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Lars Klokkerhaug
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What do the albums "Morke gravers kammer" by Khold, "Sardonic Wrath" by Darkthrone, "Unlimited" by Susperia, "Internal Punishment Programs" by Red Harvest and "Isa" by Enslaved have in common? Well, two things: First, engineer/studio owner Lars Klokkerhaug recorded and/or mixed them all on Soundscape. And second, they were the five nominees for Norway's prestigious Alarm Award 2004, Best Album, "Metal" category. Enslaved's "Isa" eventually won the award.
Lars recorded and mixed Khold´s "Morke gravers kammer" and Darkthrone´s "Sardonic Wrath", recorded most of the instruments and vocals for Susperia´s "Unlimited" (mixed in Fredman Studios in Gothenburg), recorded the drums, guitar, bass and vocals for Red Harvest's "Internal Punishment Programs" (also mixed in Fredman Studios) and mixed Enslaved´s "Isa", the eventual award winner.
We caught up with Lars just as he was finalizing his move to new studio premises.
Lars, well done for helping Enslaved to get the award in 2004. Has this award helped you as well in terms of your recording business?
Thank you! You could say that it has both helped me and made things a bit more difficult for me in some ways. The fact that I worked on 5 nominees in the metal category for the Alarm awards, and that I mixed Enslaved (who also won the “Norwegian Grammy Award”) certainly attracted some attention to my work. It also made me feel like there was suddenly a bit more pressure on what I did in the studio after that, and as a result of that I have upgraded my studio and equipment substantially since I worked on the five albums you mentioned... which in turn has led to me working on less albums in the past year. When I worked on these albums, I had a home studio in my basement. Knowing that my future work would get more attention, the limitations of working in a tiny basement studio suddenly seemed a lot more serious than they did when I started.
You have just moved your studio to new premises. Please tell us about the new facility.
I took over Tee Productions' old studio facilities in December of last year. Tomme Tee / Tee Productions have been the most successful Norwegian rap / hip-hop producers for the last 10 years, and the studio is a lot bigger than anything I have had before. I have rented out some of the rooms in the complex to people in the music business as well, since I don´t really need all 250 square meters for my studio! I now have a pretty large control room (approximately 4,5 x 9 meters), and a slightly smaller recording room. There is also a large lounge area in the premises. Two of the rooms are currently occupied by a guitar tech, so in future, clients can hopefully have their guitars serviced and set up by a professional before they start recording.
When I took over, there was a Neve 5116 24 ch console in the control room that I was free to use. However, this console needed a service so badly that I decided it would be better for me to buy a new console, so I now have a 26 channel Neotek Elite that has just been serviced and recapped. It is being set up with a new patch as we speak, and I am most curious to start working on it.
Do you have an affinity for heavy metal, or a reputation for working with this style of music?
Difficult question… There is no doubt that heavy metal was the music style that made me work in the music business in the first place. I was introduced to Motorhead's “Ace of spades” and AC/DC´s “Back in black” within a week when I was around 12 years old (some time in 1980), and life was never quite the same. I spent a lot of my teen years listening to metal and metal related music, and I still like some metal. However, in the past 10-15 years, I have listened mostly to other kinds of music (at the moment I am more into Sigur Ros / Mogwai / classical music etc than metal, and I am / have been into most kinds of music over the past 15 years), but you could say that 10 years of being into metal has somehow helped me when working with metal bands and helped me understand their needs. And since the Alarm awards, my reputation for working with metal has mysteriously grown…
 What other projects have you worked on since then?
I have worked with some metal projects, including Grimfist, Deviant, Drottnar and Enslaved's Live DVD, and I am currently working with two bands that are also in the metal category called Slug Syndicate and From Beneath Billows. These two bands are unsigned, but I believe they will have their work released, since they are both great bands with their own sound. I have also recorded demos for a few “non metal” bands, and in september 2005 I recorded the sound for Arcturus' latest live DVD and Red Harvest's upcoming live DVD. This was done together with Børge Finstad of Toproom Studios. Since there is only one chance when recording a live show, and since that means that a crashing computer is NOT an option, we recorded the live shows on Soundscape equipment exclusively…
How did it all start, how did you get interested in sound engineering?
I guess it all had to do with my coolest cousin living next door being a total music and hi-fi nut. He had a stereo rig that cost more than $2000 in the mid to late 70´s (a LOT of money back then…), and a huge collection of records including Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Hendrix and many of the biggest artists of the decade. He was tragically killed in a car crash in 79, and my family bought his stereo system from my aunt for a very friendly price. So my interest for sound is closely related to him (I have to mention that another of his cousins on his father's side runs my hometown's most serious hi fi shop today). I spent most of the money I earned in the 80´s on my own stereo system, and I also played in various local bands and attended some sound workshops to learn how to operate the equipment in the rehearsal rooms when I was in my teens. When I finished school at age 19, I met a professional sound engineer working for a local radio, and I realized that you could make a decent living from beeing a sound engineer. Since then, I guess there was no other option for me.
You are also the main teacher in concert sound at the Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio. I assume you must have done a lot of live work as well?
Yes I have. A LOT! I started working for a very renowned sound company called Cruising Audio Concept in 1990, right after (or actually when) I had my education as a sound engineer. They were without doubt the leading PA company in Norway in the 80´s and 90´s, and it felt unbelievably honouring to work for them and to be allowed to learn from their top engineers. And their name certainly helped me get gigs. I worked mainly as a live engineer from 1990 to 2003, sometimes with the additional tour managing duties as well. I have probably worked on more than 2000 concerts since then, both as a local system engineer in clubs and on festivals in Oslo, and touring with bands in Norway and Europe.
Does your live sound experience help you in the studio? For instance, do you tend to record live group performances (as opposed to a lot of overdubbing)?
In some ways, my experience as a live engineer has helped me a lot. But this is more related to placing mics, getting to know the importance of different sounding mics and how sound differs according to how the mic is placed than with the general idea of recording live. Most of the albums I have recorded have been recorded with countless overdubs…
What are, for you, the main ingredients to a successful recording?
First of all, well rehearsed, inspired and talented musicians. This is by far the most important thing. The bands backline and equipment (having good, well tuned drums, good sounding guitar amps etc) is also important, and of course, having good songs! It is also important to try to have a relaxed atmosphere in the studio, so that no one feels “rushed” into doing their performance. If you can combine the above mentioned with good equipment that works well, you are on to something… I can´t imagine anything worse than having equipment fail when the band is ready to perform. So I have become quite dependent on the famous Soundscape stability!
How does Soundscape fit into your working method?
As I just mentioned, the stability counts for everything! I know that it will not crash in the middle of recording, and I know nothing will be lost. Apart from that, is it the most user friendly editor I know, and I have impressed people more than once with what it can do. Once, while editing drums, an engineer sitting beside me said, and I quote: “Wow! I bet the fastest pro tools operators around would have serious problems editing at this speed!"
What is your current Soundscape setup?
I have 2 Red 24´s, one Mixpander/5 and one Mixpander/9, one iBox 48, one Apogee I/O 896 and 2 Soundscape IO3 ADAT-TDIF converters for a total of 48 ins and outs. I have up to now worked on a Mackie 8 bus with expander (56 channels in total), but from now on I will have unit one on the tape returns of the Neotek and unit 2 on the line inputs. The neotek will give me 52 channels with faders in total in a mix situation.
Have you started using native Soundscape units as well as your two 24 track hardware units?
I haven´t gotten around to that yet. But as soon as the Neotek is up and running, upgrading to Editor 5 and getting native discs in my PC is the main priority (I still run version 4.2)
Do you mix in Soundscape as well as using it for recording?
I don´t use the Soundscape mixer for summing, I do the summing in my analog mixer, but I use a lot of plug-ins in the Soundscape mixer (The UAD card, amongst others), and I use a bit of automation on it too. And I frequently sum all the toms on a drumkit down to a stereo mix (metal drummers usually use a HUGE number of toms….)
Please describe your normal setup for band recording?
I usually close mic most parts of the drums (Kick, snare top/bottom, hi hat, all toms and ride cymbal), and I add a pair of overheads and room mics. I always put my best mics for room / OH, on the rest of the kit I use SM 57´s or Audio Technica ATM 25's and the Beta 52 in the kick drum. I always end up fiddling a bit with the tuning and with mic placement before I am happy. I have used an old Soundcraft 6000 for the close mics up to now. When I push the mic pres on it a bit, it is wonderfully punchy and dirty in a cool way in the low end. I am very curious to compare it with the Neotek which is supposed to be “very clean sounding”…
I also usually close mic guitar amps as well, but I tend to use 2 mics run through different preamps and sum them to get the sound I want. I normally use condenser mics when recording guitar. I don´t think I have ever ended up using a 57 or an MD421 on guitars, but I have tried and compared them on most recordings before rejecting them and recording with condenser mics instead (it's a common idea that the 57 is the “best” mic for recording guitar, but I don't agree). My most commonly used mics are Sennheiser's MKH 50 (the hyper cardiod version of the MKH 40), AKG's 480 or Groove Tubes' MD3 (The MD 3 is an all-time favourite of mine, I tend to use it on a lot of things…).
For bass I have two Ampeg preamps, one classic and one Billy Sheehan signature model. I often end up recording both a DI signal (through a Gas Cooker or Manley tube DI), a clean channel, a distorted channel (the distortion in the Billy Sheehan preamp is fantastic combined with the clean channel) and a mic on the amp (if the bass player has a decent amp with good sound). I think the most important part of the bass sound is my Studer mic valve with Telefunken NOS tubes. The Ampeg clean and distortion channels always go through that preamp. Coupled with an Urei LA22 compressor, it is my most precious piece of equipment. (It doesn´t help much if the bass player doesn´t have a good bass and a good general sound, though)
I have normally used the GT MD3 through the Studer mic pre for vocals with great results. I have also tried a couple of other mics, but the MD3/Studer combination has always made me happy. Tommy Tee (the hip-hop producer I took over the studio facilities from) works in the studio from time to time, and he recently left a Microtech Geffell UM92.1 tube mic for me to try out, and it is also a very good mic for vocals. Actually, Tommy claims that the combination of this mic and the Studer/Urei setup is the best sounding vocal combination he has ever tried!
Do you work mostly on your own or do you have employees or partners?
Most of the time, I work on my own. I have a friend (actually one of my former students from the Nordic Institute of Stage and Sound) who goes through my computers and helps me with practical matters such as soldering etc, and he has been sitting in on a few sessions for me. I have also used Cyrus (the guitar player from Susperia) to sit in and record for me a few times, and he is great at making guitarists perform at their best. I will probably use them both in the future too… And when I started the studio, Lars (better known as LRZ) from Red Harvest was of invaluable help.
Apart from them, I frequently bother Svenna from Luthman Norway (national Resource Center and Soundscape distributor for Norway) when I am stuck. He is also the one who helps me with upgrades etc. His service and help and the support forum on the Sydec website are very good reasons to stick with soundscape.
What are your next projects?
For the past months, my main priority (apart from doing my part time job at NISS) has been getting the mixer and studio up and running. So I have in total 3 projects to finish (Slug Syndicate, From Beneath Billows and an unnamed project with a fresh band that records a 3 song demo) before I can actually take on anything else. But I guess I will start looking for new projects in a few weeks, or at least this autumn. For now, I just need to get everything up and running, and finish what I have already started work on…
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