Make your own:

Butch Vig and engineer Chris Dugan kept the signal chain simple for “21st Century Breakdown,” having the mics go into external preamps, which ran directly into an Ampex ATR 124 tape deck and an HD3 Accel Pro Tools rig. Vig and Dugan used Ocean Way’s custom-built Dalcon 32×32 console to play back the tracks.

Drums:

For Tre Cool’s drum sound, Chris Dugan used a pair of Telefunken Ela M251 mics as overheads. Dugan then placed a Shure Beta 52 and a Neumann U47 inside the kick drum shell (no front head) and ran them through a Chandler Limited TG Channel MKII preamp. The snare was miked with a Telefunken Ela M80 through a Vintech X73 preamp on top, and a Shure SM57 through a Vintech 473 preamp on the bottom. Toms were miked with AKG C12A mics through the Dalcon consoles API 550 EQs. A gobo was used on Tre Cool’s kit to reduce the reverb caused by the room.

Bass:

For Mike Dirnt’s bass sound, he used a Fender Precision Bass, which was ran into an Avalon U5 direct box (sent to a Vintech X73) and an Ampeg SVT miked with a Sennheiser MD421 (sent to a Neve 1073) and a Neumann U47 (sent to the X73). To fatten up the bass sound, all signals hit tape before going to Pro Tools.

Guitars:

Billie Joe Armstrong’s main rhythm guitar set-up throughout the record consisted of a combination of a Gibson Les Paul Junior running into a Park/Marshall Plexi head through two 4×12 cabinets, and a Fender Telecaster running into a Divided By 13 amp. Most of the lead guitar parts were recorded with a Gibson Les Paul reissue, a Slash signature Les Paul, and a Jimmy Page signature Les Paul for all solos. Other amps used include a Fender Twin, a Victoria Victorilux, a Gibson GA-40, and a Gibson GA-19RVT, all of which are combo amps. Chris Dugan miked the Marshall set-up with a Shure SM57 and a Royer R121 through a Chandler Germanium preamp on one cab, and an AKG C414 and a Shure SM57 through Neve 1073 preamps on the other cab. The combo amps were miked with Royer ribbon mics.

Vocals:

Billie Joe Armstrong favored a Telefunken U47M for all his vocal tracks. This mic was run through a Chandler LTD-1 into a Retro Instruments 176 Limiting Amplifier.

Recording and Monitoring:

The “Canned Applause” rig was based around MTA 980 and Soundcraft Spirit 24 consoles. The MTA is a console designed by Malcolm Toft, formerly of Trident Studios, which is similar in many ways to the Trident 80-series desks. Godrich tracked to both digital and analog media, using Otari MTR 90II 2″ and Studer A80 tape machines, and Tascam DA88 and Panasonic SV3800 digital recorders. Most songs employed a combination of tape recording with digital processing, while others were done entirely in the digital realm. Tracks were edited and processed with ProTools and Cubase software, and monitored on Yamaha NS10 and Acoustic Energy AE1 monitors.

Processors:

The outboard gear on hand included a Neve 33609 and UREI 1176 compressors, a Drawmer DS201 gate, a Pultec PEQ1A equalizer, and Yamaha SPX1000 and Mutronics ‘Mutator’ effects units. The bass and other direct input instruments, Godrich used a Palmer PGA05 speaker simulator. For reverb and delay, there was an EMT140 plate reverb, AMS DMS1580 delay, AMS RMX16 reverb, and of course the many unique spaces within St. Catherine’s Court. You can hear the AMS digital delay malfunctioning to create the sputtering sound at the end of “Karma Police.”

Sampling and Synthesis:

For keys and synths, the band had a Mellotron, various analog synths from Moog, and Emu and Roland sound banks. The band also had an Akai S-3200 sampler and a Movement MCS Percussion Computer drum machine.

Microphones:

For Thom Yorke’s vocals, Godrich switched between a Neumann U47 and a Rode Classic which he ran through an 1176 for compression and Pultec EQP1 for eq. Godrich later commented that he thought the Rode was too bright for Yorke’s voice. Vocals were often recorded in interesting-sounding spaces around the manor house, including a stone staircase for “Exit Music (For a Film),” and a ballroom for “Let Down.”

Contrary to what has often been written, T-Pain does not use a vocoder or talkbox.

Vocals:

Sting sang into an AKG C414 condenser mic through a UREI 1176 compressor. His vocal tracks were usually built with extensive punching and editing.

Bass:

Sting alternated between a Fender Jazz Steinberger bass run directly into the console. For “Every Breath You Take” he doubled the roots with an upright electric double bass. Usually, a chorus effect was added to the bass to thicken it and widen its stereo image.

Guitar:

Andy Summers played his guitars (Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Gibson 335) through a Roland JC120 Jazz Chorus solid-state amp with the chorus engaged. This was mic’ed with a Sennheiser MD421 dynamic mic on each speaker. The signals were then panned separately to spread the guitar across the stereo field.

Drums:

Stewart Copeland’s drums were set up in the dining room of AIR Montserrat, which has a wood floor and gabled ceiling. The snare for most tracks was tuned as high as Copeland could turn the tuning lugs. The mic setup was:

• Shure SM57 on snare
• Sennheiser 421s on toms
• A pair of Coles 4038 ribbons for overheads
• Neumann U87′s placed 10′-15′ from the kit

The Neumann room mics were compressed to bring in more of the room sound, but only slightly. Padgham also preferred to track with a modest level going to tape to preserve the drum transients from being lopped off by tape compression.

“Every Breath You Take”

On the albums biggest hit, the drum track was compiled from three separate elements:

1. A live (not programmed) hi-hat track, which was given a 300 ms delay
2. Kick drum from an Oberheim DMX drum machine
3. A combination of snare drum and Tama gong drum played at the same time

• The strings were LaBella heavy-gauge flatwounds that Jamerson never changed.
• The neck was allegedly warped, which made the action uncomfortably high, but which Jamerson claimed improved the tone.
• One of the bridge covers contained foam to mute the strings’ sustain.
• Tone and volume knobs were generally turned all the way up.

Live, Jamerson played through an Ampeg B-15 amp, but this wasn’t brought into the studio because of space constraints. Instead the bass at Motown was usually run into a custom made direct input (the first of its kind, in fact) into their Electrodyne console. Of course, the biggest factor in the Jamerson tone was Jamerson. He plucked almost exclusively with his index finger, nicknamed “The Hook” and never with a pick.

Vocals

Dylan sang into a Sony C-37A condenser mic through a UREI LA-2A compressor.

• On “Love Sick” the vocal was run through an Eventide 3500 stereo flanger.
• On various tracks, the vocal received a 180 ms delay from an AMS harmonizer to create a classic, Elvis-style 7 1/2 ips tape delay.
• Dylan’s vocal overdubs were recorded with the recorded track playing through speakers to imitate the sound of the live-with-band vocals.

Acoustic Guitar

Dylan’ 1930′s baby Martin acoustic was picked up by a Lawrence sound hole pickup and run into a 50′s Fender Tweed Deluxe. The amp was recorded with a Sennheiser 409 dynamic mic. Tracking the acoustic guitar this way allowed Dylan to perform vocal overdubs without competing with the original vocal leak into an acoustic guitar mic.

Mixing

Mixing engineer Michael Brauer stated that he struggled with giving the mix of “Love Sick” impact because the drums were played so lightly.

Vocal Tracking: Neko’s vocal tracks were recorded in the main tracking and control room with an Audio Technica 4050 condenser mic in omnidirectional mode. Reverb from a Roland SRV 3030 on the “Empty Club” preset was added to her headphone mix. Neko prefers the 4050 because it can handle the volume of her voice without distorting.

Mixing: The cavernous reverb on the vocals was achieved with a few different techniques. Most had some love from an EMT 262 gold-foil plate, while others employed reamping in hallways and chambers. There is also some use of the Altiverb convolution digital reverb.

Vocals: Most of Adam Duritz’ vocals were tracked with a Neumann U47. For one song, Duritz lied on the floor and sang into a Shure SM57. The vocal mics were amped by a custom, solid-state preamp built by Lucas Engineering.

Drum Set: Drums were recorded using a variation on the “Glyn Johns” setup, with Neumann U47s placed on the kick drum, to the side of the second rack tom, and behind-and-to-the-left of the drummer. For some tracks a hi-hat or snare mic was added, while on others only one mic was used. “Mr. Potter’s Lullaby” was tracked with one drum mic with the full bland playing live in the room. On “Four Days” the drums were picked up with one mic pointed at the kick drum.

Piano: Mic’ed with a pair of Coles 4038 ribbons.