Sting & Sting – Every Breath You Take (KHURSOR Remix)

Used on the vocals for “Every Breath You Take” and Brand New Day. The former is mentioned by producer Hugh Padgham in this March 2004 Sound on Sound interview.

Back in the control room, Sting recorded his vocals with an AKG 414, compressed through a UREI 1176, to attain a brighter top end. "His voice was always fairly dull," Padgham explains, "and I was never totally happy with his vocal sound until we came upon the Sony C800 tube mic much later on. Recording him in the studio was always quite hard — generally, rather than doing takes, he'd just sing along, and then if he messed up or didn't like something we'd just stop, drop in and build a vocal that way. On things like choruses, where there are loads of harmonies, the actual lead track gets watered down to the point where you don't really need as much of a performance. In those days there was no such thing as tuning, so if a harmony was out of tune, it was my job to stop and redo it — to police the recording, so to speak."

The latter is mentioned by recording engineer Simon Osborne in this transcribed October 1, 1999 Audio Media interview on Sting's official website.

When it comes to recording Sting's vocals, Simon has a standard way of operating, too: "I always go straight to tape rather than through the desk. I use AMS Neve 31105s and a Demiter valve mic amp, which I've used for a long while. I've also got all the usual stuff like Urei 1176s and such. I'll start with a general setting, so a 4:1 ratio, not too fast, with a quick release as a guide. His voice obviously changes depending on the key and dynamic of the tune, so it's important to have an initial set-up that can be tweaked as necessary. In terms of mics, we normally use the Sony C800G, it just works well with Sting's voice."

The Oberheim DMX was used the kick drum on "Every Breath You Take".