Nickelback: The Band Everybody Loves to Hate

Okay, I get it. Nickelback blows. Everyone can agree. They’re a bunch of cock-rocking misogynists that also write the most incredibly trite feel-good ballads. Basically they are this decade’s version of Def Leppard, but with eight full arms (sorry, had to get an arm joke in there).

But here’s the problem: Nickelback has sold 27 million albums. Not singles. Not ringtones. ALBUMS. “All the Right Reasons,” their 2005 release, has gone eight times platinum alone. If you are familiar with the state of the music industry nowadays then you know just how unbelievable this is. By comparison, Myspace darlings Fall Out Boy only sold 3 million copies of their biggest record, “From Under the Cork Tree“.

I’m not going to attempt to justify this anymore than to say there’s something going on here other than just massive radio airplay convincing numbskulls to shell out $12 for an album. After all, Fall Out Boy had heavy rotation airplay but not nearly the same amount of album sales.

Being as I am producer/engineer, Nickelback has also gotten my attention for another reason: the amazing sound quality of their records (particularly the two most recent ones). At Wizkid Sound, we’re huge connoisseurs of massive sounding, super slick production and mixing. I think it’s fair to say that at far as rock goes, Nickelback’s recordings have reached the pinnacle of the art (or science?)

The guitars and bottom end on the recordings might just be the biggest I’ve ever heard. The drums are absolutely explosive. And Chad Kroeger’s vocals, as douchey as they may be, sound incredible. Overall, the sound seems to defy some of the limits of sonic quality that the current standard (CDs) have imposed on recorded music.

Both “All the Right Reasons” (2005) and “Dark Horse” (2008) were engineered and co-produced by the relatively obscure Joey Moi, who appears to be close friends with the band. Most of the mixing on the albums was done by more well-known mixing engineers Randy Staub and Mike Shipley. And not surprisingly the albums were mastered by Ted Jensen, who seems to have mastered pretty much every hit rock record for the past 10 years.

A lot of producer/engineers are very open about their methods and equipment. Even the notoriously secretive mixing legend Chris Lord-Alge has recently been making his mix techniques very visible, including this article about mixing My Chemical Romance’s song “The Black Parade” (which sadly doesn’t sound very good). You can also now use emulations of Lord-Alge’s special compressor collection and download his presets for the Waves SSL bundle. But unfortunately I  haven’t had much success in finding information about the techniques the Nickelback team used on the most recent albums.

From what I can ascertain, the guitar sound seems to lean heavily on the PRS and Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier combination. I also suspect there is a Bogner amplifier involved, which a lot of modern rock bands are using for that “new-vintage” sound. A couple of sources on the recording bulletin board gearslutz.com claim that the engineers simply use 2 Shure SM57s on the guitar cab, but layer lots of guitar tracks. One user says they dialed in a different sound for each frequency range in the rhythm tracks, which sounds like a cool idea. As a guitar player and self-proclaimed tone junkie, I’m looking forward to trying some of these ideas out.

To be honest, I think Chad Kroeger already has an amazingly powerful voice. But the vocal production and mixing on recent albums takes it to another level that I haven’t really heard on other similar records. Apparently they used a Rode NTK for Kroeger’s vocals which is surprising. The NTK is not a cheap mic by any stretch of the imagination, but there are far more highly regarded mics that most high end studios tend to have. There are obviously tons of vocal doubles and harmonies to fatten up the sound. They use the technique of doubling vocal tracks an octave higher than the melody which is effective at creating a very unique, processed sound that cuts through the mix. There is also heavy use of echo effects, which is likely achieved using a plug-in like Sound Toys Echo Boy.

I don’t know much about the drums other than to say they are freaking huge! Mike Shipley admits to mixing in drum samples from the Steven Slate Drums collection which we have also used very successfully. I’m particularly impressed with how big the bass and kick drum sound and yet they don’t seem to interfere with each other. It’s common during mastering (wonder what mastering is? Read Rob’s article) for the engineer to roll off some of the bottom end in order to bring up the overall level of the mix with a limiter. Somehow Ted Jensen got the mixes blisteringly loud and retained the massive low end that makes these songs have so much impact.

I would love to hear anyone’s knowledge or ideas on how to get the “Nickelback” sound. I think the breakthrough in audio quality has gone a long way toward boosting their record sales. I’m also open to having a Nickelback dissing contest/flame war, so comment away if you feel inclined. Just keep this in mind before you start ranting: 27 million albums.