Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls

" "I've got a beat-up old [Neumann U]87 that sounded good on her,” explains Tokic. "And just through talking to her, I just knew what that mic sounded like and how it would sound on her. It's not necessarily my go-to vocal mic at all, but I was like, 'All right, this is it!' I used that a bunch on her, but it did also depend on how much noise there was. Sometimes, we'd put up something like a dynamic mic that might be more directional. I also used a relatively cheap few-hundred-dollar TL Audio preamp on her. I just knew that it was the right tone for her voice, especially when she was riffing real hard and singing loud. Paired with [the U87], that worked real good for her. A lot of [vocal mic selection], too, was just about the mix. I was capturing things so they could carry the sound that needs to be there in the end, but also so things were flexible enough to still be able to have some fun mixing it.”

"One effect that does really stand out across Boys & Girls is a distinctive reverb. "I've got a [Roland] Space Echo RE201 and I disconnected the reverb tank that's in it,” says Tokic."