First time running sessions at Inner Ear, and without any permanent damage! 4 piece group - drums, guitars, synths/keys, laptop, bass. Drums and bass went to tape (as did other tracks, but it was elected that they be redone) and flown into PT for overdubs.
Basics - kick was a 24" unported. Lots of boom, not a ton of attack. Mic'd with a 60s and Blue Mouse - good sound but there will definitely be some notching around the kick, bass guitar, and synthbass to get it all sitting right and bring out some attack in that drum. Both ran into 2108, with a Distressor on the 602 at 4:1, slow attack. Snares had a Beyer 201 on top, 441 on bottom, both into V276 and an MC77 on the top, 4:1, slow attack, very fast release. Toms - 421 rack, ATM25 floor, both into Sytek. Bova over the shoulder into DRS, with a Manley Vari-Mu in limit mode doing moderately heavy compression on a couple tunes. MD1a in front of the kit on a few songs into Altec 1566a, crushed in the Vari-Mu (limit mode.) Overheads were stereo (woah) - Altec 201s low and spaced far more as cymbal spread mics that regular overheads as the drummer had a lot of cymbals up and actually played them tastefully and precisely - I know, right?! These ran into the V76s. High stereo OH was an SM69 into 1272.
Bass guitar was done direct at the time for lack of a bass amp that sounded good enough to use. Avalon U5 - Sta Level, sometimes also an ADL-1000 after the Sta to help keep things smooth. We'll be reamping for the final tones.
Electric guitars were all over the map. One guitarist primarily relied on a Tele w/ neck HB and an old cool Danelectro amp. Generally an M88 into 1566, UA610, or 1272 sounded right. Few songs we swapped things up - brought out an AC30, which we mic'd with an SM7, the M88, a Fathead ribbon, a 414... song to song changed. Always those same preamps aside from the 414/v276 chain used on one song. Other guitarist went through the AC30 and a couple small old Fenders. The Fenders got mic'd with the Crowley and Tripp ribbon most often, M88 here and there. Same preamps. Put in the ADL1000 for some cleaner parts that needed smoothing. A few times we used an old Philips omni on the AC30, which I really loved.
Synths/Keys... they had absurd stuff. Kept tracking it simple. Moog direct into 2108 or the board, same with the Korgs, and Nord Electro via Tab Funkenwerk v71. Vocals we ended up dual-micing - GT MD1a and a Cascade ribbon, both through the 76s. Sounds nice! Farfisa went with my usual organ mic - the Beyer 201. Just sounds cool.
acoustic guitar, KM84, 2108, Vari-Mu. Wow.
