Twitter, saying "it is FANTASTIC" and calling it “Quite possibly the best synth he’s ever designed and that’s saying a lot.”

Trent is playing this guitar live, 1:59 is the clearest you can see the guitar

Trent Reznor, playing a Moog Sub 37.

"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—

In march 1994 interview he explains: "Broken, for example, had a lot of that super-thick chunk sound. Almost every guitar sound on that record was me playing through an old Zoom pedal, direct, and then going into Turbosynth. Then I used a couple of key ingredients to make it sound unlike any real sound in the world, and layered about four of them together. By then, it wasn't a guitar anymore. It's an awesome sound."

This Gibson ES-335 Memphis Studio Black, modified with two pickups with chrome covers, is seen here with Trent on the Hesitation Marks tour 2014.

Trent Reznor: "When I got my hands on it I was blown away..."

Trent Reznor seen with Blue Microphones "The Mouse" in this music video of How to Destroy Angels.

"I had it set up so he (Trent) could grab a mic, I'd hit two buttons and off we'd go. Most of the time he'd hand-hold a 58, but every once in a while we'd record his vocal with [an AKG] 414 because it captured the natural sound of him in a room, which he really liked.

at 25:02, Robin states Trent used this pedal in the studio

Trent Reznor is seen playing an Oberheim Four Voice synth in his studio. Image from his Instagram profile.

In this photo, Reznor can be seen playing an Epiphone Sheraton II.

One of many live pics where Trent Reznor is seen playing Gibson Explorer.