Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

Used for the snare on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineer Ian Grimble in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

Used for the snare on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineer Ian Grimble in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

Used for the bass drum on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineer Ian Grimble in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

Used for the bass drum and overheads on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineer Ian Grimble in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

Used for the drums on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineers Ian Grimble and Mike Hedges in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

BPM are a relatively little‑known German company. Hedges comments: "They make very good modern valve mics. We used the TD94 and the TD95. They're great for ambience and to add a little 'valviness' to the sound. We were in part inspired by the drum sound on the band's demos, and were initially going for an ultra‑close sound with no ambience at all. Later we decided to add some room sounds." Grimble: "We recorded especially the low‑end drum sounds at a very high level, because the tape compression makes it sound better. This rounds off the transient a little bit, so we might record other drum sounds at a lower level." Hedges: "In the '60s, before noise reduction, people tended to put on a lot of level to avoid hiss, and then in the '70s, when Dolby came out, they recorded drums at lower levels, because tape hiss was less of a problem, and the transients aren't rounded off so much. In the '80s, creative use of tape compression came into its own and people started to use the tape recorder not just as a recording tool, but also as a sonic tool, as an effect."

Used for the drums on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineers Ian Grimble and Mike Hedges in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

Ian Grimble: "Sean (Moore) has a Yamaha kit, and we surrounded it with four '60s‑style very dead baffles, to stop the low‑end reflections from creating a boomy sound. I used a lot of compression on the drum mics, so boom could have been a problem. For the last album I miked up the drums with old valve mics, such as Telefunken and old Sony models, but this time I used a Shure SM57 and Neumann KM84 on the snare, an AKG D12 close to the bass drum and a Sennheiser MKH20 three feet away, a Sennheiser 421 on the toms, and for overheads we used Sennheiser MKH20 or BPM microphones."

BPM are a relatively little‑known German company. Hedges comments: "They make very good modern valve mics. We used the TD94 and the TD95. They're great for ambience and to add a little 'valviness' to the sound. We were in part inspired by the drum sound on the band's demos, and were initially going for an ultra‑close sound with no ambience at all. Later we decided to add some room sounds." Grimble: "We recorded especially the low‑end drum sounds at a very high level, because the tape compression makes it sound better. This rounds off the transient a little bit, so we might record other drum sounds at a lower level." Hedges: "In the '60s, before noise reduction, people tended to put on a lot of level to avoid hiss, and then in the '70s, when Dolby came out, they recorded drums at lower levels, because tape hiss was less of a problem, and the transients aren't rounded off so much. In the '80s, creative use of tape compression came into its own and people started to use the tape recorder not just as a recording tool, but also as a sonic tool, as an effect."

In this photo gallery interview, James Dean Bradfield says, “I won this in a bet with [record producer] Mike Hedges. During one session in his Normandy studio for This Is My Truth... we were ragging each other over a rugby score. So we had a bet!

I used it on, among other songs, If You Tolerate This... for the solo. My Les Paul Custom and the Thinline weren’t quite working. Quite an interesting solo - it went through both my Marshall and Vox and then got returned through a Moog synth. It’s a simple solo, but I like to think it’s elegant."

James Dean Bradfield used the Fender Telecaster Custom Electric Guitar as one of his main instruments during the "Everything Must Go" and "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" eras of the Manic Street Preachers, as evidenced by a live performance of "Australia" at the Manchester NYNEX in 1997, available on the ManicStPreachersVEVO YouTube channel.

Used for vocals on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, as stated by engineer Ian Grimble in this June 1998 Sound on Sound interview.

"Mics used on the other instruments included a Sennheiser MKH40, stuck up close to the guitar and keyboard cabinets. The keyboards were mostly analogue — Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Vox Continental — all put through guitar amps. I used an MKH40 and Neumann U87 on the bass cabinet. I usually stuck the microphones through a Vortexion 4‑channel mixer and mic pre‑amp and then straight onto 16‑track. Occasionally we would record upstairs in the room with the oak floor, especially for acoustic guitars. I recorded them with a Neumann 87 or BPM pencil mics as close mics, and Sennheiser MKH20s as ambient mics. The vocals were recorded with a Sennheiser 4032, or Sony C800G valve, and the acoustic piano with the C800G or two Sennheiser MKH40s."