I often supplement the studio’s collection by bringing along some of my favorite secret weapons. Regular workhorses in rotation include:
Microphones:
AKG 414 B-ULS (2)
[Big, fat, wooly-sounding transformer-based design. Excellent for smoothing out overheads, background vocals and pointy-sounding acoustic instruments.]
AKG 414 TL-II (2)
[Fast, lean, articulate transformerless design. Great for overheads, lead vocals, acoustic guitar, anything that wants to shimmer.]
Audio Technica 4047
[A great substitute for a Neumann Fet 47. Excels on kick drum, bass, vocals and electric guitar.]
Audio Technica 4050 (2)
[Clean, natural, flexible, portable LDC.]
Audix i5 (2)
[Like an SM57 that actually has some bottom and top.]
Beyerdynamic M201
[Those who know this mic love it. Great on snare, top or bottom, and electric guitar. Steve Albini once said “If the SM57 were a microphone, this is what it would sound like”]
Beyerdynamic M69
[Another great performer on guitar, snare, horns, handheld vocals]
Electrovoice RE-15
[An amazing vintage, hard-rocking, secret weapon on electric guitar]
Sennheiser MD421
[Never met a drum it didn’t like. Guitar and bass cabs too.]
Shure SM7
[For powerful male vocals and beefy snare drums]
Compressors:
dbx 160XT (2)
[A Swiss army knife that no studio should be without]
Custom SW-3A
[A personalized recreation of the venerable LA-3A by Strange Weather’s Marc Alan Goodman. A monster on drums vocals and guitars]
Furman Sound LC-3
[Sounds retarded. In a good way.]
Summit TLA-100A (2)
[Like a clean-sounding LA-2A that refuses to f* up. Perfect for bass and vocals]
Preamps:
API 312 (4 Ch)
[Fast, articulate, sometimes aggressive – the preamp for drums and acoustic instruments. I’d happily make a record on nothing but these]
Sytek MPX-4 (4 CH)
[Fast, hyper-real and super-clean. Made by Mike Stocia of Neotek for that famous Chicago sound.]
Universal Audio 610 (2 Ch)
[Big, fat, wooly. Excellent for vocals, room mics, and the occasional super-woody vintage bassline]
Vintech Neve Clone (4 Ch)
[A 1073 clone that sounds great. Slightly brighter and tighter than a vintage unit. In a good way.]
Signal Processors:
Korg SDD-1200 Digital Delay
[A retro 80s digital delay that still sounds great.]
MXR Phase 90
[A phaser. A really, really motherf*ing good phaser]
Roland Space Echo
[Everyone’s favorite tape-based delay and reverb unit.]
Sans Amp Bass Driver DI
[An indispensable studio tool.]
Sans Amp Double Drive
[Ditto]
Snare Drums:
Ludwig Supraphonic
[As classic as it gets.]
Ludwig Standard
[Tuned and treated for a satisfyingly deadened thud.]
Rogers Powertone
[Big, bright, brash, will tear your head off. Won’t apologize.]
Custom Popcorn Snare
[Because hey – you never know.]