Kings of Leon – Only By The Night

Used on the bass drum for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on the bass drum for some of Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on the bass drum for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used as a room mic for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on as a room mic for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

The ribbon microphone list for Blackbird Studios, where Only by the Night was recorded, specifies a 44-BX.

Used as a room mic for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on the ride cymbal and hi-hats on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Both a 77-B and a 77-DX are on the ribbon micrcophone list for Blackbird Studios, where Only by the Night was recorded. Yet, according to part 1 of the Letterman FAQ page, Letterman's microphone was a 77-DX.

Yes, the microphone (an old RCA DX 77) does work, but is usually reserved for special occasions, such as when Dave is "playing along with the band" by hitting it with a pencil. The crew at NBC gave him the mic when he left. Dave's primary mic is the wireless "tie-clip" variety. There was a report that Dave's mike was stolen off his desk during the renovation of the Ed Sullivan Theater in the spring of 1996, but I can tell no difference in the replacement.

Used on the toms on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

A transformerless SM57 was used for some of the snare drum on Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used as an overhead mic on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on "the batter side of the kick" for "Crawl", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on."

Used on the bass drum for some of Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on."

Used as a room mic for some of Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Given that Blackbird Studios' condensor microphone list includes the original C12, the C12VR and the C12A, King leaves the microphone unspecified. Fortunately, video footage from the Only by the Night sessions (particularly "Day 23" of the "Only by the Night Home Movies" at 2:37) shows the C12A.

Used as a room mic for some of Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

The Blackbird Studios condenser microphone list has both the M 49 and the M 49 B. Given that lack of King's specification and the fact the microphones are aesthetically different enough to distinguish each other (which would otherwise encourage specification anyway), the version used was most likely the original.

The driver of an NS10 was used as a bass drum microphone for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used to submix the bass drum, snare and toms on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

"The toms were recorded with three Josephson E22S mics, which are a modern type, and they're fantastic on the toms. There were a rack of toms plus two floor toms, and I also submixed the tom mics via a BCM10 to a stereo pair, panning the toms as was appropriate for the track. The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape. The ride cymbal and the hi-hat were recorded with RCA77 ribbon mics, the ones that David Letterman used to have on his show. When I use a mono overhead, as I did in this case, I like using ribbons, for a good stereo spread between ride and cymbal.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used to submix the bass drum and snare on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer.

Despite mention of a "580", a 8200 is clearly visible in the bottom right corner of this picture of Studio D's outboard rack from the same interview.

Used to submix the snare drum on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer."

Standard EL8s are visible in this photo of Blackbird Studios' Studio D's outboard gear rack and this photo of most of the gear used on "Sex on Fire" (both from the same interview), as opposed to the EL8X.

Used in "a Big Muff setting" on the bass drum and snare on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The microphones on the drums changed a lot from song to song. On the kick it could be a Beta 52, sometimes it was an RE20, or a [Sennheiser] 421, or a [Neumann] FET 47, or an NS10 [i.e. the driver from a Yamaha NS10 monitor used as a mic], or a combination. It depends on what I was trying to achieve. The mics were usually in front of the kick, or just barely inside. On one song, 'Crawl', I did put a U87 on the batter side of the kick, next to the pedal, which gives a very attack-orientated sound, with a Led Zeppelin-ish quality. On 'Sex On Fire' I used the 52, FET 47 and NS10 on the kick. I had all the kick mics on a Neve BCM10 sidecar and I'd submix them and run them through a GML EQ and then to one track on the tape. I didn't want to keep them separate. It was a matter of get the sound, make the decision, and move on.

"The snare was recorded in similar fashion to the kick. I had the option of various mics that all went through a BCM10 and were submixed, through a GML 580 EQ, then a [Empirical Labs] Distressor, just to give it some control and make sure the snare hit the tape at the right level. On the track sheet a transformerless Shure SM57 is indicated. It was something I read about a couple of years ago, and it's a really good thing. It gives a nicer, more transparent, usable sound that requires less EQ. You lose a bit of level, but typically the things that you record with a 57 are so loud anyway that it doesn't matter. So I asked the people at Blackbird to take the transformer out of one of their 57s and they were gracious enough to do this. After recording I also ran the snare and kick through an Eventide DSP4000 on a Big Muff setting, and recorded that in Pro Tools during the transfer to the computer."

Used on the overhead mics for Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape."

Used on the rooms mics for Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"I had half a dozen mics up for the room sound: a Neumann U67, M49, AKG C12, RCA 44, and/or a Royer SF12 in the echo chamber. I'd leave the door to the echo chamber open so the sound of the drums was happening in there as well, and I'd move the room mics around to get the sound that I wanted for a particular song. I would then bus different combinations to the two room tracks, depending on the song. In the case of 'Sex On Fire' I used a U67 and an RCA 44 for Room 1, and an RCA4 4 and an SF12 for Room 2. Some of these mics went through Neve preamps, some through an old RCA tube mic that Blackbird customised. The combination of room mics was bussed through a Fairchild 670."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

The image and this Universal Audio interview with King reveal that the unit is a Coronado-issue EQ-333.

I have the Fulcrum, which is a passive summing device, and then I have a custom Quad-8 console. It’s a Coronado, which is a 40-channel desk, like a late '70s design, early '80s. I had it made into two sidecars. So those three things I sort of switch off between them, use them in combination.

I've never heard of that board. A Coronado?

It's from Quad-8. They were built in North Hollywood. They're really excellent. Some of the design engineers from API were part of this company, and Dean Jensen. It has Jensen transformers in it. It's a pretty extraordinary console, just because the headroom that it has, and the sound. Sonically, to me, it sounds like a combination between an API and a classic Neve.

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

The item can be seen in this photo from the same interview.

This rack houses most of the outboard processors used on the mix of 'Sex On Fire', including the Sontec EQ, Neve 1099, 'blue stripe' Urei 1176, Teletronix LA3A, Empirical Labs Distressor, Dbx 902, Chandler TG1 and Dolby A encoders.

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

The item is visible in this photo from the same interview, in addition to being listed on Blackbird Studios' The Audio Hunt profile page.

Used on the overhead mics for Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

The original Digidesign version was used on the overhead mics and room mics for Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

As well as numerous EQ plug–ins (not shown), drum processing encompassed BF76 and Lo–fi plug–ins on overheads and room mics respectively, with reverb courtesy of Altiverb.

(...) Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings for Caleb Followill's "vocal buss" reveals it to be the 3.0 version, then the latest version.

• Drums: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Bomb Factory BF76, Digidesign Lo–fi, Quad 8 EQ, Chandler TG1, Sontec EQ, Audio Ease Altiverb

"I cut the kick around 255Hz to get rid of some honkiness, and added some 11k on the snare, both with the Massenburg DesignWorks. I also cut a tiny bit around 263Hz on the overheads, and sent them through a Bomb Factory BF76, which is a plug–in version of the 1176, just to control the snare transients a little bit in the overhead picture. I also EQed the toms to roll back some of the tubbiness on them. There's a Lo–fi plug-in on Room 1, to take the cymbal wash down and dirty it up; when you reduce the sample rate and bit depth you also lose high frequencies. I cut everything below 206Hz with the Massenburg on the Simmons drums to clean up any unwanted frequencies. For the rest, there's nothing dramatic on the drums, just some specific shaping with digital EQs and opening up the top and bottom with outboard or the Quad 8 EQ. All the drums were bussed and sent to an outboard compressor, the Chandler TG1, for parallel bus compression. I also had a Sontec EQ on the drum bus. The Altiverb works primarily on the snare, kick and toms, just to give them a little bit more space. I set it to a room at Ocean Way Studios, so it's not a big splashy reverb."

Used on "Use Somebody", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this July 31, 2019 interview with producer Warren Huart at 1:24:07.

This is my Gretsch drum kit, it's a 1959 Round Badge. This is the drum kit that was used on "Use Somebody". We used bunch of different drum kits, but we started with mine. (...) It just happened that this is the drum kit that we started with and we started with that song and so, we ended up using that and then also, this Acrolite snare drum was used on several songs, but (...) this is also the snare that was used on "Use Somebody".

Used for some of Only by the Night, particularly on "Use Somebody", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this July 31, 2019 interview with producer Warren Huart at 1:24:07.

This is my Gretsch drum kit, it's a 1959 Round Badge. This is the drum kit that was used on "Use Somebody". We used bunch of different drum kits, but we started with mine. (...) It just happened that this is the drum kit that we started with and we started with that song and so, we ended up using that and then also, this Acrolyte snare drum was used on several songs, but (...) this is also the snare that was used on "Use Somebody".

In a Mix article, front-of-house engineer for Kings Of Leon Brent Rawlings reveals that while touring for the Only by the Night album, the vocal mics the Followills used are Sennheiser e 935s. Original article can be found here.

Used for vocals on Because of the Times, as stated in this June 1, 2007 Mix Online interview.

Caleb Followill sang into a Shure SM57.

An SM57 was also used for the electric guitar and vocals on Only by the Night, as mentioned producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools. Caleb's vocals were recorded with a Shure SM57 going through a Chandler TG2 mic pre, a Neve 1073 EQ, an LA2A compressor, and I also had a Dbx 902 de–esser on them."

Used for vocals on Because of the Times and Only by the Night, as featured in this June 1, 2007 Mix Online interview and as visible in the "Only by the Night Home Videos" series by Kings of Leon (particularly "Day 14" at 1:49 and "Day 18" at 1:04).

As on the band's previous recordings, Caleb Followill sang into a Shure SM7 live during tracking.

Used for the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used for Followill's electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) **Guitars: **Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used for Followill's electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) **Guitars: **Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used "occasionally" for the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) **Guitars: **Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used for "synth-like reverb" of the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) **Guitars: **Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for the vocals on Only by the Night, as mentioned producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"Caleb's vocals were recorded with a Shure SM57 going through a Chandler TG2 mic pre, a Neve 1073 EQ, an LA2A compressor, and I also had a Dbx 902 de–esser on them."

The following is the subsequent signal chain for the vocals of "Sex on Fire":

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for the vocals on Only by the Night, as mentioned producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"Caleb's vocals were recorded with a Shure SM57 going through a Chandler TG2 mic pre, a Neve 1073 EQ, an LA2A compressor, and I also had a Dbx 902 de–esser on them."

The equipment list for Blackbird Studio's Studio D specifies a standard TG2.

Used for the vocals and electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image for the vocal settings can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

(...) Guitars: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image for the vocal settings can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for the vocals and electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings for the "vocal buss" can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

(...) Guitars: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

(...) "I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. The only radical EQ is on the Cooper Time Cube delay, which I described above, and which I applied to Caleb's guitar. I took out everything below 861Hz to get rid of the darker tone that was obscuring the source tone a bit. There's also a bit of Digirack delay on Caleb's guitar, to give it a bit more dimension by panning it to the other side than the track itself."

Used for the vocals on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the item can be found here.

• Vocals: Sound Toys Echoboy, Audio Ease Altiverb, Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Neve 1099, Urei 1176, Dbx 902, Dolby A encoder, Teletronix LA3A

"I had a Sound Toys Echoboy delay and an Altiverb reverb, set to the EMT 140 plate, on the vocals. In fact, there are two or three delays and two or three reverbs in total, different amounts in different sections of the song. I had a Massenburg plug–in EQ on the vocal bus, and underneath it you can see my insert signal chain: Neve 1099 EQ/Urei Blue Stripe 1176/Dbx 902 de–esser. I pre-mix in my computer and things are coming out in stems, and going out into the desk and the Folcrom mixer for mixdown to stereo. The 1099/1176/902 were inserted in the analogue realm and daisy-chained. There's also a distant lead double in the chorus. I call that a performed effect. Instead of using a delay and modulation to get something in the background, you record a second performance in a different space and with a different microphone. You get something more deliberate and unique that way. Finally, once it came to summing, I also added some Dolby A to the vocals, which gives an excited high-frequency sound that I sent through an LA3A and blended back in."

Used for Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacquire King in this July 31, 2019 interview with producer Warren Huart at 1:27:49.

Huart: And then the Selmer you were talking about that got used on the album quite a lot.

King: Yeah, I definitely know that it's on "Sex on Fire", I don't think it's on "Use Somebody". I think that was Caleb's Matchless that we used on "Use Somebody". And that's also the "Let It Go" song of James Bay, that's the guitar amp that was used for that.

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"I also put an AMS delay and a Cooper Time Cube on the bass, just to give it a little bit more ambience. The latter is something made by Urei. It's a tiny box with a speaker at one end and a mic at the other, and you get 11–14 milliseconds of weird, hollow, echoey delay/reverb. It gives a nice early reflection type of texture. Because the delay is so short, it also gives a chorus–filter like effect."

King also mentions the Time Cube in this interview with Universal Audio.

What's really exciting about the UA stuff is, for instance, I hadn't used the UA plug-ins when I was making the [Kings of Leon] Only by the Night record, but I was using a Cooper Time Cube. When I'm in those situations, I get something set up on the console, and then when I do my transfer from the 2", I also transfer the effects that I've set up. Like if I put a Cooper Time Cube on a guitar track, I'll transfer that in. For the last couple of records, these plug-ins are so good that now I don't have to have those things either rented, or set up, and printed in. I'm using the plug-in.

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Bass: AMS delay, Sound Toys Echoboy, Empirical Labs Distressor, Chandler TG1, Dbx Disco Boombox

"On the Mix window screen you can see that there are bass DI, bass amp, bass AMS and bass delay tracks. The AMS is a delay that I applied at Blackbird and that I then printed to Pro Tools. The delay is the Echoboy delay, which I added during mixing. The idea was to get a different texture than I could with the AMS delay. Both delays had different delay times, different qualities of sound, and different feedback and modulation effects, and the idea was to spread them out and fatten up the sound, give it some space without putting a reverb or something poky–sounding on it. By spreading the bass out a bit you also make it sound bigger. In addition, there's some Distressor and TG1 compression and some EQ on the bass, as well as some more subharmonic synthesis, again using the DBX Disco Boombox. I have a slightly more modern version of the box."

The item can be seen in this image from the same interview.

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Bass: AMS delay, Sound Toys Echoboy, Empirical Labs Distressor, Chandler TG1, Dbx Disco Boombox

"On the Mix window screen you can see that there are bass DI, bass amp, bass AMS and bass delay tracks. The AMS is a delay that I applied at Blackbird and that I then printed to Pro Tools. The delay is the Echoboy delay, which I added during mixing. The idea was to get a different texture than I could with the AMS delay. Both delays had different delay times, different qualities of sound, and different feedback and modulation effects, and the idea was to spread them out and fatten up the sound, give it some space without putting a reverb or something poky–sounding on it. By spreading the bass out a bit you also make it sound bigger. In addition, there's some Distressor and TG1 compression and some EQ on the bass, as well as some more subharmonic synthesis, again using the DBX Disco Boombox. I have a slightly more modern version of the box."

The item can be seen in this image from the same interview.

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

• Bass: AMS delay, Sound Toys Echoboy, Empirical Labs Distressor, Chandler TG1, Dbx Disco Boombox

"On the Mix window screen you can see that there are bass DI, bass amp, bass AMS and bass delay tracks. The AMS is a delay that I applied at Blackbird and that I then printed to Pro Tools. The delay is the Echoboy delay, which I added during mixing. The idea was to get a different texture than I could with the AMS delay. Both delays had different delay times, different qualities of sound, and different feedback and modulation effects, and the idea was to spread them out and fatten up the sound, give it some space without putting a reverb or something poky–sounding on it. By spreading the bass out a bit you also make it sound bigger. In addition, there's some Distressor and TG1 compression and some EQ on the bass, as well as some more subharmonic synthesis, again using the DBX Disco Boombox. I have a slightly more modern version of the box."

The item can be seen as a Pro Tools mix channel label in this image from the same interview.

The final Pro Tools Session included four bass tracks: the original miked and DI'd recordings, and duplicates treated with AMS hardware and Sound Toys (right) software delays.

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by Only by the Night producer Jacques King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

Used on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. An image of the settings can be found here.

• Bass: AMS delay, Sound Toys Echoboy, Empirical Labs Distressor, Chandler TG1, Dbx Disco Boombox

"On the Mix window screen you can see that there are bass DI, bass amp, bass AMS and bass delay tracks. The AMS is a delay that I applied at Blackbird and that I then printed to Pro Tools. The delay is the Echoboy delay, which I added during mixing. The idea was to get a different texture than I could with the AMS delay. Both delays had different delay times, different qualities of sound, and different feedback and modulation effects, and the idea was to spread them out and fatten up the sound, give it some space without putting a reverb or something poky–sounding on it. By spreading the bass out a bit you also make it sound bigger. In addition, there's some Distressor and TG1 compression and some EQ on the bass, as well as some more subharmonic synthesis, again using the DBX Disco Boombox. I have a slightly more modern version of the box."

The item can be seen as a Pro Tools mix channel label in this image from the same interview.

The final Pro Tools Session included four bass tracks: the original miked and DI'd recordings, and duplicates treated with AMS hardware and Sound Toys (right) software delays.

Used for the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used "occasionally" for the electric guitar on Only by the Night , as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used for the "synth-like reverb" on the electric guitar of Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used for the electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) Guitars: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

"Using a guitar amp, I added a short slap delay on Matt's guitars. I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. (...) The Altiverb on Matt's guitar is a very small room at Cello Studios, for a little bit more space."

Used for the electric guitar on "Sex on Fire", as stated by Only by the Night producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview. The 6 XL is specified by images of the settings for the vocals and the settings for the drums.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools.

(...) Guitars: Massenburg DesignWorks EQ, Sound Toys Echoboy, Cooper Time Cube, Digidesign delay, Audio Ease Altiverb

"Using a guitar amp, I added a short slap delay on Matt's guitars. I also used an Echoboy for delay on certain sections, like in the choruses. There was a little bit of bus compression on the guitars and a little bit of EQ, all very minor stuff, because I had already recorded what I wanted. (...) The Altiverb on Matt's guitar is a very small room at Cello Studios, for a little bit more space."

Used for the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used for the electric guitar on Only by the Night, as stated by producer Jacquire King in this December 2008 Sound on Sound interview.

"We had five or six guitar amplifiers available for each guitar, and again, we picked the ones that were most appropriate for the song. Angelo and I would listen to the guitar parts and mix and match amplifiers. Sometimes we'd put reverb on one amp and a delay on another, or effect pedals on both. We had all kinds of combinations, although we kept it to two amplifiers per performance for each player. I'd put an SM57 in front of one amp and a U67 in front of the other. The guitars went through API mic pres, an API 550A EQ, and I also used some APSI parametric EQs. Occasionally I'd put an 1176 in the signal chain, but in general I don't use much compression on distorted electric guitars going to tape, because there's not a lot of dynamic range to them as it is. The synth–like reverb you can hear on the guitar was done at Blackbird on an Eventide DSP4000 and added during the transfer to Pro Tools."

Used for Only by the Night, particularly on "Sex on Fire", as stated by producer Jacquire King in this July 31, 2019 interview with producer Warren Huart at 1:27:49.

Huart: And then the Selmer you were talking about that got used on the album quite a lot.

King: Yeah, I definitely know that it's on "Sex on Fire", I don't think it's on "Use Somebody". I think that was Caleb's Matchless that we used on "Use Somebody". And that's also the "Let It Go" song of James Bay, that's the guitar amp that was used for that.