He’s the man with the hat, but it’s what lies underneath it that really counts. Engineer Eric Valentine talks about Slash’s recent solo album, Slash. Text: Paul Tingen “When I first met Slash to talk about his solo Angeles where ancient tape machines and other album,” recalls Eric Valentine, “I immediately vintage equipment – not to mention Valentine’s told him the only way I wanted to do it was to and Slash’s respective skills – conspired to produce approach it like a classic rock record: get great some kick-ass results. With Scully and Studer tape musicians, rehearse the songs properly, and record machines, EMI and custom desks, an enormous them on tape machines. There’s one particular array of valve, ribbon, and other microphones, vintage tape machine that I wanted to use for drums and all manner of vintage and funky and obscure and bass to get that classic ’60s rock sound, and for outboard, Barefoot Studios is clearly the domain overdubs I then wanted to use a more modern tape of someone in love with analogue recording. So machine that can punch in and out. My idea was to the main question to be answered in this article is make it really simple, with a great drum sound and simply this: ‘Mr Valentine, what’s with all the old one guitar in one speaker and another guitar in the and clunky and clumsy and often unreliable stuff, other speaker, so you can really hear performances. I and how did you manage to produce results with didn’t want to hear just a wall of guitar sounds, I it that put state-of-the-art 21st century DAWs to wanted to be able to hear Slash playing guitar. He shame?’ seemed really excited about that.” “Modern, digitally recorded albums are an abusive Slash was excited enough to entrust Valentine sonic experience,” responds Valentine cheerfully, with the engineering, mixing, and producing of laying down his opening gambit. “The whole advent his first genuine solo album. Given Slash’s patchy of digital recording has affected many aspects of commercial success since leaving Guns N’ Roses the music industry and of contemporary recording, in 1996 – he formed the bands Snakepit and Velvet mostly in an unfavourable way. It has contributed Revolver and only the latter’s Contraband album to the overall decline of the recording industry, in enjoyed mega success – and the fact that Valentine’s part because listening to digital is less satisfying most recent successes had not been with heavy-rock than listening to analogue. To my ears, digital stuff but with hit parade-friendly albums by Maroon 5 has an uncomfortable buzzy high end that I find and The All-American Rejects, the collaboration very difficult to listen to or work with. Digital has doesn’t at first sight appear an obvious fit. However, the remarkable ability to sound dull and hash at whatever risk Slash may have taken in hiring the same time, and I have to admit that HD doesn’t Valentine has paid off in spades: the collaboration, sound dramatically different to me. Of course, my simply named Slash, has reached number three in formative years of getting into music and recording the US and topped it in many other countries. were during the analogue days, so I’m aware that I’m romantically attached to that sound and that It’s easy to understand why. Not only does Slash way of doing things. But there’s also real truth in feature a number of high-profile singers, amongst the fact that modern, digital records just don’t have them Ozzy Osbourne, Andrew Stockdale, Lemmy, the same sonic effect as analogue records. When I Iggy Pop, and, err, Fergie and Maroon 5’s Adam was growing up and my favourite bands had a new Levine, plus four of the five members of the most record out, I’d get it, put it on my turntable, and successful incarnation of Guns N’ Roses, the music listen to it probably 10 times in a row. They were itself seriously rocks out with much full-on guitar great sounding classic rock records, and I’d listen work that lifts an impressive amount of good songs to them over and over. I simply can’t do that with to even higher levels. modern records. They’re just way too fatiguing to The most immediately striking aspect ofSlash is its listen to for a long time.” in-your-face sound, which harks back to the golden EXTREME VIEWS days of classic rock ‘n’ roll, while at the same time being thoroughly modern. The album was recorded For those of you about to turn the page, thinking and mixed at Valentine’s Barefoot Studios in Los that Valentine is yet another stuck-in-the-past old fogey, there are a few things that should give pause AT 38 AT 39 of arrangement edits are made close to finishing, out by the time Slash came to Barefoot. He and I I capture the sound on analogue first and then would listen to the vocals and arrangements and transfer it to a computer. I ended up using that make decisions about what worked and what didn’t, approach for The All-American Rejects single,Gives or what could be better. We then got [bassist] Chris You hell.” Chaney and [drummer] John Freese in, and we finalised the arrangement with three of them in the TWO (MULTI-TRACK) RECORDING studio. Everybody would be throwing around ideas Interestingly, Slash’s Slash was made with neither of and we’d make sure the demo parts translated into a the above-described methods. Instead, Valentine group of human beings playing in a room.” recorded the players live to two of his favourite multi-track tape recorders, editing the music on EXTRAORDINARILY LOUD them as well, and using ProTools for recording Valentine: “The process of recording was Slash, vocals, as an effects box, and for backups. He Josh, and Chris playing together in my main explains the reasons why later in the article. But recording area, facing each other, playing the first he took the story of how he recorded Slash and songs live. A big part of Slash’s sound is having his mixed the album’s first single, By The Sword, from amplifier playing extraordinarily loud, so we had to the top. have that in a separate room. This meant he and the band were recording with headphones, even though “Slash and I met through some mutual Slash hates them. It took them maybe three to four I always tell mastering engineers: ‘I don’t acquaintances. I’d never met him, and I’d of course “ hours for each song to work out the arrangement heard all the infamous stories about him from the care if we have the loudest record, I want it and play a couple of takes, and from there I’d edit past, so for our first meeting I wasn’t sure what the best bits to get the master. We’d typically take to be the best sounding record. to expect. I didn’t know whether there would be about three days to record the music for an entire this train-wreck with a top hat careening into song. The first day we’d get the arrangements and the restaurant or what. Instead he was incredibly record bass, drums and the basic guitar part. Once composed, very focused and very easy to talk to. these were recorded and I’d edited the master, I’d He knew this record was going to be eclectic, with copy it to a slave reel and the next day Slash would ” different singers on each song, and I think he was do his overdubs to that. Because the headphones looking for someone who could approach each make it hard for him to feel what he’s playing, for his song in a more individualised way and who could for thought and a reason to read on. For starters, Fostex B16 at one stage, and a Neve 8038 desk with overdubs I’d set up a live kind of thing in the control accommodate different stylistic approaches. He Valentine is far from old. At 41, he’s in his prime and 1081 EQs. The latter took up too much space and room. I have these big Urei 813 monitors, which are also said that he’d always made records with tape not part of an older generation that’s now reaching was not practical for mixing, so I switched to a Neve almost like live monitors, and I’d just crank them machines, and that the computer approach of pensionable age. Valentine, who grew up in the Bay 8128 in 1997. In 2000 I bought Crystal Studios here way up. Sometimes I’d be wearing ear protection playing in the studio and later finding that his parts Area, got into recording as a young teenager in the in Los Angeles, the main reason being that I wanted while Slash was doing overdubs in the room with had been moved or changed or otherwise edited early ’80s, first doing sound on sound with “two a large tracking room, and I transformed the studio me. In that situation he was incredibly accurate and wasn’t something he was comfortable with. So the compact cassette recorders and a little Radio Shack into Barefoot Recording. I’ve had several desks here, consistent. On the third day we’d usually record the approach I suggested was really far more along the mixer,” then using a four-track Tascam portastudio.