Recording Green Day

[matteo263]

Hi All,

I'm working on a uni assignment in which I have to do a recording of an original song. Being influenced by Green Day so much, my song is on the same kind of style. I'd like to take the same approach that Green Day takes to their recording process in my assignment. Basically I'd like to generate as much information as possible to be able to then replicate their process. I've watched Quatro, HLAHG and read 2 articles to get some ideas. I've got some questions that I'd like ask you all.

 

Do Green Day record every instrument seperately? Or together as a live band? 

I'm getting the impression that its a mixture of both but I'd like to check if anyone could confirm my suspicion or has any more specific information.

If you've got any other resources (articles, videos etc.) that I could use please pass them along  

 

Thank You!! 

[Alan86]

Every instrument is recorded separate. As far as I know they usually record drums first then base and rhythm guitar and then lead guitar and lastly vocals. When they were on lookout records I think Billie used record his Guitar and vocals at the same time.

[fukingcounterstrike]

what a stupid way to record, fucking idiots

[dookedoutnimrod]

To get that big american idiot/21st century breakdown guitar tone you might wanna do like 4 takes(sometimes more,sometimes less) of the rythm-guitar and pan it to taste.
I read that during the recording of 21st century breakdown he'd use a telecaster with a clean or cleanish tone sometimes and blend it in with the juniors and les pauls.
Butch vig said that normally he would spend days to get all the guitars 100% tight with each other. But Billie played so tight that he didn't need to.

Chris Lord Alge also  uses the universal audio 1176 compressor alot on the vocals when he mixes green day.Which has a special sound.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb11/articles/classic-tracks-0211.htm
pretty cool read about the recording of dookie.

Hope some of that helped

[localinsomniac]

I picked up a lot of techniques from that SOS article. It's pretty much perfected the guitar tone I'm looking for. You definitely want to check that out.

And yeah – they'll do live takes with scratch guitar and bass tracks, to get the drums down. Then they go back and overdub all the guitar, bass and vocal parts separately.

[Sarcasm]

4 hours ago, dookedoutnimrod said:

To get that big american idiot/21st century breakdown guitar tone you might wanna do like 4 takes(sometimes more,sometimes less) of the rythm-guitar and pan it to taste.
I read that during the recording of 21st century breakdown he'd use a telecaster with a clean or cleanish tone sometimes and blend it in with the juniors and les pauls.
Butch vig said that normally he would spend days to get all the guitars 100% tight with each other. But Billie played so tight that he didn't need to.

Chris Lord Alge also  uses the universal audio 1176 compressor alot on the vocals when he mixes green day.Which has a special sound.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb11/articles/classic-tracks-0211.htm
pretty cool read about the recording of dookie.

Hope some of that helped

I've never read that, thanks for sharing

[Vic_Rattlehead]

Everything before Dookie will have most likely been recorded live as a band, or at least instrumentally with vocals overdubbed.

Some of the songs on Dookie were recorded live (without vocals), as you can hear spill on some of the guitar/drum tracks on Rock Band. However not all of them.

[Chin for a Day]

On 3/16/2016 at 8:10 AM, dookedoutnimrod said:

To get that big american idiot/21st century breakdown guitar tone you might wanna do like 4 takes(sometimes more,sometimes less) of the rythm-guitar and pan it to taste.
I read that during the recording of 21st century breakdown he'd use a telecaster with a clean or cleanish tone sometimes and blend it in with the juniors and les pauls.
Butch vig said that normally he would spend days to get all the guitars 100% tight with each other. But Billie played so tight that he didn't need to.

 

I was really happy to read this.  Billie has always taken alot of shit for not being a good guitar player.  However, I always thought that even though what he plays is not difficult, he plays it perfectly.  He makes very little mistakes.  I'm glad to see a professional agreeing with me.  

Since he does play so tight, I would imagine he could play something more difficult if he wanted too.  He just chooses to play what he plays. 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

8 hours ago, JJ1964 said:

I was really happy to read this.  Billie has always taken alot of shit for not being a good guitar player.  However, I always thought that even though what he plays is not difficult, he plays it perfectly.  He makes very little mistakes.  I'm glad to see a professional agreeing with me.  

Since he does play so tight, I would imagine he could play something more difficult if he wanted too.  He just chooses to play what he plays. 

I'm convinced he keeps it simple on purpose. What he does works well for the songs, he plays tight and I think it's important that his style is recognisable. I only heard state of shock once when it came out, then randomly heard it on the radio a while ago. I knew who I was listening to after a few bars. That says something. 

[Chin for a Day]

8 minutes ago, Jane Lannister said:

I'm convinced he keeps it simple on purpose. What he does works well for the songs, he plays tight and I think it's important that his style is recognisable. I only heard state of shock once when it came out, then randomly heard it on the radio a while ago. I knew who I was listening to after a few bars. That says something. 

I agree, I think he would rather play tight, then plays something more difficult and make alot of mistakes.  I know alot of people dont' agree with me on this, but that is why I don't like Jimmy Page.   He makes so many mistakes and doesn't even try to hide them.  I would rather hear something simpler, but tight.